[6.] If we consider the manner of pleading, and the good frame of heart implied in the pleader, we may better understand the cogency of the argument ; and though the argument itself doth not necessarily infer the help of grace, yet the manner of pleading showeth some pre- parative work of gi'ace. and such meet the Lord in the stated order of commerce between him and his creatures, and shall receive his blessing. And then the argument will be strong in this petition, ' Give under- standing, that I may learn thy commandments.' Here are many things implied, such as are wrought by God in those to whom God wiU vouchsafe the grace.
(1.) An acknowledgment of the debt, that man, being God's crea- ture, is obliged to serv^ him ; as he was not made by himself, so not for himseK ; and should no more cease from intending God as an end, than he can cease from dep>ending on God as a principle. Now, it is Ions: ere we are brought to this. You know how the rebels are described and set out, Ps. xii. 4, ' Our tongues are our own ; who is lord over us ?' Xow God hath gained one gieat end with us when we are sensible of our obhgation to him , and are brought to acknow- ledge the debt, and that love, duty, and service we owe to him. Where- fore doth Grod press duty upon carnal men, who are no way competent or able to perform it ? Divines tell us, to demand his right, as a creditor doth of a prodigal debtor, and to make us sensible that we stand bound to God in the debt of obedience.
(2.) Here is a will to pay, or a heart set upon service and obedience ; for this is a speech becoming one heartily devoted to God, ' Thy hands have made me,' itc. He would willingly return to his creators service, and glorify him with what was made by him : I acknowledge that I am obliged, as I am the work of thine hands, to Uve in a faithful obedience to thee ; Lord, I give up myself to this work. Mark, this is a good spirit ; he doth not beg his own comfort, but ability for ser- vice, that he might so know his master's will as to do it. ISow this is repentance towards God, when we are heartily willing to return to our duty more than to our comibrt. Acts ii. 21 : there is more hope of that
278 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser, LXXXI.
soul that rather seeketh obedience than comfort, and where there is a resolved will and purpose to devote ourselves to the Lord, to please him, and serve him. This was God's end in his new covenant grace, and Christ's end in redemption, to restore us to obedience as v/ell as to favour, and put us into a capacity of service again : Heb, ix. 14, ' Purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God ;' 1 Peter ii. 24, ' Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, might live unto righteousness/ He died to weaken the love of sin in our hearts, and to advance the life and power of grace and righteousness.
(3.) There is implied in it a confession of impotency, that God cannot be glorified and served by him unless he be renewed and strengthened by grace ; not by him as a creature till he be made a new creature, or have renewed influences of grace from him. God permitted the lapse and fall of mankind, that they may come to him as needy creatures, and take all out of his hands. Man's great error, which occasioned his fall, was that lie would live alone apart from God, be sufficient to his own happiness. We greedily caught at that word, ' Ye shall be as gods,' Gen. iii. 5. The meaning was, not in a blessed conformity, but a cursed self-sufficiency. Man would be his own god, desired to have his stock in his own hands, and would be no more at God's finding : Gen. iii. 22, ' The man is become as one of us,' to live as an independent being. Well, then, to cure this, God would reduce him to an utter necessity, that he might bring him to an entire dependence, and might come as a beggarly indigent creature, expecting all from God, putting no confidence in his own righteousness for his justification, nor natural power and strength for sanctification : Gal. ii. 19, ' I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.' The rigorous exaction of perfect obedience under the hazard of the curse of the law maketh them dead to the law ; the curse of the law puts them so hard to it, that they are forced to fly to Christ to be f reecl from condemnation ; and the spiritual nature of the law, as it is a rule of obedience, driveth them to see there is nothing in themselves tending to righteousness, and holiness, to the glory of God, without the power of his Spirit : they that ' serve in the newness of the spirit/ Eom. vii. 6. God bringeth us at last to this : Mat. xix. 26, ' With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.' Well, then, when we are brought to see our impotency, we are at a good pass, and lie obvious to his grace.