3. For the properties of it. You have them here in the text : —
"1.] They must be earnest. 2.] A constant bent of heart.
1.] An earnest bent of heart. Common and ordinary afFection or desire after the word will not serve the turn ; not a faint and cold wish, but such as hath heat and warmth in it. It is good to see by what expressions the desires of the saints are set forth in scripture. By the desire of infants after the breast, 1 Peter ii. 2 ; they cannot live without it. It is set forth also by the panting of the hart after the water-brooks, Ps. xlii. 1. To meet with God in his word is as a brook of water to a chased hart ; it refresheth and revives it. It is set forth by the desires of a longing woman, ver. 40 of this psalm, * Behold I have longed after thy precepts.' The children of God are fond of nothing so much as of his word and ordinances. It is set forth by the appetite which a hungry man hath toward his meat after a long abstinence : Ps. Ixxxiv. 2, ' My soul longeth, yea, even f\xinteth, for the courts of the Lord.' Or, as a weary traveller and thirsty man longeth after drink : Ps. Ixiii. 1, ' My soul thirsteth for thee,' &c. Or. as cool air to the weary: Ps. cxix. 131, 'I opened my mouth and panted ; for I longed for thy commandments ; ' a metaphor taken from a man tired with running, gaping for breath to take in some cool air and refreshing. What think you of all these expressions ? are they strains and reaches of wit, or the real experiences of the children of God ? The truth is, we have such languid motions this way, that we know not how to understand the force of such expressions, therefore we think them to be conceits, we that are so cold and indifferent whether we meet with God in his word, yea or nay.
[2.] As it is not cold, so it is not fleeting, but constant. Many men have good affections for a while, but they abide not ; as I shall give you some kinds.
(1.) Some out of error in judgment think the word of God is only fit for novices (as the Stancarists i), to enter us into the rudiments of religion, but too low a dispensation for our after growth. It is milk for babes, they think ; but afterwards we must live immediately upon the Spirit. But we see that David's affection ever carried liim to the word, not only at his first acquaintance with God, but at all times, as in the text.
(2.) Some prize the word in adversity, when they have no other comforts to live upon ; then they can be content to study the word to comfort them in their distresses ; but when they are well at ease they despise it. But David made use of it at all times ; in prosperity, to humble him ; in adversity, to comfort him ; in the one, to keep him from pride ; in the other, to keep him from despair : in affliction the word was his cordial ; in worldly increase it was his antidote ; and so
' Stancarus was professor of Hebrew at Konigsberg, where lie maintained a violent controversy with Osiander. He afterwards went into Poland, where he excited much conimotion. There he died in 1574. — Ed.
186 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXI.
at all times his heart was carried out to the word either for one neces- sity or another.
(3.) Some daring a qualm of conscience have an affection for holy things ; as we desire strong waters in a pang, not for a constant diet. "While the terrors of God are upon them, nothing will satisfy them but the word : Oh, * send for Moses and Aaron,' then when the plague was upon them ; but as their trouble wears off, so doth their affection to the word of God. It is fear that drives them to the word, and not love.
(4.) Some out of a general sense of the excellency that is in the word ; they go on smoothly for a while, as Herod, who heard gladly, Mark vi. 20. So do many till the word come to cross their lusts and touch their darling sin, then they run to earthly pleasures again, and out of a sense of difficulty and carnal despondency, they give over the pursuit.
(5.) Some are taken with the mere novelty : John v. 35, ' Ye were willing to rejoice in his light for a season ;' while the doctrine is novel, and ministers have countenance from great men, as John had from Herod, and their gifts are in the flourish — none but John in their account ; but when the conceit of novelty was gone, and John fell under the cross, then their affection was spent.
(6.) Some in case of dubious anxiety, or in doubtful debates, may desire to know the truth, and be much and earnest in the study of the word ; but when they get above their scruples, and in plain truths, ordinary cases, they neglect it. Whereas David longed for the word of God at all times, to feel the power of God accompanying it, so as to find strength against his corruptions, and that he might be established in waiting upon God. This was the constant and stable desire of his soul.