TORONTO
SHERATON OR1AL LIBRARY
EASTER, 1906
Shelf No.
I SUCKS
Register No. / d
-
B
I
I
THE
WORKS OF THOMAS MANTON, D.D.
VOL. VI.
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinburgh.
JAMES BEQG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, Edinburgh.
D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby terian Church, Edinburgh.
Winter. REV. THOMAS SMITH, D.D. EDINBURGH.
THE COMPLETE WORKS
THOMAS MANTON, D.D.
VOLUME VI.
CONTAINING
SEVERAL SERMONS UPON THE CXIX. PSALM.
LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BEBNERS STEEET.
1872.
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON
CONTENTS.
SEVERAL SERMONS UPON THE cxix. PSALM. To THE READER, ....... 2
SERMON I. " Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk
in the law of the Lord," ver. 1, . .5
„ II. " Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, that
seek him with the whole heart," ver. 2, .15
„ III. " Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, that
seek him with the whole heart," ver. 2, .23
„ IV. c(They also do no iniquity: they walk in his
ways," ver. 3, . . . . .29
„ V. "Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts
diligently," ver. 4, . . .38
„ VI. " Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy
statutes," ver. 5, . . .46
„ VII. "Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect
unto all thy commandments," ver. 6, . . 53
„ VIII. "I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judg ments," ver. 7, . . . .61
„ IX. "I will keep thy statutes. Oh, forsake me not
utterly," ver. 8, . . .70
„ X. " Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto according to thy word," ver. 9, ..... 82
„ XI. " With my whole heart have I sought thee : Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments," ver. 10, .... 90
y- CONTENTS.
PAGE
SERMON XII. " Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might
not sin against thee," ver. 11, .99
XIII. " Blessed art thou, 0 Lord : teach me thy
statutes," ver. 12, . . 108
XIV. " With my lips have I declared all the judg
ments of thy mouth," ver. 13, . .118
XV. " I have rejoiced in the way of thy command ments, as much as in all riches," ver. 14, 129
„ XVI. " I will meditate in thy precepts, and have re spect unto thy ways," ver. 15, . . 136
„ XVII. " I will delight myself in thy statutes : I will
not forget thy word," ver. 16, . .146
„ XVIII. " Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may
live, and keep thy word," ver. 17, .154
„ XIX. " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold won drous things out of thy law," ver. 18, . 163
., XX. " I am a stranger in the earth : hide not thy
commandments from me," ver. 19, . 173
„ XXI. " My soul breaketh for the longing it hath unto
thy judgments at all times," ver. 20, . 183
„ XXII. " Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments," ver. 21, . . . . . 193
„ XXIII. " Remove from me reproach and contempt ;
for I have kept thy testimonies," ver. 22, 204
„ XXIV. " Princes also did sit and speak against me : but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes," verf 23, ... 214
„ XXV. " Thy testimonies also are my delight and my
counsellors," ver. 24, . . 223
„ XXVI. " My soul cleaveth unto the dust : quicken
thou me according to thy word," ver. 25, . 234
„ XXVII. " I have declared my ways, and thou heardest
me : teach me thy statutes," ver. 26, . 243
CONTENTS. Vll
PAGE
SERMON XXVIII. " Make me to understand the way of thy precepts : so shall I talk of thy won drous works," ver. 27, . . 255
„ XXIX. " My soul melteth for heaviness :
strengthen thou me according to thy word," ver. 28, ... 265
„ XXX. " Remove from me the way of lying; and
grant me thy law graciously," ver. 29, 275
„ XXXI. " I have chosen the way of truth : thy
judgments have I laid before me," ver. 30, . . . 288
„ XXXII. " I have chosen the way of truth : thy
judgments have I laid before me," ver. 30, . . . 302
„ XXXIII. " I have stuck unto thy testimonies : 0
Lord, put me not to shame," ver. 31, 314
„ XXXIV. " I will run the way of thy command
ments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart," ver. 32, . . . 324
„ XXXV. " I will run the way of thy command
ments, when thou shalt enlarge my <
heart," ver. 32, . . 332
„ XXXVI. "Teach me, 0 Lord, the way of thy
statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end/' ver. 33, ... 339
„ XXXVII. " Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law ; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart," ver. 34, . . 348
„ XXXVIII. " Yea, I shall observe it with my whole
heart," ver. 34, . . 354
„ XXXIX. " Make me to go in the path of thy com
mandments, for therein do I de light," ver. 35, . . 360
;. XL. " Incline my heart unto thy testimonies,
and not to covetousness," ver. 36, . 369
„ XLI. " And not unto covetousness," ver. 36, . 378
„ XLII. " Turn thou away mine eyes from behold
ing vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way," ver. 37, . 388
CONTENTS.
MOM
SERMON XLIII. " Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who
is devoted to thy fear," ver. 38, . 398
XLIV. " Turn away my reproach which I fear ; for
thy judgments are good," ver. 39, . 410
XLV. " Behold I have longed after thy precepts ; quicken me in thy righteousness," ver. 40, .... 423
„ XLVI. " Behold I have longed after thy precepts,"
&c., ver. 40, . . . . 431
„ XLVII. " Let thy mercies come also to me, 0 Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word," ver. 41, ... 439
^ XL VIII. " So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me : for I trust in thy word," ver. 42, . . 447
„ XLIX. "And take not the word of truth utterly
out of my mouth ; for I have hoped in thy judgments," ver. 43, . . 458
w L. "So shall I keep thy law continually for
ever and ever," ver. 44, . . 470
,, LI. " And I will walk at liberty ; for I seek thy
precepts," ver. 45, . . 478
„ LII. " I will speak of thy testimonies also before
kings, and will not be ashamed," ver. 46, . 486
SEVERAL SEEMONS UPON THE CXIX. PSALM.
VOL. VL
TO THE READER.
IT is the honour of the evangelical ministry, that it was principally- instituted for the service of God, not as he is the governor of the earth, but the Lord of heaven, and to prepare men by holiness for his eternal kingdom. And it is an excellent favour of God to his ministers when their labours are eminently useful for this blessed end. This singular grace and privilege God was pleased to confer upon his faithful servant Dr Manton, whose life was spent in the most precious work of converting souls to Christ, and preparing them for the celestial paradise; and since his retiring from the world by death, his soul now enjoying the blessed rest above, yet he remains with us in what was most valuable of him, his excellent sermons, the productions of his holy mind and heart ; arid the pen having a larger extent than the tongue in communicating them, may be more beneficial to the church than before.
The following sermons were preached by him in his usual course of three times a week, which I do not mention to lessen their worth, but to show how diligent and exact he was in the performance of his duty. Indeed, his ordinary sermons, considering the substantial matter, clear order, and vigorous full expressions, may well pass for extraordinary. I cannot but admire the fecundity and variety of his thoughts, that the same things so often occurring in the verses of this psalm, yet by a judicious observing the different arguments and motives whereby the Psalmist enforces the same requests, or some other circumstances, every sermon contains new conceptions, and proper to the text. Some few verses were not handled by him. I earnestly pray that those who shall read these sermons may taste the sweetness of the divine truths opened in them, and may be transformed into the spirit of David, by an inward feeling of the affections, and verifying in their own breasts the words of the holy prophet.
W. BATES.
TO THE READER.
CHRISTIAN EEADEB, — It is somewhat difficult not to applaud that excellency which has first approved itself to our judgment. Hence is it that, though this work needs it not, I will so far gratify my own affections, and comply with obtaining custom, as to acquaint thee that, if thou hadst my eyes and taste, thou must admire its beauty, and confess its sweetness ; much more when thou shalt use thy own more discerning eye and judicious palate.
The matter of these sermons is spiritual, and speaks the author one intimately acquainted with the secrets of wisdom. He writes like one that knew the Psalmist's heart, and felt in his own the sanctifying power of what he wrote. Their design is practice ; beginning with the understanding, dealing with the affections, but still driving on the advancement of practical holiness. They come home and close to the conscience ; first presenting us a glass, wherein we may view the spots of our souls, and then directing us to that fountain wherein we may wash them away. They are of an evangelical complexion, abasing proud corrupt nature, and advancing free and efficacious grace in the conversion of sinners. The exhortations are powerful, admirably suited to treat with reasonable creatures, yet still supposing them to be the vehicle of the Holy Spirit, through which he communicates life and power to obey them.
The manner of handling is not inferior to the dignity of the matter ; so plain as to accommodate the most sublime truths to the meanest spiritual capacity, and yet so elevated as to approve itself to the most refined understanding. He knew how to be succinct without obscurity, and where the weight of the argument required it, to enlarge without nauseous prolixity. He studied more to profit than please, and yet an honest heart will then be best pleased when most profited. He chose rather to speak appositely than elegantly ; and yet the judicious do account propriety the choicest elegancy. He laboured more indus triously to conceal his learning than some others to ostentate theirs : and yet, when he would most veil it, the discerning reader cannot but discover it, and rejoice to find such a mass, such a treasure of useful learning, couched under a well-studied and artificial plainness. But let the reader take a taste of, let him concoct and digest, these spiri tual discourses, and he shall say with the Sabean queen, ' It was a
4 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEADER.
true report I heard in my own land ; but behold the one-half was not told me! ' Or with the men of Sychar, ' Now we believe, not because of thy saying, but because we ourselves have proved and experienced their delicacies ; as one taste of honey will more effectually commend its sweetness than the most elaborate oratory.
Those ancients that had seen the first temple wept bitterly when they saw the foundation of the second laid. And perhaps some pious souls who have ' sat with great delight ' under the author s ministerial ' shadow, and have found his fruit sweet to their taste/ may secretly shed a tear, that though they here meet also the same divine truths, the same spiritual matter, yet they want the living voice, the grateful elocution, the natural eloquence, in which that heavenly matter dropped, or rather flowed, from his gracious lips. But let the same consideration which quieted the spirits of those Jews of old satisfy theirs : God can fill this house also with his glory ; and though the second edition of the temple fall short of the former in the beauty and symmetry of the structure, yet can the Spirit flow from the press as well as the pulpit ; with this advantage, that they may here in safety read what with great danger they formerly heard.
I have admired, and must recommend to the observation of the reader, the fruitfulness of the author's holy invention, accompanied with solid judgment ; in that whereas the coincidence of the matter in this psalm might have superseded his labours in very many verses, yet, without force or offering violence to the sacred text, he has, either from the connection of one verse with its predecessor, or the harmony between the parts of the same verse, found out new matter to entertain his own meditation and his reader's expectation ; nor do I observe more than twelve verses in this large psalm wholly omitted, if at least they may be said to be omitted, whose subject-matter is elsewhere copiously handled.
Had the reverend author designed these papers for public view, he could not have flattered himself, in a cavilling age, that he should escape the severe lashes of envy and malice (those fiends that haunt all things and persons excellent) ; he must have expected a snarl from the wolf's black mouth, or a kick from the dull ass's hoof. Yet on his Behalf I demand this justice, that he be not condemned for the printers' crimes. Their venial errors will receive a pardon of course from the ingenuous reader ; and for their mortal transgressions, whereof they are sometimes guilty, either clouding, altering, or per verting the scope of the author, enjoin them, gentle reader, a moderate penance, and then receive them to full absolution, who have voluntarily offered themselves to confession.
Thus much, Christian reader, it was thy interest and mine to have epoken ; the rest must be to the God of all grace, that he would give thee and this book his blessing ; which is the prayer of thy affectionate friend and faithful servant in our Lord Jesus,
V A1
December 13, 1680.
1 That is, < Vincent Alsop.'— ED.
SEVERAL SERMONS UPON THE CXIX. PSALM.
SEEMON I.
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, ivho walk m the law of the Lord. — VER. 1.
THIS psalm is a choice piece of Scripture. In the Hebrew there is much exactness of composure to be observed. It is divided into twenty-two parts, according to the number of the Hebrew letters ; every part containeth eight verses, all beginning with one and the same letter ; in which I should think there is nothing of mystery intended, only a help to attention and memory. I shall go over the several verses in their order, the Lord giving life and assistance. And because the same matter will be of frequent recourse, I shall endeavour to discuss each verse in a sermon.
The Psalmist beginneth with a description of the way to true blessedness, as Christ began his Sermon on the Mount, and as the whole Book of Psalms is elsewhere begun. Blessedness is that which we all aim at, only we are either ignorant or reckless of the way that leadeth to it ; therefore the holy Psalmist would first set us right in the true notion of a blessed man : ' Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord/
In the words you have —
1. The privilege, blessed.
2. The manner and form of its consideration ; not so much in the nature and formality of it, as the way that leadeth to it. Or,
First, Here is a ivay spoken of in the general.
Secondly, This way specified, the law of the Lord.
Thirdly, The qualification of the persons' sincerity, the undefiled ; and constancy, who walk.
Doct. 1. That it standeth us much upon to have a true notion of blessedness and blessed men. David beginneth with that.
1. All desire it ; Christians, pagans, all agree in this. When Paul was dealing with the heathens, he urgeth two notions wherein God might be taken up. That of a first cause : Acts xiv. 17, ' Never theless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and
6 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. I.
gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness/ And a chief good, Acts xvii. 27. As in the one place, there must be a cause of showers of rain and fruitful seasons ; so in the other, there must be a universal good, or else the inclinations of nature were in vain. Among Christians, the good and bad, that do so seldom agree in anything, yet agree in this, every man would be happy, and not miserable : Ps. iv. 6, c There be many that say, Who will show us any good ? ' Good, good, is the cry of the world. It is intended in the very nature of desire ; for everything that is desired is desired as good, sub ratione boni. As God implanted in us affections of aversation to avoid what is evil, so affections of choice and pursuit to follow after what is good. Well, then, out of a prin ciple of self-love, all would be happy ; they would have good, and they would have it for ever. Inanimate creatures are, by the guidance and direction of Providence, carried to the place of their perfection. The brute beasts seek the preservation and perfection of that life which they have ; so do all men hunt about for contentment and satisfaction. To ask whether men would be happy or not, is to ask whether they love themselves, yea or nay ; but whether holy, is another thing.
2. All without grace are much mistaken in it. (1.) Some mistake in the end. They desire good in common, not that which is indeed the true good ; they seek happiness in riches, honours, pleasures ; and so they fly from that which they seek, whilst they seek it. They intend happiness, but choose misery : Luke xvi. 25, ' Thy good things ; ' and Ps. iv. 7, ' Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased/ Their corn, wine, and oil, not only possessed by them, but chosen by them as their felicity and portion. (2.) They fail in the means. They know them not, like them not, or else faint in the prosecution of the end by them. They discern them but weakly, as a spire at a distance; they see it so as they know not whether they see it, yea or nay, as the blind man saw men walking as trees. The light of nature being so dim, they consider them but weakly ; the mind being diverted by other objects, they desire them but weakly; the affections being pre possessed and intercepted by things that come next to hand, velleities 1 cold inclinations they may have, but no serious volition or firm mt ot heart. Or suppose a man under some conviction, both as to and means, yet his endeavours are very cold and slack ; they do lot pursue it with that earnestness, exactness, and uniformity of
^^°AIhllhiS LTi8ite to °btai» ^ happiness. They are like
passionately, but are soon out of
The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing, for
hands refuse to labour.' When true happiness is sufficiently
when our-- - — UP0u^od's terms. *K*i 34. The Jews,
heen to f " <™* cme
us of tl ?«gr6 ?? ^e™rld' said lmto Wm, ' Lord, evermore give
1S Said' UP°n hearinS th* condition^ of went ba*ck, and walked no
us of tl « ' , ,
obtalw it JV 1S Said' UP°n hearinS th* condition^ of
SE^Mi? An' *%™™™*«*, went ba*ck, and walked no nSri ed Phrf t W™1(Vlve iol ever i but when they must follow lespised Christ up and down the world, and incur censures and
VER. 1.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 7
dangers, they like none of that : Ps. cvi. 24, c Yea, they despised the pleasant land, and believed not his word/ The land was a good land, but the way to it was through a howling wilderness. When they heard of the strength and stature of the men, their fortifications, they fell into passion and murmur, and gave over the pursuit of Canaan. Heaven is a good place, but men must get to it with such difficulty, therefore they are loath to be at the cost. Men would be happy with that kind of happiness which is true happiness, but not in the way which God propoundeth, being prepossessed with carnal fancies. It is counted a foolish thing to wait upon God in the midst of straits, conflicts, and temptations : 1 Cor. ii. 14, * The natrural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' More prejudices lie against the means than the end; therefore, out of despair, they sit down with a carnal choice, as persons disappointed in a match take the next offer. Since they cannot have God's happiness, they resolve to be their own carvers, and to make themselves as happy as they can in the enjoyment of present things.
3. Our mistakes about it will cost us dear. God is very jealous of what we make our happiness, and therefore blasteth the carnal choice. Those that will try experiments, smart for it in the issue. Solomon came home by weeping-cross : Eccles. i. 14, * I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit/ He hath proved it to our hands. He had a large heart, and a large estate, and gave himself to pleasures, to extract happiness from the creatures, to hunt after worldly satisfactions in a more artificial way than brutish sots, that merely act according to lust and appetite : Eccles. ii. 1, ' I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure ; and behold, this also is vanity/ He gave himself to pleasures, not merely upon sensual, but curious and artificial aims, yet found his heart secretly withdrawn from God. Whoever maketh trial will either run into utter mischief, or must come home again by a sound remorse. And so they learn it, and dearly to their cost.
Use. Let us study this point well.
1. That we may not take up with a false happiness, or set up our rest in temporal enjoyments, as height of honour, abundance of riches, favour of great men, &c. ; things useful in their sphere, and beneficial to sweeten and comfort the life of man, who hath placed his happiness in God. Pleasures being enjoyed, they do not satisfy ; being loved, they defile ; being lost, they increase our trouble and sorrow.
[1.] They cannot satisfy, because of their imperfection and uncertainty. They do not answer the whole desire of man, carry no proportion with the conscience. That which maketh a man happy must bear a thorough proportion with all the wants, desires, and capacities of the soul, so as conscience and heart and all may say it is enough. But, alas ! these things cannot give us solid peace and contentment : Isa. Iv. 2, ' Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread ? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?' Till an hungry conscience be provided for, we cannot be happy. But besides their low use, consider the uncertainty of enjoyment. Nothing can give us
g SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SEE. I.
solid peace, but what doth make us eternally happy. These flowers our hands while we smell at them. Nothing but the favour
We have not a sure posses-
1 Cor vn 60, ol. It is me apusueo wui 3^, •»«•« - — j — - ~-v should have such remiss affections to the world, 'as though they possessed not; and that they use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away/ A man must look for changes, and lay forth for several conditions in the world: ±*s. xxxix 11 1 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, tnou rnakest his beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Selah ' Like glass, brittle when most glistering.
