1. The cause of it, ' Thy mercies.' God's children often fail into
440 SEKMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XLVJI.
sucli straits that nothing but mercy can help them out. All deliver- ance is the fruit of mercy pitying our misery, but some deliverance especially is the fruit of mercy j^ardoaing our sin, I shall give you some special cases, both as to danger and sin.
[1.] In all cases as to danger, it is mercy which appears, partly because God's great argument to move him is the misery of his people. It is his great argument : Deut. xxxii. 36, ' The Lord will repent for his people ; ' when he seeth that 9,11 their power is gone, and none shut up and left, no manner of defence, but exposed as a prey to those that have a mind to wrong them. It is the only argument : Ps. Ixxix. 8, ' Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us, for we are brought very low.' Mercy relents towards a sinful people, when they are a wasted people. Partly because when there are no other means to help, mercy unexpectedly findeth out means for us. We are at an utter loss in ourselves ; God finds out means of relief for us : Ps. Ivii. 3, ' He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up, Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and truth.' When we want help on earth, faith seeketh for help from heaven, and mercy chooseth means for us when we cannot pitch upon anything that may do us good. In these cases doth mercy discover itself as to danger.
[2.] More eminently in special cases, when their sins have evidently brought them into those straits. Many afflictions are the strokes of God's immediate hand, or the common effects of his providence permitting the malice of men for our trial and exercise ; but some are the proper effects of our own sins. We run ourselves into incon- veniences by our folly, and even then mercy findeth a way of escape for us. Two ways may our sin be said to bring our trouble upon us — meriiorie et effective.
(1.) 3Ieriiorie, when some judgment treadeth upon the heels of some foregoing sin and provocation ; as David, when he had offended in the matter of Uriah, see Ps. iii. title, ' A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son,' and the two first verses, ' Lord, how are they increased that trouble me ? Many are they that rise up against me ; many there be that say of my soul, There is no help for him in God, Selah.' David was deserted of his own subjects, chased from his palace and royal seat by his own son, Absalom. He had defiled Uriah's wife secretly, and his wives were defiled in the face of all Israel, and he driven to wander up and down for safety. God will make all that behold the scandalous sins of his peojile see what it is to provoke him to wrath. See how he complains, ver. 1, ' Lord, how are they increased that trouble me ? Many are they that rise up against me.' You shall find in 2 Sam. xv. 12, ' The people increaseth con- tinually with Absalom ; ' a multitude against him, and the rest durst not be for him, their hearts were hovering. And in another place, 2 Sam. xvii. 11, all Israel gathered to him from Dan to Beersheba. In what a sorry plight was David when all was against him, and the world thought God was against him ! for so it followeth, ver. 2, ' Many there be which say of my soul. There is no help for him in God, Selah.' The world counted the case desperate, and insulted over him, now God hath left him ; but they mistook fatherly correction for
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vindicative justice. This was a sad condition ; but David goeth to God to fetch him off; though he liad drawn this judgment upon himself, yet he deals with him for relief : in such cases mercy is seen. That pit must be very deep when the line of grace doth not go to the bottom of it. In the face of the temptation David maintaineth his confidence in God: see ver. 3, 'But thou, 0 Lord, art my shield, my glory, and the lifter-up of my head.' God is counter-comfort to all his troubles. He was in danger, God was his shield ; his kingdom was at stake, God was his glory : he was under sorrow and shame, God would lift up his head ; to the unarmed a shield, to the disgraced glory, to the dejected an encourager or the lifter-up of his head. Thus when his case was thought desperate doth mercy work for him.
(2.) Effective, when we ourselves run into the snare, and be holden with the cords of our own vanity : Prov. v. 22, ' His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins ; ' when we have been playing about the cockatrice's hole, and have brought mischief upon ourselves. Sometimes God's chil- dren have been guilty of this ; they have been the cause of their own troubles ; as David, when his unbelief drove him to Gath, where he was in danger of his life, and escaped by his dissembling : Ps. xxxiv., entitled, ' A Prayer of David when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.' And Josiah put himself on a war against Pharaoh Necho, and other such instances. Then if they be saved, it is certainly mercy.