Use. It teacheth us what to do when we meet with anything that is difficult and impossible to us ; as to repent, believe, to renounce a bewitching lust, or perform a sjjiritual duty. Two ways we are apt to miscarry in such a case ; either by murmuring against God, as if he were harsh and austere, and had ' reaped where he hath not sown, and gathered where he hath not strewed ; ' or by casting off all out of a foolish despondency : cut at heart, or else wax faint. These are the two evils. I shall never get rid of this naughty heart. Or else we fret against God : Prov. xix. 3, ' The foolishness of man perverteth his way ; and his heart fretteth against the Lord.' Now to prevent these evils, spread the case before the Lord in this manner —
(1.) Acknowledge the debt. God will keep up the sense of his authority ; his command must be the reason of our care, as well as his promise the ground of our hope. (2.) Confess your impotency : 2 Cor. iii. 5, ' Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves ; but our sufficiency is of God.' This is to empty the bucket before we go to the fountain. When we are full of self, there is no room for grace. (3.) Own God's power : Mat. xix. 26, ' But Jesus beheld them, and saith unto them, With men this is impossible ; but with God all things are possible.' The difficulties that we meet with in the way to heaven should serve only to make us despair of our own strength and abilities, not of God's, with whom nothing is impossible. It is a relief to consider of the divine power, from whence we fetch all our supplies necessary to life and godliness. (4.) Deal with God earnestly about help. The command showeth how pleasing such requests are to God, and you own God not only as a lawgiver, but autlior of grace. Do not come in a lukewarm, careless fashion, but ' Oh that my heart were directed ! ' Sluggish wishes will do no good ; you bespeak your own denial when you ask grace as a thing of course : Jer. xxxi. 18, ' I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke : turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my God.'
2. The next thing that we may note, is the serious desire that is in God's people after holiness. Mark, it is not a velleity, but a volition, Oh that, noteth the vehemency and heartiness.
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It is his first desire. David had hitherto spoken assertively ; -when he coraeth lo speak supplications, his first and chief request to God is, ' Oh that my ways were directed ! ' &c.
Mark again, it is not a desire of happiness, but' holiness ; not ' Oh that I were blessed ! ' but ' Oh that my ways were directed ! ' A mind to know, a will to obey, and a memory to keep in mind God's precei)ts.
It is practical holiness : ' Oh that my ways ! ' God hath his ways : * They walk in Ids ways,' ver. 3. And we have our ways : ' Oh that nvj ways were directed ! ' that is, all my thoughts, counsels, inclinations, speeches, actions, were directed by tliy statutes. Every commandment is a royal edict, a statute which God hath made for the governing of the world.
Now the saints have this desire of holiness —
[1.] From the new nature that is in them. The appetite followeth the nature : Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.' Desires being the vigorous bent of the soul, discover the temper of it. The carnal nature puts forth itself in lustings, so doth the new nature. The main thing we have by grace is a new heart, that is, new loves, new desires, and new delights : Kom. viii. 5, ' For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit.'
[2.] Out of love to God, which implieth subjection and conformity to him. Love to God is testified by a desire of subjection ; for his love is a love of bounty, ours a love of duty : 1 John v. 3, ' For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments ; and his commandments are not grievous.' It is the great desire of their souls that they may be subject to God. As he that loveth would not offend the party loved, so it is their desire to please God in all things ; and as holiness im- plieth a conformity to God, they study to be like him. It is their hope, their desire, their care.- Their hope : 1 Johniii. 2, 'But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is.' It is their desire and care in every ordinance : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But we all, with open f\ice beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' And it is their constant endeavour : 1 Peter i. 15, ' But as he which hatli called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.'