[2.] These delights .are more perfective ; a man is the better for them. Other delights, that please the flesh, feed corruption, but these corro- borate and strengthen graces. They are so far from disordering the mind, and leading us to sin, that they compose and purify the mind, and make sin more odious, and fortify us against the baits of sense, which are the occasion of all the sin in the world. All our joy is to be considered with respect to its use and profit : Eccles. ii. 2, ' I said of laughter, It is mad ; and of mirth, What doth it ? ' The more a man delighteth in God, and in the ways of God, the more he cleaveth to him, and resolveth to go on in this course, and temptations to sensual delights do less prevail ; for, ' the joy of the Lord is our strength.' The safety of the spiritual life lieth in the keeping up our joy and de-
VkR. 47.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 5
light in it : Heb. iii. G, ' Wliosc house arc we, if we hold fast the con- fidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end ; ' Isa. Ixiv. 5, ' Thou meetest him who lejoiceth and woiketh righteousness/ But now carnal delights intoxicate the mind, and fill it with vanity and folly. The sensitive lure hath more power over us to draw into the slavery of sin : Titus iii. 3, ' For we ourselves were also foolish, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures.' Surely then the healing delights should be preferred before the killing, wounding pleasures that so often prove a snare to us.
2. The object is to be considered, ' Thy commandments.' Here ob- serve—
[1.] David did not place his delight in folly or filthiness, as they do that glory in their shame, or delight in sin, and give contentment to the lusts of the flesh ; as the apostle speaks of some that ' sport them- selves in their own deceivings,' 2 Peter ii. 13 ; that do not only live in .sin, but make a sport of it, beguiling their own hearts with ground- less apprehensions that there is no such evil and hazard therein as the word declareth and conscience sometimes suggesteth ; they are be- holden to their sottish error and delusion for their mirth. Neither did he place his delight in tem[)oral trifles, the honours, and pleasures, and profits of the world, as brutish worldlings do ; but in the word of God, as the seed of the new life, the rule of his conversation, the charter of his hopes ; that blessed word by which his heart might be renewed and sanctified, his conscience settled, his mind acquainted with his Creator's will, and his affections raised to the hopes of glory. The matter which feedeth our pleasures showeth the excellency or baseness of it. If, like beetles, we delight in a dunghill rather than a garden, or the paradise of God's word, it shows a base, mean spirit, as swine in wallowing in the mire, or dogs to eat their own vomit. Our temper and inclination is known by our complacency or displacency : Eom. vii. 5, ' For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death.' Therefore see which your liearts carry you to — to the world or the word of God. The most part of the world are carried to the pleasures of sense, and mastered by them ; but a divine spirit or nature put into us makes us look after other things : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given unto us ex- ceeding great and precious promises/ even of the great blessings of the new covenant, such as pardon of sin, eternal life, &c.
[2.] Not only in the promissory, but mandatory part of the word. Commandments is the notion in the text. There is matter of great joy contained in the promises, but they must not be looked upon as exclusive of the precepts, but inclusive. Promises are spoken of Ps. cxix. Ill, ' Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage for ever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.' They contain spiritual and heavenly riches, and so are matter of joy to a believing soul. But the commandments call for duty on our parts. The i)rece[)ts appoint us a pleasant work, show us what is to be done and left undone. These restraints are grateful to the new nature, for the compliance of the will with the will of God, and its conformity to his law, hath a pleasure an- nexed to it. A renewed soul would be subject to God in all things, there- fore delights in his commandments without limitation or distinction.
6 SERMONS UrON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LIII.