5. Avoid the causes of lying. There are three of them — (1.) Boast- ing, or speaking too much of ourselves. When men are given to boasting, whatever thing of weight is done, they were privy to it ; their hand was in the work, in contriving and prosecuting the business, their counsel was for it. Nothing can be acted without their knowledge and approbation. This spirit of vainglory is the mother of vain talking, therefore of a lying tongue : Ps. xii. 3, ' Flattering lips,' and ' the tongue that speaketh proud things,' are joined together. (2.) Flattery, or desiring of ingratiating themselves with those that are great and mighty in the world, when they have men's persons in admiration : Ps. xii. 2, ' With flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak.' So Hosea vii. 3, ' They make the king glad with their lies.' To please their rulers, they soothe them up with flattering ap- plause and fawning upon them. (3.) Carnal fear and distrust. This was that which put David to his shifts in his dangers ; he was apt to
286 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXX.
fail, and deal a little deceitfully in time of temptation and danger. We had need to pray to God to be kept from all ways and counsels that are contrary to God's word. The scripture speaks, Dent, xxxiii. 29, of counterfeit submissions to higher powers : ' Thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, thou shalt tread upon their high places ; ' the meaning is, shall be subdued by thee. So Ps. xviii. 44, ' Strangers shall submit themselves to me ; ' Ps. Ixvi. 3, Ixxxi. 15, and many other places. The word implieth feigned submission.
Object. But are we openly to profess our mind in all things in time of danger ? I answer — Prudent concealment may be without fault, but a professed subjection should be sincere, for open and free dealing doth best become God's children. It is true we are not bound to speak all the truth at all times to every person. In some cases we may conceal something: Luke ix. 21, our Saviour ' straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell nobody that he was the Christ,' 1 Sam. xvi. 2, when the Lord sent Samuel to anoint David, Samuel said. How can I go ? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord ; ' that was a truth, but not the whole truth.
Object. But you will say, Will not this justify mental reservation and Jesuitical equivocation ? I answer — There are two sorts of reserva- tions ; I may reserve part of the truth in my mind. But the mental reservations the Jesuits plead for is this — when that which is spoken is a lie, if abstracted from that which is in the mind ; for instance, if a magistrate say. Art thou a priest ? No ; meaning not after the order of Baal. So that which is spoken is a lie. But if it be spoken with truth, we may reserve part of it. That in Samuel was not an untruth, but concealing some part of the truth not fit to be discovered. So Jer. xxxviii. 24-27, ' Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they shall come unto thee, and say unto thee. Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death ; also what the king said unto thee: then thou slialt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him ; and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded : so they left off speaking with him, for the matter was not perceived.'
Secondly, We now come to the blessing asked, ' Grant me thy law graciously.' Where first the benefit itself, grant me thy laio; secondly, the terms upon which it is asked, implied in the word graciously.
The benefit asked, ' Grant me thy law.' David had the book of the law already ; every king was to have a copy of it written before him ; but he understandeth it not of the law written in a book. But of the law written upon his heart ; which is a privilege of the covenant of grace: Heb. viii. 10, ' For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel in those days, saith the Lord : I will put my laws in their minds, and write them in their hearts,' &c.
Doct. 1. Then is the law granted to us when it is written upon our minds and hearts ; that is, when we understand it, and our hearts are
VeR. 29.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 287
framed to the love and obedience of it ; otherwise it is only granted to the church in general, but it is not granted to us in particular. We may have some common privilege of being trained up in the knowledge of God's will, but we have not the personal and particular benefits of the covenant of grace till we find it imprinted upon our hearts. AVell, then — •