2. To humble them, and bring them low in the midst of their great enjoyments ; therefore lie casts them down even to the dust. Because we cannot keep our hearts low, therefore God maketli our condition low. This was Paul's case : 2 Cor. i. 7-9, ' And our hope of you is stead- fast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation ; for we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life ; but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead ' — that is, not to build too securely on their own sufficiencies.
3. To try their graces, which are never tried to the life till we be near the point of death. The sincerity of our estate and the strength of faith is not discovered upon the throne so much as in the dust, if we can depend upon God in the hardest condition.
4. To awaken the spirit of prayer: 'Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, 0 Lord,' Ps. cxxx. 1. Affliction puts an edge upon our desires. They that are flat and careless at other times are oftenest then with God.
5. To show the more of his glory, and the riches of his goodness in their recovery: Ps. Ixxi. 20, 21, 'Thou which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again
VeR. 25.] SERMONS UrON PSALM CXIX. 237
from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.' By the greater humiliation, God prepareth us for the greater blessings. As there are multitudes of troubles to humble and try the saints, so his mercies do not come alone, but with great plenty.
Use 1. Let us bless God that we are not put to such great trials. How gentle is our exercise compared with David's case ! We are weak, and God will not overburden us. There is a great deal of the wisdom and love of God seen in the measure of the cross, and in the nature and kind of it. We have no cause to say our belly cleaveth to the dust, or that we are pressed above measure. God givetli us only a gentle remembrance. If brought upon our knees, we are not brought -upon our faces.
2. If this should be our case, do not count it strange. It is a usual exercise of God's people ; let us therefore not be offended, but ap- prove God's holy and wise dispensation. If there be great troubles, there have been great sins, or there will be great comforts, or for the present there are great graces. As such a dispensation is a cor- rection, there is reason to apjirove it. If you be laid in the dust, have you not laid God's honour in the dust, and trampled his laws under foot ? As it is a trial, you have cause to approve it ; for it is but meet that when God hath planted grace in the heart, he should prove the strength of it. Therefore, if you be kept so long in your heavy con- dition that you seem dead, yet if you have faith to keep you alive, and patience be exercised, it is for your greater good : Rom. v. 3, ' And not only so, but we glory in tribulation, knowing that tribula- tion worketh patience ; ' and as affliction is an exercise for your bene- fit and spiritual improvement. The husbandman, when he teareth and rendeth the ground up with the plough, it is to make it more fruit- ful. The longer the metal is in the fire the more pure it cometh forth. Nay, sometimes you have your outward comforts with advan- tage after trouble : as Job xlii. 10-12, ' And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends : also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before ; and the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.' Oh ! when we are fitted to en- joy comforts we shall have them plenty enough.
Second point, That in such great and heavy troubles we should deal with God for help.
In the dust David calleth to God for quickening. The reasons of this, why in great troubles we should go to God for help, are —
1. From the inconvenience of any other course.
[1.] If the godly should smother their grief, and not go to God with it, their sorrow were able to choke them. It is no small case that we have a God to go to, to whom we may freely open our minds. Prayer hath a pacative virtue; as Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 18, 'prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore ; ' and mark the event, ' The woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance vwas no more sad,' &c. An oven stopped up is the hotter within, but vent and utterance giveth ease to the heart, if it be merely by way of complaint to a friend, without expectation of relief ; much more to go to God, and lay open our case before him.