[1.] That it is not enough to hear of somewhat of God's saving mercies, but we should beg that it may come unto us, be effectually and sensibly communicated unto us, that we may have exjjerience of them in our own souls ; the hearsay will do us little good without ex- perience ; the hearsay is the first encouragement: 'We have heard the kings of Israel are merciful kings ; ' that moved them to make the address in a humble and submissive manner for their life and safety: 1 Kings xx. 31, ' Let us, I pray thee, put on sackcloth upon our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go to the king of Israel.' We may reason at a better rate concerning the God of Israel. We have heard that the God of Israel is a merciful God, that he delights in mercy ; but then. Let us try what he will do for us. Upon the participation of the saving effects and benefits of his mercy, our com- fort and interest beginneth. (1.) We shall never have such admiring thoughts of mercy as when we have felt it ourselves ; then we know the grace of God in truth. Col, i. 6. A man that hath read of honey, or heard of honey, may know the sweetness of it by guess and imagina- tion, but a man that hath tasted of honey knoweth the sweetness of it in truth ; so by hearing or reading of the grace and mercy of God in Christ, we may guess that it is a sweet thing, but he that hath had an experimental proof of the sweet effects and fruit of it in his own heart, and all that is spoken of God's pardoning and comforting of sinners is verified in himself, this giveth him a more sensible demonstration of the worth and value of this privilege, then more admiring thoughts of mercy, when he can say, as Paul, 1 Tim. i. 13, tjXeijOijv, I was saved by mercy, (2.) We shall more love God : Phil. i. 9, ' I pray that your love may abound in all sense ; ' the spiritual gust maketh love abound. (3.) We cannot speak of it with that fulness, life, sense, and affection to others, nor so movingly invite others to share with us, as
314 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LXXXV
when the effects of his goodness are communicated to us : Ps. xxxiv. 8, ' Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.' A report of a report is a dead cold thing, but a report from experience is lively and powerful. Well, then, let it come to me.
[2.] The sense or participation of Grod's saving mercies is to be- lievers the life of their lives, the heaven they have upon earth, the joy and comfort of their souls, and the want of this is a kind of death to them ; for so David expresseth himself, ' Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live/
The reasons are taken partly from the object, and partly from the sub- ject— from the thing itself, and from the disposition of a renewed heart.
1. From the thing itself, from the object ; and there, first, the value of this privilege, compared with all that may be called life. Life is either natural, spiritual, or eternal.
[1.] Compare it with life natural, and there the Psalmist will tell you : Ps. Ixiii. 3, ' Thy loving-kindness is better than life ; ' life is not life without it ; without the feeling of this love, or the hope of feeling it, it is little worth. To have the light of the sun, which is the com- fort of the senses, without the light of God's countenance, which is the comfort of the soul, is a sad and dark estate, especially to the children of God, that know they are made for another world, and for this only in their passage thither. Natural life only giveth us a capacity to enjoy the comforts of sense, which are base, dreggy, and corruptive ; but the special favour of God lets us into such consolations as perfect the soul, and affect it with a greater pleasure than our natural faculties are capable of. Life natural is a frail, brittle thing, but these saving effects of God's mercy lay a foundation of eternal happiness. Life natural may grow a burden, but the love of God is never burdensome ; the days may come in which there is no pleasure, Eccles. xii. 1 ; Job xxxiii. 20, ' His life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty food ; ' in sick- ness and age, in troubles of conscience. Men do pretty well with their worldly happiness till God rebuke man for sin ; then all the glory, profit, and pleasure of the creature doth us no good : Ps. xxxix. 11, ' When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.' Judas haltered himself when filled with the sense of God's wrath : Job chose strangling rather than life. At death, when all worldly things cease, and are of no more use to us, the sense of God's love will be of great use to us. All the world understand the worth and value of God's love when death €ometh ; then a child of God feeleth it. Oh, saith he, I would not for .all the world but that I had made sure of the love of God before this hour ! How terrible else would it have been to leave all and leap out into an unknown world ! Jer. xvii. 9, ' The unjust man at his latter end shall be a fool ; ' and Job xxvii. 8, ' What is the hope of the hypo- crite, if he hath gained, when God cometh to take away his soul ? '