7. How ):appy it will be for you when once you cliange your course ! The prodigal remembered the plenty in liis father's house ; you will find a manifest difference : Eom. vi, 21, 22, ' What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death : but now, being made free from sin, and become ser- vants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' In the way, no such gripes of conscience, no shame, sorrow, fears ; in the end, everlasting life. It was your mistaking that called the days of sin good days. Oh ! but when fruitful in holiness you will have present comfort and serenity of mind, a taste of the clusters of Canaan in the wilderness, hope of a glorious state, and the best will be at last. Compare pain with pain, pleasure with pleasure. We do not compare aright the pains of godliness with pleasures of sin ; and yet there you may see the discharging of our duty will yield more true comfort and peace than all the pleasures of sin can bring us.
8. What hopes by Christ: Heb. iii. 1, 'Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ ; ' what provision God hath made.
Thirdly, Let me argue the necessity of this consideration.
1. Otherwise men are rash, careless, and precipitant, and act as they are carried on by their own lusts ; whereas, if they did consider, it would stop them in the course of sin. They rush like a horse into the battle, because ' no man saitli. What have I done ? ' Jer. viii. 6. Men run on like a headstrong horse after their lusts and fancies ; whereas, if they do seriously bethink themselves, and cast in a few grave thoughts about things to come, it would be like the putting in of cold water into a boiling pot, abate the fervour of their lusts. Men are wicked because they are inconsiderate ; there are arguments enough against sin if they would but pause and weigh them seriously ; but we do not think of heaven and hell, and therefore they do not work upon us : Eccles. xi. 9, ' Eemember that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment.'
2. This serious consideration is a good means to awaken us from the sleep of security. When we consider the end why we were made, the rule we are to walk by, and poise ourselves about conformity or inconformity to this rule, and do withal revolve the issues of things in our minds, it cannot but rouse us up out of our sloth and stupidness, and make us act more vigorously and regularly as to the ends of our
132 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX, [SeK. LXVI.
creation. Oh ! what shall I do ? The first grace is awakening ; that maketh way for other graces ; Eph. v. 14, ' Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' Whereas otherwise, when we consider not, we are stupid and sottish : Isa. xliv. 19, ' None considereth in his heart. Is there not a lie in my right hand ? I have burnt part in the fire,' Eccles. v. 1, they ' offer the sacrifice of fools,' for ' they consider not that they Imve done evil ; ' they do not weigh their actions. The reason why they go wrong and continue wrong is, they do not seriously ponder and debate with themselves what it will come to.
3. By consideration we come to find where the work of God sticketh with us, and so conviction being the more particular, worketh the more kindly. A blunt iron that toucheth many points doth not so soon go to the quick as a needle that toucheth but one point : Mai. iii. 7, ' Re- turn, and they said, Wherein shall we return ? ' We do not see the need of repentance so mucli as by prying narrowly into our own ways. In short, without this, life is not so regular, the heart is not over- powered with such strong and full reason to comply with God's counsel.
Secondly, How much it concerneth us, after we have considered our ways, to turn to the Lord, and diligentlyto pursue the course which he hath prescribed : ' I turned my feet unto thy testimonies.' A sound conversion is here described.
1. / turned, in the thorough purpose of his heart, that is the act on our part. It is by God's grace that we ai'e turned, but we turn our- selves when the purpose of our souls is fixed : ' Turn me, and I shall be turned.' God inclineth the heart, and we manifest it by binding ourselves by a thorough purpose. A wish, an offer, when it endeth only in that, we have not considered enough ; but when the heart is bent, I am turned. The prodigal, when he took up, came to himself, and had reasoned the case, says, ' I will go to my father,' Luke xv. 18. It must be such a purpose as is diligently pursued.
2. The object or rule, my feet unto thy testimonies. By his feet is meant the course of his life. Our will and natural inclination should be no rule to us, but God's testimonies. We must entirely give up ourselves to the direction of his word : ' As many as walk according to this rule,' Gal. vi. 16. We are not to walk as we list. There is a fixed determinate rule, which must be kept with all accurateness and attention ; a godly man is very tender of breaking this rule ; he makes conscience of keeping to this rule.