122 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XIY.
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord.' God promiseth himself, that from Abraham and his family he should have respect. God hath made many great promises to Abraham, as he doth now to all believers ; but if you would have him bring upon you that which he hath spoken, you must not disappoint him. The season- ing of youth betimes in your families is a very great advantage. The family is the seminary of the church and state ; and usually those that are ill-bred in the family, they prove ill when they come abroad. A fault in the first concoction is not mended in the second ; and therefore here you should be declaring the mind and counsel of God to them. Many that afterwards prove eminent instruments of God's glory will bless you for it to all eternity. It is the best love you can express to your children, when you take care to season them Avith the best things. A husband is charged to love his wife. How shall he express this love ? Ej^h. v. 25, 26, ' Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it,' &c. I suppose the degree is not only commended for a pattern, but the kind ; it must be such a love as Christ bore to his church : ' He gave himself for her, that he might sanctify her.' It must be such a love as tends to sanctification. It is a poor kind of love parents express to their children in providing great estates and portions for them, or bringing them up in trades that they may thrive in the world. But when you train them up for heaven, there is the best love : Pro v. iv. 3, 4, ' For I was my father's son ' (he was the darling) , ' tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.' And wherein was that love expressed ? ' He taught me also, and said unto me. Let thine heart retain my words ; keep my commandments and live.' So for servants ; it is not enough to provide bodily mainte- nance for them — so we would do for the beasts if we would use their strength and service ; but we are to instruct them according to our talents. And that is the best love we can show, to provide for their souls.
2. In our converses, speaking of God and of his word in all com- panies, instructing the ignorant, warning and quickening the negligent, encouraging the good, casting out some savoury discourse wherever we come. So Ps. xxxvii. 30, ' The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.' A good man studieth in his speeches to glorify God, to edify those he speaks to : ' I will de- clare thy judgments,' saith David. Wise and gracious discourse drops from him. So Cant. iv. 11, ' Thy lips, 0 my spouse, drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue.' The passages of that song are to be understood in a spiritual sense. Now the lips and the tongue being instruments of speech, and milk and honey things by which the word is ex23ressed, I suppose it is meant of a conference ; and because the word of God is compared to milk and honeycomb, it shows that their conference should be gracious and edifying. This is that Avhich drops from a sanctified mouth.
For the reasons of this : —
1. I shall argue from the interest which God hath in tlie lips and tongue, and therefore they must be used for God. He made them, bought them, and, if we belong to him, we gave them up with other
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 123
tilings to him. We did not reserve our tongues. When we resigned and surrendered ourselves to the Lord's use, we did not make excep- tion. The same argument which holds good for the whole body, why- it should be possessed in sanctilication and honour, holds good for every part of it : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your bodies, and in your spirits, which are God's.' Thy whole is God's, thy spirit, thy body, and every part ; thy wit, strength, hand, tongue, all are God's; and therefore he expects to be glorihed by thy tongue. They were rebels that said, Ps. xii. 4, ' Our lips are our own ; who is lord over us ? ' There is nothing we have that is ours, but God's. Our hearts are not our own, to think what we will ; nor our tongues our own, to speak what we will. God expects service from the tongue, otherwise we must be answerable for it when our sovereign Lord calls us to an account. Now, it is strange God should have so clear a right to our speech and language, and yet so little a share therein : ' Give unto Caisar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' Thy tongue and thy lips, whose are they ? If thou couldst make thy tongue of thyself, then thou mightst use it for thyself; but since you had it from God, you must use it for God. But, alas ! how little are men mindful of this ! Follow them all the day, you get not one word of God from them ; they use their tongues as if they were their own, not God's.