Fifthly, In this change there is a weakening of the old inclination to carnal vanities, and there is a new bent and frame of heart bestowed upon us. The heart is taken off from the love of base objects, and. then fixed upon that which is good : Deut. xxx. 6, ' The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,' &c. First, there is a circumcis- ing, a paring away of the fleshliness of the heart ; then an unfeigned love to God. So Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, ' I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.' First tlie untowardness of the will and affections is removed, and then a heart is given to us, which is tract- able and pliable for gracious purposes. First the weeds are plucked
Ver. 36.] sehmons upon psalm cxix. 377
up, then we are planted wholly with a right seed. Or first we 'cast off the old man/ then ' put on the new,' Eph. iv, 22, 23. The natural inbred corruption, which daily grows worse and worse, is more and more done away, as we cast off" the old rotten garment when we put on the new.
Sixthly, When our hearts are thus changed, they are ever and anon apt to return to the old bent and bias again. For David, a renewed man, he doth thus speak to God, '0 Lord, incline my heart to thy testi- monies, and not unto covetousness,' He found his heart bowing and warping back again, and being sensible of the distemper, complains of it to God. The inclination that is in them to evil is not so lost to the best of God's children, but it will return unless God still draw us after him. The spouse saith, Cant. i. 4, ' Draw me, and we will run after thee.' The spouse of Christ, those that were already taken into communion with him, they say, ' Draw me.' This is not a work to be done once and no more, but often to be renewed and repeated in the soul ; for there are some relics of our natural averseness from God, and enmity to the yoke of his word, yet left in the heart : Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the spirit.' There are two active principles within us, and they are always warring one upon another. Therefore there is need not only to be inclined at first, and drawn towards God, but we must go to him again and again, and pray to him daily that he would continue the bent of our hearts right, and weaken carnal affections, that we may mind better things.
Use 1. The use is to set you right in point of doctrine as to the ne- cessity of grace, to bring us into a state of doing God's will ; because some do grant the necessity of grace in words, but in deed they make it void.
Pelagius at first gave all to nature, acknowledged no necessity of divine grace ; but when this proud doctrine found little countenance, he called nature by the name of grace ; and when that deceit was discovered, he acknowledged no other frrace but outward instruction, or the benefit of external revelation, that a man might by the word of God know and be put in mind of his duty. Being yet driven further, he acknowledged the grace of pardon, and before a man could do anything acceptably there was a necessity of the remission of sin, and then he might obey God perfectly. But that not sufficing, he acknowledged another grace, the example of Christ, which doth both secure our rule and encourage our practice ; and so made the grace of Christ consist, not in the secret efficacy of his Spirit, but only in the example of .Christ. But being driven further to acknowledge the same internal grace (I mean, his followers), they made it to consist in some illumination of the under- standing, or some moral persuasion, by probable argument to excite the will ; and this not absolutely necessary, but only for facilitation, as a horse to a journey, which otherwise a man might go on foot. A)' ! but ' the law was impossible through our flesh,' Kom. viii. 3. But all this is short of that divine grace that is necessary.
Now, there are others grant the secret influences of God's grace, but make the will of man be to a co-ordinate cause with God; namely, that God doth propound the object, hold forth inducing considerations, give some remote power and assistance ; but still there is an indiffer-
378 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XLI.
ency in the will of man to accept and refuse as liketli him best. Be- sides all this, there is a prevaihng efficacy, or a real influence from the Spirit of God on the will, whereby it is moved infallibly and cer- tainly to close with those things which God propounds unto him. God worketh efficaciously and determinately, not leaving it to the liberty of man's will to choose or refuse it, but man is determined, in- clined, and actually poised by the grace of God to that which is good. Use 2. To press you to lay to heart these things. — (1.) Be sensible of the strength and sway of thy affections to temporal objects ; there the work begins. And till we have a sight of the disease, we are not careful after a remedy. David, though regenerate, took notice of some worldly tendencies in his heart ; and if we observe our hearts, we shall find so. Paul groaned under the relics of the flesh, and so should we under our bondage by sin, (2.) And then bewail it to the Lord, ' I am as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke/ Jer. xxxi. 18, to bewail this stiffness of heart, and the treachery of sin, whereby we are enchanted, wlioUy bent to that which is evil. (3.) And observe the abating of this strength of affection, and weaning of thy soul from such desires ; for then the work of grace goes on when we begin to savour other things, and have inclinations of soul towards that which is heavenly and spiritual : ' They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, and they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit.' (4.) And then to press you to perpetual watchfulness over your own hearts, that you do not return to your old bent and bias again ; for certainly thus they will do if we do not keep a severe hand over them, and be lifting up our affections to things that are above, where God is, and Christ at the rijxht hand of God.