[1.] Partly because prayer giveth ease ; it is a vent to strong aftections.
[2.] It reviveth the work of faith, hope, and patience.
[3.] Though God knoweth when to bestow blessings, yet he will not blame the desires of his children after them.
Use. Well, then, let us seek comfort, and complain not of God, but to God. Complaints of God give a vent to murmurings ; but com- plaints to God, to faith, hope, and patience.
1. Piefer the kind of comfort to God, whether he will give temporal deliverance, a comfortable sense of his love, or hopes of glory, a clearer right and title to eternal rest.
2. Yea, refer the thing itself. Comfort is necessary, because a great part of our temptations lie in troubles as well as allurements. Sense of pain may discompose us, as well as pleasure entice us. The world is a persecuting as well as a tempting world. The flesh troubleth as well as enticeth. The devil is a disquieting as well as an ensnaring devil. But yet comfort, though necessary, is not so necessary as holi- ness. Therefore, though comfort is not to be despised, yet sincere love to God is to be preferred ; and though it be not dispensed so
372 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XCI.
certainly, so constantly, and in so high a degree in this world, we must be contented. The Spirit's comforting work is oftener interrupted than the work of holiness ; so much as is necessary to our employment for God in the world we shall have.
3. Comfort is raised in us by the Spirit of God : Acts ix. 31, ' Then had the churches rest, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.' For means we have his word, his promises, and also his providence. His word : Eom, xv. 4, ' Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.' His promises : Ps. cxix. 50, ' This is my comfort in my affliction : for thy word hath quickened me ; ' Heb. vi. 17, 18, ' Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath ; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.' And also his providence, pro- tection, and defence : Ps. xxiii, 4, ' Thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.' The rod and staff are spoken of as instru- ments of defence.
4. Consider how ready God is to comfort his people: Isa. xl. 1, 2, ' Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye com- fortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accom- plished, that her iniquity is pardoned.' When time serveth, God sendeth these messages.
SEEMON XCI.
For I am become like a hottle in the smoke : yet do I not forget thy precepts. — Ver. 83.
Here is rendered a reason why he doth so earnestly beg for comfort and deliverance. The reason is taken from his necessity, he was scarce able to bear any longer delay of comfort. Not only his faith and hope was spent, but his body was even spent through the trouble that was upon him. He had told us, in the 81st verse, ' My soul fainteth for thy salvation ; ' in the 82d verse, ' I\Iine eyes fail for thy word ; ' and now, 'I am become like a bottle in the smoke,' &.c.
Observe here — (1.) His condition represented ; (2.) His resolution maintained. Or —
First, The heat of tribulation, I am become like a hottle in tlie smoke.
Secondly, His constant perseverance in his duty. Yet do I not forget thy precepts.
1. His condition is represented by the similitude of a bottle in the smoke, alluding therein to a bottle of skin, such as the Jews used ; as in Spain their wine is put into borachos, or bags made of hog-skins, aaK(p ev alyelo) in Homer ; in a vessel or bottle of goat-skin. And Christ's similitude of old bottles and new bottles relateth thereunto,
VeR. 83.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX, 373
]\Iat. ix. 17 ; for he meaneth it of skin-bottles or bladders, if such a bottle be hung up in the smoke, and by that means becometh black, parched, and dry. The man of God thought this a fit emblem of his condition. The Septuagint reads ev Trd-xyrj, ' in the frost/ Ki(07' sig- nifieth any fume or vapour, whether of smoke or mist ; as Ps. cxlviii. 8, ' Fire and hail, snow and vapour.' The word for vapour is the same with this which is here rendered smoke. Here it signifieth smoke rather than vapour or mist.
2. His resolution, ' Yet do I not forget thy precepts.' I do not for- get ; that is, I do not decline from or neglect my duty ; as Heb. xiii. 16, ' To distribute and communicate forget not,' that is, neglect it not. As on God's part, when he will not perform what belongeth to him, being hindered by our disobedience, he threateneth to forget his people, Jer. xxiii. 39, that is, will not deliver them ; so we forget God's precepts when we do not fulfil, or neglect, our duty. Xow, forget God's precepts he might either as his comfort or his rule ; both ways must the word be improved and remembered by us ; yet because the notion of precepts is here used, I understand the latter. Often is this passage repeated in this psalm ; as ver. 51, ' The proud have had me greatly in derision, yet have I not declined from thy law.' Though scorned and made a mockage by those that were at ease, and lived in pomp and splendour, yet his zeal was not abated. Ver. 61, ' The bands of the wicked have robbed me ; yet have I not forgotten thy law.' Though plundered by the violence of soldiers ; so ver. 109, ' My soul is continually in my hand ; yet do I not forget thy law ; ' that is, though he was in danger of death continually. We have it again, ver. 141, ' I am small and despised ; yet do I not forget thy law ; ' though con- temned and slighted as a useless creature, and one that might be well spared in the world. So in the text, ' I am become like a bottle in the smoke,' though wrinkled and shrivelled with age and sorrow. Thus in all temptations David's love to God and his ways was not abated.