2. Walk with greater simplicity, without that guile and double- dealing and serpentine wisdom that is so proper to wicked men. He that walketh uprightly walketh safely. Protection holds good for the road and not for byways, 2 Cor. i. 12. The jn'oud are those that dig pits ; the character of those that shall have pardon for their sins is this, ' In whose spirit there is no guile,' A guileful spirit ill suits with the gospel and the grace of God.
3. Take heed of carnal afi"ections. Pride, envy, contempt of others, we know not how far these lusts may transport us, to what hori-id,
VeR. 89.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 391
imnatni-al designs. When once the devil hath a man upon the hip, when engaged in an evil design, it is hard to stop ; pride then digging pits, and then casting off God's law ; and then he never cares whether to please or displease, honour or dishonour God, is not troubled with such kind of thoughts.
4. Take heed how you engage against God's people, or dig pits for them tliat fear the Lord. God's interest usually goetli along with them : Isa. viii. 9, 10, ' Associate yourselves, 0 ye people, and ye shall be broken to pieces : take counsel together, and it shall come to nought.' As the captain's servant said, ' Take heed what ye do, for this man is a Roman.' So these men are children of God, he is their patron and protector ; God is interested in their protection ; they are little ones, but they have a great God, Mat. xviii. 10. Therefore take heed of having any interest opposite to the strict people of God, for this is but to ruin yourselves.
SEEMON XCIII.
For ever, 0 Lord, thy ivord is settled in heaven. — Ver. 89.
These words are usually rendered as making but one proposition ; but the accent athnah showeth there are two branches, the one assert- ing the eternity of God, the other the constancy and permanency of his word. Thus— (1.) 'For ever art thou, 0 Lord;' (2.) "Thy word is settled in the heavens.' So the Syriac version readeth it; and Geierus, and after him others, prove and approve this reading. And so this verse and the following do the better correspond one with another, if we observe beginning and ending, as ' Thou art for ever, O Lord,' and ' Thy faithfulness unto all generations,' which are exactly parallel. And then the last clauses, 'Thy v;ord is settled in the heavens,' ' Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.' And implieth, as God is eternal, so is his word, and hath an emblem and fit representation both in heaven and in earth : in heaven, in the con- stant motion of the heavenly bodies ; in earth, in the consistency and ])ermanenc} thereof; that as his word doth stand fast in heaven, so doth his faithfulness on earth, where the afflictions of the godly seem to contradict it.
First, Of the first clause, ' Thou art for ever, 0 Jehovah.' 1. That Jehovah is the one, only, eternal, and everlasting God. What eternity is passeth our skill exactly to define. As we understand it, it is the duration of a being that is without beginning or end. Duration is a continual tract of being ; and eternal duration implieth an immutable and unterminable abode in being. So it is here.
[1.] It is an infinite, unterminable duration, without beginning or ending : Ps, xc. 2, ' From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.' God never was nothing, never shall be nothing. All the generations ])ast were, but now are not. We heretofore were not, but now are. God is the beginning and end of all things, yet himself without beginning or end. He had an infinite, incomprehensible being before
392 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. XCIII.
any part of the world was framed, and will remain the same still when the world shall he no more. The soul, in viewing God, is en- closed between infiniteness before and infiniteness behind, and which way soever it looketh it seeth infiniteness round about it.
[2.] Immutable ; as without beginning and end, so without any change : Ps. cii. 25-27, ' Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands : they shall perish, but thou shalt endure, yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.' God from the mount of eternity beholdeth all the successions and changes of the creature ; but he is not changed, his nature is one and the same from everlasting to everlasting. We change every day ; we are not that to-day which we were yesterday ; we have left some part of our life behind us, which is gone, and cannot be recovered ; and our duration lesseneth every day ; but God abideth for ever one and the same, though all things be in continual flux and motion about him.
2. Now, that God is eternal I shall prove by scripture and reason. [1.] By scripture : Gen. xxi. 33, ' Abraham called there on the