freedom and sovereignty 2. Sometimes to manifest the power of his grace both in the person that is endued with it and the power of his grace upon others As to the person himself in whom this wisdom is found when they are young the Lord doth shew he can subdue them by his Spirit and make their prejudices vanish enlarge their understanding and over-rule their heart 1 Iohn 2. 14. I write to you young men because ye are strong and the Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one In that slippery Age when Lusts were boistrous Temptations most violent and they usually uncircumspect and head-strong and give up themselves to an ungoverned licence yet then can God subdue their hearts and make them stand out against the snares of the Devil And then with respect to others when by the foolish he will confound the wisdom of the wise and blast the pride of man and cast down all conceit in external priviledges and give young ones a more excellent spirit than the aged as the Apostle intimates such a thing 1 Cor. 1. 26. Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty And our Lord Mat. 11. 25 26. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto Babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Usually God will do so when he will punish the unfaithfulness of those that are in publick place and office The Law shall perish from the Priest and Counsel from the Ancient God will not take the usual way and course but will give his Spirit and graces of his Spirit to them and deny it to those that should be Builders Now what Use shall we make of this There may be an Abuse of such a Point as this and there may be a very good Use. To prevent the Abuse 1 This is not to be taken so but that there should be reverence shewed to the aged Job 32. 4 5 6. Elihu had waited till Iob's Friends had spoken because they were elder than he It is an abuse of men of a proud persuasion of their own knowledge and learning to despise the aged especially when they also have a competent measure of the same Spirit The Scripture speaks of Paul the aged certainly there is a reverence due to gray hairs And it argues a great disorder when the Staff of Government is broken and the established Order is overturned when a child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient Isa. 3. 5. And young men shall peark up to the despising of their Elders Deut. 28. And 2. this is not to be applied so to prejudice the general case of consulting with the Ancients which was Rehoboam's sin though God sometimes giveth wisdom to young men yet the usual course is that Iob 32. 7. I said days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom Certainly those that are old they are freer from passions bettered by use and experience and long continuance in study have more advantages to add to their knowledge therefore usually though the bodily eyes be dim the understanding may be most clear and sharp Use 2. The Use in general is twofold That young men should not be discouraged nor despised 1. Not discouraged We use to say youth for strength and age for wisdom but if they apply their hearts to Religion and the study of God's will and with knowledge join practice they may profit and so as they may be a means to shame those that are elder while they come behind them in many gracious endowments They are not to be discouraged as if it were too soon for them to enter into a strict course or grow eminent therein for God may glorifie himself in their Sobriety Temperance Chastity Zeal Courage and the setting their strong and eager spirits against sin it is a mighty honour to God Psal. 8. 2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies c. The graces of God in young ones do mightily turn to the praise of his glorious grace and God is admired in them and it is an honour and comfort to you also Eph. 1. 12. In Christ before me it is a just upbraiding to elder people that lie longer in sin 2. Nor yet should youth be despised 1 Tim. 4. 12. Let no man despise thy youth God's gifts should not be despised in any nor stir up rancor God may speak by them as he spoke by Samuel and to Samuel when he spoke not to old Eli. Having premised this let me come to apply it particularly though briefly it conduceth then 1. To the encouragement of youth to betake themselves to the ways of God O consider let us begin with God betimes do not spend your youth in vanity but in a serious mortified course This is your sharp and active time when your spirits are fresh therefore if your Watch is set right now you may understand more than the Ancients Give up your hearts to a religious course let not the Devil feast upon the flower of your youth and God be put off with the fragments and scraps of Satan's Table while you are young take in with God it 's a great honour to God and it will be an honour and advantage to you Mat. 11. 15 16. When the Children cry Hosanna to the Son of David and the Pharisees reproved him for it Christ approves of it saying Have ye never read Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise When young ones take kindly it is a great blessing therefore is judgment hanging over this Nation that youth is so degenerated whereas formerly they were addicted to Religion now they are addicted to all manner of lusts and vanity Then it would be an honour and comfort to you the sooner we begin with God the more we glorifie God and the more praise to God Eph. 1. 12. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. They that get into Christ above others they glorifie Grace above others Rom. 16. 7. They were in Christ before me He that first gets into Christ he hath the advantage of others Seniority in Grace is a preferment as well as in Nature And then it is a great advantage Eccles. 12. 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth When we begin betimes with God we have more opportunity of serving and enjoying God than others have A man should bear the yoke in his youth Lam. 3. If the bent of our inclinations were set right in our youth it would prevent much and hinder the growth of sin Though a man cannot plant Grace in his heart that 's the Lord's own work yet it keeps sin in and prevents inveterate custom
he may be found in private Ordinances The Spouse sought him upon her bed then in every street of the city Isa. 55. 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. 5. 6. My soul failed when he spake That is when I considered his speaking for his wooing was over my beloved was gone but when I thought of his speaking my soul failed David consults with Nathan but he could give him no clear answer what then 2 Sam. 7. 4. The word of the Lord came that night unto Nathan saying Go and tell my servant David c. So when we have been enquiring after God all day in publick Worship all this while the Oracle is silent but at night when going over these things again God may be found Act. 17. 12. it is said Therefore many of them believed How when they searched the Word though in the hearing 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. 11. 11. it is said She judged him faithful that had promised How so at first hearing No Sarah laugh'd when God promised her a Son for it was the Son of God that was in company with the Angels Gen. 18. but afterward 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 if God doth not meet them presently 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 SERMON III. PSAL. CXIX 2. Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies that seek him with the whole heart USE 1. To press you to seek God The Motives are 1. It was the end of our Creation We do not live meerly to live 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 Act. 17. 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 Psal. 14. 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 enquire after God 2. We seek other things that we want with great solicitude and care we are cumbred 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 any thing should take up our time our thoughts and content us more than God When we come to God we are earnest for other things Hos. 7. 14. They howl upon their beds for corn and wine If any thing 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 Lord 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 Psal. 22. 26. They that seek thee shall praise thy name You 'l have cause to bless God before the search be over God hath past his word there are a great many experiences we taste As they that continue in the pursuit of the Philosophers-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 Iacob hath openly professed we shall not seek him in vain Isa. 45. 19. That is this is a truth God hath written as it were with a Sun-beam 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 Emperour 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. 11. 6. He is a rewarder of them that diligently 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 diligently seek him so that in effect we never seek our selves more than when we seek the Lord. Amos 5. 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. 29. 26. All men seek the rulers face but every mans judgment is of the Lord. What a deal of observance and waiting is there for the Rulers face and favour and yet God disposeth of every mans judgment it is uncertain whether they shall obtain it yea or no. 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 thy self that thou art in a seeking way and in the pursuit of him Psal. 24. 6. Gods people are described to be the generation of them that seek him This is the true mark of Gods chosen people they make it their business to get the favour of God and to wrestle through discouragements It is better 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 communion with him yet the choice and bent of the heart is towards him and you have the character of Gods people upon you 5. You have misspent a great deal of time already and long neglected God therefore now you should seek him Hos. 10. 12. It is time to seek the Lord until he come and rain righteousness upon you 'T is time that is 't is not too late while we are preserved and invited And again 't is
heart Lord let me not wander What 's the reason 1. Because they have a larger sense of Duty 2. A more tender sense of dangers and difficulties that do attend them First They have a larger sense of duty to God At first while we are carnal we take up duty by the lump and by the visible bulk of it we look only to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Law Rom. 2. 15. and to avoid gross sins or perform outward acts of worship O if I do sin I am no Adulterer no Extortioner Luk. 18. 11. we think then 't is well But when we begin to have grace wrought in our heart then we begin to serve God in the spirit Phil. 3. 3. And my God whom I serve with my spirit Rom. 1. 9. Then we begin to look after the regulation of the inner man and subduing of the soul to God and we cannot be contented with the visible bulk of obedience and with some general conformity I but at first there is only a general purpose to serve God in the spirit but afterwards when they begin to look into the breadth of the Commandment still they are sensible of their coming short and how apt they are to wander in this and that point Still their sense of duty is increased because their light their love to God and their power is increased and because they draw near to their everlasting hopes 1. Because their light is increased By Communion with God they see more of his holiness The more a man is exercised in obedience the clearer is his light and understanding both to God and the will of God Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God All sight of God it is as Nazianzen speaks according to the proportion of our purity and therefore the more Communion we have with God the more sight into the nature of God and the will of God and the more they are held under the awe of God In moral Disciplines the further we wade in them the more we see of our defects Those that went to Athens first they counted themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wise men afterward only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovers of wisdom then they were only men that could talk a little afterward they found themselves nothing So a Christian in Communion with God the longer he converseth with God the more he doth see of his perfection and holiness Surely I am more brutish than any man was the expression of wise Agur Prov. 30. 2. This holy man of God saith Chrysostom speaks it not only humbly but truly as he thinks Sure they did not complement with God these holy men in the serious actings of their souls they speak as they think why because they have a high sense of Gods holiness therefore a deeper sense of their own vileness they think there are hardly any so bad as themselves Now they are convinced that the holy God will not be put off with any slight matter and they are become sensible of that precept Mat. 5. ult Be perfect as your father which is in heaven is perfect 2. Their love to God is encreased by acquaintance with him and therefore their hearts are more tender and sensible of the least deflection The more a man loves God the more he will do for God 1 Joh. 5. 3. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments That 's a clear rule the more we love God the more chary we will be of his commandments and therefore they cannot sin upon such easie terms as before nor go to Heaven upon such easie terms as they thought before 3. Their Power is encreased He that is grown to a man's estate minds other work than what he did when a child and as they have more strength they look after more work At first it was only to prevent excesses and breaking out of sin but afterward to subdue every thought to the obedience of Christ. 4. They are nearer to heaven and therefore they look after greater suitableness to their everlasting estate They think of that sinless and pure estate they shall enjoy there therefore have a greater sense of duty upon them Natural motion saith the Philosopher is slower in the beginning and swifter in the end and close so spiritual motion in the end and close ariseth to a greater vigor of Holiness that which served before will not serve their turn now Phil. 3. 14. They are pressing forward toward the mark c. they are hastening apace and strain themselves when the prize is so near Secondly As they have a larger sense of duty so they have a greater experience of the dangers and difficulties that do attend them Aristotle observes of young men that they are more given to hope than the old are they are of great and strong hopes he renders three reasons for it Because they are of eager spirits little experience and look but to a few things and therefore they are forward to get abroad in the world and to intangle themselves in the early cares of a Family until their rashness be confuted by their own miscarriage So it is true of young Christians they are all on a flame ready to run into the mouth of danger upon the confidence of their present affections and till they have smarted often this confidence is not abated But men that have been exercised and experienced are more sensible of the naughtiness and inconstancy of their own hearts Psal. 51. 6. In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom And therefore are more diffident of their own strength and desire the Lord to keep them from wandering We see then a cautelous fear is necessary to the last it is useful to us not only to begin but to work out our salvation Phil. 2. 12. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Not only when we are Novices and so weak and more liable to temptation but to the close of our days Prov. 28. 14. Blessed is the man that feareth always That fear which causeth diffidence and doubting and despair is a torment not a blessedness yet the fear that is opposite to carnal security and presuming on our own strength is a fruit of grace and spiritual experience this is that which stirreth up care and diligence in our heavenly calling and dependance upon God and constant addresses to him that keepeth us humble and waiting for the supplies of his grace Doct. 2. It is God alone that can keep us from wandering Reason There is in mans heart a mighty proneness thereto Jer. 14. 10. You have hearts that love to wander Man is a restless creature that loveth shifts and changes For weakness they are compared to children Hos. 11. 3. and for wandering compared to sheep Isa. 53. 6. There is no creature so apt to go astray as sheep and so unable to return This is the disposition of men by nature And mark much of the old nature remains
in the enjoyment of thee therefore teach me thy statutes If God be our chiefest good and our utmost end it concerns us nearly to learn out the way how we may enjoy him John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent It concerns believers to study that wherein their eternal happiness consisteth and what is the way to get it Thou art blessed and therefore teach me thy statutes Secondly Subjectively and so again God is blessed either in an Active or in a Passive sense 1. In an Active sense And here we must distinguish again for so God is blessed either with respect to Himself or with respect to us 1. Blessed in himself as he hath the fulness of perfection and contentment Blessedness is often ascribed to God 1 Tim. 1. 11. The glorious Gospel of the blessed God I 'le open that place by and by 1 Tim. 6. 15. Who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords Now how is God blessed in himself Gods blessedness is that Attribute by which the Lord from himself and in his own being is free from all misery and enjoyeth all good and is sufficient to himself and contented with himself and doth neither need nor desire the creature for any good that can accrue to him by us Or more shortly God's blessedness is the fruition of himself and his delighting in himself Mark it lieth not in the enjoyment of the Creature but in the enjoyment of himself God useth us but doth not enjoy us As we enjoy a thing for it self but we use it for another so uti and frui differ we use the means but enjoy the end God useth the creature in subserviency to his own glory So it is said Prov. 16. 4. God made all things for himself His happiness lieth in knowing himself in loving himself in delighting in himself But how is this used as an argument Blessed art thou O Lord therefore teach me thy statutes Either thus God that is blessed hath enough for himself surely there is enough in him for us too Gen. 17. 1. I am God alsufficient walk before me and be thou perfect I say if God finds satisfaction enough in himself our souls surely will find satisfaction in him That which will fill a Pottle or greater Measure will fill a Pint or a lesser Measure That which will satisfie a Prince and be enough for him in that estate will satisfie a Beggar and supply his wants God hath an infinite fulness of knowledg comfort and holiness therefore surely enough to satisfie us as empty as we are Therefore we should desire to receive of this fulness in Gods way Or again thus If God be blessed we had need to enquire after his statutes for these teach us the way how we may be blessed in Gods blessedness how we may be conformed to the nature of God and live the life of God and then surely we shall be happy enough 1. How we may be conformed to the nature of God 2 Pet. 1. 4. That we may be partakers of the Divine nature according to our measure that ours may be such as his is The promises or the word have an influence that way If we see a man hath a rich Trade and secret ways of gain every one would be acquainted with the mysteries and art of his getting and desirous to know it God is eternally blessed therefore we should study to be like him 2. That we may live the life of God Surely if we could learn to live such a life as God doth we should be happy However our prejudices darken it yet the life of God cannot be a gloomy life Now ignorance of Gods statutes is a great hinderance to the life of God Eph. 4. 18. Being alienated or estranged from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Well then the consideration of this that God is blessed will certainly make us prize his statutes prize his word for by that we are conformed to the nature of God and to the life of God we are engaged in the same design wherein God himself is engaged God loves himself and acts for himself and pursueth his own glory Now when the word of God breaks in upon the heart we pursue the same design with God Men are prejudiced against a course of holiness it seems to look upon them with a sowr and austere face Surely God loves a pleasant life whoever is miserable he hath a full contentment Doth he that made all things want true joy and contentment Who should have happiness if God hath not Now when we learn Gods Statutes we come to be conformed to the nature of God we love what he loves and hate what he hates and then we begin to live the life of God The happiness of God lieth in loving himself enjoying himself and acting for his own glory and this is the fruit of grace to teach us to live as God lives to do as God doth to love him and enjoy him as our chiefest good and to glorifie him as out utmost end This is the first sense wherein God may be said to be actively blessed as he hath infinite complacency in himself 2. God is actively blessed with respect to us as he is the fountain of all blessedness He is not only blessedness it self but willing to communicate and give it out to the creature especially his Saints He fills all created things with his blessedness Psal. 145. 16. Thou openesâ—… thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing There is not a Creature in the world but hath tasted of Gods bounty but especially the Saints Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. These are Vessels into which God is still pouring more until they be compleatly fill'd up Now this communicativeness that is in God without any irking of mind is a certain argument or encouragement to move us to seek of God grace to keep his statutes This is often urged in this case his communicativeness to all his creatures V. 64. The earth O Lord is full of thy mercy teach me thy statutes Thou art bountiful to all creatures and oh Lord shew thy bounty to me The same again v. 68. Thou art good and dost good teach me thy statutes Every good the more good it is the more it is diffusive of it self And it is a part of Gods blessedness that he is still of the giving-hand Acts 20. 35. Remember the words of the Lord Iesus how he said It is more blessed to give than to receive It was a maxim which Christ commended to his disciples Remember the words of the Lord Iesus that which he often inculcated That it is more blessed to give than to receive The words formally indeed are not found in any Evangelist only there we may
of it There is a service of God and constant influences in that God supplieth all immediately from himself Thirdly This is upon free terms Ioh. 1. 16. Of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace III. The Word of God especially the Gospel-part doth only teach us the way how we may be blessed in the enjoyment of God That 's a notable place to this purpose 1 Tim. 1. 11. The glorious Gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust Mark there first he calls it the glorious Gospel When he speaks of the Law in that place he saith We know that the Law is good compare it with v. 8. but when he comes to speak of the Gospel he calls it the glorious Gospel the Law is good but the Gospel glorious because more of the glory of God is display'd and discovered to the Creature And the glorious Gospel of the blessed God Titles are always suited to the case in hand therefore it is called The glorious Gospel of the blessed God because there God is discovered as ready to bless us there 's the way how we may come to be blessed in God how he may with respect to us be a fountain of blessedness there we have the highest discoveries of this mystery the most moving arguments to perswade us to look after it and with this Gospel there 's a grace a vertue dispensed to enable us to walk in this way So that if we would enjoy the blessed God we must consult with his statutes and especially the Gospel The IV. If we would profit by the Word of God we must go to God and desire the light and strength of his grace If we would enjoy the blessed God according to the direction of his Word we must not only consult with the Word but with God nothing else can draw us off from the world and perswade us to look after Heavenly things nothing else will teach us the vanity of the Creature the reality of spiritual priviledges Until we see these things in a Divine light the heart hangs off from God and therefore saith David Psal. 16. 7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel He had chosen God for his portion and then I will bless the Lord c. We shall still run after lying vanities until God doth open our eyes to see the mysteries of the Word and to be affected with the way Those that are drawn to God must first be taught of God Ioh. 6. 44. No man cometh to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him For Christ adds presently They shall be all taught of God Our hearts can never be drawn unto God until he take us into his own hands V. The more we are brought to attend upon the Word and the more influence the Word hath upon us the nearer the blessing Christians we are not far from the Kingdom of God There is some blessedness when we begin to look after the directions of the Word and to wait upon the teachings of God Prov. 8. 34. Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at the posts of my doors Then you are in a hopeful way to true blessedness when you begin to be careful to attend upon Gods teaching much more when you have the fruits of it when you know him so as to love him so as to have your hearts drawn off from sin and folly Act. 3. 26. Him hath God sent to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities The great business of Jesus Christ is to make us blessed in the enjoyment of God but how is it only by bare knowledg no 't is by turning every one from his iniquity So the more this teaching of God prevails upon the heart the more blessed we are Psal. 119. 1. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Otherwise to have a golden head and feet of clay that 's monstrous as in Nebuchadnezzar's Image to have a naked knowledg of God and not brought under the power of it You read of the Heathens when they sacrificed to their gods they were wont to hang a garland upon the head of the Beasts and to crown them with Roses so they were led on to sacrifice Many may have garlands upon their heads ornaments of knowledg yet are going on to destruction therefore that light and teaching which conveyeth blessedness is such as prevaileth upon the heart and doth effectually turn us to God VI. It is not only an affront put upon God but also a great wrong to neglect the Word of God and the way he preseribes and to seek blessedness in temporal things Here you have the true way to blessedness set down in Gods statutes but in outward things there wants fulness sincerity eternity 1. There wants fulness That which makes us blessed it must fill up the heart of man As a vessel is never full until it have as much as it can hold so we can never be said to have a full happiness and contentment until we have as much as we can hold That which fills must be greater than the thing filled Now mans heart is such a Chaos of desires that it can never be filled up but in God Psal. 16. 11. In thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Therefore of the joy and happiness we have in God 't is said Enter into thy Masters joy Mat. 25. When we speak of a cup of water that enters into the man that is taken down into the man but if we speak of a river of water or tub of water that is greater than the man is capable of or can receive the man enters into it so this joy and happiness which is truly and genuinely so it must exceed our capacity greater than we can receive that we may enter into it it is the infinite God can only satisfie the heart of man In temporal things there is no kind of fulness you have not one worldly comfort but you desire more of it Ahab was a King yet still he wants something Naboth's Vineyard A man is not satisfied with abundance neither is his soul filled with increase of worldly things yet we may desire more Eccles. 5. And if we have one thing to the full yet we shall need another If a man be strong he may need learning it may be though he hath some kind of learning and knowledg yet he hath not wisdom Naaman was rich wise valiant and honourable but he was a Leper There is a But upon all worldly happiness therefore there is no fulness in these things 2. There is no sincerity in them All that is in the world it is but a semblance and an appearance that which tickles the senses it doth not go to the heart You would have thought Belshazzar was merry at the heart when he was quaffing and carousing in the Cups of the Temple but how
