5. Obedience is never right but when it is done out of a conscience of God's authority, intuitu voluntatis. The bare sight of God's will should be reason enough to a gracious heart. It is the will of God ; it is his command, So it is often urged : 1 Thes. iv. 3, the apostle bids them follow holiness, ' for this is the will of God, your sanctifica- tion.' And servants should be faithful in their burdensome and hard labours : 1 Peter ii. 15, ' For so is the will of God, that with well- doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.' And 1 Thes". V. 18, ' In everything give thanks ; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.' That is argument enough to a godly Christian, that God hath signified his will and good pleasure, though the duty were never so cross to his own desires and interests. They obey simply for the commandment sake, without any other reason and inducement. There is indeed o-atio/ormalis, and ratio motiva. There are encouragements to God's service, but the formal reason of obedience is God's will. And this is pure obedience, to do what he wills, because he wills it.
The uses are: — 1. To exhort thee to take this course with thy naughty heart. When it hangs back from any duty, or from any course of strictness, urge it with the authority of God. These precepts are not the advices and counsels of men who wish well to us, and who would advise us to the best, but they are the commands of God, who must and will be obeyed. Or, when thou art carried out to any sin.
YeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 43
it is forbidden fruit ; there is a commandment in the way, and that is as terrible to a gracious heart as an angel with a flaming sword.
To back these thoughts, let me propound a few considerations. Consider —
1. God can command what he will. He is absolute. His will is the supreme reason of all things. It is notable that God backs his laws with the consideration of his sovereignty. You shall do thus and thus. Why ? ' I am the Lord.' That is all his reason, liCv. xviii. 4, 5. It is repeated in that and many places in the next chapter. The Papists speak much of blind obedience, obeying their superiors without inquiring into the reason of it. Surely we owe God blind obedience, ^is 'Abraham obeyed God, not knowing whither he went,' Heb. xi. 8. John Cassian makes mention of one who willingly fetched water near two miles every day, for a whole year together, to pour it upon a dead dry stick, at the command of his superior, when no reason else could be given for it. And I have read of another who professed that, if he were enjoined by his superior to put forth to sea in a ship that had neither mast, tackling, nor any other furnitiire, he would do it ; and when he was asked how he could do this without hazard of his discre- tion, he answered. The wisdom must be in him that hath power to command, not in him that hath power to obe}-. Thus do they place merit in this blind obedience, in giving up their wills absolutely to the power of their superior. Certainly, in God's commands, his sovereignty is enough ; the uttermost latitude of this blind obedience is due to him. If he hath said it is his will, how contrary soever it be to our reason, lusts, interests, it must be done. It is enough for us to know that we are commanded. To command is God's part, and to obey that is ours, whatever shall be declared to be his will and pleasure.
2. God can most severely j)unish our disobedience, and therefore his commands should have a power upon us: James iv. 12, 'There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy ; ' with a destruction indeed, and salvation indeed. So there is but one lawgiver in this sense. He truly hath potestafcm viice et necis. God hath the power of life and death. Why ? Because he can punish with eternal death, and bestow eternal life.
3. He is neither ignorant nor forgetful of our prevarications and disobedience. The Rechabites were tender of the commandment of their dead father, Jer. xxxv., who could not take cognisance of their actions : ' Our father commanded us.' Certainly we should be tender of the commands of the great God : Prov. xv. 3, ' The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and tlie good.' He is not so shut up within the curtain of the heavens but that he takes notice how his laws are kept and observed. Saitli the prophet to Gehazi, ' Went not my spirit with thee?' meaning his prophetical spirit. So doth God, as it were, appeal to the conscience of a sinner. Doth not my spirit go along with thee ? Is not he conscious to our works, and observes all we do ?
4. God stands much upon the authority of his law : Hosea viii. 12, ' I have written to them the great things of my law,' &c. Mark, he calls them ' the great things of his law ; ' they are not things to be shghted and contemned. They are not directions of little moment; there is no small hazard in contemning them, or not walking according