[2.] God is actively blessed with respect fo us as he is the fountain of all blessedness. He is not only blessedness itself, but willing to communicate and give it out to the creature, especially his saints. He fills all created things with his blessedness : Ps. cxlv. 16, ' Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.' There is not a creature in the world but hatli tasted of God's bounty, but especially the saints : Eph. i. 3, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual bless- ings in Christ.' These are vessels into which God is still pouring more, until they be completely filled up. Now, this communicative- ness 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 : ver. 64, ' The earth, 0 Lord, is full of thy mercy ; teach me thy statutes.' Thou art bountiful to all creatures ; and, 0 Lord, show thy bounty to me. The same again : ver. 68, ' Thou art good, and dost good ; teach me thy statutes.' Every good, the more good it is, the more it is diffusive of itself And it is a part of God's blessed- ness that he is still of the giving hand : Acts xx. 35, ' Eemember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said. It is more blessed to give than to receive.' It was a maxim which Christ commended to his disciples : * Eemember the words of the Lord Jesus ; ' that which he often incul- cated, ' That it is more blessed to give than to receive.' The words formally indeed are not found in any evangelist ; only there we may see the whole drift of Christ's doctrine was to press men to give ; it is a more blessed thing. This is the happiness of God, that he gives to all, and receives of none ; that he is so ready to communicate of his own fulness upon such free terms : John i. 16, ' Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace ;' that is, grace for grace's sake. Thus we have seen how God is actively blessed.
2. God is passively blessed as he is blessed by us, or as worthy of all praise from us, for his goodness, righteousness, and mercy, and the communications of his grace. There are two words by which our thanksgiving is expressed — praise and blessing. You have both in Ps. cxlv. 10, ' All thy works shall praise thee, 0 Lord ; and thy saints shall bless thee.' Praise relateth to God's excellency, and blessing^ to his benefits. His works declare his excellency : but his saints, which are sensible of his benefits, they bless him ; they count him worthy of all honour and praise, and are ever ascribing to him, Rev. v. 13, ' Blessing, honour, glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.' Why blessing ? As for other things, so it was for opening the book which was sealed with
VeK. 12.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CSIX. HI
seven seals, and revealing his mind to his people ; as you ma}^ see, ver. 9. So David here, ' Blessed art thou, 0 Lord : teach me thy statutes.' As if he had said, Lord, thou art, and thou shalt bo blessed : I bless thee that thou hast taught me ; and I desire thou wouldst teach me still, that I may ever bless thee. Thus it may be taken in a passive sense, as he is the object of our blessedness.^
Well, then, all that I have said upon this compellation may be reduced to these six propositions : —
1. That God is over all, and above all, blessed enough in himself, and needeth nothing from us to add to his happiness and perfection.
That he is blessed enough in himself: Eom. ix. 5, 'God over all, blessed for ever.' That he needs nothing from us to add to his happi- ness and perfection : Ps. xvi. 2, ' My righteousness, my goodness, extendeth not to thee.' He is above our benefits and injuries. If there could result any one happiness to God from the creature, surely then he would have made the world sooner ; what hindered him ? for why should he keep himself out of his own happiness ? And therefore he made the world, not that he might be happy, but that he misrht be liberal. Before ever there was hill or mountain, man or angel, God was happy enough in himself. The divine persons took infinite delight and complacency in each other ; as their rejoicing is expressed: Prov. viii. 30, 31, 'I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.' God had infinite complacency in Christ, and Christ in God, both in the Spirit, all in each, and each in all, before ever there was hill or mountain. The world is upheld, as stones are ' in an arch, by a mutual dependence, by a combination of interests. We need one another, but God doth not stand in need of us. ' The head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee ; ' the greatest stand in need of the meanest, of their labours, their service ; the meanest parts have their use in the body. But now, God standeth in no need of us, for he givetli all, and he receiveth nothing back again ; as the fountain hath no need of the stream, but the stream hath need of the fountain. The sun fills the lap of the earth with blessings, and the earth returns nothing but vapours, that obscure its beams rather than add anything to its brightness. God filleth every living thing, es- pecially his saints, with blessing, and receiveth nothing from us again.