my Law but they were counted as a strange thing God is the Author whosoever be the Pen-man it is a Writing from him to us Now to be strangers to it or little conversant about it argueth some contempt of God As to slight the Letter of a Friend sheweth little esteem of the Writer But now the Saints put it into their bosomes view it with delight it is Gods Epistle 2. In regard of its own excellency in three respects It is 1. Their Direction 2. Their Support 3. Their Charter 1. It is their Direction it is a light that shines in a dark place 2 Pet. 1. 19. The World is a dark place beset with dangers and ever and anon we are apt to stumble into the pit of destruction without taking heed to this light The Word discovereth to them evils that they may see them repent of them forsake them and sheweth us our ready way to heaven that we may walk therein It discovereth the greatest dangers and pointeth out the surest way to safety and peace They are called true Laws and good statutes Neh. 9. 13. to shew the full proportion that they bear to the soul. Verum and Bonum Truth and Goodness are proper for our most eminent faculties the understanding and will It doth a man's heart good to study these statutes A child of God that seeth others stumble and fall how may he stand and bless God for the direction of the word that God hath given him counsel in his reins that he hath a Clue to lead him out of those Labyrinths in which others have lost their way and know not how to escape 2. It is their Support The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil expresseth it 't is Gods shop from whence they fetch all their Cordials in a time of fainting and so are freed from those fears and discontents and despairing thoughts under which others languish Psal. 119. 50. This is my comfort in my affliction thy word hath quickned me When a believer is damped with trouble and even dead at heart a Promise will revive him again Ver. 92. Unless thy law had been my delight I had perished in my affliction And many such like experiences the Saints have had The worth of the Word is best known in an evil time One Promise in the Word of God doth bear up the heart more than all the arguings and discourses of men though never so excellent In a time of temptation in the hour of death O what a reviving is one word of Gods mouth 3. It is their Charter that which they have to shew for their everlasting hopes There we have promises of eternal joy and blessedness under the greatest assurance and this makes way for strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. A man that hath a clear evidence to show for a fair Inheritance it is not irksome to hear it read or to look over it now and then as a covetous man is pleased to look into his Bills and Bonds which he has under hand and seal 2. This Delight will be of great use to them 1. To draw us off from carnal Vanities We have another delight and the strength of the soul runneth out in another way there will not be such room for worldly affections As fear is cured with fear the fear of men with the fear of God so is delight by delight delight in Gods statutes is the cure of delight in worldly things Love cannot lye idle it must be occupied one way or another either carried out to the contentments of the flesh or else to holy things Now if you can find a more noble delight there is a check upon that which is carnal Psal. 119. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way The enlargement of the heart straitens the flesh 2. It will take off the tediousness of Religious Exercises What we delight in is not irksome In Hunting Fowling and Fishing though there be as much labour as in our ordinary imployments yet we count the toyl nothing because of the delight in them We are very apt to be weary of well-doing and to tire in an holy course but now when it is our delight it goeth on the more easily In one sense we must make Religion our business in another our recreation our work to prevent slackness our recreation to prevent tediousness it is not a task but a pleasure USE 1. This informeth us of the ill choice that many men make of their Delights and recreations they must have Cards and Dice and foolish mirth to pass away the time or else idle stories and vain Romances a Christian is every where like himself he sheweth himself a Christian in his recreations as well as his business Castae deliciae meae sunt Scripturae tuae saith Austin Lord my chast delights are the holy Scriptures If we were as we should be it would be our recreation to understand our duty to contemplate the way of reconciliation to God by Christ and to take a view of our everlasting Hopes Were we seriously perswaded of the benefits which men have by the word that there is a sure direction to resolve our doubts and our scruples and the offers of a pardon and a glorious estate by Christ what need a Christian any other Recreation Will not the sense of Gods love and the hopes of heaven make us merry enough Indeed because of the weariness of the flesh we need temporal refreshments but here should be our great delight I will solace or recreate my self in thy statutes USE 2. Caution to us to fix our delight aright 1. It is a considerable affection All the affections depend upon Pleasure or Pain Delight or Grief the one is proper to the body the other to the soul which grow from the contentment or distast which we receive from the divers objects which we meet with If we love it is for that we find a sweetness in the object beloved if we hate we apprehend a trouble in what we hate if we hope we promise our selves an happiness or satisfaction in the possession of the thing hoped for if we despair it is because the thing cannot be obtained from which our contentment would arise Desire is of some good which we judg pleasing By Fear and Flight we shun things which we apprehend would breed us vexation So that in effect Delight sets all the other affections a-work 2. It is a choice affection more proper to Fruition than Use and therefore not for the means so much as end and so reserved for God who is the last End There are fruenda and utenda God and Heavenly things to be enjoyed but earthly things to be used for means those that are in the nearest vicinity to the end as the Law of God and Grace earthly things are to be used with a kind of indifferency and therefore should have little of our joy but our solid complacency must be in God next in the things of God
24. 5. given to the children of men Psal. 115. 16. Here God will shew his bounty to all his creatures to beasts and all kind of men 't is sometimes the Slaughter-house and Shambles of the Saints They are slain upon earth Rev. 18. 24. a receptacle for elect and reprobate therefore here they have not their blessing our inheritance lyes elsewhere 3. There are all our kindred Ubi pater ibi patria where our father is there our Countrey is Now when we pray we say to him Our Father which art in heaven There are we strangers where we are absent from God Christ and glorified Saints and while we are here upon earth we have not such enjoyment of God There 's our Father it is his house Heaven is called our Fathers house and there 's our elder brother Col. 3. 1. Set your hearts upon things above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God And there 's the best of our kindred and Family They shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob Mat. 8. 20. Well then the children of God they count themselves to be strangers here because their kindred are elsewhere 4. There they abide longest That we account our home where we abide An Inn cannot be called our home where we come but for a night and away but now there we are for ever with the Lord. Here we are in motion there is rest The world must be surely left If we had a certain term of years fixed yet it would be very short in comparison of Eternity All the time we spend here it is but a night but a moment in comparison of Eternity We live longest in the other world and therefore there 's our home Mic. 2. 10. Arise depart hence this is not your rest God speaks it of the Land of Canaan when they had polluted it with sin It is true of all the world Sin hath brought in death and there must be a riddance it is but a passage from danger Israel dwelt first in a wandring Camp before they came to dwell in Cities and walled Towns and the Apostle alludes to that Here we have no abiding City we look for one to come As the Israelites did look for walled Towns and Cities of the Amorites to be possest by them so here we have but a wandring Camp we look for a City And mark as it was with them in their outward estate so in the mysteries of their Religion they were first seated in a Tabernacle and then in a Temple in a Tabernacle which was a figure of the Church then in a Temple which was a figure of Heaven for you know as in the Temple there were three partitions the outward Court the Holy place and the Holy of holies so there are three Heavens the third heaven Paul speaks of the heaven of heavens and there 's the Starry heaven and the Airy heaven the outward Court This life being so frail so fickle we cannot call our abode here our home What is your life saith the Apostle it is but as a vapor Jam. 4. 14. a little warm breath turn'd in and out by the nostrils Job 7. 1. Is there not an appointed time for man upon earth his days are as the days of an hireling A hired servant you do not intend should live with you for ever you hire him for a day or two and when he hath ended his work he receives his wages and is gone so all our days are but a little while we do our service and then we must be gone Actors when they have finished their parts are seen no more they go within the Curtain so when we have fulfilled our course God furnisheth the world with a new Scene of Acts and Actors 5. The necessary exercise of their graces doth make them count their lives here but a pilgrimage and themselves but strangers upon earth viz. Faith Love Hope 1. Faith shews the truth and the worth of things to come Faith will make them strangers Heb. 11. 13. They saw these things and were perswaded of them and they counted themselves pilgrims and strangers O! were we perswaded of things to come we would be hastning towards them We cry home home we talk of heaven and eternity but we do not believe them Sense and reason cannot out-see time nor look above the clouds and mists of the lower world afar off in the Apostles phrase 2 Pet. 1. 9. but Faith shews the truth of things to come We that are here upon earth when we look to heaven the Stars seem to us but so many spangles O! but when we get into heaven and look downward the world then will seem but as a mole-hill that which now to sense seems such a glorious thing will be as nothing 2. The Love of Christ which is in the Saints makes them to account themselves as strangers A child of God cannot be satisfied with things here below because his love is set upon God Two things the heart looks after as soon as it is awakened by grace and Love puts us upon them both viz. a perfect enjoyment of God and a perfect obedience to God 1. That they may be with God and Christ. The Saints have heard much of Christ read much of him tasted and felt much of him they would fain see him and be with him Phil. 1. 23. If they had the choicest contentment the world could afford this will not satisfie them so much as to be there where Christ is and to behold his glory The Apostle thinks this to be motive enough to a gracious heart to seek things above for there Christ is at the right hand of God Love will catch hold of that Col. 3. 1. The place is lovely for Christs sake Love will not suffer them to count this to be their home Though Christ is present with them now spiritually while they are here yet the presence and nearness is but distance but a kind of absence being compared with what is to come and therefore this very presence doth not quench their desires but kindle them and sets them a longing for more All the presence the communion the sight of Christ they get now it is but mediate through the glass of the Ordinance 1 Cor. 13. 12. and it is frequently interrupted his face is many times hidden Psal. 30. 7. and it is not full as it shall be there Psal. 16. 11. But now in Heaven there it will be immediate God will be all in all and there it will be constant they shall be ever with the Lord and there they shall be satisfied with his likeness Psal. 17. 15. then they enjoy his presence indeed So that Love upon these considerations sets them a longing and groaning 2. As Love makes them desire the company of Christ so intire subjection to God they would have perfect grace and freedom from sin therefore are ever groaning O when shall we be rid of this body of death Rom. 7. 23. There is a final perfect estate
a step-mother yet you remember you have a better home From whence do you fetch your supports in any cross Doth this comfort you in the midst of the molestations of the World They do not know your birth your breeding your hopes nor your expectations Strangers may be abused in a foreign place when we come home this will be forgotten The Saints walk up and down like a Prince that travels abroad in disguise though he be slighted abused he doth not appear what he shall be You have a glorious inheritance reserved for you this is your Cordial and the reviving of your souls and that which doth your heart good to think of and so you can be contented to suffer loss and inconveniences upon these hopes The discourse between Modestus a Governour under Valens and Basil in Nazianzen his twentieth Oration is very notable I shall only transcribe what is exactly to the purpose in hand When he threatned him with banishment I know no banishment saith he who know no abiding-place here in the world I do not count this place mine nor can I say the other is not mine rather all is Gods whose stranger and pilgrim I am This was that which supported him in the midst of those threatnings Therefore from whence do you fetch your support 5. If Religion be kept up in heigth and majesty the World will count you strangers they will stand wondering at your conversation 1 Pet. 4. 4. Men gaze upon those that come hither in a foreign habit that do not conform to the fashions of the countrey and so a child of God is wondred at that walks in a counter-motion to the studies and practices of other men as one that is not conformed to the world Rom. 12. 2. What do you discover of the spirit of your Countrey so as to convince others Thus much by way of enquiry namely Whether we are strangers yea or no USE 2. Behave your selves as strangers here upon earth 1. Avoid fleshly lusts 1 Pet. 2. 11. these cloud the eye and besot the heart and make us altogether for a present good they weaken our desires of heaven 't is the Apostles argument As strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts The flesh-pots of Egypt made Israel to despise Canaan and so this is that which will take off our hearts from things to come from the inheritance of the Saints in light and from that blessed estate God hath promised 2. Grasp not at too much of the World but what comes with a fair Providence upon honest endeavours accept with thanks 1 Tim. 6. 9. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare c. The Devil hath you upon the hip when you make that your business and scope not he that is but will be rich that fixes that as his scope Then the heart is filled with sins and the head with cares 3. If an Estate comes in slowly remember a little will serve our turns to heaven more would be but a burden and snare Those that have their portion here most of Worldly things what do they get by it a little belly-cheer Psal. 17. 14. and they leave the rest to their babes Dainty cheer is no great matter and to leave our posterity great is but to leave them in a snare Children are under a Providence and a Covenant as well as we and it is blasphemous to think we can provide for them better than God 4. If God give abundance rest not in them with a carnal complacency Psal. 62. 10. If riches encrease set not your heart on them Suffer not thy heart to rejoyce in them as your only portion so as to grow proud of them so as to count them your good things Luke 16. 25. you that are strangers have better things to mind 5. Keep up a warm respect to your everlasting home It is not enough to despise the world but you must look after a better Countrey Many of a slight temper may despise Worldly Profits their Corruptions do not run out that way Heb. 13. 14. We have here no abiding city but we seek one to come Desires thoughts and groans these are the harbingers of the soul that we send into the Land of Promise By this means we tell God that we would be at home 6. Enjoy as much of Heaven as you can in your Pilgrimage in Ordinances in the first-fruits of the Spirit in communion with Saints Grace is but young-Glory and joy in the Holy Ghost is the Suburbs of Heaven and therefore you should get somewhat of your Countrey before you come at it As the Winds do carry the Odors and sweet-smells of Arabia into the neighbouring-provinces so by the breathings of the Holy Ghost upon our hearts do we get a smell of the upper Paradise it is in some measure begun in us before we can get thither and therefore enjoy as much of Heaven as possibly you can in the time of your pilgrimage We have our taste here it is begun in union with Christ and in the work of grace upon the heart And in Ordinances Prayer brings us to the throne of grace it gives us an entrance into Gods presence Heb. 10. 19. the Apostle calls it a boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus A Christian enters heaven while he is here in the world In the word preached Heaven is brought down to us The Gospel is call'd the Kingdom of Heaven And by reading we do as it were converse with the Saints departed that writ what we read Meditation it brings us into the company of God it puts our heads above the clouds amongst the midst of blessed spirits there as if we saw Jesus Christ upon the throne and his Saints triumphing about him Communion of Saints it is Heaven begun therefore you that are strangers should much delight there A man that is abroad would be glad to meet with his own Countrey-men we should be glad of company to go with us to Heaven these are to be our companions for evermore therefore we should converse with them here II. I proceed to the latter clause Hide not thy commandment from me Here 's his Request To make short work of it I shall endeavour to make out the connexion and sense of these words in these Propositions 1. Every man here upon earth especially a godly man is but a stranger and passenger Every man is so in point of condition he must go hence and quit all his enjoyments in the world wicked men whether they will or no but a godly man is so in affection and cannot be satisfied with his present state This I have insisted upon 2. It concerns him that is a stranger to look after a better and more durable state Every man should do so He that lives here for a while is concerned his greatest care should be for that place where he lives longest therefore Eternity should be his scope A godly man will do so Those whose hearts are not set
