YeR. 93.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 433
in the word there are most quickening considerations ; or it from troubles, we have enough in God, