[2.] They thus painfully entreat the favour of God when they have lost it by sin ; for then they are afflicted with a double evil — want of so great a comfort, and a sense of their own folly. A sense of God's favour may be withheld out of mere sovereignty, yet even then God's children will be earnest ; but when it is withdrawn out of justice, as a correction for our folly and careless walking, there is greater cause of earnestness, that we may redeem and recover our loss again ; then we are to be more earnest : ' Turn us again, Lord God of hosts, and cause thine anger towards us to cease,' Ps. Ixxx. 7. By their former experience they know the sweetness of God's favour, and by their pre- sent loss the bitterness of the want of it. Basil hath a notable com- parison. He saith, if an object be too bright, it must be set at a distance from the eye that we may see better ; so worldly things must be set at a distance from us : therefore God seems to be at a distance, hides his face, that his people might know by the loss and want of it how to value their blessings.
How far do they discover their earnestness ?
(1.) In that they seek it above all other things — above corn, wine, and oil. This is not their painful desire to be made great, rich, high, honourable, happy in the Avorld. All the world doth them no good without the favour of God. As all the stars, though they shine together, do not dispel the darkness of the night, so no creatures can comfort us sufficiently when God hides his face from them : Ps. xxx. 1, ' Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled.' They cannot find God as they were wont. As at funeral feasts, dear friends have little comfort when they miss their old friend that was wont to bid them welcome at the house ; so when God is gone, what comfort can they take in their portion ? Many will say, Why are you pensive and sad ? you have a great many friends, a great estate ! Oh ! you do not know the wound of a gracious heart, and how little these things are in com- parison of the favour of God !
(2.) They manifest it in this, their contentedness with him, though they are kept low and bare in outward things : Ps. xvii. 15, ' As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.' It is enough for them to have the face of God, though they do not flourish in worldly plenty as others do, when in the exercise of grace they can find God propitious, ' behold his face in righteousness.' If they have not the candle they have the sun. If
VeR. 58.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 121
they go to God, tliey are welcome upon all occasions. If the world frown upon them, God doth not so : they are beloved of him, and in favour with him, and that satisfieth them.
What may be the reasons why the children of God so prize his favour ?
(1st.) The worth of the thing itself: Ps. Ixiii. 3, ' Thy favour is better than life,' better than all comforts, better in itself, for this is that which we are never weary of. A man may be weary of all out- ward comforts : ' Days may come wherein there is no pleasure,' Eccles. xii. 1 ; ' At that time the soul abhors dainty food,' Job xxxiii. 20: Pleasure, nay, life itself, may be a burden, but none ever was weary of the love of God, that cannot be a burden ; this doth not satiate and cloy us. Again, the love of God cannot be supplied and recompensed by other things : when a man loseth other things it may be made up in better. If a man be poor in this world, God hath chosen him to be rich in faith ; if afflicted and destitute of outward provisions, yet they have inward comforts and graces, and they will supply and make up this loss. But the loss of God's favour cannot be supplied ; when that de]3arts from you, and a man loseth the hope he seemeth to have, what a sorry comfort is it, having forfeited the love of God, to seek our amends in the creature ! Then this is more durable than the pre- sent life. Other comforts fail, but the love of God never fails. This is the original of all other comforts : Ps. xxx. 7, ' By thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong ; ' and Ps. xliv. 3, ' Their own arm did not save them, but the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.' Sure it is better to drink of the fountain than of the stream : all is from the favour of God. In short, it is the vitality and the cause of life, and the cause of all comfort. This is better than life.
(2d.) They are aifected with that which is their true misery, there- fore they most importunately beg the favour of God. Every man prays according to the sense that he hath, according to that which he counts his misery. He that hath a sense of no other calamity but to be poor, scorned, or exposed to contempt, or the absence of the creature, prays accordingly. Sometimes he howls like a dog in pain, or beasts that want food, Hosea vii. 14. But he that hath a deeper sense of his greatest necessities, he is affected with sin, which is tlie cause of all trouble ; therefore he must have the favour of God and the grace of God. A godly and a carnal man differ as a child and a man in their apprehen- sions about pain and trouble. A child that is sick and would be eased of its present smart and pain, looks to nothing but that ; but an under- standing man knows the cause must be taken away. A child speaks according to the sense and apprehension it hath — take away his aching head or burning heat ; but the understanding man looks not only after present ease, but health, that the root of the distemper may be re- moved. So a worldly man would have affliction gone, and looks no further, but a godly man hath a deeper sense, he must have the favour of God ; therefore his heart works painfully within him till this be obtained.