3. It comforts and reviveth us in the midst of our faintings and dis- couragements, because of the evils of the present world : Jonah ii. 7, ' When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord.' When the burden of affliction presseth us sore, the stoutest hearts are hroken and lose all courage ; but when we come to ponder seriously what God is, or what he- will be to his people, or hath at any time been to ourselves, it cheereth and reviveth the heart. So Ps. xlii. 6, ' 0 my God, my soul is cast down within me ; therefore will I re- member thee.' By this way the saints recover themselves, Ps. Ixxvii. 10, ' And I said, This is my infirmity ; but I will remember the years of the riglit hand of the Most High.' So also. Mat. xvi. 9, ' Do ye not remember the five loaves of the five thousand, nor the seven loaves of the four thousand ? '
Use. To press us to remember God more. W^hen we will not look upon another, we take it to be a great sign of aversation and hatred. The devils, that are most opposite to God, abhor their own thoughts of God, for they ' believe and tremble.' God thinketh of us ; he is not far from every one of us ; why are we so far from him ? We cannot open our eyes but one object or other will represent God to us. What dost thou see, hear, and feel, but the efi"ects of his power and goodness ? He is before thee, behind thee, within thee, round about thee ; and shall he not find room in thy heart, when every trifle findeth room there ? He that filleth every place, shall thy heart be empty of all thoughts of him ? To press you to this —
1. Consider we are naturally apt to forget God, do not like to re-
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82 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LXI.
tain him in our knowledge, Rom. i. 28, backward to any remembrance of him : Ps. x. 4, ' The wicked, through the pride of their countenance, will not seek after God ; God is not in all their thoughts.'
2. How much God hath done to put us in remembrance of him, by creatures, providences, ordinances, and his Spirit.
[1.] Creatures, all of them, sun, moon, stars, worms, grass, put us in mind of him : Ps. xix. 1, 2, ' The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork ; day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.' The creatures have a double use — their natural use and their spiritual use. Their natural use is the special end for which they were made ; their spiri- tual use is to set forth God to us. We look upon them amiss if we look upon them as separated from and independent of God. Our food is not only to nourish nature, but that we may taste the sweetness and goodness of God in it. All the creatures bring this message to our consciences : Eemember God that made us and all things else. They all read a divinity lecture to those that have a mind to hear it, and preach the goodness, power, and wisdom of God by a loud and audible voice. It is true we are deaf, but they cease not to cry to us : Job xii. 8, ' Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee ; and to the beasts of the field, and they shall declare to thee. Not only the shining heavens, but the dull earth, that heaviest and grossest element ; the brute creatures that have no reason, the mute fishes that can make no sound, we must ask them, parley with them by our own thoughts ; and so, though they have neither voice nor ears, they will answer us, nnd resolve our consciences the question we put to them. Is there a God ? Yea, and declare his excellent attributes, that he is eternal, infinite, wise, powerful, and good. We may easily make out these collec- tions. Christ saitli the stones would cry if these held their peace. We should hear the creature as we would hear God himself speaking to us. They speak to all countries in their own language. At first God spake to the world not by words but things. Thus hath God en- graven his name upon his works, as those that make watclies, or any curious pieces, write their names upon them ; as he that carved a buckler for Minerva had so curiously inlaid his own name that it could not be rased out without defacing the whole work. So the creatures are but a draught and portraiture of God's glory.
[2.] Providences, these do more awaken us. God's daily benefits should bring him to our remembrance: Acts xiv, 17, 'Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and glad- ness ; ' Deut. viii. 18, ' But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for he it is that giveth thee power to get wealth.' Especially the sancti- fied remembrance of God's dealing with his people is the way to keep the heart in the faith, love, and fear of God ; and the forgetting his works is the cause of all defection and falling off to carnal courses and confidences: Ps. Ixxviii. 11, 'Theyforgat his works and wonders that he showed them,' Ps. cvi. 21, ' They forgat God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt ; ' Judges viii. 34, ' And the children _ of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them