and saith unto him We have found the Messias and Philip called Nathanael and saiah unto him We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Iesus of Nazareth the son of Ioseph 2. For the edification of others Luke 22. 32. And thou being converted strengthen thy brethren True grace is communicative as fire c. 3. For our own profit He that useth his knowledg shall have more Whereas on the contrary full breasts if not sucked become dry In the dividing the loaves encreased All gifts but much more spiritual which are the best are improved by exercise Well then 1. Get a sense and experience of God's Truths and then speak of it to others That which we have seen we are best able to report of God giveth us experiences to this end that we may be able to speak of it to others None can speak with such confidence as those that have felt what they speak Christ saith those that come to him shall not only have a spring of comfort themselves but flow forth to others Joh. 7. 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water IV. Point In our desires of knowledg it is meet to propound a good end As David here beggeth understanding that he might see and discover to others what he had found in God's Law To know that we may know is foolish curiosity to know that we may be known is vanity and ostentation to see that we may sell our knowledg is baseness and covetousness To edifie others this is charity to be edified our selves this is wisdom Good things must be sought to a good end Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss to consume it upon your lusts Jam. 4. 3. All things must be sought for to holy ends to glorifie God much more spiritual gifts The only good end is God's glory Open thou my lips that I may shew forth thy praise Psal. 51. 15. We are to desire knowledg that we may the more enjoy God and the more glorifie him There is a natural desire of knowledg even of Divine knowledg but we must look to our ends that we may grow in grace 1 Pet. 2. 3. that we may be more useful for God not meerly to store the head with notions or to vaunt it over others as having attained more than they no it should be only to do good to our own souls and to save others Rom. 15. 14. I am perswaded that ye are filled with all knowledg and able to admonish one another But now to make a market of our knowledg or to use it for our vile ends that 's naught Not for boasting ostentation curiosity and vain speculation but for practice should be our end When we improve our stock well we please God and shall have eternal profit our selves SERMON XXIX PSALM CXIX 28. My soul melteth for heaviness strengthen thou me according to thy word ACHRISTIAN should neither be humbled to the degree of dejection nor confident to the degree of security and therefore he is to have a double eye upon God and upon himself upon his own necessities and upon God's Alsufficiency You have both represented in this Verse as often in this Psalm his Case and his Petition 1. His Case is represented My soul melteth for heaviness 2. His Petition and Request to God Strengthen thou me according to thy word First His Case My soul melteth for heaviness In the Original the word signifies droppeth away The Septuagint hath it thus My soul fell asleep through weariness Probably by a fault of the Transcribers one word for another My soul droppeth It may relate 1. to the plenty of his tears as the word is used in Scripture Job 16. 20. My friends scorn me but mine eye poureth out tears unto God or droppeth to God the same word so it notes his deep sorrow and sense of his condition The like allusion is in Joshua 7. 5. The heart of the people melted and became as water Or 2. It relates to his languishing under the extremity of his sorrow as an unctuous thing wasteth by dropping so was his soul even dropping away Such a like expression is used in Psal. 107. 26. Their soul is melted because of trouble and of Jesus Christ whose strength was exhausted by the greatness of his sorrows it is said Psal. 22. 14. I am poured out like water all my bones are out of joint my heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels Be the allusion either to the one or to the other either to the dropping of tears or to the melting and wasting away of what is fat and unctuous it notes a vehement sorrow and brokenness of heart that 's clear his soul was even melting away and unless God did help him he could hold out no longer Doct. That Gods children oftentimes lye under the exercise of such deep and pressing sorrow as is not incident to other men David expresseth himself here as in a languishing condition which is not ordinary My soul droppeth or melteth away for heaviness The Reasons of the point are three 1. Their burdens are greater 2. They have a greater sense than others 3. Their exercise is greater because their reward and comfort is so great First Their burdens are greater than others as temptation desertion trouble for sin The good and evil of the spiritual life is greater than the good and evil of any other life whatsoever As their joys are unspeakable and glorious so their sorrows are sometimes above expression A wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. Common natural Courage will carry a man through other afflictions O! but when the arrows of the Almighty stick in their heart Iob 6. 3. that's an unsupportable burden According to the excellency of any life so are the annoyances and the benefits of that life Man that hath a higher life than the beasts is more capable of delights and sorrows than Beasts are of pain and pleasure and so a Christian that lives the life of faith he is more capable of a higher burden Consider they that live a spiritual life have immediately to do with the Infinite and Eternal God and therefore when he creates joy in the heart O what a joy is that and when God doth but lay his hand upon them how great is their trouble Sin is a heavier burden than affliction and the wrath of God than the displeasure of man Coelestis â—…ra quos premit miseros facit humana nullos Evils of an eternal influence are more than temporal therefore must needs be greater and more burdensome Secondly They have a greater sense than others their hearts being intendered by Religion None have so quick a feeling as the children of God why because they have a clearer understanding and more tender and delicate affections 1. Because they have a clearer understanding and see more into the nature of things than those that are drowned
to its natural temper and it is colder afterwards so the Soul returns to its byass and old bent again towards worldly things therefore there must be a constant desire kept up such as enjoy the Grace of God will still need and desire more this is the constant temper of their Souls they are always desiring and longing after Gods Precepts and more Grace to keep his Will 4. In those desires which they seem to have after holiness here is the defect they are not laborious He that longs for Gods Precepts will do his utmost endeavour that he may yield uniform Obedience to God The Scripture placeth much upon the Will. Macarius an ancient practical Writer puts this Question Who are those that have a will to God and Heavenly things and a will to the waters of Life What demonstrations can there be of a will Nothing but constant labour If there be such a will as to set you a work and a desire which makes you diligent Lazy Prayers and feeble Endeavours they do not argue any great strength of desire Alass when a man asketh Grace indifferently and coldly and is almost at an even point whether God hears him or no and doth not seek after that Grace and excites his soul this man hath not a desire because it is not laborious If it be not an operative desire it is but a velleity a will it is not All their Prayers are but the ejaculations of speculative fancy not the products of true Affection for that would be industrious Prov. 21. 25. The desire of the Sloathful killeth for his hands refuse to labour They do not manifest the life and strength of Love in their endeavours that they seem to have in their Prayers Cold Prayer they may put up for Grace that God may make them better and they wish it were better with them and that the Lord would bring them to a greater conformity But these are not laborious desires volens sed nolens they would but they will not that is to say O that I were at such an earthly place and never travel the way to get there So would I had learned such a Lesson yet like a lazy Boy they set not themselves in good earnest to do it They seem to will or wish therefore they are but Wouldings not Willings they do not in good earnest set themselves to get that Grace There is not such an invincible resolution to get through and a serious industry that they may attain those things they seem to long for 5. These wishes and desires which are in Carnal men are not permanent that overcome the desire of other things they will not absolutely set about it to be done whatever it cost them but such desires as are sincere overcome all earthly desires and delights whatever They would have Grace but yet would live as they do It is not such a desire as to controul other things but is controuled by them The desires of Grace is an underling and mastered by the desires of pleasures or profits of the World and other delights Many have a desire but it is easily subdued it is not prevalent Alass there may a faint desire be stirred up by enlightned Conscience and not by a fruit of a renewed Will A dictate of Conscience must be distinguished from a desire of the heart Illuminated Conscience tells them they must grow more holy and heavenly and wish they were so but the heart is not perfectly subdued to God they are directed by their interest they make not this the main and great interest of their lives David when he expresseth his desires mentions it thus Psal. 27. 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 that is I will make this my business the chiefest matter of my care But now they that care not whether they have it yea or no this cannot be a desire Phil. 2. 12. We are bid to work out our Salvation mith fear and trembling We must carry on the business of godliness with a great deal of Solicitude but their affections sway them more to other things SERMON XLVI PSALM CXIX Verse 40. Behold I have longed after thy Precepts c. I Come now to a Second Use and that is Use 2. To press us to long after Holiness and Subjection to God Two Motives 1. You shall have these desires granted For a man to have his Will and whatsoever he desires what a happiness is that If his Soul be set upon holy things he shall have what he desires the Lord will not be wanting Prov. 10. 24. The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him but the desire of the Righteous shall be granted The desires of the Righteous are suitable to the constitution and frame of their heart He will grant the desires of their Souls Psal. 10. 17. A man that makes God his hearts delight shall have his hearts desire Psal. 37. 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desire of thy heart his business is to maintain Communion with God and his desires will not miscarry 2. When they are granted it shall do you no hurt Prov. 11. 23. The desire of the Righteous is only good but the expectation of the wicked is wrath It is the greatest Judgment to wicked men when God gives them a heart to desire a full affluence of earthly comforts Better to be denyed in mercy than to have our requests granted in anger but Grace will do us no hurt it will not increase our snares and temptations as other things do and therefore can never be given in anger but always in love Well then 1. Fix your desires 2. See they do not abate in you 1. Fix your desires and inlarge them to the full A Carnal man may be a shame to a Godly man because he is carried out so earnestly and with such uniform respect to earthly things 1 Cor. 12. 31. Covet earnestly the best gifts this is a holy Covetousness and a good diversion from that great Sin As the Covetous learn all the Arts of Thriving are always joyning house to house and field to field Isa. 5. 8. So should we add Faith to Faith and Obedience to Obedience Our enjoyments are better and therefore it should not be followed with a slacker hand The more a covetous man hath in the World the more he desires still Should not we forget the things that are behind and reach forth to the things that are before us Still here the Tast increaseth the Appetite like Sea-water that wets the Palate but inflames the Appetite Now shall not we be carried out with a holy Covetousness thus to God See what help and methods of increase they use how their desire carrieth them on in unwearied diligence They rise early sit up late eat the bread of sorrows Psal. 127. 2. and all to heap up a little pelf to themselves
