2. Those that are not affected with their own sins, much less with the sins of others. It is but a deceit of heart to declaim against the sins of the times, and not to mourn bitterly for our ov.'u sins : this is to translate the scene of our humiliation, and to put it far off from our-
(i4 SERJIOXS UPOX PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LX.
selves. Surely that grief will be most ]nmgent and afflicting which doth most concern ourselves, and we know more by ourselves than possibly we can by other men ; therefore we should otten think of the merit of our own sins, their heinous nature, their dreadful consequences, if God be not the more merciful to keep us humble and thankful.
Use 2. To persuade us to be of this temper, to be deeply aftected when we see God's laws broken. It requireth —
1. The general grace of a soft heart, which must be asked of God : 2 Chron. xxxiv. 27, ' Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself, when thou heardest the words of the Lord against this place.' There was a high peace and calm at that time, but a tender heart relent-eth at the threatenings. Beg of God to soften thy heart.
2. Tliere needeth eminent holiness for such a frame, that we shine fls lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, Phil. ii. 15. The mourners must not be infected and tainted themselves, but j^ave themselves from an untoward generation, condemn the sins of the times by their conversation.
3. We must have a fear animated by faith : ' By fiiitli Noah was moved by fear ' concerning things unseen, Heb. xi. 7. The danger of the flood was unseen as yet, and they married and gave in marriage. We must not judge of things by the j)resent, or by carnal appearance : there is a righteous judge in heaven. Faith in his word will show us <3ur danger, for God's threatenings are all fulfilled, and the more we geek to establish ourselves by carnal means, the more our ruin is hastened.
4. There must be a grief set awork by a love to God and the souls of men. In calamities the true temper for humiliation is a due sense of our Father's anger, and brethren's miseries : in sins our Father's dishonour, and man's destruction ; those who are the same flesh with ourselves. Now it should trouble us to see them in the way to eternal ruin : ' Of some have compassion, making a difference : and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire ; hating even the garment spotted with the flesh,' Jude 22, 23.
SEKMON LX.
Thy statutes have heen my songs in the home of 77vj jnlgi^image. —
Yer. 54.
David had in the former verse expressed his great trouble, because of the increase of the wicked, and their defection from the law of God. Now he showeth what comforted him : the children of God have a great deal of divine consolation from the word in the midst of all their sorrows and evils of the present life. David's comfort is here ex- pressed—
1. By the matter or object of it, thy statutes.
2. The degree of his rejoicing, intimated in the word songs. The effect is put for the cause, joy and mirth, which usually bi'eak forth into singing, or the sign and indication for the thing signified.
VeR. 54.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 65
3. The place where he rejoiced, in the house of his pilgrimage : iv TOTTw TrapocKia'i fiov, wheresoever I sojourn.
1. Jjy God's ' statutes' is meant his word in general, more especi- ally the precepts and promises : in the one we have the offer of life ; ill the other, the way and means how to attain it. In the word is both our charter and our rule ;• in both regards it is matter of rejoicing : Ps. xix. 8, ' The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the soul.' Nothing is commanded there but what is equitable in itself, and pro- fitable to us.
2. By ' songs,' a metonymy of the effect for the caiise, or the sign for the thing signified ; such pleasure, joy, and contentment as other men had in songs, David had in the word of God. Travellers use to lighten and ease the tediousness of the way by songs : Thy word doth comfort me wonderfully. Or you may take it literally, the themes and arguments of his singing. Profane spirits must have songs suit- able to their mirth ; as their mirth is carnal, so the songs of carnal men are obscene, filthy and fleshly : but a holy man, his songs suit his mirth and joy ; he rejoiceth in the Lord, and therefore his songs are divine : ' Thy statutes are my songs.' Singing of psalms is a delec- table way of edification, which God hath not only instituted in the scriptures, but heathens saw a use of it by the light of nature. iElian, lib. iii. Kat. Hist. cap. 39, telleth us of the Cretans, rou? TratSa? rov^ i\ev9epov<; /xavOdveiv roij^; v6fiov<i fierd tlvo<; fieXcoBia<;. It is a spiritual channel wherein our mirth may run : James v. 13, ' Is any merry? let him sing psalms,' evdvjxel Ti9 ; — there is the harmony, that is a natural delight ; the matter, that is a spiritual comfort. I cannot exclude this, because it is one way of expressing that delight which we take in the word ; but I prefer the former, for David speaketh of the comfort he took in keeping God's precepts when they were violated by others.