escape the death his enemies intended to him. Certainly in the former verse he speaketh as a man under deep troubles and afflictions, and in the following words he telleth us that the proud dealt per- versely with him, and therefore he might have some apprehensions of dying in his troubles, which he beggeth God to prevent. Some think he beggeth God's mercy to preserve him in life spiritual, and Bellar- mine understandeth it of life eternal. But I rather take it in the latter sense, for joy and comfort, which is the result of life, where it is vital and in its perfection. Non est vivere sed valere vita. 1 Thes. iii. 8, ' We live, if ye stand fast in the truth.' A man that enjoy etli himself is said to live. But if we take it in this notion, a double sense may be started ; for it may imply either a release from temporal sorrows, and so the sense will be, Have pity upon me, that I may once more see good and comfortable days in the world, for a life spent in sorrow is as no life. Or, he putteth life for some comfortable sense of God's mercy, or assurance of his love to him. Most interpreters, both ancient and modern, go this way. NeKpov eavrov yyeirat, t/}? ^eta? iaTep7]fjbevov ev/Meveia^, saith Theodoret. He counted himself but as a dead man without the sense of God's favour and good- will to him, but it would be as a new life or resurrection from the dead if God would show him mercy, and cast a favourable aspect upon him. This sense suiteth well with the contest, for David was for the present deprived of the tokens and effects of God's tender mercy; why else should he so earnestly beg for that to come to him which he had already ; and it suiteth well with a gracious spirit such as David had. The points are : —
1. That God's tender mercy is the fountain of his people's comfort and happiness.
2. That it is not enough to hear somewhat of the mercy of God, but we should by all means seek that it may come unto us.
3. That it is life to a believer to have a sense of God's mercy and love in Christ, and death to be without it.
4. Such as would taste or have a sense of God's mercy must delight in his law. This was David's plea.
The two last propositions I shall insist upon, the other being handled elsewhere, and so much consideration of them as is necessary for the opening and improving of this verse will occur in one or both of these points.
That it is life to a believer to have a sense of God's mercy and love in Christ, and death to be without it.
David was a dead man because he felt not God's mercy as formerly: he did eat, and drink, and sleep, and transact his business as others did ; but he counted this as no life, because he felt not the wonted sense of God's love. Gracious spirits cannot live without divine com- forts, they take no joy in the world unless God favourably look upon them.
Let me illustrate this note with these observations : —
1. Observe, he seeketh all his comfort from mercy, and tender mercy ; so in the former, so in the present verse. I shall show you the neces- sity and utility of so doing.
[1.] The necessity of it. The best of God's children have no other
VeR. 77.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 311
claim. For a publican to come and say, ' God, be merciful to me a sinner,' Luke xviii. 13, is no such wonder ; but for a David to use the same plea, that should be noted. From first to last the children of God have no other claim ; it is mere mercy that took us into a state of grace at first, and mere mercy that keepeth us in it, and furnisheth us with all the supplies that are necessary to keep it up in vio;our and comfort, and mercy that giveth us the final consummation and accom- plishment of it at last. Our first entrance into the state of grace is always ascribed to mere mercy. jSTothing moved the Lord to bestow life upon dead and graceless sinners but his mere pity and tender com- passion : 1 Peter i. 3, ' Of his abundant mercy he hath begotten us to a lively hope ; ' Eph. ii. 4, ' God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he hath loved us, while we were yet dead in trespasses and sins, yet quickened us ; ' Titus iii. 5, ' Of his mercy he hath saved us, by washing us in the laver of regeneration.' Mercy was, then, exercised not only without our desert, but against our desert : God was not moved to bestow his grace by any goodness which he did foresee or find in us, but merely by his own pity ; misery oflered the occasion, but mercy was the cause of all the good done unto us. After conver- sion, all our supports and supplies are given us of his tender mercy : Gal. vi. 16, 'As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them.' New creatures and the most accurate walkers are not so free from sin but they still stand in need of mercy. All their receipts come to them not in the way of merit, but undeserved mercy. Oiu: peace and comfort, when we walk most according to rule, is the fruit of mercy. The elect are called ' Vessels of mercy,' Eom. ix, 23, because, from first to last, they are filled up with mercy, and supplied by the free favour and love of God in Jesus Christ. Our final con- summation is from mercy : the same mercy that lays the first stone in this building doth also finish the work : Jade 21 , ' Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.' We take glory out of the hands of mercy, and it is mercy that sets the crown upon our heads, after we have done and sufl^ered the will of God here upon earth. We can merit no more after grace than before.