VOL. VI. K
146 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XYII.
govern his thoughts, they would come more to hand. Partly, want of love. We pause and stay upon such objects as we delight in. Love naileth the soul to the object or thing beloved : Ps. cxix. 97, ' Oh, how I love thy law ! it is my meditation all the day.' Carnal men find no burden in their thoughts ; their heart is in them. Well, then, though you have not such choice and savoury thoughts as others have, yet set upon the work ; you can think of anything you love.
Oh ! but, as some press it, it requireth art and skill, and logical dis- position of places of argumentation.
Ans. AVe cannot tie you to a method. Serious thoughts, no ques- tion, are required, and dealing with the heart about it in the best way of reasoning that we can use. Take these directions : —
1. Look how others muse how to commit a sin ; and shall not we muse how to redress it? Wicked men sit a-brood: Isa. lix. 5, ' They hatch the cockatrice egf^, and weave the spider s web ; they devise mischief upon the bed ; ' Micah ii. 1, ' Woe to them that devise mischief on their beds.' So do you muse how to carry on the work of the day with success : Prov. xvi. 30, ' The wicked man shutteth his ej^es to devise f reward things;' it signifies his pensive solitary muttering with himself.
2. As you would persuade others to good. Surely you do not count admonition so hard a work. What words you would use to them, use the same thoughts to yourself : heart answereth to heart.
3. You understand a truth ; you have arguments evident and strong why you should believe it ; repeat them over to the soul with applica- tion : Job V. 27, ' See it, and know it for thy good.' This application is partly by way of trial, partly by way of charge. By way of trial: How is it with thee, 0 my soul ? — Eom. viii. 31, ' What shall we say to these things ? ' By way of charge and command : Ps. Ixxiii. 28, ' It is good for me to draw nigh to God ; I have put my trust in the Lord, that I might declare all thy works.'
SERMON XVIL
/ will delight myself in thy statutes : I loill not forget thy ivorcl. —
Ver. 16.
David had spoken much of his respect to the word, both as to his for- mer practice and future resolutions. A godly man, the more good he doth, the more he desireth, delighteth, and resolveth to do. Spiritual affections grow upon "us by practice and much exercise. The graces of the Spirit and the duties of religion do every one fortify and strengthen one another ; lose one, and lose all ; keep one, and keep all. Meditation breedeth delight, and delight helpeth memory and practice. He had said, ' I will meditate on thy precepts ; ' and now, ' I will delight myself in thy statutes ; ' and that producetli a further benefit, 'I will not forget thy word.'
The spiritual life is refreshed with change as well as the natural ;
VeR. 16,] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 147
but it is with change of exercise, not of affection. There is hearing, praying, conferring, meditating, and all with delight ; for when one fontinel is drawn dry, we may, as the lamb doth, suck another that will yield new supply and sweetness. David had spoken of his various exercises about the word, in the use of all which he would maintain a spiritual delight.
In this verse observe again a double respect to the word of God : —
1. / will delight myself in thy statutes.
2. / ^oill not forget thy tvord.
These are fitly suited. Delight preventeth forgetfulness ; the mind will run upon that which the heart is delighted in ; and the heart is where the treasure is. Mat. vi. 21. Worldly men, that are intent upon carnal interests, forget the word ; it is not their delight. If anything displease us, we are glad if we can forget it ; it is some release from an inconvenience to take off our thoughts from it ; but it doubleth the contentment of a thing that we are delighted in to remember it and call it to mind. In the outward school, if a scholar by his own averse- ness from learning, or by the severity and imprudence of his master, by his morosity or unreasonable exactions, hath no delight in his book, all that he learneth is lost and forgotten ; it goeth in at one ear, and out at the other : but this is the true art of memory, to cause them to delight in what they learn. Such instructions as we take in with a sweetness, they stick with us, and run in our minds night and day. So saith David here, ' I will delight in thy statutes : I will not forget thy word.'
Doct. 1. One great respect which the saints owe to the word of God is to delight therein.
David resolveth so to do : 'I will delight,' or solace or recreate my- self in thy statutes ; this should be his refreshment after business. David had many things to delight in ; — the splendour and magnifi- cence of his kingdom ; as Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 30, ' Is not this great Babylon that I have built, for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ? ' His great victories, which Aristotle saith are delightful to all. To vucdu '))8v, ov jjiovov T0t9 (pi\ovetKoi<i uWa iracn' (pavracria <yap V7r€po)(f,^ yr/verai. It is an appearance of excellency (Arist. Rhet. i. cap. 11). Or in his instruments of music ; as those, Amos vi. 5, ' that chaunt to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music like David.' No ; this was not the mirth that he chose for his portion. Wicked men throng their hearts with such delights as these, lest an evil conscience flee upon them ; ' but I will delight myself in thy statutes.' He Ynight take comfort in a subordinate way in these things ; but the solace of his life, and the true sauce of all his labours, was in the word of God. As David, so Jeremiah, chap. xv. 16, ' Thy words were found, and I did eat them ; they were unto me as the joy and r( joicing of my heart.' That was the food and the repast of his soul, and he felt more warmth and cherishing in it than any can in their bodily food. So Paul : Eom. vii. 22, ' I delight in the law of God in the inward man.' Not to know it only, but to feel the power of it pre- vailing over his lusts ; that was his delight as to the better part of his soul. So it is made a general character of the blessed man : Ps. i. 2,