[21 Being inordinately loved, they defile. There is not only gall, but poison in them. They cannot make us better, but may easily make us worse, as they defile and draw the heart from God, and en slave us to our own lusts : 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10, ' But they that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows/
[3.] Being lost, they increase our trouble and sorrow. A man that hath not learned to be abased, as well as to abound, his abundance maketh his case the more miserable. It is hard to go back a degree or two. They are apt to bring much trouble upon the heart of him that is conversant about them : * All is vanity and vexation of spirit/ The more we make them our happiness, when lost they increase our trouble.
2. That we may not be prejudiced against the true happiness. Men think it a happiness to live without the yoke of religion, to speak, and think, and do what they please without restraint ; but to be always in bonds, and held under the awe of the word, that they count unreason able and grievous : Ps. ii. 3, 'Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us/ In studying this point — (1.) ' Lean not to thine own understanding ;' Prov. xxiii. 4, ' Labour not to be rich ; cease from thy own wisdom; ' but seek direction from God by his word and Spirit. God only can determine who is the blessed man, in whose hand alone it is to make us blessed. (2.) Take the light of faith ; sense and carnal reason will deceive you. Blessedness is a riddle which can only be found out by faith, c which is the evidence of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1. That a poor godly man, who is counted the filth and offscouring of all things, should be the only happy man, and that the great men of this world, who have all things at will, should be ' poor, blind, miserable, and naked/ is a paradox will never enter into the heart of a natural man, that hath only the light of sense and carnal reason to judge of things, for to sight and reason it is nothing so. (3.) Wait for the light and power of the Spirit to incline and draw thy heart to God. Many times we are doctrinally right in point of blessed ness, but not practically ; we content ourselves with the mere notion, but are not brought under the power of these truths ; that is the work of the Spirit. It is easy to prove that it is the beasts' happiness to enjoy
. 1.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. fr
pleasure without remorse ; easy to prove the uncertainty of riches, and what unstable foundations they are for the soul to rest on ; but to draw off the heart from these things to God is the work of the Holy Ghost : Ps. xlix. 13, ' This their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings.' Many a man who stands over the grave of his ances tors will say, Ah ! how foolish were they to waste their time and strength in pleasure, and in hunting after worldly greatness and esteem and favour with men ; what doth it profit them now ? And yet their posterity approve the same — that is, they live by the same principles, are as greedy upon worldly satisfactions as ever those were that have gone before, that neglected God and heavenly things, and went down to the grave, and their honour was laid in the dust. Until fche Lord take off our heart by the light and power of his grace, we remain as sottish and foolish and worldly as they. Thus you see- how much it concerns you to be right in the notion of true blessedness.
Doct. 2. That sincere, constant, uniform obedience to God's law is the only way to true blessedness.
This is called a way, and this way is said to be God's laio, and m this way we must be undefiled ; which implies not absolute purity and legal perfection, but gospel sincerity ; and in this way we must walk, which notes both uniformity and constancy ; it must be our course,, and we must persevere therein.
Three things need to be opened : —
1. Speak to the rule.
2. Of conformity to the rule ; that it must be sincere, uniform, and constant.
3. How this is the way to true happiness ; what respect it hath to true blessedness.
First, The rule is the law of God. All created beings have a rule. Christ's human nature was the highest of all creatures, and yet it i» to be in subjection to God ; he is under a rule : Gal. iv. 4, ' Made of a woman, made under the law/ The angels they have many immunities above man ; they are freed from death, from the necessities of meat and drink ; but they are not free from the law ; they are not sui juris, at their own dispose ; they ' obey his commands, hearkening unto the- voice of his word/ Ps. ciii. 20. Inanimate creatures, sun, moon, stars, are under a law of providence, under a covenant of night and day : Ps. cxlix. 6, ' He has also stablished them for ever ; he hath made a decree which shall not pass.' They have their courses and appointed motions, and keep to the just points of their compass. All creatures are under a law, according to which they move and act. Much more now is man under a law, because he hath election and choice. But if the law were not a rule to a Christian (as some Antino- mians have that opinion), if it were not in force, then there should be no sin or duty ; for ' where there is no law, there is no transgression ; * for the nature of ' sin is the transgression of the law,' 1 John iii. 4 ^ Kom. iv. 15. Certainly the law as a rule is a very great privilege ; and surely Christ did not come to lessen or abolish the privileges of his people: Deut. iv. 4, ' There is no nation hath such statutes ;' Ps. cxlvii. 20, 'He hath made known his statutes to Israel/ was their prerogative. If the law might be disannulled as to new creatures,.
}0 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SEB. I.
then why doth the Spirit of God write it with such legible characters in their hearts ? This is promised as the great blessm- of the cove nant of grace, Heb. viii. 10. Now, that which the Spirit engraves upon the heart, would Christ come to deface and abolish ? The law was written upon tables of stone, and the great work of the bpirit is to write it upon the table of the heart ; and the ark was a chest where the law was kept, and with allusion to it God saith, ' I will put my law into their heart/ Clearly, then, there is a rule, and this rule is the law of God. Now, this rule must be consulted with upon all occasions, if we would obtain true blessedness, both to inform us, and to awe us.
First, To inform us, that we may not act short or over.
1. Not short. There are many false rules with which men please themselves, and are but so many byways that lead us off from our own happiness. For instance, good meaning, that is a false rule ; the world lives by guess and devout aims. But if good meaning were a rule, a man may oppose the interest of Christ, destroy his servants, and all upon good meaning : John xvi. 2, ' Those that kill you will think they do God good service.' Men may grossly err that follow a blind con science. Custom, that is another. It is no matter what others have done before us, but what Christ did before them all. If custom carried it, most of Christ's institutions would be out of doors. Example of others ; that is no good rule. It is not for us to go where others have gone before ; but what is the true way : Mat. vii. 14, ' The broad way, that leads to destruction, and many walk therein.' The path to hell is most beaten ; we are not always to follow the track ; they are dead fishes which swim down the stream : we are not to be led away with custom and example, and do as others do. Our own desires and inclinations are not our rule. Oh, how miserable should we be if our lust were our law, if the bent of our hearts were our rule ! Jude 16, 4 Walking after their own lusts,' is the description of those that were monsters of men, that had outgrown all feelings of conscience. The laws of men are not our rule. It is too narrow and short to com mend us to God, to be punctual to the laws of men and no more : Ps. xix. 7, 'The law of God is perfect, converting the soul.' To convince us of sin, to humble the heart, to reduce and bring us back to God, there is no rule for this but the law of God. Men make laws as tailors do garments, to fit the crooked bodies they serve for, to suit the humours of the people to be governed by these laws ; surely they are not a sufficient rule to convince us of sin, and to guide us to true happiness. A civil orderly man is one thing, and a godly renewed man another. It is God's prerogative to give a law to the conscience and the renewed motions of the heart. Human laws are good to establish converse with man, but too short to establish com- munion with God ; and, therefore, we must consult with the rule, which is the law of the Lord, that we may not come short of true blessedness.
. That we may not act over. There is a superstitious and apocryphal holiness which is contrary to a genuine and scriptural
•Lmess, yea, destructive to it : it is like the concubine to the wife : it draws away respects due to the true religion. Now, what is this kind
1.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 11
of holiness ? It is a temporary flesh-pleasing religion, which consists in a conformity to outward rites and ceremonies and external morti fications, such as is practised by the Papists and formalists, ' after the commandments and doctrines of men : ' Col. ii. 23, ' Which things indeed have a show of wisdom in will- worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh/ God will not thank them that give more than he requireth. These things have a show of wisdom. As brass money may be fairer than true coin, though not of such a value, so this will- worship and super stitious holiness may seem to make a fair show, but it is destructive to true godliness and scriptural holiness, which guide us to communion with God. When men's zeal boils over in a false pretended holiness, it quencheth the fire and destroys true godliness and religion. Excess is monstrous, as well as defect. Therefore still we must consult with the law and rule, that we may not come short or over.
Secondly, As the law must be consulted with, that it may inform us, so that it may awe us, and hold us under a sense of our duty to God : ' By the law is the knowledge of sin,' Kom. iii. 19. Usually most Christians live by rote, and do not study their rule. Would a man worship God so coldly and customarily, if he did consider the rule which requires such heedfulness of soul, fervency of spirit, dili gent attendance upon God in his ordinances ? Would a man allow him self liberty of vain speeches, idle talk, and suffer his tongue to run riot, if he did consult with the rule, and remembered that light words would weigh heavy in God's balance ? These are condemned by the law of liberty : James ii. 12, 'So speak, and so do, as those that shall be judged by the law of liberty.' Would a man be so slight in heavenly things ? so disorderly and intemperate in the use of pleasure and pur suit of worldly profit, if he did consider the rule, and what a holy moderation God hath required of us upon all occasions ? This is the first thing, namely, the rule, which is the law of God.
Secondly, There is a conformity to this rule. If you would be blessed, there must be a sincere, constant, uniform obedience. The •will of God must not only be known but practised. Many will con clude that God's law in the theory is the only direction to true blessedness ; but now, to take it for their rule, to keep close to it, not one of a thousand doth that.
1. Then, sincere obedience is required: 'Blessed is the undefiled in the way.' At first hearing of these words, a man might reply, Oh, then, none can be blessed, if that be the qualification; 'for who can say, My heart is clean ? ' Prov. xx. 9. I answer — This undefiled- ness is to be understood according to the tenor of the second covenant, which doth not exclude the mercy of God and the justification of penitent sinners : Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, * If thou, Lord, shouldest mark ini quities, who shall stand ? But there is mercy with thee.' There is no escaping condemnation and the curse, if God should deal with us according to strict justice, and require an absolute undefiledness. Well, then, this qualification must be understood, as I said, in the sense of the second covenant ; and what is that ? Sincerity of sancti- fication. When a man doth carefully endeavour to keep his garments unspotted from the world, and to approve himself to God ; when this is
12 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. I.
his constant exercise, ' to avoid all offence both towards God ^and man, Acts xxiv 16 and is cautious and watchful lest he should be defiled ; when he is humbled more for his pollutions ; when he is always purg- ino- bis heart, and doth endeavour, and that with success, to walk m the way of God —here is the undefiledness in a gospel sense : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 ' The Lord will be a sun and a shield/ &c. To whom ? ' To those that walk uprightly/ This is possible enough ; here is no ground of despair. This is that will lead us to blessedness,_ when we are troubled for our failings, and there is a diligent exercise in the purification of our hearts.
2. A constant obedience. Wicked men have their good moods and devout pangs in the way to heaven, but they are not lasting. They will go with God a step or two. But it is said, ' He that walketh in the law of the Lord.' A wicked man prays himself weary of prayer, and professeth himself weary of holiness. A man is judged by the tenor of his life ; not by one action, but as he holdeth on his way to heaven, Job xxvii. 10. Many run well for a while, but are soon out of breath. Enoch walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years.
3. A uniform and an entire obedience : Exod. xx. 1, ' God spake all these words/ He commandeth one thing as well as another, and conscience takes hold of all. To single out what pleaseth us is to make ourselves gods.
A servant doth not choose his work, but the master. A child of God is uniform in one place as well as another, at home and abroad, in all the passages of his life, in prosperity and adversity, * whether he abound, or whether he be abased,' Phil. iv. He is not like Ephraim> as 'a cake not turned;' but there is a uniformity. Doth he make con science of piety and worship, and will he not make conscience of honesty and just dealing with men ? Will he make conscience of his actions, and will he not of his words ? He doth not give up him self to idle speech and vain discourse. A hypocrite is best when he is taken in pieces, but a sincere man is best when he is taken altogether. A Christian is always like himself. It is notable in the story of the creation that God views every day's work, and God ' saw that it was good ; ' he viewed it altogether, ' and God saw all things that he had made, and behold it was very good/ When he did consider the whole correspondence of his works, how they answered one another, then God was delighted in it. So a Christian is most delighted in the review of his course and walking according to the commandment.
Thirdly, What respect hath this to true blessedness ? It is the way to it: ^ Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord/ This will appear in two respects— (1.) It is the beginning of blessedness. Likeness to God is the foundation of glory. Conformity to him will be carried on 'from glory to glory/ 2 Cor. iii. 18. And as conformity unto, so communion with, God in the beauties of holi ness is the beginning of happiness : " As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy like ness/ Ps. xvii. 15. (2.) Sincere and constant obedience is the evidence of our right to future blessedness. A man hath somewhat to show for it, Mat. v. 8. It is an inclusive evidence : ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ; ' and it is an exclusive evidence : Heb.
VER. 1.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 13
xii. 14, 'Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.' Well, then, when this is our way and course, we may expect happiness hereafter. The uses are —
1. To show you that carnal men live as if they sought misery rather than happiness : Prov. viii. 36, ' He that sins against me wrongs his own soul ; all that hate me love death/ If a man were travelling to York, who would say his aim was to come to London ? Do these men pursue happiness that walk in such defilement ? It is the way of God's law that leads to true blessedness.
2. To press you to walk according to this rule, if you would be blessed. To this end let me press you to take the law of God for your rule, the Spirit of God for your guide, the promises for your encourage ment, and the glory of God for your end.
[1.] Take the law of God for your rule. Study the mind of God, and know the way to heaven, and keep exactly in it. It is an argu ment of sincerity when a man is careful to practise all that he knows, and to be inquisitive to know more, even the whole will of God, and when the heart is held under awe of God's word. If a commandment stand in the way, it is more to a gracious heart than if a thousand bears and lions were in the way — more than if an angel stood in the way with a flaming sword : Prov. xiii. 13, ' He that feareth the com mandment shall be rewarded.' Would you have blessings from God ? — fear the commandment. It is not he that fears wrath, punishment, inconveniences, troubles of the world, molestations of the flesh ; no, but he that dares riot make bold with a commandment. As Jer. xxxv. 6, Go, bring a temptation, set pots of wine before the Eechabites. Oh, they durst not drink of them. Why ? ' Jonadab the son of Kechab, our father, commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine/ Thus a child of God doth reason when the devil comes and sets a temptation before him, and being zealous for God, dares not comply with the lusts and humours of men, though they should promise him peace, happiness, and plenty. A wicked man'tnakes no bones of a command ment ; but a godly man, when he is in a right posture of spirit, and the awe of God is upon him, dare not knowingly and wittingly go aside and depart from God.
[2.] Take the Spirit of God for your guide. We can never walk in God's way without the conduct of God's Spirit. -We must not only have a way, but a voice to direct us when we are wandering : Isa. xxx. 21, ' And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk in it/ Sheep have a shepherd as well as a fold, and children that learn to write must have a teacher as well as a copy ; and so it is not enough to have a rule, but we must have a guide, a monitor, to put us in mind of our duty. The Israelites had a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. The gospel church is not destitute of a guide : Ps. xxxvii. 24, ' Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory/ The Spirit of God is the guide and director to warn us of our duty"
J3.] The promises for your encouragement. If you look elsewhere, live by sense, and not by faith, you shall have discouragements enough. How shall a man carry himself through the temptations of the world with honour to God ? 2 Pet. i. 4, ' Whereby are given unto
14 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. L
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruptions that are in the world through lust.' When we have promises to bear us up, this will carry us clear through temptations, and make us act gener ously, nobly, and keep close to him.
[4] Fix the glory of God for your aim ; else it is but a carnal course. The spiritual life is a living to God, Gal. ii. 20, when he is made the end of every action. You have _ a journey to take, and whether you sleep or wake, your journey is still a-going. As in a ship, whether men sit, lie, or walk, whether they eat or sleep, the ship holds on its course, and makes towards its port , so you all are going into another world, either to heaven or hell, the broad or the narrow way. And then do but consider how comfortable it will be at your jour ney's end, in a dying hour, to have been undefiled in the way ; then wicked men that are defiled in their way will wish they had kept more close and exact with God. Even those that now wonder at the niceness and zeal of others, when they see that they must in earnest into another world, oh, then that they had been more exact and watch ful, and stuck closer to the rule in their practice, discourses, com pliances ! Men will have other notions then of holiness than they had before. Oh, then they will wish that they had been more circum spect. Christ commended the unjust steward for remembering that in time he should be put out of his stewardship. You will all fail within a little while ; then your poor, shiftless, naked souls must launch out into- another world, and immediately come to God. How comfortable will it be then to have walked closely according to the line of obedience !
Doct. 3. That a close walker not only shall be blessed, but is blessed, in hand as well as in hope.
How is he blessed ?
1. He is freed from wrath. He hath his discharge, and the blessed ness of a pardoned man : John v. 24, ' He that believeth on Christ hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, for he hath passed from death to life/ He is out of danger of perishing, which is a great mercy.
2. He is taken into favour and respect with God : John xv. 14, * Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.' There is a real friendship made up between us and Christ, not only in point of harmony and agreement of mind, but mutual delight and fellowship with each other.
3. He is under the special care and conduct of God's providence, that he may not miscarry : 1 Cor. iii. 23, ' All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' All the conditions of his life are overruled for good ; his blessings are sanctified, and his miseries un- stinged : Kom. viii. 28, ' And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.'
4. He hath a sure covenant-right to everlasting glory : 1 John iii. 1, ' Behold, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be/ &c. Is a title nothing before we come to enjoy the estate ? We count a worldly heir happy, as well as a possessor ; and are not God's heirs happy ?
YER. 2.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix» 15
5. He hath sweet experiences of God's goodness towards him here in this world : Ps. xvii. 15, ' As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness/ The joy of the presence and sense of the Lord's love will counter balance all worldly joys.
6. He hath a great deal of peace : Gal. vi. 16, 'And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God/ Obedience and holy walking bringeth peace : ' Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them/ Ps. cxix. 165 ; as there is peace in nature when all things keep their place and order. This peace others cannot have. There is a differ ence between a dead sea and a calm sea. A stupid conscience they may have, not a quiet conscience. The virtue of that opium will soon be spent ; conscience will again be awakened.
Use. Oh, then, let us put in for a share of this blessedness ! There are two encouragements in the service of Christ — our vails and our wages. Our wages should be enough, the eternal enjoyment of him self. But oh ! we cry out of the tediousness of the way. We have our vails also, that are not contemptible. If a man should offer a lordship or farm to another, and he should say, The way is dirty and dangerous, the weather very troublesome ; I will not look after it — would you not accuse this man of folly, that loves his ease and pleasure ? But now, if this man were assured of a pleasant path and good way, if he would but take a little pains to go over and see it, this were gross folly indeed to refuse it. Our Lord hath made over a blessed inheri tance to us upon gospel terms ; but we are full of prejudices, in that to keep close to the rule may bring trouble, and deprive us of many advantages of gain ; and we think we shall never see good day more. But we are assured there is a great blessing goeth along with God's yoke ; and we having a promise of the enjoyment of God's presence where there are pleasures for evermore, this should make us rouse up ourselves in the work of the Lord.