often are they disappointed but if their Hopes should succeed and they should make themselves this way Eternal yet when the Pageantry of this World is over the great ungodly Men of the World who have Names Lands Families in the general Resurrection shall be Poor Base Contemptible whereas he that made it his Business to look after the World to come shall be Glorious for ever 4. When once our Qualification is clear every step of our remove out of this World is an approach to our abiding City Our Salvation nearer Rom. 13. 11. than when we first believed And 2 Cor. 4. 16. though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day 5. Every degree of Grace makes your Qualification clearer Col. 1. 12. giving thanks to the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light and 1 Tim. 6. 18. laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal life Evidences are encreased when ripening for Heaven more and more 2. Let us carry our selves as such as count our best Estate in this World as the House of our Pilgrimage 1. Let us with great Joy and Delight of heart entertain the Promises of the Life to come resolving to hold and hugg them and esteem them and make much of them till the Performance come Heb. 11. 13. These all died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth 2. Let us take heed of what may divert us and besot us and hinder us in our heavenly Journey 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul A Relish of the Pleasures that offer themselves in the course of our Pilgrimage spoileth the sense that we have of the World to come and weakens our care and pursuit of it 3. Let us be contented with those Provisions that God in his Providence affordeth us by the way though they be mean and scanty 1 Tim. 6. 8. having food and raiment let us be content for we brought nothing into the world and it is certain we can carry nothing out we came into the World contented with a Cradle and must go out contented with a Grave therefore if we want the Pomp of the World let it not trouble us we have such allowance as our Heavenly Father seeth necessary for us till our great Inheritance cometh in hand 4. If the World increase upon us we should take the more care that we may have the Comfort of it in the World to come Rev. 14. 13. Their works follow them Luk. 16. 9. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations There is no other way to shew our weanedness in a full Estate nor to keep our hearts clean or to express our deep sense of the World to come but this 2. Doct. That during this Estate and the inconveniencies thereof God's Children find matter of Rejoycing in his Word 1. Let us consider how this Point lieth in this Text. 1. The Psalmist had a sufficient sense of the inconveniencies of the House of his Pilgrimage his absence from God for therefore he counts it a Pilgrimage the many affronts and dishonours that are done to God in the World which go near to a gracious heart who espouseth God's quarrel and interest therefore he saith Horrour hath taken hold upon me because men keep not thy Law nay and possibly his own Afflictions and Troubles for many Interpreters suppose him now expelled from Ierusalem and driven to wander up and down in the Forrests and Wildernesses yet then could he comfort himself in God and pass over his time in meditating on his Precepts and Promises The troubles and inconveniencies of our Pilgrimage are easily disregarded by them that have no sense of them or are slight-hearted or whose time of Trial is not yet come but then is strength of Grace seen when we can overcome sense of Trouble by the incouragements which the bare naked Word of God offereth If David were now in Exile it was a trouble to him not to enjoy the Ordinances and Means of Grace with the rest of God's People but to deceive the tediousness of it by God's Word that is the Trial. If we can depend upon the Promise when nothing but the Promise is left us there are no Difficulties too great for the Comfort of God's Word to allay 2. The Psalmist speaketh not of what he would doe but what he had done thy Statutes have been my Songs Experience of the Comfort of the Word is more than a Resolution to seek it there in his Resolution he would have been a Pattern of Duty but now he is a President of Comfort That which hath been may be God that hath given a Promise and Comfort to his Saints before will continue it in all Ages 3. The Psalmist speaketh not of an ordinary Joy but such as was ready to break out into singing which noteth the heart is full and can hold no longer without some vent and utterance As Paul and Silas were so full of Joy that they sang at midnight in the Stocks 2. Now I come to the Reasons why God's Pilgrims find matter of rejoycing in his Word during the time of their Exile and absence from God and all the Inconveniencies that attend it 1. Some on the Words part 2. Some on the part of him that rejoyceth 1. On the Words part God's Pilgrims can rejoyce in it 1. There they have the Discovery and Promise of eternal Life It telleth them of their Country a firm deed and conveyance is a Comfort to us before we have possession 2 Pet. 1. 4. To us are given exceeding great and precious Promises that being made partakers of the Divine nature we may escape the Corruptions that are in the world through Lust. In the Word there are Promises neither of small things of things of a little moment nor of things that we have nothing to doe with but of great moment and weight and given to us The Promises make the things promised certain to those to whom they do belong though they be not yet actually in their Possession and therefore the Children of God are delighted in them and so far as that their hearts are drawn off from worldly things They that adhere to them and prize the Comfort which they offer have something in them above natural Men or the ordinary sort of those that live in the World 2. There they have sure direction how they may attain this Blessedness which the Promises speak of and that is a great Comfort in the midst of the Darkness and Uncertainty of the present Life The Word of God is said to be a light that shineth to us
little longer No it is demanded now he doth not give it up but it is taken away from him Reason with thy self as Isaac Gen. 27. 2. I allude to it Behold now I am old I know not the day of my death make me savoury meats that my Soul may bless thee before I die So reason I have spent so much time in the world and I know not the day of my dissolution when God will call me home Oh let me go to God that he may bless me before I die 2. You know not whether the means of Graâ—… shall be continued to you or no and such affectionate offers and melting entreaties Acts 13. 46. Since you put away the word of God from you you judge your selves unworthy of everlasting Life God will not always wait upon a lingring Sinner but will take the denial and be gone They judge themselves unworthy of that Grace they pass Sentence upon themselves 2 Cor. 6. 1 2. Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation we beseech you receive not the Grace of God in vain God hath his seasons and when these are past will not treat with us in such a mild affectionate manner The means of Grace are removed from a people by strange Providences when they have slighted the offers of Grace Luke 13. 7. These three years I came seeking fruit on this Fig-tree and finde none cut it down why cumbreth it the ground In that Text there 's first God 's righteous expectation These three years I came seeking Fruit. He was the dresser of the Vineyard they were the three years of his Ministry as by a serious harmonizing the Evangeliâ—…ts will appear that he was just now entring upon his last half year they had his Ministry among them 2 Their unthankfull frustration I find none nothing answerable to what means they enjoyed 3 God's terrible denunciation Cut it down why cumbreth it the ground God will root up a people or remove the means and therefore will ye leave it upon such uncertainties 3. There 's an uncertainty of Grace 2 Tim. 2. 25. If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth It is a meer hazard it may be he will it may be not It is uncertain whether the Spirit of God will ever put in your Heart a thought of turning to God again Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive with man The Spirit of God strives for a long while follows a Sinner casts in many an anxious Thought troubles and shakes him out of his carnal quiet and security but this will not always last Ah Christians there are certain Seasons if we had the skill to take hold of them there is an appointed fixed time when God is nearer to us then at another time and we shall never have our Hearts at such an advantage Isa. 55. 6. Call upon him while he is near and while he may be found There are certain Seasons which are times of finding Some are of opinion that there are certain Seasons when a Man may be rich if he will when God offereth him an opportunity for an Estate in the World if he knew the time and how to take hold of it Certainly to those that live under the means of Grace there 's a time of finding when God is nearer to them than at another time and therefore will you slip that and leave it upon such great uncertainties 4. There 's an uncertainty in this we are not certain of having the use of our natural Faculties we may lose our Understandings by a stupid Disease and God may bring a Judgment upon those that dally with him in the work of Repentance It is an usual Judgment upon them that while they were alive did forget God when they come to die to forget themselves and have not the free use of their Reason but invaded with some stupid Disease die in their Sins and so pass into another World Reason 4. The Fourth Reason is the great mischief of delay 1. The longer we delay the greater indisposition is there upon us to embrace the Ways of God Oh Christians when we press you to Holy things to turn your selves to the Lord you begin to make some Essay and then are discouraged and find it is hard and tedious to Flesh and Bloud and so you give over Now mark if it be hard to day it will be harder the next so the third onward for it is hardness of heart that makes the Work of God hard Now the more we provoke God the more we resist his Call the more hard the Heart is the impulsions of his Grace are not so strong as before and the Heart every day is more hardned As a Path weareth the harder by frequent treading so the Heart is more hard the Mind more blind the Will more obstinate the Affections more engaged and rooted in a course of Sin Ier. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots then may ye also doe good that are accustomed to doe evil O to break off an inveterate Custom is hard A Plant newly set is more easily taken up than a Plant that hath taken root When we grow old and rotten in the way of Sin it will be much harder for us than now it is the longer we lie soaking here in Sin the farther off from God 2. We provide the more discomfort for our selves Always the proportion of our Sorrow is according to the measure of our Sins Whether it be godly Sorrow the sorrow of Repentance or desparing Sorrow those Horrours which are imprest upon us as a Punishment of our Rebellion and Impenitency in both sences you still increase your Sorrow the more you sin For the sorrow of Repentance it is clear that Sorrow must carry proportion with our Offences She that had much forgiven wept much Certainly it will cost you the more Tears a greater humbling before God the longer you continue in a course of Sin against him And for the sorrow of Punishment you are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. your Burthen will be greater and more increased upon you It is too heavy for your Shoulders already to bear why should we adde to the weight of it Either our sorrow of Repentance will be greater or the anxious sense of our Punishment for in both God observes and God requires a proportion 3. Consider how unfit we shall be for God's service if we delay a little longer when our strength is spent and vigour of youth exhausted when our Ears grow deaf Eyes dim Understanding dull Affections spent Memory lost is this a time to begin with God and to look after the business of our Souls Certainly he that made all that was our Creatour deserves the flowr of our strength Eccles. 12. 1. when the tackling is spoil'd and Ship rotten is that a time to put to Sea or rather when the Ship is new built Shall the Devil feast upon
and suitable Object to our Souls in him is nothing but good God is Goodness it self he is one that has deserved your Love and will satisfy and reward your Love All the good we have in an Ordinance it is from him and to lead up our Souls to him Our business now is to love God who loved us first 1 John 4. 19. to love him by devoting our selves to him and to consecrate our all to his Service 4. To desire more communion with him and to long after the blessed Fruition of him when God shall be all in all not onely be chief but all When we shall perfectly injoy the Infinite God when the Chiefest Good will give us the greatest Blessings and an Infinite Eternal God will give us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory the Word Sacraments and Prayer convey but little to you in comparison of that when God is Object and Means and all things The Soul is then all for Christ and Christ all for the Soul Your whole employment is to love him live upon him Here we give away some of our Love some of our Thoughts and Affections on other things Christ is crowded hath not room to lay forth the glory of his Grace but there is full scope to doe it SERMON LXXVIII PSAL. CXIX 68. Teach me thy Statutes SECONDLY We come to David's Petition Teach me thy Statutes which I shall be brief in because it doth often occur in the Verses of this Psalm David's Petition is to understand the Word that he might keep it Teaching bringeth us under the power of what is taught and increaseth Sanctification both in heart and life as well as illumination or information Doctr. One chief thing which they that believe and have a sufficient apprehension of God's Goodness should seek of him in this world is Understanding and keeping the way of Salvation This Request is inforced out of the former Title and Compellation 1. Because the saving Knowledge of his Will is one principal effect of his Bounty and Beneficence As he sheweth love to Man above other Creatures in that he gave him such a Life as was Light Iohn 1. 4. that is had Reason and Understanding joyned with it so to his People above other men that he hath given them a saving Knowledge of the way of Salvation since Sin Psalm 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord he will teach Sinners the way 'T is a great discovery of God's Goodness that he will teach Sinners a Favour not vouchsafed to the faln Angels 't is more than if he gave us the Wealth of the whole World that will not conduce to such an high use and purpose as this More of his good-will and special Love is seen in this to teach us the way how to enjoy him Eternal Life is begun by this saving Knowledge Iohn 17. 3. And this is Life eternal that they might know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent 2. This is one principal way whereby we shew our sense of God's Goodness That 's a true apprehension of God's Goodness which giveth us Confidence and Hope of the saving Fruits of it When the oftner we think of it the more of Sanctification we seek to draw from this Fountain of Goodness That is an idle Speculation that doth not beget Trust an empty Praise a meer Compliment that doth not produce a real Confidence in God that he will give us spiritual Blessings when we heartily desire them True Knowledge of God's Name breedeth Trust Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee and more particularly for this kind of Benefit 'T is a general encouragement Matth. 7. 11. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him but 't is limited to the Spirit Luke 11. 13. If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Spirit to them that ask it Without this Faith there is no Commerce with God 3. 'T is an Argument of the good temper of our Souls not to serve our carnal turns but promote the welfare of our Souls when we would enjoy and improve the Goodness of God to get this Benefit 1. They are affected according to the value of the thing Of all the Fruits of God's Goodness which an holy Man would crave for himself and challenge for his Portion this he thinketh fittest to be sought sanctifying Grace to understand and keep the Law If this be not the only yet 't is the chiefest Benefit which they desire in the World For other things let God deale with them as he will but they value this among the greatest things which God bestoweth on Mankind Observe here how much the Spirit of God's Children differeth from the Spirit of the World they account God hath dealt well with them when he bestoweth upon them Wealth and Honour Psalm 4. 6. Who will shew us any good but the other desire Grace to know God's Will and to serve and please him there is the thing they desire and seek after as suiting their temper and constitution of Soul A Man is known by his desires as the temper of his Body by his Pulse 2. They would not willingly sin against God either out of ignorance or perverse affections therefore if God will direct them and assist them in the work of Obedience their great care and trouble is over 'T is a good sign that a man hath a simple honest Spirit when there is rooted in his heart a fear to offend God and a care to please him He may erre in many things but God accepts him as long as seeking Knowledge in order to Obedience Eph. 5. 15 16 17. All that God requireth both for matter and manner is that we would not comply with Sin seeing the time is evil and full of Snares we should not be unwise in point of Duty 3. They have an holy Jealousy of themselves David desired to use every Condition well whether he were in Prosperity or Trouble The Context speaketh of Afflictions that were sanctified but a new Condition might bring on a new Alteration in the Soul Prosperity would make him forget God and Trouble overwhelm him if God did not teach him In what state soever we be we must desire to be taught of God otherwise we shall faile Phil. 4. 11 12. For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I know how to be abased and how to abound every-where and in all things I am instructed Unless the Lord guide us we shall be as Ephraim was a Cake not turned Hos. 7. 8. baked but on one side quite dough and raw on the other side faile in the next Condition though passed over one well 4. A Sense of the Creatures Mutability Comparing it with the former Verse I observe that
