[2.] It giveth us an intimation of the necessity of growth : none believe so much but they may believe more : 1 John v. 13, ' These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye rnay believe on the name of the Son of God;' and they may obey more, embrace the word more. David beggeth he may do so : always there is some new thing to be learned in tiie scripture.
[3.] That faith planted in the heart is nourished and increased by more knowledge and understanding : 2 Peter i. 5, ' Add to your faith, virtue ; to virtue, knowledge.' There is an implicit and an explicit faith ; o]jortet discentem credere, swallowing pills, not chewing them.
2. As a reason of granting. Believing God's commandments is a dis- jiosition that hath a promise of more knowledge to be communicated.
[1.] God by one act of grace maketh way for another. First, he giveth this first favour of receiving the word by faith as divine, worthy to be believed and obeyed ; then, to understand it and apprehend it more perfectly, discretion and judgment to go about duties wisely.
[2.] God giveth according to the creatures' receptions ; they that are dutiful and docile and willing to comply with their duty already known, shall know more.
Use. The use is, if we expect more illumination, let us believe as much as is manifested already to us, with a mind to practise.
SERMON LXXVL
Before I ivas aviated I tcent astray ; hut noiv have I kejDt thy luord. — Ver. G7.
In this verse you may observe two things : —
1. The evil of prosperity, he/ore I was afflicted I went astray.
2. The good of adversity, hut now have I kej^t thy ivord. Before wandering, but now attentive to his duty. Or, if you will, here is the necessity of afiiictions and the utility of them.
VeR. 67.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 223
1. The necessity, ' Before I was afflicted I went astray.' Some think that David in his own person representeth the wantonness and stub- bornness of all mankind. If it should be so, yet the person in whom the instance is given is notable. If this was the disposition of the pro- phet and man of God, and he needed this discipline, we much more : if he could say it in truth of heart that he was made worse by his pros- perity, we need always to be jealous of ourselves; and were it not for the scourge, we should forget our duty and the obedience we owe to God.
2. The utility and benefit of afflictions, ' But now have I kept thy word.' Keeping the law is a general word. The use of God's rod is to bring us home unto God, and the affliction driveth us to make better use of his word : it changeth us from vanity to seriousness, from error to truth, from stubbornness to teachfulness, from pride to modesty. It is commonly said, waOij/jiaTa ixadrj[xara ; and the apostle telleth us that Jesus Christ himself learned obedience by the things which he suffered, Heb. v. 8 ; and here David was the better for the cross ; so should we. Or rather, you may in the words observe three things : —
1. A confession of his wandering, ' I went astray.'
2. The course God took to reduce him to his duty, ' I was afflicted.'
3. The success or effect of that course, ' I have kept thy word.' Theodoret expresseth this in three words, rippoiarrjaa, ir/jujOr/v,
eppmaOr^v — I was sick ; I was cut, or let blood ; I was well, or re- covered my health again.
1. The one giveth us the cause of afflictions ; they are for sin, ' I went astray ; ' wherein there is a secret acknowledgment of his guilt, that his sin was the cause of the chastisement God brought upon him.
2. The true notion and nature of affliction to the people of God. The cross changeth its nature, and is not poena, a destructive punish- ment, but remedium delinquent ium, a medicinal dispensation, and a means of our cure.
3. The end of them is obedience, or keeping God's word. The sum of the whole is, I was out of the way, but thy rod hath reduced me, and brought me into it again. Aben Ezra conceiveth that in this last clause he intimateth a desire of deliverance, because the rod had done its work ; rather, I think he expresseth his frame and temper when he was delivered ; and accordingly I shall make use of it by and by.
I might observe many points, but the doctrine from the whole verse is —
Doct That the end of God's afflicting, is to reduce his afflicted and straying people into the right way.
I shall explain the point by these considerations.
1. That man is of a straying nature, apt to turn out of the way that leadeth to God and to true happiness. We are all so by nature : Isa. liii. 6, ' All we like sheep have gone astray.' Sheep, of all creatures, are exceeding subject to stray, if not tended and kept in the better, unable to keep out of error, and having erred, unable to return. This is the emblem by which the Holy Ghost would set forth the nature of mankind. But is it better with us after grace received ? No ; we are in part so still. The best of us, if left to