SERMON IL
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, that seek him with the whole heart. — VEE. 2.
IN this psalm the man of God begins with a description of the way to true blessedness. In the former verse a blessed man is described by the course of his actions, ' Blessed are the undefiled in the way/ In. this, by the frame of his heart, ' Blessed are they that keep his testi monies, that seek him with the whole heart/ The internal principle of good actions is the verity and purity of the heart.
Here you may take notice of two marks of a blessed man : —
1. They keep his testimonies.
2. They seek him with the whole heart.
Doct. 1. They that keep close to God's testimonies are blessed. By way of explication, two things take notice of : —
16 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SKR. IL
1. The notion that is given to precepts and counsels in the word : they are called his testimonies.
2. The respect of the blessed man to these testimonies, to keep them.
First, The notion by which the word of God is expressed is testi monies whereby is intended the whole declaration of Gods will, in doctrines, commands, examples, threatenings, promises. The whole word is the testimony which God hath deposed for the satisfaction of the world about the way of their salvation. Now, because the word of God brancheth itself into two parts, the law and the gospel, this notion may be applied to both. First, To the law, in regard whereof the ark is called * the ark of the testimony/ Exod. xxv. 16, because the two tables were laid up in it The gospel is also called the testimony, ' the testimony of God concerning his Son :' LHL viii. 20, ' To the law, and to the testimony ;' where testimony seems to be distinguished from the law. The gospel is so called, because there God hath testified how a man shall be pardoned, reconciled to God, and obtain a right to eternal life. We need a testimony in this case, because it is more unknown to us. The law was written upon the heart* but the gospel is a stranger. Natural light will discern something of the law, and pry into matters which are of a moral strain and concernment ; but evan gelical truths are a mystery, and depend l by the mere testimony of God concerning his Son. Now, from this notion of testimonies we have this advantage : —
[1.] That the word is a Ml declaration of the Lord's mind. God would not leave us in the dark in the matters which concern the ser vice of God and man's salvation. He hath given us his testimony, he hath told us his mind, what he approves and what he disallows, and upon what terms he will accept of sinners in Christ. It is a blessed thing that we are not left to the uncertainty of our own thoughts : Micah vL 8, * He hath showed thee, O man, what is good.' The way of pleasing and enjoying God is clearly revealed in his word. There we may know what we must do, what we may expect, and upon what terms. We have his testimony.
[2.] Another advantage we have by this notion is the certainty of the -word; it is God's testimony. The apostle saith, 1 John v. 9, 'If we take the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.1 It is but reason we should allow God that value and esteem that we give to the testimony of men, who are fallible and deceitful. Among men, c in the mouth of two or three witnesses everything is established,' Deut xix. 15 ; ' Now there are three that bear witness in heaven, and three that bear witness on earth,' Uohn v. 8. We are apt to doubt of the gospel, and have suspicious thoughts of such an excellent doctrine ; but now there are three witnesses from heaven, the Father, Word, and Spirit; the Father by a voice: Mat iil 7, 'And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son,' Ac. And the Son also by a voice, when he appeared to Paul from heaven, « Saul, Saul, why perse- cutest thou me ?' And the Holy Ghost gave his testimony, descendr ing upon him in the form of a dove, and upon the apostles 'in cloven tonguesoffire. 'And there are three that bear record on earth;' for he earth, 1 Johnv.10, 'He that believetb, ^tT^y^uipTvp^hehathtlie
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 17
testimony in himself.' What is that ? The Spirit, water, and blood in the heart of a believer ; these give testimony to the gospel. The Spirit bears witness to the gospel when it illuminateth the heart, enabling us to discern the doctrine to be of God, to discern those signatures and characters of majesty, goodness, power, truth, which God hath left upon the gospel ; and water and blood testify when we feel those con stant and sensible effects of God's power coming with the gospel (1 Thes. i. 5), both by pacifying the conscience, and bringing joy and satisfaction, and by sanctifying and freeing a man from the bondage of sin. Water signifies sanctification : John xvii. 17, ' Sanctify them by thy truth/ The sanctifying power of God, that goes along with the gospel, is a clear confirmation of the divine testimony in it: John viii. 32, ' The truth shall make you free.' By our disentanglement from lust we come to be settled in the truth. God's testimony is the ultimate resolution of our faith. Why do we believe ? Because it is God's testimony. How do we know it is God's testimony ? It evi- denceth itself by its own light to the consciences of men ; yet God for the greater satisfaction to the world, hath given us witnesses, three from heaven and three on earth. Every manifestation of God hath sig natures and characters of God enough upon it to show from whence it came. The creation is a manifestation of God ; now, whoever looks upon it seriously and considerately, may find God there, may track him by his footprints, * By the things which are made, his invisible being and power/ Eom. i. 20. The creation discovers itself to be of God ; and if the lower testimony hath plain evidences, much more the gospel. Why? For 'he hath magnified his word above all his name/ Ps. cxxxviii. 2. The name of God is that by which he is made known. Now, there are more sensible characters and impressions of God left upon the word, that doth evidence it to be of God, than upon any part of his name.
[3.] This advantage we have by this notion, a testimony is a ground of self-examination, or a rule whereby we may judge of our state and actions ; for it witnesseth not only de jure, what we must do ; or de eventu, what we may expect ; but de facto, whether we do good or evil, what we are, and what we may look for from God upon our obed ience or disobedience : Mat. xxiv. 14, ' The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, efc paprvpiov, for a witness unto all nations ; ' first to them, next against them, Mark xiii. 9. The word is a testimony to them of God's will in Christ, if they receive it ; against them if they reject, neglect, or believe it not. Hereby we may judge of our condition by our conformity, or difformity and contra riety, to the word of God. Christ saith at the day of judgment Moses will accuse you : John v. 45, ' There is one that accuseth you, even Moses in whom ye trust/ The gospel will accuse. What is now an offer will then be an accusation. God will not be without a witness at the day of judgment. The creatures, which had an evident im pression of God upon them, they will witness against the Gentiles, * so that they are without excuse/ Kom. i. 20 ; and the Jews, that were under the dispensation of Moses, he will accuse them ; there was light sufficient to convince them. So the gospel, which is God's testimony concerning his Son, will accuse you if it be not received. Therefore
VOL. VI. B
18 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX.
it is good to see what the word doth witness or testify ; doth it testify good or evil ? for accordingly shall we be treated with in the day of mdgmetit. It is sad when we can only say of the scripture as that kin° of the prophet of the Lord, ' He witnesseth nothing but evil ao-ainst me/ 1 Kings xxii. 8. Let us see what God's testimony speaks, whether it will plead for us or against us at the great day of the Lord.
[4.] It upbraids our unbelief, that when God hath not only given us a law, but a testimony, still we are backward and careless, word of God were no more but a law, we were bound to obey it, be cause we are his creatures ; but when it is his testimony, we should regard it the more, for now God stands not only upon the honour of his authority, but of his truth : 1 John v. 10 ' He that believeth not hath made God a liar, because he believeth not the testimony which (rod hath given concerning his Son.' We may urge it thus upon our hearts— What ! shall we make God a liar, after he hath so solemnly given his word, that word which hath many signatures, characters, and stamps of God upon it ? Carelessness now is not only disobedience, but unbelief ; it puts the highest affront upon God, to question his veracity and truth, and does not only unlord him, but ungod him, by making him a liar.
So much for the first thing, the testimony of tlie Lord.
Secondly, The respect of the blessed man to these testimonies ; they keep them. What is it to keep the testimonies of God ? Keeping is a word which relates to a charge or trust committed to us. Christ hath committed his testimonies to us as a trust and charge that we must be careful of. Look, as on our part we commit to Christ the charge of our souls to save them in his own day, 2 Tim. i. 12, so Christ chargeth us with his word — (1.) To lay it up in our hearts. (2.) To observe it in our practice. This is to keep the word.
[1.] To lay it up in our hearts. In the heart two things are con siderable — the understanding and the affections. God undertakes in the covenant for both : Heb. viii. 10, ' I will put my law in their mind, and write it in their hearts.' The meaning is, that he will enlighten our minds for the understanding of his will, and frame our affections to the obedience of it. Well, then, you must keep it in your minds and affections.
(1.) In your minds. We must understand the word of God, assent to it; we must revolve it often in our thoughts, and have it ready upon all occasions. Understand it we must if we would be blessed : ' He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me,' John xiv. 21. We cannot make conscience of obedience till we know our duty. He that would keep a thing must first have it ; we have the law in possession when we get knowledge of it : Mat. xiii. 23, ' He that receiveth the word into good ground is he that heareth the word and understands it;' and Luke viii. 13, ' They that hear the word and keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience/ It is not enough to hear the word, but we must understand it ; and yet that is not all : an adversary may understand a truth, or else he cannot rationally oppose it. There is assent required, that we believe it as God's testimony, and accordingly embrace it, and give it place in the heart. Faith is a receiving of the word, Acts ii. 41 ; nay,' we must have it ready upon
2.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 19
all occasions. Kational memory belongs to the mind or understanding ; therefore we keep the word in our minds when it is ever ready with us, either to check sin, or warn us of our duty, Ps. cxix. 9. Forget- fulness is an ignorance for the time : Prov. iii. 1, 'My son, forget not my law ; and let thine heart keep my commandments.' We should be ready to every good word and work, as occasion is offered to us.
(2.) To keep it in our hearts is to have an affection to it. Keeping the word relates to our chariness and tenderness of it, when we are as chary of the word as a man would be of a precious jewel : Prov. vi. 20, 21, ' My son, keep thy father's commandments ; bind them con tinually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.' Sometimes it alludes to the apple of the eye : Prov. vii. 2, ' Keep them as the apple of thine eye.' Such tender affections should we have to the tes timonies of the Lord, as a man has for his eye. The least offence to the eye is troublesome ; a man should be as chary of the commandment as he would be of his eye. Sometimes it implies the similitude of keeping a way : Josh. i. 7, ' Turn not to the right hand or to the left/ A traveller is very careful to keep his way ; so when we are thus care ful, tender, chary of God's commandments and testimonies, this is an argument of a blessed condition. Thus we are to keep it in the heart.
[2.] We are to observe it in practice ; Luke xi. 28, ' Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it ; ' that is, not only that hear it, but do it. Many have this word in their mind and memory, but not in their lives. Without this, hearing is nothing ; liking, knowing, assent, pretended affection is all in vain : 1 John ii. 4, ' He that saith I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him/ Our actions are a better discovery of our thoughts than our words. When we get a little knowledge, and make a little profession, we think we observe his commands ; but he is a liar if he be not exact, and walk close with God. It is not enough to understand the word, to be able to talk and dispute of the testimonies of God, but to keep them. It is not enough to assent to them that they are God's laws, but they must be obeyed. The laws of earthly princes are not obeyed as soon as believed to be the king's laws, but when we are punctual to observe them. This is to keep the commandment of God ; it implies both exactness and per severance : Kev. iii. 8, ' Thou hast kept my word ; ' that is, thou hast not apostatised as others have done ; and Prov. vi. 20, ' Keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother,' that is perseverance. You see by the first note who are the blessed men ; they which own God's testimony in his word, and accordingly look upon it as a great charge and trust Christ hath reposed in them and given to them that they should keep his law. Now, certainly these are blessed. Why ?
(1.) They are blessed or cursed whom Christ in the last day will pro nounce blessed or cursed. Now, in the last day to some he will say, * Come, ye blessed of my Father ;' to others, ' Go, ye cursed ;' and he hath told us beforehand, that it is he that keepeth his testimonies whom he will own in that day, Mat. vii. 20-22. Many will come and challenge acquaintance with Christ : ' Lord, we have prophesied in thy name,' &c. ; ' Thou hast taught in our streets' (so it is in Luke) ; but Christ will disown them : ' I know you not -; depart from me, ye workers
2Q SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SEE. II
are blessed for whom Christ mediateth. Now, Christ me-
a s
many failings, yet are careful as much as in them lies, then he goes to the Father and acquainteth him with it. .
<J)ffi that are taken into sweet fellowship and communion with God certainly they are in a blessed condition. Those to whom God wUl be intimate/and manifest himself in a way of gracious commu- nkTn are blessed. Now thus he doth to those that keep his testi monies: 'If any man love me and keep ^^^^^^ Father will love him, and we will make our abode with him. whole Trinity will come and dwell in his heart ^
But now you must know, there is a twofold keeping of God s test monies-legal and evangelical. Legal keeping is in a way of perfect and absolute obedience, without the least failing ; so none of us can be blessed. Moses will accuse us ; there will be failings in the best. ^ K
-
sometimes they manifested a weak faith, sometimes hardness of heart, sometimes passionateness when they met with disrespect, Luke ix. ; yet Christ returns this general acknowledgment of them when he was pleading with his Father, ' Holy Father, they have kept thy word.' When the heart is sincere, God will pass by our failings, James v. 11, 1 Ye have heard of the patience of Job.' Ay ! and of his impatience too, his cursing the day of his birth ; but the Spirit of God puts a finger upon the scar, and takes notice of what is good. So long as we bewail sin, seek remission of sin, strive after perfection, endeavour to keep close and be tender of a command, though a naughty heart will carry us aside sometimes, we keep the testimony of the Lord in a gospel sense. Bewailing sin, that owns the law ; seeking pardon, that owns the gospel ; striving after perfection, that argueth sincerity and uprightness. Well, then, here is the discriminating note ; if we would know whether we come within the compass of David's blessed man, if we have a dear and tender esteem of God's testimonies, when we would fain have them impressed upon our hearts, and expressed in our lives and conversations, ' They keep his testimonies.'
The next now is : —
2. They seek him with the whole heart.
This is fitly subjoined to the former for a double reason ; partly, because the end of God's testimonies is to direct us how to seek after God, to bring home the wandering creature to its centre and place of
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 21
rest ; partly, because whoever keeps the commandments of God, he will be forced to seek God for light and help.
Obedience doth not only qualify us for communion with God, but (where it is regarded in good earnest) necessitates us to look after it ; for we cannot come to God without God ; and therefore, if we would keep his testimonies, we must be seeking of God. Well, then —
' Doct. 2. Those that would be blessed must make this their business, sincerely to seek after God.
1. Observe the act of duty ; they seek the Lord.
2. The manner of performance, witli the, whole heart. First, What it is to seek the Lord.
1. To seek the Lord presupposeth our want of God : for no man seeks what he hath, but for what he hath not. All that are seeking are sensible of their want of God. For instance, when we begin to seek him at first, it begins with a sound remorse and sense of our natural estrangement from him. The first work and great care of re turning penitents is to inquire after God. So long as men lie uncon verted, they are wholly neglectful of him, and think they do not want God : Ps. xiv. 2, ' There is none that understands and seeks after God.' They have no affection or desire of communion with God. They seek such things as their hearts lust after, but it is not their desire or care to enjoy God. But when the conversion of the Jews is spoken of, Hosea iii. 5, it is said, ' They shall return and seek the Lord their God/ At first conversion men are sensible of their great distance from God, and are troubled they have been so long strangers to him. Go to another sort of seekers, they are sensible of the same thing ; in case of desertion it is clear : Cant. v. 6, ' My beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone ; I sought him, but I could not find him/ They never begin to recover until they are first sensible of their loss ; when they see Christ is gone, they are left dead and comfortless ; yea, all be lievers, their seeking or looking after communion with God is grounded upon a sense of want in some degree and measure ; it is little they have in comparison of what they want and expect ; and therefore still the children of God are a generation of seekers, that ' seek after God/ Ps. xxiv. 6 ; whatever they enjoy, they are still in pursuit of more. They are always breathing after God, and desire to enjoy more com munion with him. A wicked man is always running from God, and is never better than when he is out of God's company, when he is rid of all thoughts of God. He runs from his own conscience, because he finds God there ; he runs from the company of good men, because God is there — holy conference is as a prison ; he runs from ordinances, because they bring God near to his conscience, and put him in mind of God : he avoids death, because he cannot endure to be with God. But men that have a sense and want of God upon them, will be in quiring and seeking after him.
2. This seeking may be known by the things sought. What do we seek for ? Union and communion with God : Ps. cv. 4, ' Seek the Lord and his strength ; seek his face for evermore/ It is an allusion to the ark, which was a pledge of God's favourable and powerful pre sence'; so that which we seek after is God's favourable and powerful presence, that we may find the Lord reconciled, comforting and quicken ing our heart. Communion with God is the main thing that we seek
22 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. II.
after, as to the enjoyment of his favour in the acceptance of our per sons and pardon of our sins. This is that the man of God expresseth, in his own name and in the name of all the saints : Ps. iv. 6/7, ' Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us ; ' that God would display his beams of favour upon the soul. So Ps. Ixiii. 3, ' Thy favour is better than life.' And then his strength too, that he may "subdue our corruptions, temptations, enemies, Micahyii. 19 ; and that he may supply our wants inward and outward by his all-sufficiency, Phil. iv. 19. God telleth Abraham, ' I am God all-sufficient ; walk before me, and be thou perfect/
3. The formality of the duty may be explained with respect to graces and ordinances. It consists in the exercise of grace, and in the use of ordinances.
[1.] The exercise of grace — faith and love. (1.) Faith is often ex pressed by terms of motion— coming, running, going, seeking. Thus is the whole tendency of soul towards God expressed by terms that are proper to outward motion. Coming notes our serious resolu tion and purpose to make after God. Going notes the practice or progress in that resolution. Running notes the fervour and earnest ness of the soul to enjoy God. And seeking, that notes our diligence in the use of means. That faith is implied in seeking appears by comparing these two scriptures : Isa. xi. 10, ' To it shall the Gentiles seek/ Now when this is spoken of in the New Testament, it is ren dered thus, Kom. xv. 12, ' In him shall the Gentiles trust/ So that it notes confidence and hope. (2.) It notes love, which is exercised herein, which puts upon sallies and earnest egressions of soul after the party loved : Ps. Ixiii. 8, ' My soul follows hard after thee/ It is grie vous to those who love God to think of separation from him, or to forbear to seek after him. The great care of their souls is to find God, that he may direct, comfort, strengthen, and sanctify them, and to have sweet experience of his grace. Thus the spouse ' sought him whom her soul loved/ and gave not over till she found him.