13. 5 6. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have For he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee A Man must be purged from inordinate affection when he would trust in God Do not pitch too doatingly upon temporal happiness Second Use Let us get these Comforts setled upon our hearts Was this peculiar to David alone No every godly man as Theodoret observeth may say in his Trouble Unless thy Word had been my delights I had perished in mine affliction So Daniel when forbidden to pray so the Three Children in the Furnace all the Martyrs yea all the afflicted servants of God therefore let us 1. Prize the Scripture and be more diligent in Hearing Reading Meditating on the blessed Truths contained therein The Earth is the fruitful Mother of all Herbs and Plants yet it must be Tilled Ploughed Harrowed and Dressed else it bringeth forth little Fruit. The Scripture containeth all the grounds of comfort and happiness but we have little benefit unless daily versed in Reading Hearing Meditation surely if we prize it as we should we would do so Psal. 119. 97. O how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day There is the onely remedy of Sin and Misery the offer of true Blessedness the sure Rule to walk by 2. If you would have these Comforts you must get such a Spirit of application under afflictions Iob 5. 27. Lo this we have searched it so it is hear it and know thou it for thy good All efficacy is conveyed by the touch the nearer the touch the greater the power and efficacy bring it down to your hearts Rom. 8. 31. What shall we then say to these things If God be for us who can be against us 3. The Law of God must be your delight in prosperity if you would have it your support in adversity Psal. 119. 105. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my paths That which is our Antidote against our Lusts is our best Cordial against our Passions 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust When afflictions come upon you consider what is your greatest burden and what is your greatest comfort for then you are best at leisure to consider both your greatest burden that you may avoid it your greatest comfort that you may apply your selves to it SERMON XCVIII PSAL. CXIX VER 93. I will never forget thy precepts for with them thou hast quickned me IN these words observe two things 1. David's thankful Resolution I will never forget thy precepts 2. The Reason of it For with them thou hast quickned me 1. In his thankful Resolution take notice 1. Of the Object Thy precepts 2. The Duty promised and negatively exprest I will never forget 1. For the Object Thy precepts thereby may be meant the Word in general he had found benefit by it and the Word of God should ever be dear and precious to him especially the Gospel part of it surely that 's the great means of quickning that may be comprised in the term Thy precepts if not principally intended or else most especially some particular truth which God had blessed to the use and comfort of his soul I shall never forget that truth those precepts of thine 2. The Duty promised I will never forget Forgetting or remembring is sometimes taken in Scripture for a notional remembrance or notional forgetting when we retain the notions of such a truth or the notions of it vanish out of our minds And sometimes 't is taken practically when we are sutably affected as the thing or truth remembred deserves Both may be intended I remember retain feel the fruit of thy word That which hath done us good the very notions of it will stick in our minds Or else it may be for the practical remembrance so it signifies I will prize I will cleave fast to it as long as I live To remember is to esteem and to forget is to neglect as Heb. 13. 16. To do good and to communicate forget not that is neglect not I may remember to communicate yet not perform But forget not that is neglect not In this sense we usually say you forget me that is you neglect to do that which I desired of you So David saith I will never forget thy precepts the remembrance of his promises is effectual and perpetual 'T is effectual for I will remember it prize it and lay it up in my heart with thankfulness And it is perpetual I will never the Hebrew is not to all Eternity I will not forget thy precepts for ever as we render it fitly Secondly The Reason For with them thou hast quickned me The Reason is taken from his experience of the benefit of this Word and there we have the benefit received Quickning the Author Thou hast quickned the means with them God by this means had quickned his soul. 1. The Benefit quickned There is a double quickning when from dead we are made living or when from cold and sad and heavy we are made lively One sort of quickning the Word speaks of is when from dead we are made living Eph. 2. 1. Another when from cold sad heavy we are made lively and so not only have life but enjoy it more abundantly according to Christ's gracious promise Iohn 10. 10. that they may be living lively kept still in vigor Now this second quickning may be taken either more largely for the vitality of grace or strictly for actual comfort Largely taken so God quickens by increasing the life of grace either internally by promising the life of grace or morally and externally by promising the life of glory More strictly his qùickning may be taken for comfort and support in his affliction so it s likely to be taken here he had said before ver 92. immediately before the Text Unless thy law had been my delight I should then have perished in mine affliction and now I will never forget thy precepts for with them thou hast quickned me It was great comfort and support to him and therefore he should prize the Word as long as he lived This is the Benefit received Thou hast quickned me 2. Here 's the Author Thou God put him by the inspiration of grace upon the meditation of his Word and then he blessed that meditation his assistance and grace doth all We receive all degrees of life from the Fountain of life The Word was the means but thou hast quickned me 3. The Means By them that is by his precepts the Word was spirit and life to him By the Spirit God makes his Word lively in operation and conduceth very much to quickning comfort and supporting of the Saints Doct. Those that have received Comfort Life and Quickning by the Word of God find themselves obliged to remember it
4. I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses They mutually made over their strength one to another So when God offereth to make over himself to us this is the tenor I will be for thee and thou shalt be for me as Hosea 3. He makes over himself with all that is his Now when God offers to make over himself to us and all that belongs to him to our use his strength power and love shall we stand demurring upon so blessed a contract and not give up our selves to the Lord God that needs us not will engage himself to us to be for us if we will be for him O! then let us resign up our selves and put our selves under the Power and Sovereignty of God 3. You never enjoy your selves so much as when you give up your selves to God it is not your loss but your gain it is a kind of receiving for you give up your selves to become his People to be sanctified to be preserved by his Grace and governed by his Spirit and all these are Priviledges they are rather a Gift for us For a Beggar to give up herself to match with a Prince she gets by giving you give up your hearts to God to be better Other things that are dedicated to God are only altered in their use as Gold and Silver dedicated to the Sanctuary But when a Man is given to God he is altered in his nature he is governed and fitted for God's use If there be any pretence of loss 't is this a right or power to live according to your own will I but that you never had by vertue of your Creation you are bound to live according to the Will of God God's Precepts they bind as a Law where they are not received as a Covenant and therefore you have no power to dispose your selves you are Gods whether you give up your selves to him or no. When you consider how much you gain you are interested in all the Priviledges of the Lord's grace it not only establisheth your duty but your comfort and encouragement If there were nothing but this free leave to go to God in all our straits and dangers I am thine save me this were a benefit not to be valued If God be yours you may expect salvation temporal eternal therefore the benefit of this Gift is not Gods but ours you give up your selves not to bring ought to God but receive from God 4 You cannot give other things to him unless you give up your selves to him 2 Cor. 8. 4. It is rendred as a reason of their forwardness in a good work They first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God When a man hath given himself to God all things else will succeed more easily in the spiritual life as for a Woman and Man in the conjugal Relation they are easily kind one to another when they have bestowed themselves one upon another As Quintus Fabius Maximus answering to the Ambassador that offered him Gold That it was not the fashion of the Romans to have Gold under their power but they were under a power that were owners and possessors of their Gold Apply it the first thing God looks after is the person 5. It is your honour to be in Relation to God therefore give up your selves Psal. 116. 16. O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid He repeats it thrice as if he were wonderfully pleased with the Relation Mean Offices about a Prince are accounted honourable in the World so to be in the meanest degree of service about God it 's a great honour therefore give up your selves to God 2 Secondly Live as those that are Gods The first thing we should do is to determine whose we are then to make good that Relation You are not your own that 's clear 1 Cor. 6. 19. therefore not to live to your own will your own ends your own interest All the disorder that is in the World it comes from a Man's looking upon himself as his own Psal. 12. 4. Our tongues are our own and therefore they take liberty to speak what they please And saith Nabal my bread and my wine When we are so eager to establish our own dominion and propriety then we miscarry As Bernard saith Horreo quicunque de meo ut sim meus we should be in utter detestation of living to our selves and rather be God's Bondmen than our own Freemen And as they are not their own so not the Worlds Iohn 15. 19. Because you are not of the world therefore the world hates you The World hates the Godly because they have other Principles and other Ends you should not conform to the World in judgment or practices for you are not of the World you are not the Flesh's Rom. 8. 12. We are not debtors to the flesh therefore this should not be your care and study to pamper and please the flesh You are not Satans for you are taken out of his power 1 Col. 13. Whose are you you are the Lords therefore your business should be to please God and honour God It is easie to say I am thine do we make it good in our practice This may be known two ways 1. When we make his glory to be the scope of our Lives Phil. 1. 21. To me to live is Christ that 's my business and employment not to seek my own things but the things of Christ Jesus Do you give up your selves to be governed and ordered by his Spirit acting and living for his glory 2. When we walk so as God may own us with honour take his Law for our Rule as well as to fix his Glory for our scope Exod. 32. 7. saith God to Moses Thy people whom thou hast brought up out of Egypt Thy people God would not own them when they had corrupted their ways We would say to God Lord I am thine but alas we act not as the Lords but as if we were the Flesh's as if we were Satan's and Lust's and Passion 's and Anger 's by those cursed influences are we acted and sway'd in our conversations It is as sweet an Argument and as forcible a Reason as you can use to God in Prayer to say Lord I am thine if we could use it in good Conscience saith Chrysostom All men are so but how few can thus speak to God For saith he his servants you are to whom you obey and the servant of Sin lyeth when he saith I am thine Alas to most every kind of Sin may say Thou art mine Lust and Covetousness and Ambition may challenge us It is not words but affections and actions that must prove us to be the Lords then we are his when we seek to please him in all things Iudas was Christs in profession but the Devils in affection David saith I am thine but presently adds I seek thy precepts I endeavor to do thy
