4. This inward teaching must be renewed and continued from day to day, or else we shall soon miscarry by our mistakes and prejudices. David is often pressing God with this request, 'Lord, teach me;' which plainly showeth that not only novices, but men of great holiness and experience, need new direction every day. The shameful mis- carriages of God's wisest people are enough to show the necessity of this, and the many cautions in the word of God do abundantly con- firm it : Prov. iii, 6, 6, ' Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding ; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.' "There is nothing that keepeth up
VeR. 33.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 343
our dependence upon God, and should quicken us in our daily prayers, as tlie sense of this. Many times we come to Grod in the morning, and pray coklly and drowsily, because we go forth to the occasions of the day in the presumption of our wit ; but it is a thousand to one but we smart for our folly before the evening come. Alas ! such is the in- constancy and uncertainty of man's understanding, that unless we have continual light and direction from God, and he lead us by the hand through all our affairs, passion or unbelief, or some carnal affection, will make us stumble and dash against one divine precept or another. This concerneth all Christians, much more those in public station, whose good or evil is of a more universal influence. Such was David. Men of place and power and interest had need have this often in their mouths and hearts, ' Lord, teach me the way of thy statutes.' Homer has a notable saying in his Odyssey —
" ToTos yap voos iartv iwixOoviCov avdpuirup, '^Oiov iir riixap &yrj(n, Trarrjp dvdpdvTe Oetovre."
See Casaubon, Ep. 702, — a most divine sentence from a heathen poet, that mortal man should not be proud of his wit, for he hath no more understanding of his affairs than God giveth him from day to day. A sentence so admired by the heathens, that many of them transcribed it in their writings with admiration ; as Clemens Alex- andrinus speaketh of Archilochus, who, as he took other things from Homer, so his putting it into his verse thus —
" To7os yap avOpdnroi-ai Bvp-bs, TXavKe, AeTrrtVew Trai, QvrjTols OTVoiov Zeus i(p' rifxipriv dyoi.."
Augustine De Clvitate Dei^ telleth us, lib. v. cap. 8. Cicero rendered it into Latin verse thus, though with some loss of the sense —
" Tales sunt liominum mentes qiiales pater ipse, Jupiter auctiferas lustravit lumine terras."
I quote all this to show you how precious such a hint was to heathens, iis expressing a great deal of reason ; and shall not we Christians wait upon God for the continual direction of his Spirit ?
Now there is a twofold reason for this : —
1. Because this actuateth our knowledge, which would otherwise lie asleep in the habit ; and then, though we are wise in generals, we should be to seek for direction in particular cases, or at least not have such a lively sense of God's will as to check the present temptations we meet with in the course of our affairs, and do too often induce us to miscarry. The temptation being dexterously managed by Satan, and entertained by our present thoughts, will easily overbear a latent prin- ciple long ago received, unless it be afresh revived and set a-work by God's Spirit ; therefore we need that the Spirit should be our moni- tor, and cause truths formerly delivered to return with fresh force upon the heart. And indeed it is his main work to ' bring things to our remembrance,' John xiv. 26, and to blow up our light and know- ledge into an actual resistance of whatever is contrary to the will of God, or to furnish us with seasonable thoughts in every business and temptation.
2. We have but a glimmering light when we are blinded with pas- sions, and are in some sort ignorant of what we know, cannot deduce those conclusions which are evidently contained in known and avowed
344 " SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXXVI.
principles. Hagar could not see the well before her eyes, by reason of her passion and grief, till God opened her eyes : Gen. xxi. 19, 'And God opened her ej^es, and shd saw a well of water.' The ground was not opened to cause the fountain to bubble up, but her eyes were opened to see it. And Calvin giveth the reason why she saw it not, because dolore attonita, quod expositum erat oculis non cernehat — things at hand cannot be seen when the mind is diverted by the impression of some strong passion ; and it is true of the eyes of the mind ; we do not see what we see, being overcome by love, or fear, or hope, or anger, or some cloud that interposeth from the passions. As David, when he fumbled about God's providence, being blinded by the prospering of the wicked, calleth himself beast for not discerning his duty in so plain a case : Ps. Ixxiii. 22, ' So foolish was I, and ignorant, and as a beast before thee.' In the perplexities of his mind he could not see clear principles of faith which before he had sufficiently learned, but could not then make use of for the settling and com- posing his heart.