[2.] Again, it is exercised in the use of the ordinances, as the word and prayer. God will be sought in his own ordinances. Christ walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks. If you would find a man, mind •where is his walk and usual resort. When Christ was lost, his parents sought him in the temple ; there they found him. If you would find Christ, look to the shepherds' tents in the assemblies of his people, Cant i. 7, 8 ; there shall you meet him. Only let me tell you, in these ordinances it is not enough to make Christ the object of them, to wor ship Christ, but he must be made the end of them. To serve God is one thing, to seek him another. To serve God is to make him the object of worship, to seek God is to make him the end of worship, when we will not go away from him without him : Gen. xxxii. 16, ' I will not let thee go unless thou bless me/ It is not enough to make use of ordinances, but we must see if we can find God there. There are many that hover about the palace, that yet do not speak with the prince ; so possibly we may hover about ordinances, and not meet with God there. To go away with the husk and shell of an ordinance, and neglect the kernel, to please ourselves because we have been in the courts of God, though we have not met with the living God, that is
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 23
very sad. A traveller and merchant differ thus : — A traveller goes from place to place only that he may see ; but a merchant goes from port to port that he may take in his lading, and grow rich by traffic. So a formal person goes from ordinance to ordinance, and is satisfied with the work ; a godly man looks to take in his lading, that he may go away from God with God ; that he may meet God here and there, in this duty and in that, and go away from God with God. A man that makes a visit only by constraint, and not by friendship, it is all one to him whether the person be at home or no ; but another would be glad to find his friend there : so, if we from a principle of love come to God in these duties, our desires will be to find the living God.
Again, if God be not found in an ordinance, yet we must continue seeking ; you may find him in the next. Sometimes God will not be found in public, that he may be found in private ordinances. The spouse ' sought him upon her bed/ then in every street of the city : Isa. Iv. 6, ' Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.' In prayer we come most directly to enjoy God, and do more especially call him in to our help and relief ; there all graces are acted. If you cannot find God in prayer, look for him in the supper, and in the word ; if he be not comfortably present in the word, seek him by meditation : Cant. v. 6, ' My soul failed when he spake ; ' that is, when I considered his speaking, for his wooing was over, my be loved was gone ; but when I thought of his speaking my soul failed David consults with Nathan, but he could give him no clear answo-r ; what then ? 2 Sam. vii. 4, ' The word of the Lord came that rjght unto Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David/ &c. So when we have been inquiring after God all day in public worship, all this while the oracle is silent ; but at night, when going over these things again, God may be found. Acts xvii. 12, it is said, ' Therefore many of them believed.' How ? — when they searched the word ; though in the hear ing they did not discern the impressions of God upon the word ; but when they searched and studied, going over them in private duties, God appeared. Heb. xi. 11, it is said, ' She judged him faithful that had promised/ How so? at first hearing? No ; Sarah laughed when God promised her a son (for it was the Son of God that was in com pany with the angels, Gen. xviii.) ; but afterwards, when she considered of it, she judged him faithful.
Thus we must follow God from ordinance to ordinance. It argues a great deal of pride in carnal men, that if God doth not meet them pre sently they throw off all. Now and then they will see what they shall have for calling upon God ; but if God do not answer at the first knock, they are gone.
SEKMON III.
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, ilmt seek him with the whole heart. — VER. 2.
Use 1. To press you to seek God. The motives are : — •
1. It was the end of our creation. We do not live merely to live ;
24 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. III.
but for this end were we sent into the world, to seek God. ^Nature is sensible of it in part by the dissatisfaction it finds in other things ; and therefore the apostle describes the Gentiles to be groping and feeling about for God, Acts xvii. 27. God is the cause of all things, and nature cannot be satisfied without him. We were made for God, and can never enjoy satisfaction until we come to enjoy him; therefore the Psalmist saith, Ps. xiv. 2, We are 'all gone aside, and altogether become filthy.' Nature is out of joint; we are quite out of our way to true happiness. We are seeking that for which we were created, when we seek and inquire after God.
2. We seek other things that we want with great solicitude and care ; we are cumbered with much serving to obtain the world : and shall' any thing be sought more than God ? We can least spare him. The chiefest good should be sought after with the chiefest care, and chiefest love, and chiefest delight ; nothing should be so precious to us as God. It is the greatest baseness that can be, that anything should take up our time, our thoughts, and content us more than God. When we come to God we are earnest for other things : Hosea vii. 14, ' They howl upon their beds for corn and wine.' If anything be sought from God above God, more than God, and not for God, it is but a brutish cry.
3. It is our benefit to seek God. It is no benefit to God if we do not seek him. The Lord1 hath no less, though we have less. He that hides himself from the sun, doth not impair the light. We derogate nothing from God if we do not seek him. He needed not the creature : he had happiness enough in himself ; but we hide our selves from our own happiness and our own peace. But what benefit have we by seeking God ? A great deal of present benefit : Ps. xxii. 26, ' They that seek thee shall praise thy name.' You will have cause to bless God before the search be over. God hath passed his word, there are a great many experiences we taste. As they that continue in the pursuit of the philosopher's stone find out many experiences which are a satisfaction to their understandings, so, one way or other, we shall have cause to bless God. The God of Jacob hath openly professed we shall not seek him in vain, Isa. xliv. 19 , that is, this is a truth God hath written as it were with a sunbeam, that something- will come in seeking of God. By seeking him in prayer we carry away a great deal of comfort and strength. As we read of that em peror that sent not away any one sad out of his presence, so neither doth God ; there is some comfort to be had in waiting upon him ; and as it brings present comfort and satisfaction, so it brings an everlasting reward: Heb. xi. 6, ' He is a rewarder of them that dili gently seek him.' If you would have the fruit of your holy calling, that which is the result of that religion you do profess, you must dili gently seek him, so that in effect we never seek ourselves more than when we seek the Lord : Amos v. 6, ' Seek the Lord, and ye shall live.' It is the undoubted way to get eternal life, to live for ever. They that seek not his face here shall never see his face for ever. With what diligence will men court an outward preferment, which is yet very uncertain ? Prov. xxix. 26, ' All men seek the ruler's face ; but every man's judgment is of the Lord.' What a deal of observance and
1 Qu. ' it is no benefit to God. If we do not aeek him, the Lord,' &c. ? — ED.
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 25'
waiting is there for the ruler's face and favour! and yet God disposeth of every man's judgment. It is uncertain whether they shall obtain it^ yea or nay ; but now, if you seek the face of God in heaven, you shall live for ever.
4. If you do not sensibly find God, yet comfort thyself that thou art in a seeking way, and in the pursuit of him : Ps. xxiv. 6, God's peo ple are described to be ' the generation of them that seek him.' This is the true mark of God's chosen people ; they make it their business to get the favour of God, and to wrestle through discouragements. It is better to be a seeker than a wanderer. Though we do not feel the love of God, nor have the comfort of a pardon, have no sensible com munion with him ; yet the choice and bent of the heart is towards him, and you have the character of God's people upon you.
5. You have misspent a great deal of time already, and long ne glected God ; therefore, now you should seek him : Hosea x. 22. * It i& time to seek the Lord, until he come and rain righteousness upon you/ It is time, that is, it is not too late, while we are preserved and invited. And again, it is time, that is, it is high time ; the business of your lives hath been too long neglected. It is such another expression as 1 Peter iv. 3, ' The time past is enough to have wrought the will of the Gentiles,' &c. God hath been too long kept out of his right, and we out of our happiness. The night is coming upon us, and will you not begin your day's work ?
6. This is the reason of affliction : we are so backward in this work that we need to be whipped unto it: Hosea v. 15, ' I will go and return to my place, saith God, till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face.' God knows that want is a spur to a lazy creature ; and therefore doth God break in upon men, and scourge them as with scor pions, that they may bethink themselves, and look after God.
Use 2. For direction. If you would seek God —
1. Seek him early: Prov. viii. 32, ' Blessed are they that seek me early.' We cannot soon enough go about this work. Seek him when God is nigh, when the Spirit is nigh: Isa. lv.6, 'Call upon the Lord while he is near/ There are certain seasons which you cannot easily get again ; such times when God doth deal more pressingly with you, when the word bears in upon the heart, and when God is near unto us. David like a quick echo returns upon God : Ps. xxvii. 8, ' Seek ye my face ; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek/ It would be a great loss not to obey present impulses and invitations, and not make use of the advantages which God puts into our hands.
2. Seek him daily; Ps. cv. 4, 'Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his face evermore/ That is, from day to day you must be seek ing the face of God, in the strength of God. Every hour we need his direction, protection, strength ; and we are in danger to lose him, if we do not continue the search.
3. Seek him unweariedly, and do not give over your seeking until you find God. Wrestle through discouragements ; though former endea vours have been in vain, yet still we should continue seeking after God. We have that command to enforce us to it : Luke v. 5, ' We have toiled all night; howbeit at thy command/ &c. Though we do not presently find, yet we must not cast off all endeavours. In
26 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. III.
spiritual things many times a man hears and goes away with nothing • but when he comes to meditate upon it, and work it upon the heart, then he finds the face of God, and the strength of God. Therefore, you must not give over your seeking.
4. Seek him in Christ. God will only be found in a mediator : Heb. vii. 25, Those are accepted ' that come to _ God by him.' ^ Guilty creatures cannot enjoy God immediately ; and in Christ, God is more familiar with us : Hosea iii. 5, ' They shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king.' None can seek him rightly but those that seek him in Christ. It is uncomfortable to think of God out of Christ. As the historian saith of Themistocles, when he sought the favour of the king, he snatched up the king's son, and so came and mediated for his grace and favour. Let us take the Son of God in the arms of our faith, and present him to God the Father, and seek his face, his strength.
5. God can only be sought ~by the help of his own Spirit. As our access to God, we have it by Christ, so we have it by the Spirit : Eph. ii. 18, ' For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.' As Christ gives us the leave, so the Spirit gives us the help. Bernard speaks fitly to this purpose ; None can be aforehand with God, we cannot seek him till we find him in some sense : he will be sought that he may be found ; and he is found that he may be sought. It is his preventing grace which makes us restless in the use of means ; and when we are brought home to God, when we seek after God, it is by his own grace. The spouse was listless and careless until she could take God by the scent of his own grace, when he ' put his finger upon the handle of the lock, and dropped myrrh.' By the sweet and powerful influences of his grace, she was carried on in seeking after God. Thus much for tbe first part of the duty, seek.
Secondly, Now the manner, with the whole heart. Dovt. Whoever would seek God aright, they must seek him with their whole heart.
Here I shall inquire —
1. What doth this imply ?
2. Why God will be sought with the whole heart ?
1. What doth this imply ? It implies sincerity and integrity ; for it is not to be taken in the legal sense, with respect to absolute perfec tion, but in opposition to deceit : Jer. iii. 10, ' Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.' It is spoken of the time of Josiah's reformation ; many men whirled about with the times, and were forced by preternatural motions. The Father of spirits above all things requireth the spirit, and he that is the searcher and judge of the heart requireth the heart should be consecrated to him. Integrity opposeth partiality. There are indeed two things in this expression, the whole heart; it notes extension of parts and intension of degrees,
[1.] The extension of parts; with the understanding, will, and affec-
tons. borne seek God with a piece of their hearts, to explain it either
n the work of faith or love. In the work of faith ; as Acts viii. 37,
It thou behevest with all thine heart.' There is a believing with a
piece, and a believing with all the heart There is an inactive know-
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 27
ledge, a naked assent, which may be real, yet it is not a true faith ; the devil may have this : Luke iv. 34, the devil makes an orthodox con fession there, ' Thou art Jesus, the Son of the living God.' This is only a conviction upon the understanding, without any bent upon the heart. It is not enough to own Christ to be the true Messiah, but we must embrace him, put our whole trust in him. There may be an assent joined with some sense and conscience, and some vanishing sweetness and taste by the reasonableness of salvation by Christ, Heb. vi. 4 ; but this is not believing with all the heart ; it is but a taste, a lighter work upon the affections, and therefore bringeth in little experi ence. There may be some assent, such as may engage to profession and partial reformation, but the whole heart is not subdued to God. Then do we believe with the whole heart, when the heart is warmed with the things we know and assent to ; when there is a full and free consent to take Christ upon God's terms, to all the uses and purposes for which God hath appointed him : 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, ' Know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind;' when there is an effective and an affective know ledge ; when we can not only discourse of God and Christ, and are inclined to believe ; but when these truths soak into the heart to frame it to the obedience of his will. When the Lord had spoken of practical obedience, ' Was not this to know me, saith the Lord ? ' Jer. xxii. 16. And this is to believe. So for love : Deut. vi. 5, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might/ Every faculty must express love to God. Many will be content to give God a part. God hath their consciences, but the world their affections. Their heart is divided, and the evidence of it is plainly this : In their troubles and extremities they will seek after God, but this is not their constant work and delight. We are welcome to God when we are compelled to come into his presence. God will not say, as men, You come in your necessity. But we must then be sincere in our addresses, and rest in him as our portion and all-sufficient good.
[2.] For intension of degrees. To seek God with the whole heart, is to seek him with the highest elevation of our hearts. The whole heart must be carried out to God, and to other things for God's sake. As harbingers, when they go to take up room for a prince, they take up the whole house, none else must have place there ; so God, he will have the whole heart.
Again, it may be considered as to the exaction of the law, and as a rule of the gospel.
(1.) As an exaction of the law ; and so Christ urged it to the young man that was of a pharisaical institution, to abate his pride and con fidence : Mat. xxii. 37, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind/ Certainly these words there have a legal importance and signification ; for in an other Evangelist, Luke x. 28, it is added, ' Do and live,' which is the tenor of the law. And Christ's intent was to abate the Pharisees' pride, by propounding the rigour of the first covenant. The law requireth •complete love without the least defect ; according to the terms of it, a grain wanting would make the whole unacceptable ; as a hard land lord, when all the rent is not brought to the full, he accepteth none.
28 SEKMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SEE. III.
It is good to consider it under this sense, that we may seek God in Christ to quicken us, that we may value our deliverance by him from this burden, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear ; a straggling thought, a wandering glance, the least outrunning of the heart, had rendered us accursed for ever.
(2.) It may be considered as a rule of the gospel, which requireth our utmost endeavours, our bewailing infirmities and defects, but accepts of sincerity. There will be a double principle in us to the last, but there should not be a double heart. So that this expression of seeking the Lord with the whole heart is reconcilable enough with the weaknesses of the present state. For instance : 1 Kings xiv. 8, ' My servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, and did that only which was Bright in mine eyes/ David had many failings, and some that left an indelible brand upon him, in the matter of Uriah, yet because of his sincerity, and habitual purpose, God saith, ' He hath kept all my commandments.' So in Josiah : 2 Kings xxiii. 25, ' Like to him there was no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might/ Yet he also had his imperfections ; against the warn ing of the Lord he goes out with a wicked king, and dies in battle. So Asa : 2 Chron. xv. 17, * The high places were not taken away ' — it was a failing in that holy king — yet it is said, ' The heart of Asa was perfect all his days/ Well, then, when the whole heart is engaged in this work, when we do not only study to know God, but make it our work to enjoy him, to rest in him as our all-sufficient portion, though there will be many defects, yet then are we said to seek him with the whole heart.
2. The reasons why God will be sought with the whole heart are —
[1.] He that gives but part to God doth indeed give nothing. The devil keeps an interest as long as one lust remains unmortified, and one corner of the soul is kept for him. As Pharaoh stood bucking,— - he. would fain have some pawn of their return; either leave you? children behind ; no, no, they must go and see the sacrifices, and be trained up in the way of the* Lord ; then he would have their flocks and herds left behind ; he knew that would draw their hearts back again, — so Satan must have either this lust or that ; he knows by keeping part all will fall to his share in the end. A bird that is tied in a string seems to have more liberty than a bird in a cage ; it flutters up and down, though it be held fast : so many seem to flutter up and down and do many things, as Herod ; but his Herodias drew him back again into the fowler's net. Thus because of a sinner's danger.
[2.] Because of God's right. By creation he made the whole, there fore^ requires the whole ; ' the Father of spirits' must have the whole spirit. We were not mangled in our creation ; God, that made the whole, must have the whole. He preserves the whole. Christ hath bought the whole : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's/ And God promiseth to glorify the whole. Christians, it would be uncomfortable to us if God should only take a part to heaven. All that you have is to be glorified in the day of Uhrist ; all that you are and have must be given to him— whole spirit, soul, and body. Let us not deprive him of any part.
. 3.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 29
Use. Well, do we serve God and seek after God with the whole heart ? The natural mother had rather part with the whole than see the child divided, 1 Kings iii. 26. God had rather part with the whole than take a piece. Either he will have the whole of your love, or leave the whole to Satan. The Lord complains, Hosea x. 2, * Their heart is divided.' Men have some affections for God many times, but they have affections for their lusts too, the world hath a great share and portion of their heart.
Quest. But when, in a gospel sense, may we be said to seek God with the whole heart ? Take it in these short propositions.
1. When the settled purpose of our souls is to cleave to God, to love and serve him with an entire obedience, both in the inward and out ward man, when this is the full determination and consent of our hearts.
2. When we do what we can by all good means to maintain this purpose ; for otherwise it is but a fruit of conviction, a freewill pang : Acts xxiv. 16, ' Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a con science void of offence towards God, and towards all men.'
3. When we search out our defects, and are ever bewailing them with kindly remorse : Kom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from this body of death?'
4. When we run by faith to Christ Jesus, and sue out our pardon and peace in Christ's name, until we come to be complete in him : Col. i. 10, ' That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.'
SEKMON IV. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. — VER. 3.
STILL the Psalmist continues the description of a blessed man. In the two first verses, holiness (which is the way to and evidence of blessed ness) is considered with respect to the subject and the object of it, the life and the heart of man. The life of man, ' Blessed are the undefiled in the way.' The heart of man, they ' seek him with the whole heart.'
