5. If you love any, you give them the heart ; and you are wont to wish that there were windows in your bodies that they might see the sincerity of your hearts towards them. Surely if you have cause to love any, you have much more cause to love God. No such friend as he, no such benefactor as he, if you consider what he hath done for us, what blessings he hath bestowed, internal, external, temporal, eternal. He hath given his Son, the great instance of love : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life ; ' his gospel, that his love might be preached to us; his Spirit, that not only sounded in our ears, but is shed abroad in our hearts, Kom. v. 5 ; his Christ to save us, his word to enlighten us, his Spirit to guide and direct us till we come to heaven, where he will give himself to us, an eternal inheritance. Certainly, unless void of all sense and common ingenuity, thou wilt say, as the Psalmist, Ps. cxvi. 12, ' What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me ? ' What indeed wilt thou render to him ? Love will tell thee ; but lest thou shouldst miss,. God himself hath told thee: Prov. xxiii. 26, 'My son, give me thine heart.' There is no need to wish for windows in thy body : ' He searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins ;' Ps. vii. 9, ' The righteous God trieth the hearts and reins ;' and 1 Kings viii. 39, ' Thou knowest the hearts of all the children of men.' The whole world is to him as a sea of glass. He knoweth how much thou esteemest and
356 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXXVIII.
honourest him. If thou g-ivest him the whole world, and dost not give him thy heart, thou dishonourest him, and settest something else before him.
6. This is, that all may give him. If Grod should require costly sacrifices, rivers of oil, thousands of rams, then none but the rich would serve him, and he would require nothing but what many hypocrites would give him. Tiien the poor would be ashamed and discouraged, not being; able to comply with the command ; yea, then God would not act like the true God, ' Who accepteth not the person of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of liis hands,' Job xxxiv. 19. Say not, Micah vi. 6-8, ' Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my trans- gression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? ' But go to God and give him thy heart, this will make thy mite more acceptable than the great treasures of the wicked : Luke xxi. 1-4, ' And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury ; and he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites ; and he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all ; for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God, but of her penury she hath cast in all the living that she had.' We read in pagan story of one that, when many rich scholars gave gifts to Socrates, every one according to his birth and fortunes, a poor young man came to him and said — I have nothing worthy of thee to bestow upon thee, but that which I have I give, and that is myself ; others that have given to thee have left more to themselves, but I have given all that I have, and have nothing left me ; I give thee myself. The philosopher answered — Thou hast given me a gift indeed, and therefore it shall be my care to return thee to thyself better than I found thee. So come to God ; he needeth us not, but it is for our benefit : we should give our hearts and selves to him. He knoweth how much it is for our advantage that he should have our hearts, to make them better, to sanctify and save them.
Secondly, The whole heart. Here I shall show you — (1.) What it is to keep the law with the whole heart. (2.) Why we must keep the law with our whole heart.
1. What it is to keep the law with the whole heart. It is taken legally or evangelically, as a man is bound, or as God will accept what is required in justice, or what is accepted in mercy.
[1.] According to the rigour of the law. The law requireth exact conformity, without the least motion to the contrary, either in thought or desire, a full obedience to the law with all the powers of the whole man. This is in force still as to our rule, but not as to the condition of our acceptance with God. This, without any defect and imperfec- tion, like man's love to God in innocency, since the fall is nowhere found but in Christ Jesus, who alone is harmless and undefiled, and will never thus be fulfilled by us till we come to heaven ; for here all is but in part, but then that which is in part shall be done away. Then will there be light without darkness, knowledge without igno-