3. The Holy Grhost makes use of a sanctified memory, bringing scriptures to our remembrance as we have need. It is made their act^ because the Holy Ghost made use of their memories : ' They remem- bered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up,' John ii. 17. They that neglect to search and hide the word in their hearts, they have not such seasonable refreshment ; for God works more strongly with the strongest graces ; there where there is the greater receptivity, there is tlie greater influence; those that are ignorant cannot expect such help as those that have the word dwell richly in their hearts.
The second reason is, therefore should we hide the word in our hearts, because God doth so in the work of conversion : Heb. viii. 10, ' I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in theii" hearts.' The mind is compared to tables of stone, and the heart to the ark; and so this is required of us to ' write them upon the table of our heart,' Prov. vii. 3 ; and here, ' I have hidden thy word in my heart.' How doth this follow ? because God doth so in conversion, therefore it is our duty?
I answer — (1.) God requires what he works, to show the creature's duty, as well as the power of his own grace. God is to convert and turn; yet do you turn, circumcise your heart, and I will circumcise; mortify your members, &c. ; and yet, ' If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' He gives and requires ; to engage the subserviency of our endeavours, and to make us sensible of our duty and obligation. (2.) This followeth because this work must be gone over again and again that it may be more explicit. We must revive the work, and put a fresh copy of the law into our heart, to keep the old work a-foot.
■ Use 1. To persuade you to study the scripture, that you may get understanding, and hide the word in your hearts for gracious pur- poses. This is the book of books ; let it not lie idle and unemployed. The world can as well be without the sun as the bible. Ps. xix., first he speaks of the sun, then of the law of God. This is to the Christian and o-racious world as the sun is to the outward world. The use and profit of it should diake us look after more acquaintance with it. Consider the great use of the word for informing the understanding and reforming the will. For informing the understanding : 2 Tim. iii. 17, the word of God is ' able to make the man of God perfect, and thoroughly furnished.' AVho should have more knowledge than the man of God, that is to stand in God's stead, and teach the people ? Then for reforming the will : ver. 9 of this psalm, ' Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto according to thy word.' A young man that is so heedless and headstrong, and in the very ruff and heat of his lusts, yet there is enough in the word to cleanse and tame liim, and subdue him to God. Oh ! therefore, let us
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPON PSAL3I CXIX. 105
get it into our hearts ; let it not only move the lighter part of the soul, but get rooting, that it may have its full power and force, that we may not only have a little knowledge to talk of it ; but we are to hide it deeply, that it may take root, and spring up again in our lives and conversations. To this end meditate often of it, and receive it in the love of it.
1. Meditate often of it: Luke ii. 10, ' Mary kept all these sayings.' How did she keep them? She 'pondered them in her heart.' Musini^ makes the fire to burn, and deep and constant thoughts are operative ; not a glance or a slight view. The hen which straggleth from her nest when she sits a-brooding produceth nothing; it is a constant incubation which hatcheth the young. So when we have only a few straggling thoughts, and do not sit a-brooding upon a truth ; when Ave have flashes only, like a little glance of a sunbeam upon a wall, it doth nothing ; but serious and inculcative thoughts, through the Lord's blessing, will do the work. Urge the heart again and again ; as the apostle, when he had laid down the doctrine of justification and the privileges thereof: Kom. viii. 31, 'Now what shall we say to these things?' Is this a truth? — then what will become of me if I disregard it ? Thus to return upon our heart when any light begins to shine in our minds from the scripture : is this the word of God, and doth it find no more entertainment in my heart ?
2. Receive it in the love of it. The apostle makes that to be the ground of apostasy : 2 Thes. ii, 10, ' Because they received not the truth in the love of it,' &c. Oh ! let it soak into the affections. If it lie only in the tongue or in the mind, only to make it a matter of talk and speculation, it will be soon gone. The seed which lies upon the surface, the fowls of the air will pick it up. Therefore hide it deeply ; let it get from the ear into the mind, from the mind into the heart ; let it soak further and further. First men have a naked apprehension of truth, then it gets into the conscience, and then it lies in the heart, then it is laid up ; but when we suffer, it only to be made matter of speculation, it is soon lost. Know this, a man may receive a thing in the evidence and light of it, when he doth not receive it in the love of it. When it rests in naked speculation, then he receives a thing in the evidence and light of it ; but when it hath a prevailing sovereignty in the heart, then we receive it in the love of it. When it is dearer than our dearest lust, then it will stick by us ; when we are willing to sell all for the pearl of price. Mat. xiii. 4G. We are often put to it what we will part with — our lusts or the truth. When it breaks in upon the heart w^ith evidence and power, you cannot keep both. Therefore let it soak into the afiections, and hide the word in your hearts, that you may not sin against God.