Now, holiness is considered, in the parts of it, negatively and positively. The two parts of holiness are an eschewing of sin and studying to please God. You have both in this verse, ' They also do no iniquity : they walk in His ways/
First, You have the blessed man described negatively, they do no iniquity. Upon hearing the words, presently there occurs a doubt, how then can any man be blessed? for 'there is not a man that liveth and sinneth not,' Eccles. vii. 20 ; and James iii. 2, ' In many things we offend all.' To deny it, is a flat lie against the truth, and against our own. experience. * If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,' 1 John i. 8. The expression may be abused on the one side, to establish the impeccability and per fection of the saints. On the other side, it may be abused by persons of a weak and tender conscience, to the hindrance of their comfort
3Q SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SEB. IV.
and rejoicing in God. When they shall hear this is the character of a blessed man, 'they do no iniquity,' they are very apt to conclude against their own regeneration, because of their daily failings. °To avoid these difficulties, I shall inquire—
1. What it is to do iniquity.
2. Who are the persons among the sons ot men that may be said to do no iniquity.
First What it is to do iniquity ? If we make it our trade and ' practice' to continue in wilful disobedience. To sin is one thing, but to make sin our work is another: 1 John iii. 9, 'He that is born of God doth not commit sin ; ' he doth not work sin ; and Mat. vii. 23, ' Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.' That is the character of the reprobate workers of iniquity. So John viii. 34, ' Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.' Sin is their constant trade : Ps. cxxxix. 24, 'See if there be any wicked way in me/ None are absolutely freed from sin, but it is not their trade, their way, their work. When a man makes it his study and business to carry on a course of sin, then he is said to do iniquity.
Secondly, Who are those that are said to do no iniquity in God's account, though they fail often through weakness of the flesh and violence of temptation ? Answer —
1. All such as are renewed by grace, and reconciled to God by Christ Jesus ; to these God imputeth no sin to condemnation, and in his account they do no iniquity. Notable is that, 1 Kings xiv. 8. It is said of David, ' He kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, and did that only which was right in mine eyes.' How can that be ? We may trace David by his failings ; they are upon record everywhere in the word ; yet here a veil is drawn upon them ; God laid them not to his charge. There is a double reason why their failings are not laid to their charge. Partly, because of their general state ; they are in Christ, taken into favour through him ; and * there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ/ B-oin. viii. 1 ; therefore particular errors and escapes do not alter their condition. Which is not to be understood as if a man should not be humbled, and ask God's pardon for his infirmities; no, for then they prove iniquities, they will lie upon record against us. It was a gross fancy of the Valentinians, that held they were not defiled with sin what soever they committed ; though base and obscene persons, yet still they were as gold in the dirt. No, no ; we' are to recover ourselves by repentance, to sue out the favour of God. When David humbled himself, and had repented, then saith Nathan, 2 Sam. xii. 13, 'The Lord hath put away thy sin.' Partly, too, because their bent and habitual inclination is to do otherwise. They set themselves to comply with God's will, to seek and serve the Lord, though they are clogged with many infirmities. A wicked man sinneth with delibera tion and delight ; his bent is to do evil ; he ' makes provision for lusts/ Ptom. xiii. 12, and serves them by a voluntary subjection, Titus iii. 3. But those that are renewed by grace are not debtors to the flesh ; they have taken another debt and obligation upon them, which is to serve the Lord, Kom. viii. 12. Partly, too, because their general course and way is to do otherwise. Unumquodque operatur secundum suamfor-
VER. 3.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 31
mam — everything works according to its form ; the constant action a of nature are according to the kind. So the new creature, his constant operations are according to grace. A man is known by his custom, and the course of his endeavours, what is his business. If a man be constantly, easily, frequently carried away to sin, it discovers a habit of soul, and the temper of his heart. Meadows may be overflown, but marsh ground is drowned with the return of every tide. A child of God may be carried away, and act contrary to the bent and inclination of the new nature ; but when men are drowned and overcome with the return of every temptation, and carried away, it argues a habit of sin. And partly, because sin never carries it away clearly, but with some dislikes and resistances of the new nature. The children of God make it their business to avoid all sin, by watching, praying, mortifying : Ps. xxxix. 1, ' I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue/ And then there is a resistance of the sin. God hath planted graces in their hearts; the fear of his majesty, that works a resistance ; and therefore there is not a full allowance of what they do. This resistance sometimes is more strong ; then the tempta tion is overcome : ' How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God ? ' Gen. xxxix. 9. Sometimes it is more weak, and then sin carries it, though against the will of a holy man : Eom. vii. 15, 18, ' The evil which I hate, that do I.' It is the evil which they hate ; they protest against it ; they are like men which are oppressed by the power of the enemy. And then there is a remorse after the sin: 4 David's heart smote him/ It grieves and shames them that they do evil. There is tenderness goes with the new nature ; Peter sinned foully, but he went out and wept bitterly.
Well, then, the point is this : —
Doct. 1. They that are and shall be blessed are such as make it their business to avoid all sin.
I may illustrate it by these reasons : —
1. Surely they shall be blessed, for they take care to remove the makebate, the wall of partition between God and them. It is sin which separates: Isa. fix. 2, 'But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.' This was that which cast angels out of heaven ; when they had sinned, God could endure their company no longer. This cast Adam out of paradise. This is that which hinders men from communion with God.
2. These are men fitting and preparing themselves for the enjoy ment of their great hopes : Col. i. 12, ' Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light ; ' 1 John iii. 3, ' He that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure.' Esther, when she was chosen to be bride and spouse to that great king, had her months of purification. The time we spend in the world are the months of our purification ; it is a sign they mind their business, they are fitting for eternal happiness. They remember they are shortly to appear before the great God, therefore they would not be uncomely. Joseph washed his garments when he was to go before Pharaoh. They have these hopes that they shall see God as he is, that they shall be like him, and he will appear for their comfort ; there fore they are fitting themselves more and more.
3. In them true happiness is begun. There are degrees in blessed-
32 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SEE. IV.
ness • the angels they never sinned ; the glorified saints they have sinned, but sin no more; the saints upon earth, in them sin reigns not; therefore here is their happiness begua As sin is taken away so our happiness increaseth ; first God begins with us in a way of Justification, ne damnet ; he takes away the damning power that is m sin • and in sanctification the work goes on, ne regnet, that sin may not rei<m • afterward ne sit, that sin may not be ; therefore these have begun their happiness, they are hastening towards it apace.
Use I. For trial and examination, whether we may be reckoned among the blessed men, yea or nay. There are some think, because the children of God are liable to so many failings, and there being so many wiles and circuits in the heart of man, that there can be no judgment made upon the case between the sins of the regenerate and unregenerate. But surely there is a difference between the sinning of the one, and the sinning of the other, and such a difference as may be discerned : 1 John iii. 9, ' Whosoever is born of God doth net com mit sin.' Now mark, ver. 10, ' In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.' This is that which distinguisheth the children of God from the children of the devil. Well, then, how shall we manage this discovery, that we may be able to judge of our own estates ?
First, Let us consider how far sin may be in a blessed man, in a child of God.
1. They have a corrupt nature, they have sin in them as well as others ; it is their misery to the last : Kom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am/ saith the holy apostle. Sin, though it be dejectum, cast down in regard of regency, yet it is not ejectum, cast out in regard of inherency ; their corrupt nature sticks by them to the last. One com pares it to a wild fig-tree, or to ivy in a wall ; cut off the body, the boughs, sprigs, branches, yet still there will be something that will be sprouting up again until the wall be digged down. Such an in dwelling sin is in us, though we pray, strive, and cut off the ex crescences, the buddings out of it here and there, yet till it be plucked asunder by death, it continueth with us.
2. They have their daily failings and infirmities: Eccles. vii. 20, ' There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.' Those that for their general state are just and righteous men, yet certain sins they cannot get rid of, and are unavoidable ; as sins of ignorance, incogitancy, sudden surreption, indeliberate incursions, which we shall never be freed from as long as we are in this imperfect state. So also imperfections of duty, for we cannot serve God with that high degree of reverence, delight, and perfection which he requireth There are unavoidable infirmities which are pardoned of course.
3. They may be guilty of some sins which by watchfulness might be prevented, as vain thoughts, idle, passionate speeches, and many carnal actions. It is possible that these may be prevented by the ordi nary assistances of grace, and if we will keep a strict guard over our own hearts. But in this case God's children may be overtaken and overborne ; overtaken by the suddenness, or overborne by the violence of temptation : overtaken, Gal. vi. 1, ' If a man be overtaken in a fault, restore such an one,' &c. ; and overborne, James i. 14, ' Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed/
4. They may now and then fall foully ; as Noah by excess of drink,
VER. 3.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 33
Lot's incest, David's adultery, Peter's denial. Failings and infirmi ties they are not determined either by the smallness or by the great- Bess of the act, but by other concomitant circumstances. Not by the smallness of the act. There is as much treason in coining pence as shillings and pounds. Allowed affection to small sins is deadly and damnable : he that is unfaithful in little will be unfaithful in much. Christians, where temptations are weak and impotent, and of slight concernment and importance, they may be sooner confuted, and obed ience is the more easy ; so that our rebellion to God by small sins may be greater. A man may have great affections to small sins ; so it may prove an iniquity, a damnable sin.
On the other side, great sins may be infirmities ; as Lot's incest, David's adultery, when they are not done with full consent of soul, when their hearts are not wholly carried away with them. Iniquities are determined by their manner : Jude 15, * Their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed : ' when with full consent of will, and it is their course that argues an habitual hatred and contempt of God.
5. A child of God may have some particular evils, which may be called predominant sins (not with respect to grace, that is impossible, that a man should be renewed and have such sins that sin should carry the mastery over grace) ; but they may be said to have a predominancy in comparison of other sins ; he may have some particular inclination to some evil above others. David had his iniquity, Ps. xviii. 23. Look, as the saints have particular graces ; Abraham was eminent for faith, Timothy for sobriety, Moses for meekness, &c. ; so they have their particular corruptions which are more suitable to their temper and course of life. Peter seems to be inclined to tergiversation, and to shrinking in a time of trouble. We find him often tripping in that kind ; in the denial of his master ; again, Gal. ii. 12, it is said he dis sembled and complied with the Jews, therefore Paul ' withstood him to his face, for he was to be blamed.' It is evident by experience there are particular corruptions to which the children of God are more inclinable: this appears by the great power and sway they bear in commanding other evils to be committed, by their falling into them out of inward propensity when outward temptations are few or weak, or none at all ; and when resistance is made, yet they are more pestered and haunted with them than with other temptations, which is a con stant matter of exercise and humiliation to them.
Secondly, Wherein doth grace now discover itself, where is the dif ference ?
1. In that they cannot fall into those iniquities wherein there is an absolute contrariety to grace, as hatred of God, total apostasy, so they cannot sin the sin unto death, 1 John v. 16.
2. In that they do not sin with the whole heart : Ps. cxix. 176, 'I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.' There was somewhat of God in the heart, when he was conscious to himself of strayings and wanderings ; and David saith elsewhere, * I have not departed wickedly from thy precepts/ When they sin, it is with the dislike and reluctancy of the new nature ; it is rather a rape than a consent. Bernard saith, A child of God suffers sin rather than acts it, and his heart's protest is against it
VOL. VI. 0
34 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. IV.
3. It is not their course ; not constant, easy, and frequent. Kelapses into gross sins, they argue an habitual aversion from God, for a habit is determined by the constancy and uniformity ^ of acts ; therefore it is but now and then under some great temptation. There is sin, and there is a ivay of sin : Ps. cxxxix. 24, c Search me and see if there be any way of wickedness in me/ as Chrysostom glosseth.
4. When they fall they do not rest in sin : ' Shall they fall, and shall they not arise ? ' Jer. viii. 4. They may fall into the dirt, but they do not lie and wallow there like swine in the mire. A fountain may be mudded, but it works itself clean again. The needle that hath been touched with the loadstone may be jogged and discomposed, but it never leaves till it turns towards the pole again. God's children have their failings, but they sue out their pardon, run to their advo cate, 1 John ii. 1, humble themselves before God.
5. Their falls are sanctified. When they have smarted under sin, they grow more watchful and more circumspect. A child of God may have the worse in prcelio, in the battle, but not in bello, in the war. Some times the carnal part may get the victory, and they may fall foul, but see the issue : Ps. li. 6, ' In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom/ David had sinned against the Lord, but I have learned wisdom, never to trust a naughty heart more, but to look to myself better.
6. Grace discovers itself by the constant endeavours which they make against sin. What is the constant course a Christian takes ? They groan under the relics of sin ; it is their burden that they have such an evil nature, Kom. vii. 24. They fly to God's grace in Christ for daily pardon, 1 John i. 9. They are ever washing their garments in the Lamb's blood, Eev. vii., and every day are cleansing themselves from the filthiness and defilement they contract by sin : John xiii. 10, ' He that is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet/ An allusion to a man that hath been a journey, in those countries where they went barefoot, when he came home he must wash his feet. So a man that is reconciled to God, though he hath been in the bath, in the fountain which God hath opened for uncleanness, yet every day he must be washing his feet, cleansing himself by the blood of Christ more and more, because he contracts new defilement. Then by using all endea vours against it, Col. iii. 5 ; as prayer, striving, watching, cutting off the provisions of the flesh, improving the death of Christ. They do not voluntarily and without opposition live under sin, and the slavish tyranny of it. Their bent and habitual inclination is to do otherwise ; therefore they are said to do no iniquity : whereas those that are reck less and careless of their souls, sin, and never lay it to heart ; they are the workers of iniquity.
Use 2. If this be the character of a blessed man, to make it our business to avoid sin, then here is caution to God's people:
1. To beware of all sin.
2. To be very cautious against gross sins, committed against the light of conscience.
3. To beware of continuance in sin.
First, To beware of all sin. The more you have the mark of a blessed man : 1 John ii. 1, < These things I write unto you, that you
VER. 3.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 35
sin not.' Though you have a pardon and cleansing by the blood of Christ, though you have an advocate, yet sin not. Now the motives to set on this caution are taken from God, from ourselves, from the nature of sin.
1. From God. Sin not. Why ? Because it is an offence to God. Consider how contrary sin is to all the persons in the Trinity. To God the Father as a lawgiver, being a contempt of his authority, 1 John iii. 4. Sin is avo^ta, ' a transgression of the law/ that is, an act of disloyalty and rebellion against the crown of heaven. Open sin doth as it were proclaim rebellion and war against God ; and privy sin is conspiracy against him. All creatures have a law : Ps. cxlviii. 6, ' Thou hast set to them a decree, beyond which they cannot pass.' And they are less exorbitant in their motions than we are. It is a greater violation to the law of nature for man to sin, than for the sea to break its bounds. The creatures have not sense and reason, yet they do not pass beyond the law which God hath set them. This should prevail with the new creature especially, whose hearts God hath suited to the law, so that they offer a violence to their own conscience. Take heed of entering into the lists with God, of despising his autho rity. Every sin that is committed slights the law which forbids it : 2 Sam. xii. 9, ' Wherefore despisest thou his commandments ? ' God stands much upon his law, — one tittle shall not pass away, — and you despise it, go about to make it void, when you give way to sin. Nay, it is an abuse of his love : 1 John iii. 1, * Behold what manner of love the Father hath showed us ; ' you are children and sons of God, and will you slight his love ? Your sins are like Absalom's treason against his father. The Rechabites are commended for keeping their father's command, Jer. xxxv. Set pots before them, &c. — No, our father hath forbidden us to drink wine. Their father was dead, but ours is liv ing ; will you that are sons renounce God, and side with the devil's party, and commit sin, — you to whom the Father hath showed such love that you should be called his children ? Then it is a wrong to Jesus Christ — to his merit, to his example. To his merit. Christ came to take away sin, and will you bind those cords the faster which Christ came to loosen ? Then you go about to defeat the purpose of his death, and put your Redeemer to shame. You seek to make void the great end for which Christ came, which was to dissolve sin. And, besides, you disparage the worth of the price he paid down ; you make the blood of Christ a cheap thing, when you despise grace and holi ness ; you make nothing of that which cost him so dear — you lessen the greatness of his sufferings. And it is a wrong to his pattern. You should be * pure as Christ is pure,' 1 John iii. 3 ; and ver. 7, be 'right eous as he is righteous.' You should discover what a holy person Christ was, by a conformity to him in your conversation. 2JTow, will you dishonour him ? What a strange Christ will you hold forth to the world, when his name is upon you — will you give way to sin and folly ? And it is a wrong to God the Spirit, a grief to him. His great and first work was to wash us from sin, Titus iii. 5. You forget that such a work was past upon your hearts, and that you 'have been purged from your old sins/ when you return to them again, 2 Peter i. 9 ; and his constant residence in the heart is to check the lusts of
36 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SfiR. VI.
the flesh, to prevent the actings of sin. ' If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,' Bom. viii. 13 ; therefore you go about to make void his personal operation. Thus it is a wrong to God.
2. By an argument drawn from ourselves ; it is very unsuitable to you. We profess ourselves to be ' regenerate ' and born of God : 1 John iii. 9, * He that is born of God cannot sin/ It is not only contrary to thy duty, but to thy nature, as thou art a new creature. It were monstrous for the egg of one creature to bring forth a brood of another kind, for a crow or a kite to come from the egg of a hen. It is as unnatural a production for a new creature to sin ; therefore you that are born of God, it is very uncomely and unsuitable. Do not dishonour your high birth.
3. Consider the nature of sin ; if you give way to it, it will encroach further. Sins steal into the throne insensibly ; and being habituated in us by long custom, we cannot easily shake off the yoke or redeem ourselves from their tyranny. They go on from little to little, and get strength by multiplied acts. Therefore we should be very careful to avoid all sin.
The second part of the caution is, beware of gross sins, committed against light and conscience. When we are tempted to sin, say with Joseph : Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God ? ' The more of deliberation and will there is in any action, the sin is the fouler. Consider, foul sins are a blot that will stick long by us. See 1 Kings xv. 5 ; it is said, ' David walked in all the ways of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.' Why, there were many other things wherein David failed ; you read of his diffidence and distrust in God : ' I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul/ We read of his dissimulation, and feigning himself mad in the company of the Philistines. We read of his injus tice to Mephibosheth, his fond affection to Absalom, his indulgence to Amnon. We read of his numbering the people, which cost the lives of thousands all on a sudden : all these are great failings, but these are not taken notice of; but the matter of Uriah left a scar and blot that was not easily washed off.
^ Thirdly, Beware of continuance in sin. How may we continue in sin ? In what sense ? Three things I shall take notice of in sin — culpa, reatus, macula; there is the fault, the guilt, the Hot; and then we continue in sin, when the fault, the guilt, or blot is continued upon us.
1. The fault is continued when the acts of it are repeated, when we fall into the same sin again and again. Eelapses are very dangerous, as a bone often broken in the same place ; you are in danger of this, before the ^ breach be well made up between God and you; as Lot doubling his incest : to venture once and again is very dangerous.
2. The guilt doth continue upon a man till serious and solemn repentance, till he sue out pardon in the name of Christ. Though a man should forbear the act, never commit it more ; yet unless he retracts it by a serious remorse, and humbleth himself before God, and suefrh out his pardon in a repenting way, the guilt continues.