this kind of wisdom 1 Cor. 3. 18. 2. You may look upon them as corrupt and sinful In those days of Saul the Teachers might be corrupt as vvell as other ranks and orders of Men and then it only implies this That God gives greater understanding to his People than to their corrupt Guides Luk. 11. 52. Wo unto you lawyers for ye have taken away the key of knowledge ye entred not in your selves and them that were entring in ye hindred The Expounders of the Lavv vvere corrupt and hindred others from entring into the Kingdom of God it is a great evil vvhen the Church of God is given up to such kind of Guides But novv in such a case they that make conscience of God's Ordinances use private means vvith diligence have more understanding than their Teachers Mat. 23. 2 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat Whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not Though they were naught and corrupt themselves yet if they bring God's message it should not be slighted because of the office and lawful authority with which they are invested though not every way qualifi'd for their station and in this sense a Child of God may be wiser than his Teachers 3. We may look upon them as contenting themselves with the naked Theory of God's Law without making conscience of practice that they were such kind of Guides that never tasted themselves what they commended to others or practised what they taught then I have more understanding than my Teachers He that excels in practice he hath the best understanding Practical knowledge is to be prefer'd before speculative as much as the end is to be prefer'd before the means the end is more noble than the means now speculative knowledge is the means to the end Psal. 111. 10. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments Not only know what is to be done but do what is to be known as for others whatever light they seem to have they have not wisdom and understanding Ier. 8. 9. Lo they have rejected the Word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them They were boasting of the knowledge of the Law yet there was no wisdom in them A mean Christian that fears God is a Man of more understanding than he that hath a great deal of head-light and in this sense may it be well said The Children of God are wiser than their Teachers Many times those that are unlearn'd rise up and take Heaven by violence when others by all their literal and speculative knowledge are thrust down to Hell Suppose it spoken no way in diminution to these Teachers but that they did their duty 4. Some comment thus That David had more understanding than all his Teachers which taught him the first Rudimens of Religion that he transcended them by far by God's blessing in making further progress in this kind of knowledge If this were the sense it would teach us not always to keep to our milk and to the first principles of Religion but to wade further and further into these mysteries Heb. 5. 12 13. We should go on still and grow up to a greater fulness in knowledge according as we have more means and advantages But this is not the sense for he saith than all my Teachers Why then 2dly take it for his godly Teachers that were every way qualifi'd and it is no new thing for a Scholar to exceed his Master and Christians of a private station many times to excel those that are in office Look as in secular things among the Heathens Aristotle was wiser than Plato his Master and oppos'd him in many things therefore is call'd an Asses Colt that as soon as he was full with the Dams milk kicks her he forgot that he was his Father We should if we can exceed our Teachers but not despise them and Daniel chap. 1. 20. was wiser in civil Arts than all his Teachers so also 't is true as to holy things Iesus Christ at twelve years of age puzled the Doctors Eli brought up Samuel in the fear of God but he proved wiser than Eli Paul brought up at the feet of Gamaliel Acts 22. 3. prov'd a more notable instrument of God's glory And Austin was taught by Ambrose but grew afterwards more eminent than he Thus David was wiser than his Teachers and yet they might be faithful and holy Now he mentions this partly to commend the Lord's grace Thou hast made me wiser than my Teachers and partly to commend meditation in the Word the means by which he got it not to boast of his own attainments but to commend grace and commend the means of grace to others What may we observe from this Assertion of David I am wiser than my Teachers 1 Obser. First The freeness of Gods grace in making a difference between men and men as to measures and degrees of knowledge 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who made thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou hast not received Some have more and some less understanding and all is as God gives out There is not only a difference between men and men as to their great distinction of Election and Reprobation but within the sphere of Election as to measures of grace God manifests himself to some more than to others they are admitted to this favor to see more than others into the mind of God though they have the same Teacher God's Spirit the same Rule and Direction God's Word the same Principles of Grace yet they have greater measures of knowledge the reasons lie in God's bosom and grace Now this should be noted that those which excel should be kept humble as being more indebted to grace than others are and surely none should be proud because more in debt and that those who are excelled might submit and be contented to be out-shined Iohn 3. 30. He must increase but I must decrease It should be a rejoicing to them that God is likely to be glorifi'd more by others especially Teachers should rejoice that God should give such a blessing to the Ministry that they which seem to be under them should see more than they when those two quarrelling Pronouns meum tuum mine and thine have no more use as in Heaven then we shall fully rejoice in one anothers gifts and graces and what they enjoy it will be our comfort as in a Quire of Voices one sings the Treble another the Bass they are refreshed and every one delights not only in his own part and performance but in the part of each other all concurs to the harmony so one hath this measure of grace another another and all concur to the glory of God 2 Obser. Secondly Not only the freeness of God's grace in giving wisdom to one more than to another but observe also the Soveraignty of God's distribution the treasures of grace are at his free disposing and
him but when his heart was upheld in the ways of God So Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God They had a life visible as other men had but your life that which you chiefly esteem and indeed count to be your life is a hidden thing Here I shall enquire 1. What is this spiritual life 2. Shew that there is a spiritual life distinct from the natural 3. The excellency of the one above the other 4. When this spiritual life is in good plight 1. What is meant by spiritual life 'T is threefold a life of justification and sanctification and glorification First The life of justification We are all dead by the merit of sin When a man is cast at law we say he is a dead man Through one mans offence all were dead Rom. 5. 5. We are sensible of it when the Law cometh in with power Rom. 7. 9. we begin to awaken out of our dead sleep Gods first work is to awaken him and open his eyes that he may see he is a Child of wrath a condemned person undone without a pardon when the Law came sin revived and I died before he thought himself a living man in as good an estate as the best but when he was enlightned to see the true meaning of the Law he found himself no better than a dead man Now when justified the sinner is translated from a sentence of death to a sentence of life passed in his favour and therefore it is called justification of life Rom. 5. 18. and Ioh. 5. 29. He that believeth shall not enter into condemnation but hath passed from death to life that is is acquitted from the sentence of death and condemnation passed on him by the Law Secondly The life of sanctification which lyes in a Conjunction of the soul with the spirit of God even as the natural life is a Conjunction of the body with the soul. Adam though his body was organized and formed was but a dead lump till God breathed the soul into him so till our union with Christ by the communion of his spirit we are dead and unable to every good work But the Holy Ghost puts us into a living condition Ephes. 2. 4 5. We were dead in trespasses and sins yet now hath he quickned us There is a new manner of being which we have upon the receiving of Grace Thirdly Life eternal or the life of Glory which is the final result and consummation of both the former For justification and sanctification are but the beginnings of our happy estate justification is the cause and foundation and sanctification is an introduction or entrance into that life that we shall ever live with God 2. Now this life is distinct from life natural for it hath a distinct principle which is the spirit of God the other a reasonable soul 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit Parents are but instruments of Gods Providence to unite body and soul together but here we live by the spirit or by Christ Gal. 2. 20. God and we are united together Then we live when joined to God as the fountain of life whence the soul is quickned by the spirit of Grace This is to live indeed 'T is called the life of God Ephes. 4. 18. not by common influence of his Providence but by special influences of his Grace Secondly It is distinct in its operations Unumquodque operatur secundum suam formam as things that move upward and downward according to their form so the new Nature carrieth men out to their own natural motion and tendency Walking as men 1 Cor. 3. 3. and walking as Christians are two distinct things The natural and humane life is nothing else but the orderly use of sense and reason but the Divine and spiritual life is the acting of Grace in order to communion with God as if another Soul dwelt in the same Body Ego non sum ego Old lusts old acquaintance old temptations knock at the same door but there is another Inhabitant Thirdly Distinct in supports Hidden Manna Meat indeed Drink indeed Ioh. 6. 55. There is an outward man and an inward man the inward man hath its life as well as the outward And as life so taste omnis vita gustu ducitur The hidden man must be fed with hidden Manna meat and drink that the world knows not of its comforts are never higher than in decays of the body 1 Cor. 4. 16. A man is as his delight and pleasure is it must have something agreeable Fourthly Distinct in ends The aim and tendency of the new Nature is to God 't is from God and therefore to him Gal. 2. 19. 'T is a life whereby a man is enabled to move and act towards God as his utmost end to glorifie him or to enjoy him A carnal man's personal contentment is his highest aim water riseth not beyond its fountain But a gracious man doth all to please God Col. 1. 11. to glorifie God 1 Cor. 10. 31. And this not only from his obligations Rom. 14. 7 8. but from his being that principle of life that is within him Ephes. 1. 12. A man that hath a new principle cannot live without God his great purpose and desire is to enjoy more of him 3. The excellency of the one above the other There is life carnal life natural and life spiritual Life carnal as much as it glittereth and maketh a noise in the world 't is but a death in comparison of the life of Grace 1 Tim. 5. 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth and let the dead bury their dead Luke 9. 60. and dead in trespasses and sins None seem to make so much of their lives as they yet dead as to any true life and sincere comfort So life natural 't is but a vapour a wind and a little puff of wind that is soon gone take it in the best Nature is but a continued sickness our food is a constant medicine to remedy the decays of Nature most men use it so alimenta sunt medicamenta But more particularly First Life natural is a common thing to Devils Reprobates Beasts Worms Trees and Plants but this is the peculiar priviledge of the Children of God 1 Iohn 4. 13. Therefore Gods Children think they have no life unless they have this life If we think we have a life because we see and hear so do the Worms and smallest Flyes if we think we are alive because we eat drink and sleep so do the Beasts and Cattel if we think we live because we reason and conferr so do the Heathens and Men that shall never see God if we think we have life because we grow well and wax strong proceeding to Old Age so do the Plants and Trees of the Field Nay we have not only this in common with them but in this kind of life other Creatures excel Man The Trees excel us for
are not valued above all the glory and plenty of the World Our condition is under a curse without these in these Christ shewed his love Acts 3. 26. Unto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities He dyed not to make us rich honourable great but for remission of sin This is a solid ground of rejoycing this abideth for ever Doct. 4. We must not affect singularity of dispensations but be content to be dealt with as others of Gods Children have been dealt with before us We must not expect to go to Heaven without difficulties 1 Pet. 5. 9. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your Brethren that are in the world We are not alone our Lot is no harder than others of Gods holy ones All have gone to Heaven this way God will so manifest himself to us that still there may be room for faith and patience SERMON CXLVII PSAL. CXIX VER 133. Order my steps in thy Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me IN the former Verse the Prophet had begged for a comfortable look from God and some renewed taste of his mercy he now amplifies his request and as he there prayed for pardoning mercy so now for sanctifying Grace Many that seek mercy to deliver them from the guilt of sin do not desire Grace to deliver them from the power of it and yet the one is as necessary as the other that we may not offend God as well as that sin may not hurt us To pray only for pardoning mercy would seem to be a praying only for our own interest and not for Gods Gods interest lyes in our subjection our interest lyes in impunity and freedom from the curse of the Law and the flames of Hell and let me tell you That our interest is not sufficiently provided for till the heart be sanctified as well as sin pardoned for an unholy Creature can never be happy that 's clear against the course of all the Lords wise proceedings He hath setled every thing and put it into its proper place and a sinful Creature can never enjoy impunity therefore as we need to pray Lord be merciful to us so Lord Order my steps in thy Word c. In this Prayer there are two Branches I. A Petition for Grace for the regulation of his life Order my steps according to thy Word II. A deprecation of the contrary evil And let not any iniquity have dominion over me The first part of his prayer is by way of prevention the second is by way of reserve and the connexion of both doth in effect speak thus Lord if thou dost not order my goings surely iniquity will have dominion over me Therefore he first prays that God will not permit him to erre or if the Lord should by his righteous Providence permit him to fall that he might return again to his Duty that sin may not wholly and clearly carry it in his heart and have a full power over him Lord order my steps according to thy Word but if I should fail Let not any iniquity have dominion over me The same method is used Psal. 19. 13. