2. We may mention it to our own comfort. Thus Paul, 2 Qor. i. 12. Jesus Christ is our rejoicing, but in one sense this is also our rejoicing, ' the testimony of our conscience,' Wherefore is grace given us, but for the furtherance of our comfort? To bear false witness against ourselves is naught. Though the duties of the first table neither begin nor end in us, yet the whole law of charity begins at home.
3. For our own vindication. Thus Hezekiah : Isa. xxxviii. 3, ' Eemember, 0 Lord, how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart.' This was his plea ; but I suppose it was not before God as a judge, but before God as a witness. He called God to witness that he had walked before him with a perfect heart. He was slandered by Piabshakeh. They thought, when he broke down the altars of Baal and cut down their groves, that he had cut down the altars of the God of Israel ; therefore, saith Eabshakeh, speaking to the humour and discontent of the people — and we must look upon it as a j^olitic insinuation — 'Is not this he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away and demolished ? ' 2 Kings xviii. 22. Now, saith Hezekiah, ' I have walked before thee with an upright heart.' Many a good magistrate is often put upon such pleas for God's honour, in things distasteful to the popularity.
4. What God hath wrouirht in us mav be urged as an argument in prayer to obtain further grace many ways. Partly because God loves to crown his own mercies, and make one to be a step to another. We are endeared to God by his own mercies ; he is very tender and choice of them. In whom he, hath begun a good work he will perfect it : Zech. iii. 2, ' Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? ' What ! shall all my former mercies be in vain ? It is God's own argument, and he takes it well when his people urgeth it. In many cases, Deus donando debet — by giving one mercy, he makes himself a debtor to give another. Plutarch gives us a story of the Ehodians, when they came to sue to the Romans for help, that one urged what good turns they
9G SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XL
had done to the Romans ; but the people urged what good turns the liomans did to them, and they obtained reUef. Such a plea is accept- able and honourable to God, when we urge what God hath done tor us. And partly because sincerity, by the consent of all, hath the full room of an evidence and gosi)el-plea in the court of justification. AVlien the business is how a sinner shall be accepted with God, for a law-plea we can only plead the merits of Christ and God's mercy ; there all we have and can do is but dung and dross, Phil. iii. 8, 9, as to an acquittance from sin. But as to our acquittance from hypocrisy, as to the pica of a gospel-evidence, we may produce our sincerity and the fruits of our obedience, to show our title is good as the matter is ordered by the Lord's grace, that we have the gospel-title. To all the other our title is by the righteousness of Christ, but the evidence of our title is sincere walking,
Secondlt/, Let us come to David's request, ' Let me not wander from thy commandments.' It may be translated, ' Make me not to err ; ' that is, ' by the suspending of thy grace ; ' for that will necessarily follow. The Septuagint reads, ' l)o not repel from tliy command- ments.' God Seems to repel and cast off those that he doth not assist with his grace. Here David saith, ' I have sought thee.' Observe the misclikief that a heart which truly seeketh God desireth to fly from — sin, or wandering from the path of obedience. There is a com- munion with God, but in the way of his commandments ; therefore they do not desire establishment of their interest and happiness only, but of God's glory, that they might not wander. Hence observe —
Doct. 1. The more experience men have of the ways of God, the more sensible will tliey be of their readiness to wander,
David, a man of so much experience, that sought God with his whole heart, ' Lord, let me not wander.' What is 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 duly by the lump, and by the visible bulk of it ; we look only to epyov vo/xou, 'the work of the law,' Rom. ii. 15, and to avoid gross sins, or perform outward acts of worship. Oh! if I do sin, I am no adulterer, no extortioner, Luke xviii, 11, We think then it is well. But when we begin to have grace wrought in our heart, then we begin to serve God in the spirit, Phil. iii. 3 : 'And my God, whom I serve with my spirit,' Rom. i. 1), 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 visiljle bulk of obedience, and with some general conformity. Ay ! but at first there is only a general purpose to serve God in the spirit ; but afterward, when they begin to look into the breadth of the commandment, still they are sensible of their com- ing short, and liow apt they are to wander in this and that point ; still their sense of duly is increased, because their light, their love to God, and their power is increased, and because they draw near to their everlasting hopes.