VeK. 17.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 157
we are not consumed, because liis compassions fail not.' Tlie reasons are two: —
1.] We deserve nothing at liis hand.
'2.] We deserve the contrary.
(1.) We cannot merit of God : Job. xxii. 2, ' Can a man be profit- able to God, as he that is wise is profitable to himself ?' Job xxxv. 7, ' If thou be righteous, what givest thou him ? or what receiveth he at thy hand ? ' Whatever God doth for creatures, he doth it freely, because he cannot be obliged or pre-engaged by us. In innocency Adam could impetraj'e, but not mereri — obtain it by covenant, not challenge by desert. Therefore God conferreth as freely as he createth.
(2.) If God would deal with us upon terms of merit, we cannot give him a valuable compensation for temporal life — Gen. xxxii. 10, ' I am less than the least of all thy mercies.' None of God's mercies can simply be said to be little ; whatever cometli from the great God should be great in our value and esteem ; as a small remembrance from a great king. Yet in comparison between the blessings, one may be said to be least, the other greatest. Temporal life with its appendages, compared with spiritual and eternal, is in the rank of his least mercies. God giveth life to the plants, to the trees, to the beasts of the field ; and yet, when we and our deservings come into the balance, we are found wanting : ' I am not worthy,' &c. All our righteousness doth not deserve the air we breathe in. It is so defec- tive, if a man were to pay for his life, it could not merit the continu- ance of it.
[2.] We have deserved the contrary ; we have put ourselves out of God's protection by sin. Death waylaid us when we were in oru- mother's womb ; and as soon as we were born, there was a sentence iu force against us : ' Death came upon all, for that all have sinned,' Rom. v. 12 ; and still we continue the forfeiture, and every day provoke God to cut us off; so that it is a kind of pardoning mercy that continueth lis every moment. Of this we are most sensible in case of danger and sickness, when there is but a step between us and death ; for then the old bond beginneth to be put in suit, and God cometh to execute the sentence of the law ; and deliverance in sucli a case is called forgiveness and remission, and that even to the wicked and impenitent. As Ps. Ixxviii. 38, ' And he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not.' It is called a remission improperly, because it was a reprieve for the time from the temporal judgment; it was not an executing the sentence, or a destroying the sinner presently ; and that not from anything in the sinner, but from God's pity over him as his creature. But now a godly man hath a true pardon renewed at such time, and he is ' loved from the grave ; ' for so it is in the Hebrew: Isa. xxxviii. 17, ' Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of destruction.' To be loved out of a danger, and loved out of a sickness, oh ! that is a blessed thing.
Use 1. To acknowledge the Lord's goodness in these common mercies. We did not give life to ourselves, and we cannot keep it in ourselves. God made us, and God keepeth us. It was not our parents that fashioned us in the womb ; they could not tell what the child would prove, male or female, beautiful or deformed. They
158 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XVIII.
could not tell the number or posture of the veins, or bones, or muscles ; it was all the curious workmanship of a wise God ; "and it is the same God that hath kept us hitherto : Isa. xlvi. 3, 4, ' By me ye are borne from the belly, and carried from the womb ; even to old age I am he, and even to hoar hairs will I carry you/ &c. We have been supported and tenderly handled by God, as parents and nurses carry their younglings in their arms. Many times wanton children are ready to scratch the faces of those that carry them ; so have we put many affronts upon him, yet to the very last doth he carry us in the arms of his providence. In infancy we were not in a capacity to know the God of our mercies, and to look after him ; but nevertheless he looked after us. Afterwards we knew how to grieve him and offend him, long before how to love and serve him. Oh, how early did our naughty hearts appear ! and all along how little have we done for God, ' in whom we live and move and have our being ! ' ' He is not far from us,' in the effects of his care and providence ; but we are far from him by the distance of our thoughts and affections, by the carnal bent of our hearts. It is a good morning exercise for us humbly and thankfully to consider of his continual mercies. For God's ' com- passions are new every morning,' Lam. iii. 22 — as fresh as if never tired with former acts of grace, nor wearied with former offences. It is some recompense for the time of sleep ; half our time passeth away, and we do not show one act of love and kindness unto God ; therefore, as soon as we are awakened we should be with God, Ps. cxxxix. 18. How many are gone down to the chambers of death since the last night !