VER. 3.] • SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 37
* If we confess ' — he speaks to believers — then sin is forgiven, not otherwise.
3. There is the macula, the Hot, by which the schoolmen under stand ™Ii inclination t° sm again ; the evil influence of the sin continueth until we use serious endeavours to mortify tne rout uf it. TY h?H we nave been foiled by any lust, that lust must be more mortified. For instance, Jonah, he repented for forsaking his call, when he was cast into the whale's belly ; but the sin broke out again, because he did not mortify the root ; what was that ? — his pride. So that it is not enough to bewail the sin, but we must lance the sore, and discover the root and core of it before all will be well. A man may repent of the eruption of sin, the former act, but the inclination to sin again is not taken off. Judges xvi. 2. Sampson loves a woman of Gaza, and she had betrayed him ; but by carrying away the gates of the city he saves his life : possibly upon that experience he might repent of his folly and inordi nate love to that woman. Ay ! but the root remains : therefore he falls in love with another woman, with Delilah. Therefore if you would do what is your duty, you must look to the fault, that that be not renewed ; the guilt, that that be not continued by omission of repentance ; and that the blot also do not remain upon you, by not searching to the root of the distemper, the cause of that sin by which we have been foiled. So much for the first part of the text, They do no iniquity.
The second note is, they walk in his ways. This is the positive part ; not only avoiding of sin, but practice of holiness, is implied. Observe —
Doct. 2. It is not enough only to avoid evil, but we must do good.
' They do no iniquity ; ' then ' they walk in his ways.' Why ?
1. The law of God is positive as well as negative. In every com mand there are precepts and prohibitions, that we might own God, as well as renounce the devil ; and maintain communion with him, as well as avoid our own misery : Amos v. 15, * Hate the evil, and love the good;' Kom. xii. 9, 'Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.'
2. The mercies of God they are positive as well as privative. Our obedience should correspond with God's mercies. Now, God doth not only deliver us from hell, but he hath called us to glory. John iii. 16, The end of Christ's coming is, that we should ' not perish' (there is the privative part), but ' come to everlasting life ' (there is the posi tive). In the covenant God hath undertaken to be ' a sun and a shield/ Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 ; not only a sun, which is the fountain of life and vegetation and blessing, but a shield to defend us from danger in the world ; therefore our obedience should be positive as well as privative.
Use. It reproves those that rest in negatives. As it was said of the emperor, he was rather not vicious than virtuous. Many men, all their religion runs upon note: Luke xviii. 11, 'I am not as this publican/ That ground is naught, though it brings not forth briars and thorns, if it yields not good increase. Not only the unruly servant is cast into hell, that beat his fellow-servant, that ate and drank with the drunken, but the idle servant, that wrapped up his talent in a napkin.
38 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. V.
Meroz is cursed, not for opposing and fighting, but for not helping, Judges v. 23. Dives did not take away food from Lazarus, but he did
^_ •» *- Ml T _ L — _Jl T
nances ? 1 do not swear and rend the name of God by cursed oaths ; ay ! but dost thou glorify God and honour him ? I do not profane the Sabbath ; but dost thou sanctify it ? Thou dost not plough and dance ; but thou art idle, toyest away the Sabbath. Thou dost not wrong thy parents ; but dost thou reverence them ? Thou dost not murder; but dost thou do good to thy neighbour? Thou art no adulterer ; but dost thou study temperance and a holy sobriety in all things ? Thou art no slanderer ; but art thou tender of thy neigh bour's honour and credit as of thy own ? Usually men cut off half their bill, as the unjust steward, when he owed a hundred, bade him set down fifty. We do not think of sins of omission. If we are not drunkards, adulterers, and profane persons, we do not think what it is to omit respects to God, and want of reverence to his holy majesty ; to delight in him and his ways.
In the next place, take notice of the notion, by which the precepts of God are expressed ; here they are called ways, * that walk in his ways ;' how is that ? — not as he hath given us an example, to be holy as he is holy, just as he is just ; but his ways are his precepts. Why are they his ways ? Because they are appointed by God, and pre scribed by him. Which shows the evil of defection and going astray from him. It is a despising God's wisdom and authority. The great and wise God hath found out a way for the creature to walk in, that he may attain true happiness ; and we must still be running out into bypaths ; yea, it is a despising of his goodness : ' He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good ;' how to walk step by step. Then they are God's ways, as they lead to the enjoyment of him. From thence we may learn that many that wish to be where he is, shall never come there, because they do not walk in the way that leads to him. A man can never come to a place, that will not go in the way that will bring him thither : so they will never come to the enjoyment of God in a blessed estate, that will not take the Lord's way to blessedness, that follow not the course God hath prescribed to them in his word.
SERMON V. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. — YER. 4.
THE Psalmist having laid down the description of the blessed man by the frame of his heart, and the course of his life, and the integrity of his obedience, he comes now to another argument whereby to enforce the entire observation of God's law. The argument in the text is taken from God's authority enjoining this course, and he propounds it by way of address and appeal to God for the greater emphasis and force, ' Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently/
VEB. 4.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix, v 39
In the words take notice of two things —
1. The fundamental ground and reason of our obedience, which is God's command or will declared in his word.
2. The manner of this obedience. God will not be put off with any thing, but served with the greatest diligence and exactness, ' to keep thy precepts diligently' The Septuagint renders it, ' That thy com mands should be kept exceeding much.'
In the first part take notice—
1. Of the lawgiver, thou.
2. His authority interposed, or positive injunction, hast commanded us. It is not left to our arbitrament whether we will take up the course which leads to true happiness, yea or nay.
3. The thing commanded, to keep thy precepts.
Doct. To gain the heart to a full obedience, it is good to consider the authority of God in his word.
There are many courses we must use to draw the heart to an obe dience of God. We may urge —
1. The reasonableness of obedience ; so that if we are left at our liberty, we should take up the ways of God rather than any other : Bom. vii. 12, ' The commnadment is holy, just, and good/ All that God hath required, it carrieth a great suitableness to the reasonable nature, so that if a man were well in his wits, and were to choose a law, he would of his own accord prefer the laws of God before liberty and any other service. Certainly there is an excellency in them which is in part discerned by carnal men ; they admire those that practise the duties which God hath required, though they are loth to submit to them themselves. It is no heavy burden to live chastely, humbly, soberly, and to maintain a communion and correspondence with God ; and whosoever doth so hath much the sweeter life of him that liveth sinfully. We may urge —
2. The profitableness of obedience, and how much it conduceth to our good : Deut. x. 13, ' The statutes which I command thee for thy good.' Our labour in the work of obedience is not lost or misspent. A godly course is refreshed with many sweet experiences for the pre sent, and will bring in a full reward for the future.
3. The next motive is that of the text, to urge the command of God. It is a course enjoined and imposed upon us by our sovereign law giver. It is not in our choice, as if it were an indifferent thing whether we will walk in the laws of God or not, but of absolute necessity, unless we renounce the authority of God. This is the argument in the text, therefore let us see how it is laid down here.
[1.] Take notice of the lawgiver, thou. It is not our equal, or one that will be baffled, but the great God, upon whom thou dependest every moment. Men are easily carried away to please those that have power over them, even sometimes to the wrong of God and con science : Hosea v. 11, * Ephraim walked willingly after the command ment;' meaning Jeroboam's law for the worshipping the calves in Dan and Bethel. When we depend upon men we consent to their commands, and study a compliance, though contrary to our own inclinations. And is not God's authority to be regarded ? Surely he hath the greatest right to command us, for he made us — there is none
40 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SflB. V.
hath such dominion and lordship over us as God hath; and our dependence upon him is more than can be upon any created being, for ' in him we live, and move, and have our being ; ' and therefore, thou hast commanded, this should be a powerful argument. And mark, none can enforce his command with such threatenings and rewards as he can. Not with such threats : Mat. x. 28, ' Fear not him that can kill the body, and after that hath no more/ &c. Men can threaten us with strapados, dungeons, halters, and other instruments of persecution ; but God, with a pit without a bottom, with a worm that never dies, with a fire that shall never be quenched, with torments without end, and without ease. Then for rewards. As Saul said, ' Can the son of Jesse give you vineyards, and make you captains of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands?' The world takes him to have most right to command that can bid most for our obedience. Who can promise more than God, who is a plentiful ' rewarder of them that diligently seek him ' ? Heb. xi. 6. Who hath told us of a kingdom prepared for us ; of a body glorious like unto Christ's body ; of a soul enlarged to the greatest capacities of a crea ture ; and yet filled up with God, and satisfied with the fruition of himself. This is the person spoken of in the text, to whom the Psalmist saith, ' Thou hast commanded us/ And surely if we would willingly walk after any commandment, we should after the command ment of the great God.
[2.] The second circumstance is, hast commanded; he hath inter posed his authority. Besides the particular precept and rule of duty, there are general commands or significations of God's authority to bind all the rest, ' Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts/ If the word of God, or rule of obedience, were. only given us as a direction, we should regard it as coming from the wisdom of God. But now it is an injunction as coming from the authority of God ; therefore in his name we may charge you, as you will answer it another day, that these precepts be dear and precious to you. Unless you mean to renounce the sovereign majesty of God, and put him besides the throne, and break out into open rebellion against him, you must do what he hath commanded : 1 Tim. i. 9, ' Charge them that be rich in the world/ &c., not only advise but charge them. And Titus ii. 15, ' These things ex hort, and rebuke with all authority.' God will have the creatures know that he expects this duty and homage from them.
[3.] Here is the nature of this obedience, or the thing commanded, to keep tliy precepts. What is that ? — to observe the whole rule of faith and manners. Believing in Christ, that falls under a command : 1 John iii. 23, ' This is his command, that we should believe in him whom he hath sent/ Repentance is under a command : Acts xvii. 30, ' He hath commanded all men everywhere to repent/ Upon your peril be it, if you refuse his grace. So gospel obedience falls under a command, the great God hath charged us to keep all his precepts ; to make conscience of all duties that we owe to God and man, Acts xxiv. 6 ; the smaller as well as the greater, Mat. v. 19. God counts his authority to be despised and laid aside, and the command and obligatory power of his law to be made void, if a man shall either in doctrine or practice count any transgression of his laws so light and
VEB. 4.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 41
venial as not to be stood upon, as if it were but a trifle. Christians, if we had the awe of God's authority upon our hearts, what kind of persons would we be at all times, in all places, and in all company ? what a check would this be to a proud thought, a light word, or a passionate speech ? — what exactness would we study in our conversa tions, had we but serious thoughts of the sovereign majesty of God, and of his authority forbidding these things in the word !
To offer some reasons of the point, why it is of so much profit to consider the authority of God in the command.
1. Because then the heart would not be so loose, off and on in point of duty ; when a thing is counted arbitrary (as generally we count so of strictness), the heart hangs off more from God. When we press men to pray in secret, to be full of good works, to meditate of God, to examine conscience, to redeem time, to be watchful, they think these be counsels of perfection, not rules of duty, enforced by the positive command of God ; therefore are men so slight and careless in them. But now, when a man hath learned to urge a naughty heart with the authority of God, and charge them in the name of God, he lies more under the awe of duty. Hath God said I must search and try my ways, and shall I live in a constant neglect of it ? Hath God bidden me to redeem my time, and shall I make no conscience how I waste away my precious hours ? Hath God bidden me keep my heart with all keepings, and shall I let it run at large without any restraint and regard ? It is my debt, and I must pay it, or I shall answer it at my peril in the great day of accounts ; it is not only commended but commanded : 2 Kings v. 13, ' If the prophet had bidden thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it ? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean ? '
2. We cannot be so bold and venturous in sinning, when we re member how the authority of God stands in the way : Prov. xiii. 13, ' He that fears the commandment, he shall be blessed ; ' not only the
Calty, but the command. The heart is never right until we be ught to fear a commandment more than any inconveniencies what soever. To a wicked man there seems to be nothing so light as a command, and therefore he breaks through against checks of conscience. But a man that hath the awe of God upon him, when mindful of God's authority, he fears a command. Jude 9, it is said of Michael the archangel, ' He durst not bring a railing accusation/ He had not the boldness, when the commandment of God was in his way.
3. Many times we are doubtful of success, and so our hands are weakened thereby. We forbear duty, because we do not know what will come of it. Now, a sense of God's authority and command doth fortify the heart against these discouragements : Luke v. 5, ' Master, we have toiled all the night, howbeit at thy command we will cast down the net/ A poor soul that hath long lain at the pool, that hath been labouring, following God from one duty to another, and nothing comes sensibly of it, yet 'at thy command,' &c., he will keep up his endeavours still. This is the very case in the text, ' Blessed is the man that keeps thy precepts, and that seeks him with the whole heart/ Then, presently, ' Thou hast commanded ;' that is, though our obedience had no promise of reward, and our felicity were
42 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. V.
not proposed as the fruit of it, yet the command itself, and the authority of God, is a reason sufficient.
4 In some duties that are not evident by natural light, as believing and owning of Christ, the heart is more bound to them by the sense of a command, than by any other encouragement. It is God's pleasure
It is enough to set a servant about his work, that it is his master's pleasure. °Thou dost not stand disputing whether thou shouldst re pent or not, obey or not, abstain from fleshly idols, yea or nay, or from fornication. And why should you stand aloof from the work of faith, and doubt whether you should believe or not ? We have many natural prejudices, but this, his command, is a mighty relief to the soul. It is his command we should believe in his Son. It is not only a matter of comfort and privilege, but also a matter of duty and obedience ; and therefore, though we have discouragements upon us — I am un worthy to be received to mercy — yet this will bend the heart to the work. God is worthy to be obeyed ; it is his commandment. Thou dost not question whether thou shouldst grieve for thy sins — why should you question whether you should believe in Christ ? If God had only given us leave to believe, we could not have had such an advantage, as now he hath interposed his authority, and commanded us to believe : * Kejoice in the Lord ; and again I say, Eejoice/ Phil. iv. If God had only given us leave to refresh ourselves in a sense of his love, it were an invaluable mercy ; but we have not only leave to rejoice, but a charge. It is our duty to work up our heart to a comfortable sense of the love of God, and a fruition of his favour.
5. Obedience is never right but when it is done out of a conscience of God's authority, intuitu voluntatis. The bare sight of God's will should be reason enough to a gracious heart. It is the will of God ; it is his command, So it is often urged : 1 Thes. iv. 3, the apostle bids them follow holiness, ' for this is the will of God, your sanctifica- tion/ And servants should be faithful in their burdensome and hard labours : 1 Peter ii. 15, ' For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men/ And 1 Thes. v. 18, ' In everything give thanks ; for this is the will of God in Christ^ Jesus concerning you.' That is argument enough to a godly Christian, that God hath signified his will and good pleasure, though the duty were never so cross to his own desires and interests. They obey simply for the commandment sake, without any other reason and inducement. There is indeed ratio formalis, and ratio motiva. There are encouragements to God's service, but the formal reason of obedience is God's will. And this is pure obedience, to do what he wills, because he wills it.
The uses are:— 1. To exhort thee to take this course with thy naughty heart. When it hangs back from any duty, or from any course of strictness, urge it with the authority of God. These precepts are not the advices and counsels of men who wish well to us, and who would advise us to the best, but they are the commands of God, who must and will be obeyed. Or, when thou art carried out to any sin,
YER. 4.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 43
it is forbidden fruit ; there is a commandment in the way, and that is as terrible to a gracious heart as an angel with a flaming sword.
To back these thoughts, let me propound a few considerations. tJonsider —
1. God can command what he will. He is absolute. His will is the supreme reason of all things. It is notable that God backs his laws with the consideration of his sovereignty. You shall do thus and thus. Why ? ' I am the Lord.' That is all his reason, Lev. xviii. 4, 5. It is repeated in that and many places in the next chapter. The Papists speak much of blind obedience, obeying their superiors without inquiring into the reason of it. Surely we owe God blind obedience, as ' Abraham obeyed God, not knowing whither he went,' Heb. xi. 8. John Cassian makes mention of one who willingly fetched water near two miles every day, for a whole year together, to pour it upon a dead dry stick, at the command of his superior, when no reason else could be given for it. And I have read of another who professed that, if he were enjoined by his superior to put forth to sea in a ship that had neither mast, tackling, nor any other furniture, he would do it ; and when he was asked how he could do this without hazard of his discre tion, he answered, The wisdom must be in him that hath power to command, not in him that hath power to obey. Thus do they place merit in this blind obedience, in giving up their wills absolutely to the power of their superior. Certainly, in God's commands, his sovereignty is enough ; the uttermost latitude of this blind obedience is due to him. If he hath said it is his will, how contrary soever it be to our reason, lusts, interests, it must be done. It is enough for us to know that we are commanded. To command is God's part, and to obey that is ours, whatever shall be declared to be his will and pleasure.
2. God can most severely punish our disobedience, and therefore his commands should have a power upon us : James iv. 12, * There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy ; ' with a destruction indeed, and salvation indeed. So there is but one lawgiver in this sense. He truly hath potestatem vitce et necis. God hath the power of life and death. Why ? Because he can punish with eternal death, and bestow eternal life.
3. He is neither ignorant nor forgetful of our prevarications and disobedience. The Eechabites were tender of the commandment of their dead father, Jer. xxxv., who could not take cognisance of their actions : ' Our father commanded us/ Certainly we should be tender of the commands of the great God : Prov. xv. 3, ' The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.' He is not so shut up within the curtain of the heavens but that he takes notice how his laws are kept and observed. Saith the prophet to Gehazi, * Went not my spirit with thee ? ' meaning his prophetical spirit. So doth God, as it were, appeal to the conscience of a sinner. Doth not my spirit go along with thee ? Is not he conscious to our works, and observes all we do ?
4. God stands much upon the authority of his law : Hosea viii. 12, * I have written to them the great things of my law/ &c. Mark, he calls them ' the great things of his law ; ' they are not things to be slighted and contemned. They are not directions of little moment ; there is no small hazard in contemning them, or not walking according
44 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SEE. V.
to them. Indeed, we think it a small matter to stand upon every circumstance ; but God doth not think so. Uzzah was struck dead in the place for failing in a circumstance — he would stay the ark, which shook. The Bethshemites, sinning in a circumstance, it cost them the lives of many thousands. Lot's wife, for looking back, was turned into a pillar of salt. Let these things beget an awe upon our hearts of the great God, and of what he hath enjoined us.
