[2.] God beareth much affection to man as he is his creature and the work of his hands ; and the saints plead it when they would be spared and when they would be saved. As Job, chap. x. 3, ' Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouklest despise the work of thine hands ? ' So ver. 8 of that chapter, ' Thy hands have made me and fashioned me, and yet thou dost destroy me.' The
276 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. LXXXI.
sum and effect of these pleas is, it is strange that God should despise his own workmanship, especially a piece of such excellency as man is. Surely God is the readier to do good to man because he is the work of his hands. We see artificers, when they have made an excellent work, they are very chary and tender of it, and will not destroy it and break it in pieces. An instinct of nature teacheth us to love that which is our own by natural production ; so it is an argument moving the Lord to much compassion to tell him that we are his workman- ship : Isa. Ixiv. 8, 9, ' But now, 0 Lord, thou art our father ; we are the clay, thou art our potter ; we are all the work of thine hands : be not wroth with us very sore, 0 Lord.' This raiseth in us some hope of speeding and prevailing with God. The words of the text are emphatical, made and fashioned. God hath bestowed much care upon us to make and fashion us, and therefore he will pity us and spare us : Job xiv. 15, ' Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee ; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.' All these places show there is an argument in it that may raise our faith wlien other arguments fail.
[3.] Creation implieth some hope, because God forsaketh none but those who forsake him first. He might destroy us for our original sin, as we destroy serpents of a venomous nature before they have actually done any harm. Though man hath lost his goodness, God hath not. Every one of us in person doth actually break with God before he breaketh with us : 2 Chron. xv. 2, ' If ye forsake him, he will forsake you.' 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, David telleth Solomon, ' If thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever ; ' he will not acknowledge thee. Take this rightly : that God giveth grace to any is his good- ness ; that to one more than another, is his distinguishing and elective love ; that he denieth grace to any, is along of themselves, chargeable upon the creature, who abuse that common grace which, if improved, might have made them better ; yea, though all deserve to ue denied the grace of the Kedeemer, yet it is not denied till after many wilful refusals, and by gross impenitency we turn the back upon God, when w^e will not implore our Creator's bounty, but obstinately refuse it.
[4.] Seeing God is our creator, and the end of our creation is to serve God, we may the more confidently ask the grace which is neces- sary to enable us to serve him, that the same creating mercy which layeth on the obligation may help to discharge the debt. God is no Pharaoh, to require brick and give no straw, to appoint work and not to provide grace. Though he hath not absolutely promised to every individual person converting grace, yet he hath appointed certain means for the ungodly which they are bound to use in order to con- version ; and if we consider the goodness of God, and the nature of those means, it is a great encouragement. Surely the assistances of grace are always ready : Mat. xxii. 5, ' Come to the feast, all things are ready.' None can tax him of backwardness. So our Saviour taxes the Jews : Mat. xxiii. 37, ' I would have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wing, but ye would not,' When did God ever fail the waiting soul, or put away the creature that sought after grace to serve him? He is often beforehand with us, never behindhand ; and we grossly and heinously forfeit all our means and helps before we lose them.
VeR. 73.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 277
[5.] There is encouragement to faith a pari, from the resemblance and likeness that is between his making us at first and his new-making of us in Jesus Christ. It is called a creation, Eph. ii. 10 ; Eph. iv. 24, ' The new man, which after God is created.' lirc. ; 2 Cor. iv. G, ' God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts.' The author is the same God to whom it belongeth to create. We have the human nature from him, and can have it from no other, much less can we have the divine nature from any other but him, Ps. IL 5, or else we should not have it at aU. It is not im- planted in our nature, or attainable by any industry of ours : ' It is not of him that willeth, or of him that runneth,' Kom. ix. 16, but the immediate work of God ; it is the work of his omnipotency. So dead and indisposed are we by nature to holiness and grace, that no less than creating power is reqiured to work it in us. Besides, we were created freely, without any merit of ours ; so we expect from the same goodness such saving knowledge as may change om- hearts. There is this double encouragement — there is God's omnipotent power, and his free giving us his image at first, Eom. iv. 17.