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins He doth desire absolutely to be kept from presumptuous sins but then he addes by way of supposition and reserve that if he could not by reason of his naughty heart be kept from them yet that they might not have full power and dominion over him Rabbi David Kimchi indeed refers the former Branch to the Affirmative Precept Order my steps according to thy Word and the latter Branch to the Negative Precept and so he makes the meaning to be this Let me neither break thy Laws by omitting any Duty or committing any Sin You may take that Division of the Words if you will In the former Branch observe The Act of Grace Order the Subject My steps the Rule Thy Word In the latter Branch observe The evil deprecated the dominion of sin the universality or degree of the deprecation Let not any iniquity neither great nor small sins take the Throne by turns To explain these Circumstances The Act of Grace Order The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 direct or set straight my steps Iunius hath it Institue frame or appoint And Ainsworth hath it Firmly direct for indeed the word signifies to instruct order and establish We are ignorant and apt to erre therefore God must instruct us we are various and uncertain in our motions therefore God must order us in a way of obedience and reduce us into a settled course and method that all may be done in a subordination to our great end for order respects that And we are soon discouraged therefore God must support and establish us so firmly direct that thou mayest establish our steps according to thy word The Subject is My steps Because the affections are the feet of the soul by which it walks out after the object represented the understanding represents and the will chuseth therefore some would limit these steps to the affections I think it comprizeth all the actions of the reasonable Creature that no thoughts no deeds no counsels no enterprizes of his might transgress the limits of Gods word For the Rule In thy Word The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to thy Oracle However the Phrase is to be noted In thy Word not only according to this rule but in this path The summ is this Lord thou hast invited me to walk in thy Word now direct me strengthen me to walk in it and let all my motions and my actions keep within the compass of it For the other part Let not any iniquity have dominion over me Because the Septuagint read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and out of them the Vulgar Let not all iniquity tyrannize over me Some have conceived the sence to be Let me not be trampled upon not opprest by all kind of wrong and all kind of injustice as if he pleaded here to be kept from the tyranny of his enemies But this is not probable and other Scriptures that are parallel to this where the like expression is used will not permit such a sense and therefore he saith Let not any or every iniquity have dominion over me Why Because sins take the Throne by turns sometimes a man finds this sin and sometimes that sin in the Throne and sometimes strange sins that we little think of may get a great power over the heart even those that we fear least many times may steal into the Throne From the first Branch observe Doctr. I. That there is a constant daily necessity of Grace to direct and order our motions and actions according to the Word of God Now that there is a daily and hourly necessity of Grace is a point that frequently offereth it self in this Psalm I shall briefly dispatch it therefore in these Propositions 1. It appears from the strictness of
us and we are called by thy name leave us not Thus God is said to be nigh because he dwelleth in the Churches and walketh in the midst of them but those that are Converted indeed are in a straighter Union with God all those that are Members of the Visible Church and are united to Christ by a visible and political Union they have great Priviledges for they are a Society under God's special care and government and enjoy the means of Grace and the offers of Salvation and great helps by the gifts bestowed upon the body and so have God nearer to them then others though they have not the saving fruits of Union with Christ and Communion with God Once more a People that are nigh unto God visibly and politically may be cast off as Ier. 13. 11. For as a girdle cleaveth to the loines of a man so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Iudah saith the Lord that they might be unto me for a people and for a name and for a praise and for a glory but they would not hear yet I will cast them away as a rotten girdle that is good for nothing ver 10. These words are the Application of a charge given to Ieremiah to get him a girdle and hide it till it was rotten and then to bring it forth and tell the People the meaning of this Ceremony he was to get a Girdle not Leathern nor Woollen such as were commonly worn by the ordinary sort but a Linnen Girdle such as the better sort of Persons were wont to wear he was not to wet it or put it in water to imply that neither God not ought from him had been the cause of the general Corruption and Destruction of this People but to hide it in a dry place near Euphrates till it was Corrupted Thus God would lay visibly before their eyes their own state they were as near about him girded as close to him as a girdle about a man's loins yet then good for nothing But for those to whom God is near by saving benefits they cannot be lost for where the nearness is really begun it will continue and never be broken off You may as well separate the Leaven and the Dough impossibile est massam a pasta separare c. 5. In those that are living Members of Christ's Mystical Body we must distinguish between a state of nearness and Acts of nearness by Converting Grace we are brought into a state of nearness unto God and in Worship we actually draw nigh unto him and he to us The state of nearness is the state of Favour and Reconciliation with God into which we are admitted who were before strangers and Enemies Col. 1. 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled And also our participation of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust or Life of God from which we were formerly alienated by Sin Eph. 4. 18. Having their understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart For these three do alwayes go together the Favour of God the Image of God and Fellowship with God when Adam lost one he lost all when he lost the Image of God he also lost the Favour of God or Fellowship with God or nearness to him So then our state of nearness lyeth in the recovery of the Favour of God and the Image or Life of God when we stand right in his grace and live his life they are both great Mercies and both the ground of our Fellowship with God or nearness to him Oh Christians think with your selves is it not a great priviledge for poor sinful Creatures that could not think of God without horror or hear him named without Trembling or pray to him without great dejection of Heart to look upon God as reconciled and willing to receive us and bless us So for the Life of God to have a life begun in us by the Spirit of God and maintained by the continual Influences of his Grace till all be perfected in Glory what a Priviledge is this None but they that live this Life can have Communion with God Things cannot converse that do not live the same Life as Adam had no Companion or meet-help but was alone though all the Creatures came and subjected themselves to him Trees Beasts Men c. Gen. 2. 18. And the Lord said it is not good for man to be alone I will make him an help meet for him But besides this state of nearness there are special Acts of nearness both on God's part and ours he is nearer to us sometimes than at others when we have more evidences of his Favour inward or outward inward Evidences when he quickens comforts supports the Soul filleth the heart with Joy and Peace in Believing at such a time God is near we feel him sensibly exciting and stirring up his own work in us The Soul alwayes dwelleth in the Body but it doth not alwayes act alike it is ever equal in point of Habitation but not in point of Operation So Christ doth always dwell in the heart by his Spirit but he doth not alwayes act alike but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his good Pleasure Phil. 2. 13. God is not alike always present with his People but never withdraweth that Influence that is necessary to the being of Grace Psal. 73. 23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand So outwardly sometimes God hideth himself sometimes seemeth not to mind the affairs of his People at other times all the World shall know that they are near and dear to him he that toucheth them toucheth the Apple of his Eye those that will not see shall see and be ashamed for their envy at his people Isa. 26. 11. So on our part there is a standing Relation between us and God but our hearts are more or less towards him in Worship we especially then draw near unto him though there be a communion in walking with God in our whole course these things must be distinguished for actual intercourse may be interrupted or suspended when our state of nearness to God ceaseth not 6. The Grounds and Reasons of all nearness or the way how it cometh about are these four I. God's Covenant with us II. Our Incorporation into Christ. III. The Inhabitation of the Spirit in us And IV. Mutual Love between God and us These are the Reasons why God is near us and we a People near unto God I. His Covenant with us or Confederation in the Covenant God promiseth to be our God and we to be his People Ier. 32. 38. And they
Reasons with us but a strong inclination of heart to hold us to it else we shall be off and on with God Neh. 4. 6. The building went on because the people had a mind to the work Nothing else will do it but this 3. The Utility We shall have more comfort in the sincerity of our Affections than we can ever have in the perfection of our Actions The People of God that cannot plead the perfection of what they do plead the reality of their Love Iohn 21. 17. Lord thou knowest all things and knowest that I love thee 4. Ex debito We owe so much love to God that every thing that he requireth should be welcom to us for Gods sake they are his Testimonies therefore your souls should love them and bind them upon your hearts and the rather because we are to do our Duty not as Servants but as Friends Ioh. 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you not ye are my Servants Between Friends there is a perfect harmony and agreement in Mind and Will to do a thing for loves sake to his Friend this is an Act of Friendship Not by servile constraint but to keep them as they are his we are to do what Christ commandeth because he commandeth it and that is to do it in love Otherwise we break the Commands when we keep them Besides the outward Act there must be a ready inclination and delight in our Work Carnal Men the good they do they would not do that obedience is not worthy the name of obedience that is extorted from us men had rather live ungodly if they durst for fear of Punishment 'T is but a slight kind of Religion when Fear prevaileth more than Love they do somewhat God willeth but they had rather leave it undone a man is never firmly gained to God till he prefer Service before Liberty and loveth holiness as holiness But how must we shew this Love By two things by being Aweful and Cheerful Grieved when we offend him Glad when we please him Aweful in avoiding what he forbiddeth and Cheerful in performing what he requireth 1. Aweful you dare not break with God in any one point but are very chary and tender of the Commandments keep them as the Apple of his Eye Prov. 7. 2. that's offended with the least dust or keeping of Jewels Prov. 6. 24. Bind them continually upon thy heart tye them about thy neck as Iewels Choice of them 2. By being Cheerful Ready and Forward to every good Work Psal. 110. 3. A willing People You need not stand urging and pressing the inclination of their hearts swayeth them A Man is hardly kept from that he loveth 1 Ioh. 2. 5. He that keepeth my word in him is the love of God perfected Secondly The Degree I love them exceedingly Doctrine Our Love to the Law must be an exceeding Love First In the General It noteth the height and intensiveness of our Love not a cold Love as Children love things but are soon put out of the humour but an high strong Love that will not easily be broken or diverted such as doth deeply affect the heart Psalm 119. 97. Oh how I love thy Law 't is my meditation all the day We that are so coldly affected to spiritual things do not understand the force of these Expressions An high and strong Love will break forth into Meditation Operation make us sedulous and serious in obeying God Psal. 119. 48. My hands will I lift up to thy Commandments which I have loved 1 Ioh. 2. 5. He that keepeth my Word in him is the love of God perfected Lift up our Eyes to the receiving our Ears to the hearing our Hands to the doing of thy Commandments this argueth Love Secondly The Prevalency Not only high and strong but to a prevailing Degree 1. Such as prevaileth over things without us This is such a Love as is greater than our Love to all other things Wealth Honour Credit Estate yea Life it self For if any thing be loved above out duty to God it will soon prove a snare to us Matth. 13. 44. Sold all to buy the field wherein the treasure was hid All for the Pearl of price a Believer seeth such a treasure in the Word of God that he maketh no reckoning of any Wordly thing in comparison of it But will part with whatever is pleasant and profitable to him to enjoy it rather than be deprived of his Grace if any fleshly sensitive Good or Interest lyeth closer to the heart than the Word of God it will in time prevail so as to make Gods Will and Glory stoop to it rather than this Interest shall be Renounced or Contradicted There is no talking of serving God till you have this prevailing Love and hate all things in comparison of your Duty to God Luk. 14. 26. If any man hate not Father and Mother 2. Such as doth prevail over Carnal Desires and evil Affections within us if it be not a Love that doth eat up and devour our Lusts within us if the bent of your hearts be not more God than for Sin See Baxter page 273 274 275 to 279. in his directions about Conversion There will be Evil in the best and some Good in the worst the critical difference lieth in the prevalent bent of the heart when your dislike of sin is greater than your love then you may say Rom. 7. 20. It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me There must be a renewed self that prevaileth above corrupt self Well then Rest not in some General approbation of the ways of God or inclination to Good but this prevailing Affection that Justleth Sin out of the Soul SERM. CLXXXIII PSALM CXIX VER 168. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies for all my ways are before thee DAvid still goeth on in his Plea he had spoken of his Faith and Love and now of his Fear We must 1. Labour for Faith to believe the Promises The Man of God beginneth there I have hoped for thy salvation 2. This Faith must work by Love that is his next step My soul loveth thy Testimonies exceedingly And 3. Love must breed in us a Reverend fear of Gods Majesty and a care to please him in all things This is the third part of the Plea mentioned in the Text I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies c. In which words First His Integrity is again asserted Secondly The Reason and Incouragement of it First His Integrity is Asserted I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies Where 't is Notable the Object of his Duty is expressed by two words Precepts and Testimonies Mandatis adjungit testimonia saith Calvin ut ostendat se non tantum agere de regala bene vivendi sed complecti totum salutis foedus He addeth the word Testimonies to that of Precepts to comprize the whole Covenant of Salvation Precepts signifyeth the Moral Law and Testimonies Doctrines of Grace Secondly The moving cause