Use 2. It informs us of the heinous nature of sin. Of sin in general, it is avojjLLa, ' a transgression of the law/ 1 John iii. 4 ; that is, a con tempt of God's authority. It is an unlording of him and putting him out of the throne. Every sin is an affront to God's authority ; it is a despising of the command, 2 Sam. xii. 9 ; you rise up in defiance to God, and cast off his sovereignty in despising his command ; more particularly, sins against knowledge, or against conscience. You may see the heinousness of these sins by this — all sins, they proceed either from ignorance, or from oblivion, or from rebellion. Sins of ignorance, they are not so heinous, though they are sins. A man is bound to know the will of his creator ; but then ignorance of it is not so heinous. To strike a friend in the dark is not so ill taken as in the open light. So there are sins of oblivion, which is an ignorance for the time, for a man hath not such explicit thoughts as to revive his knowledge upon himself. He is overtaken, Gal. vi. 1. This a great sin too. Why ? For the awe of God should ever be fresh and great upon the heart, and we are to ' remember his statutes to do them.' But now, there are sins of rebellion, that are committed against light and conscience, whether they be of omission or commission. We are troubled for sins of commission against light ; we should be as much for sins of omission, for they are rebellions against God, when we omit a duty of which we are convinced : James iv. 17, ' To him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin.'
Secondly, Come we to the manner of this obedience, Thou Jiast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. From thence note —
Doct. That we should not only do what God hath required, but we should do it diligently.
1. Because the matter of keeping God's precepts doth not only fall under his authority, but the manner also. God hath not only required service, but service with all its circumstances : 1 Cor. ix. 24, ' I so run that I may obtain/ It is our duty, not only to run, but so run, not as in jest, but as in good earnest : Kom. xii. 11, ' Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.' Not only serving the Lord, but seething hot in spirit, when our affections are so strong that they boil over in our lives. And James v. 16, ' The fervent effectual prayer ; ' that prayer which hath a spirit and a life in it. Not only prayer is required, but fervency, not dead and drowsy devotion. So Luke vii. 18, not only it is re quired that we hear, but to c take heed how we hear,' with what reverence and seriousness. And Acts xxvi. 7, ' The twelve tribes served God instantly, day and night,' with the uttermost extension of their strength, so the word signifies. And for charity, it is not enough to give, but with readiness and freeness. Be ' ready to communicate:3 like life-honey it must drop of its own accord.
YER. 4.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 45
2. The manner is the great thing which God requires ; it is very valuable upon several grounds : Prov. xvi. 2, ' The ways of man are clean in his own eyes ; but the Lord weigheth the spirits/ What doth God put into the balance of the sanctuary when he comes to make a judgment ? When he would weigh an action he weighs the spirits. He considers not only the bulk, the matter of the action, but the spirit, with what heart it was done. A man may sin in doing good, but he cannot sin in doing well ; therefore the manner should be looked to as well as the matter.
3. It is a good help against slightness. We are apt to put off God with anything, and therefore we had need to rouse up ourselves to serve him with diligence : Josh. xxiv. 19, ' You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a jealous God,' &c. It is another matter to serve the Lord than the world thinks of. Why? For he is holy and jealous ; he is holy, and so hates the least failing ; and very jealous, sin awakens the dis pleasure of his jealousy — he will punish for very little failings. Ananias and Sapphira struck dead in the place for one lie ; Zacharias struck dumb for an act of unbelief ; Moses, for a few rash words, never entered into the land of Canaan; David, for a proud conceit in numbering the people, lost seventy thousand men with the pestilence ; the Corinthians, many of them died for unworthy receiving. God is the same God still: he hates sin as much as ever; therefore we should not be slight.
4. It is a dishonour to God to do his work negligently : Mai. i. 14, ' Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing, for I am a great king, saith the Lord ;' implying that it is a lessening of his majesty. It is a sign we have cheap thoughts of God, when we are slight in his service. Christians, we owe our best to God, and are to serve him with all our might : Deut. vi. 5, * Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' It is a lessening of his excellency in our thoughts when everything serves the turn.
5. Keeping the commandment, it is a great trust. God hath left this trust with us that we should keep his precepts, therefore it is to be discharged seriously. A man is very careful that hath taken a trust upon him to preserve it. No men that have given up their names to Christ, but they have taken up this trust upon them to keep his precepts ; therefore we should do it with all diligence and needfulness of soul.
6. We have no other plea to evidence our sincerity ; we are guilty of many defects, and cannot do as we would, — where lies our evidence then ? When we set ourselves to obey, and aim at the highest exact ness to serve him with our best affections and strength. A child of God, he doth not do all that God hath required, but he doth his best, and then that is a sign the heart is upright. For what is this diligence, but our utmost study and endeavour after perfection, to avoid all known evils, and to practise all known duties, and that with as much care as we can ? Now, this is an argument of our sincerity, and then our slips are but failings which God will spare, pity, pardon : Mai. iii. 17, ' I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth •him/ &c. Where a man is careless, and failings are allowed, then they are iniquities. A father, out of indulgence, may pass by a failing when
46 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SfiB. VI.
his son waits upon him, suppose when he spills the wine and breaks the glass ; but surely will not allow him to throw it down carelessly or wilfully. We have no other plea to evidence our sincerity but this.
Use. It presseth us, whatever we do for the great God, to do it with all our might, Eccles. ix. 10. There is no weighty thing can be done without diligence ; much more the keeping the commandment. Satan is diligent in tempting, and we ourselves are weak and infirm ; we can not do the least thing as we should. And the danger of miscarrying is so great, that surely it will require all our care. Wherein should we show this diligence and exactness ? When we keep all the parts of the law, and that at all times and places, and that with the whole man.
1. When we strive to keep the law in all the points of it. This was Paul's exercise : Acts xxiv. 16, ' To keep a good conscience void of offence both towards God and man.' Mark, here was his great business ; this is to be diligent, when a man labours to keep a good conscience always. And saith he, Herein, or upon this do I exercise myself ; that is, upon this encouragement, upon hope of a blessed resurrection, for that is spoken of there. There are wages and recom penses enough in heaven, therefore we should not grudge at a little work, that we may not be drawn willingly from the least part of our duty.
2. When we do it at all times and places, and in all company, then it is a sign we mind the work, then are we diligent : Ps. cvi. 3, ' Blessed is he that doth righteousness at all times/ Not only now and then, but it is his constant course. We do not judge men's com plexions by the colour they have when they sit before the fire. We cannot judge of men by a fit and pang when they are under the awe of an ordinance, or in good company ; but when at all times he labours to keep up a warmth of heart towards God.
3. When he labours to do this with his whole man, not only in pretence, and with his body, or outward man, but with inward affec tions : Kom. i. 9, * My God, whom I serve in the spirit/ And the true people of God are described : Phil iii. 3, ' To worship God in the spirit/ When they labour to bring their hearts under the power of God's precepts, and do not only mind conformity of the outward man, this is to keep the precepts of God diligently. All this is to be under stood, not in exact perfection ; but it is to be understood of our striv ing, labouring, watching ; of our praying, and of our exercising our selves hereunto, that we may with our whole man come under the full obedience of the law of God, and may manifest it upon all occa sions, at all times, in all companies and places ; and this is an evidence of our sincerity.
SEEMON VI.
Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes !— VER. 5.
IN the former verse he had spoken of God's authority ; now he beg- geth grace to obey : ' Thou hast commanded ;' and ' Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes ! '
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 47
1. Note, that it is the use and duty of the people of God to turn precepts into prayers.
That this is the practice of God's children appeareth : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' Turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my God.' God had said, ' Turn you, and you shall live ; ' and they ask it of God, ' Turn us,' as he required it of them. It was Austin's prayer, Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis, Give what thou requirest, and re quire what thou wilt. It is the duty of the saints ; for — 1. It suiteth with the gospel-covenant, where precepts and promises go hand in hand, where God giveth what he commandeth, and * worketh all our works in us,' and for us. They are not conditions of the covenant only, but a part of it. What God hath required at our hands, that we may desire at his hands. God is no Pharaoh, to require brick where he giveth no straw. Lex jubet, gratia juvat. The articles of the new covenant are not only put into the form of precepts, but pro mises. The law giveth no strength to perform anything, but the gospel offereth grace. 2. Because by this means the ends of God are fulfilled. Why doth God require what we cannot perform by our own strength ? He doth it — (1.) To keep up his right ; (2.) To con vince us of our impotency, and that upon a trial ; without his grace we cannot do his work ; (3.) That the creature may express his readiness to obey ; (4.) To bring us to lie at his feet for grace.
Now, when we turn precepts into prayers, all these ends are accom plished.
[1.] To keep up his right. If we have lost our power, there is no reason God should lose his right. A drunken servant is under the obligation and duty of a servant still; he is unable to do his master's work, bat he is bound to it. It is unreasonable that another should surfer through my default. Well, then, God may well command the fallen creature to keep his precepts diligently. Now, when we deal earnestly with God about it, it argueth a sense of his authority upon our hearts. If we were not held under the awe of the commandment, why should we be so earnest about it ? If men were more sensible of their obligations, we should have more prayers in this kind. This is the will of God, and how shall I do to observe it ?
[2.] To convince us of our impotency, and that upon a trial. Prac tical conviction is best. We may discourse of the weakness and in sufficiency of the creature, but we are not affected with it till we try. A diseased man as long as he sits still feels not the lameness of his joints, but upon exercise it is sensible. Now, these prayers are a pro fession of weakness upon a trial : Rom. vii. 18, ' For to will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good, I find not/ That presupposeth a search, not I cannot, but I find not, and then we run to prayer. Every prayer is an acknowledgment of our weakness and dependence. Who would ask that of another which he thinketh to be in his own power ?
[3.] That the creature may express his readiness. God will have us will, though we cannot do. It is true he giveth both : Phil. ii. 13, ' For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure/ But the one by preventing, the other by assisting grace, Eom. vii. 18. Though we are unable to do what we should, yet it is
48 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SEE. VI.
the desire of our hearts. Prayer is the expression of our desire. When we heartily beg grace, it is a sign the commandment is not grievous, but our lusts. It much discovereth a man's heart, what he counteth to be his bondage and the yoke : 1 John v. 3, ' For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments ; and his commandments are not grievous/ Which do we groan under ? the burden of the law, or the body of death ? That is best seen by our heartiness in prayer.
[4.] To bring us to lie at his feet. God will be owned not only as a lawgiver, but as a fountain of grace. The precept cometh from God to drive us to God; his sovereignty maketh way for his grace. He calleth upon us for obedience, that we may call upon him for help. First, he giveth us a law, that he may afterwards give us a heart. God's end is to bring us upon our knees. As hard providences con duce to bring God and us together, so do hard commandments. Till we be reduced to a distress, we never think seriously of dealing with God.
Use. It teacheth us what to do when we meet with anything that is difficult and impossible to us; as to repent, believe, to renounce a bewitching lust, or perform a spiritual duty. Two ways we are apt to miscarry in such a case ; either by murmuring against God, as if he were harsh and austere, and had ' reaped where he hath not sown, and gathered where he hath not strewed ; ' or by casting off all out of a foolish despondency : cut at heart, or else wax faint. These are the two evils. I shall never get rid of this naughty heart. Or else we fret against God : Prov. xix. 3, c The foolishness of man perverteth his way ; and his heart fretteth against the Lord/ Now to prevent these evils, spread the case before the Lord in this manner —
(1.) Acknowledge the debt. God will keep up the sense of his authority ; his command must be the reason of our care, as well as his promise the ground of our hope. (2.) Confess your impotency : 2 Cor. iii. 5, * Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves ; but our sufficiency is of God/ This is to empty the bucket before we go to the fountain. When we are full of self, there is no room for grace. (3.) Own God's power : Mat. xix. 26, c But Jesus beheld them, and saith unto them, With men this is impossible ; but with God all things are possible/ The difficulties that we meet with in the way to heaven should serve only to make us despair of our own strength and abilities, not of God's, with whom nothing is impossible. It is a relief to consider of the divine power, from whence we fetch all our supplies necessary to life and godliness. (4.) Deal with God earnestly about help. The command showeth how pleasing such requests are to God, and you own God not only as a lawgiver, but author of grace. Do not come in a lukewarm, careless fashion, but ' Oh that my heart were directed ! ' Sluggish wishes will do no good ; you bespeak your own denial when you ask grace as a thing of course : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke : turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my God/
2.^ The next thing that we may note, is the serious desire that is in God's people after holiness. Mark, it is not a velleity, but a volition, Oh that, noteth the vehemency and heartiness.
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 49
It is his first desire. David had hitherto spoken assertively ; when he cometh to speak supplications, his first and chief request to God is, •' Oh that my ways were directed I ' &c.
Mark again, it is not a desire of happiness, but holiness ; not ' Oh that I were blessed ! ' but ' Oh that my ways were directed ! ' A mind to know, a will to obey, and a memory to keep in mind God's precepts.
It is practical holiness : ' Oh that my ways I ' God hath his ways : ' They walk in his ways/ ver. 3. And we have our ways : ' Oh that my ways were directed I ' that is, all my thoughts, counsels, inclinations, speeches, actions, were directed by thy statutes. Every commandment is a royal edict, a statute which God hath made for the governing of the world.
Now the saints have this desire of holiness —
[1.] From the new nature that is in them. The appetite followeth the nature : Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other ; go that ye cannot do the things that ye would/ Desires being the vigorous bent of the soul, discover the temper of it. The carnal nature puts forth itself in lustings, so doth the new nature. The main thing we have by grace is a new heart, that is, new loves, new desires, and new delights : Rom. viii. 5, * For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit/
[2.] Out of love to God, which implieth subjection and conformity to him. Love to God is testified by a desire of subjection ; for his love is a love of bounty, ours a love of duty : 1 John v. 3, ' For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments ; and his commandments are not grievous/ It is the great desire of their souls that they may be subject to God. As he that loveth would not offend the party loved, so it is their desire to please God in all things ; and as holiness im plieth a conformity to God, they study to be like him. It is their hope, their desire, their care. Their hope : 1 John iii. 2, ' But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is.' It is their desire and care in every ordinance : 2 Cor. iii. 18, 1 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' And it is their constant endeavour : 1 Peter i. 15, ' But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation/
[3.] Out of experience of the ways of God, of that goodness and enlargement of heart that is to be found in them. They have tasted and seen how good his laws are. They can answer God's appeal, ' Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly ? ' Yea, doubt less, it is good : Ps. xix. 10, 11, ' The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward/ The spiritual life is interlined and refreshed with many sweet experiences.
The use here is, first, a note of discovery ; for men are judged by their desires, rather than their practices, as being freest from con-
VOL. VI. D
rQ SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SfiR. VI.
straint; and this is humbly represented by the children of God, to incline his favour and compassion to them : Neh. i. 11, ' Let thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name. They come short in many things, but they desire to fear God : Isa. xxvi 8 ' The desires of our soul are to thy name, and to the remem brance 'of thee.' They could speak little of what they had done for God Paul was better at willing than performing, till freed from 'this body of death:' Eom. vii. 18, 'For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not/ This will be our best evidence to the last, ' Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes ! '
But may not wicked men have good desires ?
Ans. They may have a loose inclination to good things, but not a full resolution for God. Wicked men have an enlightened con science, but no renewed wills. This enlightened conscience may carry them so far, as to some general approbation of the things of God, which may produce a wish that they were so and so ; but this doth no good to the heart. Sparks do not kindle the fire, but coals: a spark is enough to set us on fire in carnal matters, but not in spiritual. More distinctly —
[1.] Wicked men may desire their own happiness, though not upon God's terms : Num. xxiii. 10, ' Oh that I might die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his !' At oportuit sic vixisse. John vi. 34, 'Evermore give us of this bread' of life. Everyman would be blessed, and go to heaven, if it were left to his option and choice ; they like the end, but not the means. There was not a mur muring Israelite but would count Canaan a good land ; but the giants and sons of Anak were there.
[2.] They may have some languid and vanishing motions towards the means as well as the end, being convinced of the necessity of holiness ; yea, they may draw out their wishes into a cold prayer that God would make them better ; as lazy persons sometimes express their desires, Would I were at such a place, and never travel ! Would I had written such a task, and never put pen to paper ! — Vellent sed nolunt. When it cometh to trial, they do not set themselves in good earnest to get that grace they wish for.
What is the difference between a volition and a velleity ?
(I.) Such desires as are not waving, but resolute and fixed. Aquinas saith, Vdleitas est voluntas incomplete*, a half will. They have a month's mind to that which is good, but not a thorough resolution ; as Agrippa, almost persuaded, but not altogether ; such a desire as will bear up against a strong tide of opposition. It is called the ' setting of the heart:' 1 Chron. xxii. 19, 'Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God.' Whatever cometh of it, they must and will have grace : Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple/
(2.) Such desires as are absolute, and do not stand upon terms. There is an hypothetical and conditional will. We would, but with such
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 51
conditions. I would have Christ, if it did not cost me so dear — to deny lusts, interests, friends, relations, much waiting, praying, watch ing, striving. So Mat. xxii. 5, they would come to the supper ; but house, oxen, farm, merchandise — there was something in the way that hindered them : there was no full and perfect will. A chapman no doubt would have the wares he liketh, but will not come to the price. I will have heaven, whatever it cost me, is the voice of a desiring saint.
(3.) Such desires as are active and industrious ; not a remiss will : Prov. xiii. 4, ' The soul of the sluggard, desireth, and hath nothing ; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat/ Cold, raw wishes are unuseful and fruitless ; we must work as well as wish. Poor, languid, inactive desires come to nothing, when men do not put forth their en deavours, and apply themselves to the prosecution of what is desired. Faint and sluggish velleities do hurt : Prov. xxi. 25, ' The desire of the slothful killeth him ; for his hands refuseth labour/ Whatever a man doth seriously desire to have, he will use proper means to procure it. Wishes are but the fruits of a speculative fancy, rather than an industrious affection.
(4.) Such desires as are constant, and not easily controlled by other desires. Idle, lazy wishes, ineffectual glances, sudden motions, while their hearts are detained in the speculation of holiness, are like chil dren's desires, soon put out of the humour. There may be vehement and sudden lustings in an unregenerated person ; free-will hath its pangs of devotion. But the apostle declares : Eom. vii. 18, 'To will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good I find not/ It is a constant habitual will, not a volatile devotion, that cometh upon us now and then ; but such a will as is present, as sin is present. He had said before, 'When I would do good, evil is present with me/ Whithersoever you go, you carry a sinning nature about with you. It is present, urging the heart to vanity, folly, lust ; so should this will be present with you, urging the heart to good.
(5.) Such desires are joined with serious groans and sorrow for our defects. He cannot be so good as he would, but desireth and com- plaineth ; therefore God accepteth of the will for the deed : Kom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ' Though an unrenewed man seem to desire grace, yet he feeleth no grief in the want of grace, it never troubleth him ; his desires do not break out into groans and bitter complaints, because of indwelling corruption. Now, by these things may you try your hearts.
3. The third thing observable from hence, is the necessity of direct ing grace, * Oh that my ways were directed ! '
I shall first premise some distinctions —
[1.] There is a general direction, and a particular direction. (1.) The general direction is in the word ; there God hath declared his mind in his statutes : ' He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good/ Micah vi. 8. (2.) A particular direction by his Spirit, who doth order and direct us how to apply the rule to all our ways: Isa. Iviii. 11, 'The Lord shall guide thee continually/ Now, this particular direction is either to our general choice : Ps. xvi. 7, ' I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel/ It is the work of God only to teach us how
52 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. VI.
to apply the rule so as to choose him for our portion. Or secondly, as to acts and orderly exercise of any particular grace ; so 2 Thes. iii. 5, ' The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waitino- for Christ/ Or thirdly, as to the management of our civil actions'; as the pillar of the cloud went before the Israelites in their journeys, so doth God still guide his people in all their affairs, both as to duty and success. As to duty: Prov. iii. 6, ' In all thy ways acknow ledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.' Ask his counsel, leave, and blessing : in doubtful things ask his counsel ; in clear cases ask his leave, ' Shall I go up or not?' and then ask his blessing. As to success: Prov. xvi. 9, * A man's heart deviseth his way ; but the Lord direct- eth his steps.' Events cross expectation ; we cannot foresee the event of things in the course of a man's life, what is expedient, and what not : Prov. xx. 24, ' Man's goings are of the Lord ; how can a man, then understand his own way ? ' We purpose and determine many things rightly, and according to rule, but God disposeth of all events : Bom. i. 10, ' Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God, to come unto you.' God brought Paul to Kome by a way he little thought of. Therefore we need to call God to counsel, and to inquire of the oracle in all matters that concern family, commonwealth, or church. We need a guide : Jer. x. 23, * 0 Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself ; neither is it in man that walketh to direct his steps.' Affairs do not depend on our policy or integrity, but on the divine providence, who ordereth every step, to give such success as he pleaseth.
[2.] Distinction. There is a literal direction, and an effectual direc tion. (1.) The literal direction is by that speculative knowledge that we get by the word : Ps. cxix. 105, * Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,' sufficient not only for general courses, but particular actions. (2.) The effectual direction is by the Holy Ghost applying the word, and bending the heart to the obedience of it : Isa. Ixi. 8, * I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them/ — that is, I will so show them their way, as to work their hearts to the sincere obedience of it.
Now, to give you the reasons for the necessity of this direction, three things prove it —
(1.) The blindness of our minds. We are wise in generals, but know not how to apply the rule to particular cases. The heathens were ' vain €i/ rot? Stdkayurpois, in their imaginations/ Rom. i. 21. And the same is true of us Christians : though we have a clearer knowledge of God, and the way how he will be served and glorified; yet to suit it to particular cases, how dark are we ! A dial may be well set, yet, if the sun shine not upon it, we cannot tell the time of the day. The scriptures are sufficient to make us wise ; but without the light of the Spirit, how do we grope at noonday !
(2.) The forgetfulness of our memories. We need a monitor to stir up in us diligence, watchfulness, and earnest endeavours : Isa. xxx. 21, ' And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.' The cares and businesses of the world do often drive the sense of our duty out of our minds. One great end of God's
VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 53
Spirit is to put us in remembrance, to revive truths upon us in their season. A ship, though never so well rigged, needs a pilot ; we need a good guide to put us in mind of our duty.
(3.) The obstinacy of our heart. So that we need every moment to enforce the authority of God upon us ; and to persuade us to what is right and good. The Spirit's light is so directive, that it is also per suasive ; there needs not only counsel, but efficacy and power. We have boisterous lusts, and wandering hearts ; we need not only to be conducted, but governed. We have hearts that * love to wander,' Jer. xiv. 10 ; we are sheep that need a shepherd, for no creature is more apt to stray : Ps. xcv. 10, ' It is a people that do err in their hearts :' not only ignorant, but perverse ; not in mind only apt to err, but love to err. Thus you see the necessity of this direction, ' Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes !'
The uses. Well, then, give the Lord this honour, of being your con tinual guide : Ps. xlviii. 14, ' For this God is our God for ever and ever ; he will be our guide even unto death.' You do not own him as a God, unless you make him your guide : Ps. Ixxiii. 24, ' Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory/ In vain do you hope for eternal life else. Therefore —
1. Commit yourselves to the tuition of his grace. A man is to choose God for a guide, as well as to take him for a lord ; to ask his counsel as well as submit to his commandments : Jer. iii. 4, ' Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth ? '
2. Depend upon him in every action. ' The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord ; ' all his particular actions : Bom. viii. 26, ' For we know not what we should pray for as we ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.'
3. Seek his counsel out of a desire to follow it: John vii. 17, 'If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.' Still walk according to light re ceived, and it will increase upon you. Such as make conscience of known truth shall know more. He that cometh with a subjected mind, and fixed resolution to receive and obey, shall have a discerning spirit. God answereth men according to the fidelity of their own hearts.
SEKMON VII.
Then shall I not be ashamed, ivhen I have respect unto all thy commandments. — VER. 6.
THE Psalmist had prayed for direction to keep God's commandments : here he showeth the fruit and benefit of that direction.
In the words two things are observable —
1. The description of sincere obedience : respect to all the command' ments.
54 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SflB. VII.
2. The fruit of it : then shall I not be ashamed. First, Observe ; a sincere heart aimeth at universal obedience to God's law. Here are to be illustrated —
1 . ' All thy. commandments/
2. ' Having respect' to them. The object ; and the act of the soul. [1.] All the commandments must be taken notice of, small and
great. (1.) Small, we cannot dispense with ourselves in the least : Mat. v. 19, ' Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least com mandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.' We are apt to say, ' It is but a little one, and my soul shall live.' No sin can be little that is committed against the great God. It argueth the more wickedness and corruption to break with God upon every trifling occasion. A little force will make a heavy body move downward. (2.) As small, so great. The ceremo- nialist is apt to stand much upon lesser things : John xviii. 28, the Jews would not enter into the judgment-hall, lest they should be defiled, yet they sought the life of the Lord of glory. Hypocrites make a great business about small matters, and in the meantime reject weighty duties, TO, fiapvrepa TOV vopov : Mat. xxiii. 23, * Ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith ; these ought ye to have done, and riot to leave the other undone ; ' like one that cometh into a shop to buy a pennyworth and steals a pound's worth, or is punctual in paying a small debt that he may get deeper into our books, and cheat us of a greater sum, comply in circumstances and terms, which yet have their place, but make no conscience of greater.
[2.] Commandments that require public, and commandments that require private duties : 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' In times of trouble men content themselves that their hearts are right, as the libertines in Corinth, and think it is no matter whether they own God publicly, yea or nay. Then for private duties, some make a fair show to the world, but in their family converse are loose and careless : David saith, Ps. ci. 2, ' I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.' If a man be truly holy he will show it at home as well as abroad ; in his family, where his constant converse is, yea, in his closet and secret re tirements. A Christian is alike everywhere, because God is alike everywhere. We strain ourselves to put forth our gifts in public ; God will be served with our uttermost in secret also.
[3.] There are commandments that concern the inward as well as the outward man ; we must make conscience of both : Isa. Iv. 7, ' Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy/ &c. We must not only make conscience of our way, or outward actions, but also of our thoughts ; as we must not do evil before man, so not think evil before God. Thoughts fall under a law as well as our actions : James iv. 8, * Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners ; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.'
[4.] There are commands that concern God, and commands that concern man. There is a first table and a second ; some are very
. 6.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 55
punctual in dealing with men, but neglectful of God : Eom. i. 18, 1 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.' Both the tables are owned from heaven. Some there are that will not wrong their neighbour of a farthing, yet stick not to rob God of that fear, faith, and love that is due to him. Many will not defile their bodies with promiscuous copulation, but are adulterers and adulter esses, James iv. 4, running a- whoring from their spiritual husband, and doting on the creature. Many there are who condemned the rebellion of Absalom, but rise up against their heavenly Father ; are not mur derers, but strike at the being of God. Some there are who are very tender of wronging the reputation of men, yet dishonour God, and are never troubled for it. Others there are who are much in worship, but in their dealings with men are very unconscionable: they will not swear an oath, yet are very uncharitable, censuring their brethren without any pity or remorse. This is the fashion of the world, to be in with one duty, and out with another. The commandments are ushered in with this preface, ' God spake all these words ; ' he that hath enjoined one hath enjoined another. But now, as the echo ren- dereth but part of the speech, so do we in our return of obedience. God spake all, and we return but part.
2. Having respect unto the commandments ; that needeth illustra tion also. Though we cannot keep all, or any one of them as we should, yet we must have regard to all, and that equally without any distinction.
When have we an equal respect to all ? I answer, Three ways — (1.) Proposito; (2.) Affectu; (3.) Conatu.
[1.] Proposito, in vow and purpose. We must approve of all, and choose all for our rule, without reservation and indulgence. Some com mands are more contrary than others to our lusts and interests, and are less in our power to perform. Now, a sanctified judgment must approve all, and a sanctified will accept and choose all as equally good, neces sary, and profitable for us : Rom. vii. 12, ' The law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good ' — the law in general, nay, that commandment which had wrought such tragical effects in his heart. It is holy, as being the copy of God's purity ; just, as doing us no wrong, being no infringement of our just freedom ; good, as being very profitable to direct and perfect our operations, and to make us happy here and hereafter. But this approbation is not enough, there must be consent : ver. 16, 'I consent to the law that it is good/ though it is contrary to my natural inclinations. It is a good law, the heart must be engaged, ' I will write my laws upon their hearts, and put them into their minds/ God doth not only give us a knowledge, or a single approbation of his will, but a will to choose it as our rule to live by. The heart is suited and inclined to it, and a man giveth up himself faithfully and entirely to serve God according to the direc tion of his word.
[2.] Affectu. There must be a sincere affection to all, or a care to keep them. We must not entertain affection to any known sin : Ps. Ixvi. 18, * If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.' A man may have a great deal of sin in his heart, but if he cherish and
56 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SfiR. VII.
dandle it, and have a regard to it, he is one whom God will not ac cept His desire is not to offend God, and it is his trouble when cor ruption gets the start of grace. If a king warneth a city of traitors, and calleth upon them to search them out, and send them away, and they never regard the message, but willingly give them harbour and entertainment, then it is a sign they are disaffected to him: to cherish a sin after warning is an open rebellion against God.
[3 1 Conatu, in endeavour. We must keep all, conatu, licet non eventu; it is our labour, though not our success. Those that dispense with any commandment voluntarily and willingly, have never yet learned the way of true obedience to God: 2 Kings v. 18, * In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Eimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon : when I bow myself in the house of Eimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing/ This is to set up a toleration in our hearts, and to make Satan some allow ance, to part stakes between God and the devil. There is something wherein we would be excused, and expect favour in fashions, customs, ways of profit and advantage. The endeavour must be to keep all, though the success be not answerable. A mariner that is beaten back by the winds, yet proveth1 to hold on his course to make his port. A man that would sit warm shutteth the door and windows, yet the wind will creep in, though he doth not leave any open passage for it.
Now, the reasons why we are to have respect to all the command ments are these following : —
1 . Because they are all ratified by the same authority. There is a connection between them, as there is between links in a chain ; take away one, and all falleth to pieces : James ii. 10, * For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all/ The authority of the law is lost if men may pick and choose as they please. He that said, ' Thou shalt do no murder/, hath also said, ' Thou shalt keep my Sabbaths.' A quatenus ad omne, the argument holds. Do one thing as a duty, and that will enforce the practice of all duties that we are convinced of: Col. i. 10, ' Walk worthy of God in all well-pleasing/ He that seeketh not to please God in all things, seeketh not to please God in anything.
2. Because in conversion grace is given to observe all. There is a universal principle to incline the heart impartially to all. God inf useth all grace together ; not one particular only in the hearts of his children, but the whole law. There is a form of grace introduced into the soul that suits with every point of the law. The heart is framed to resist every sin, to observe all that God hath commanded. A new-born infant hath all the parts of a man, though not the strength and bulk ; so every Christian in regeneration. Men may be born without hands or feet, but the new creature never cometh out maimed and imperfect. It is small and weak at first, but it groweth and gathereth strength. There is no commandment to which it is not suited. Well, then, not to have respect to all were to hide our talent in a napkin, and to receive one of God's best gifts in vain. The apostle inferreth it out of
1 Qu. < striveth ' ?— ED.
VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 57
their calling: 1 Peter i. 15, ' But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy, ev irda-y dvaarpo^fj, in all manner of conversation/ at home and abroad, among infidels and with their fellow Christians, in prosperity and in adversity, walk worthy of your calling. As the sun is placed in heaven, and spreadeth his beams everywhere, nothing is hidden from his light ; or as the lines run from the centre to every part of the circumference, so doth grace distil itself in a uniform obedience.
3. A Christian can never be perfect in degrees if he be not perfect in parts. What is defective in the parts cannot be made up by any growth. If a man should be born without an arm or a leg, this cannot be supplied by future growth, he is a maimed man still ; so if a man be not perfect in parts, hath not respect to all the command ments, he can never be perfect in heaven. You cannot be ' presented as perfect in Christ Jesus,' Col. i. 28.
4. They that do not obey all, will not long obey any ; but where profit or lust requireth it, they will break all, as Mark vi. 20, ' Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man, and an holy, and observed him ; and when he beared him, he did many things, and heard him gladly/ But one command stuck with him ; being pleased with Herodias and the dancing damsel, that bringeth him to murder, &c. Keep but your passion a-foot, or your lust a-foot, or your worldliness a-foot, and it will carry .you farther. One sin keepeth possession for Satan ; allow but one lust and corruption in the heart, and that will under mine all, and become thine eternal ruin ; as one leak may sink a ship. A bird tied by the leg, may make some show of escape. You never totally renounced Satan's government, and wholly gave up yourselves to God. By keeping a part, the whole falleth to his share.
Use 1. It reproveth those that make one duty excuse another. Two sorts there are, — some that go from sins to duties, and others from duties to sins, that antedate or postdate indulgences. (1.) Those that antedate, that hope to make amends for their evil course by their duties, as when men allow themselves in a present carnal practice^ upon the purpose of an after-repentance. It is as if men should dis temper the body by excess, and then hope to amend all by giving themselves a vomit ; or contract a sickness voluntarily, because they will take physic. Certainly men would not sin so freely, if they were not borne up by promises of future reformation. (2.) That post date. They go from duties to sins : Ezek. xxxiii. 13, ' When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live ; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered ; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.' If he shall commit a sin upon that confidence of his own- righteousness. Josiah's breach with God, was after the preparing of the temple, 2 Chron. xxxv. 20 ; even God's children take the more carnal liberty because of their duties.
Use 2. Is trial. Have we this sincere respect to all the command ments ? This may be known —
1. By a constant desire, resolution, and endeavour to be informed of God's will : Horn. xii. 2, ' And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, that acceptable and perfect will of God.' And
58 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. VII.
Epli. v. 17, ' Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is/ A man that desireth to follow God fully, would fain know the whole latitude and breadth of his duty. A child of God is inquisitive. He that desireth to keep all, doth also desire to know all. It is his business to study the mind of God in all things ; gross negligence showeth we are afraid of understanding our duty.
2. By often searching and trying his own heart, that he may find where the matter sticketh: Lam. iii. 40, 'Let us search and try our ways, that we may turn unto the Lord.' Complete reformation is grounded on a serious search. A chief cause of our going wrong is because we do not bring our hearts and ways together.
3. Desire God to show it if there be anything in the heart allowed contrary to the word : Job xxxiv. 32, ' That which I see not, teach thou me ; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.' And Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24, ' Search me, 0 God, and know my heart ; try me, and know my thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked thing in me ; and lead me in the way everlasting.' He would not hold on in any evil course. There is no sin so dear and near to him which he is not willing to see and judge in himself.
4. When they fail through human infirmity or imprudence, they seek to renew their peace with God : 1 John ii. 1, ' My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not ; and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' They sue out their discharge in Christ's name. If a man were unclean under the law, he was to wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water before evening, and not rest in his uncleanness. Now if we still abide in our filthiness, and do not fly to our advocate, and sue out our pardon in Christ's name, it argueth that we have not a respect to the commandment.
5. They diligently use all holy means which are appointed by God for growth in faith and obedience : 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in ;the fear of God,' and coming up to a greater conformity.
6. A care of their bosom-sin, to get that weakened : Ps. xviii. 23, * I was also upright before him ; and I kept myself from mine iniquity/ Such as are most incident to us by temper of nature, course of life, or posture of interests ; the right hand must be cut off, the right eye plucked out, Mat. v. 29, 30. If thou seekest to cross that sin that is most pleasing to thine own heart, seekest to dry up that unclean issue that runneth upon thee ; by that and the other signs may we deter- anine whether we have a sincere respect to all God's commandments.
Secondly, The next circumstance in the text is the fruit and benefit. They that have an entire respect to God's laws shall not be ashamed.
I here is a twofold shame: the shame of a guilty conscience, and .the shame of a tender conscience.
The one is the merit and fruit of sin ; the other is an act of grace. This here spoken of is to be understood not of a holy self-loathing, but a confounding shame.
This shame may be considered either with respect to their own hearts, or the world, or before God at the day of judgment.
VEB. 6.] SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. 59
1. With respect to their own hearts ; and thus the upright and sincere shall not be ashamed. There is a generous confidence be wrayed in duties, in troubles, and in death. (1.) In duties. They can look God in the face ; uprightness giveth boldness ; and the more respect we have unto the commandments, the greater liberty have we in prayer : 1 John iii. 21, 'If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God/ But when men walk crookedly and loosely, they sin away the liberty of their hearts, and cannot come to God with such a free spirit. A man that hath wronged another, and knoweth not how to pay, cannot endure to see him ; so doth sin work a shyness of God. (2.) In troubles and afflictions. Nothing sooner abashed than a corrupt conscience ; they cannot ty)ld up their heads when crossed in the world ; a burden sits very uneasy upon a galled back ; their crosses revive their guilt, are parts of the curse ; therefore they are soon blank. But now a godly man is bold and courageous. Two things make one bold, innocency and independency; and both are found in him that hath a sincere respect to God's commandments. Innocency, when the soul doth not look pale under any secret guilt, and when we can live above the creatures, it puts an heroical spirit or lion-like boldness into the children of God. (3.) In death. To be able to look death in the face, it is a comfort in your greatest distresses. When Hezekiah was arrested with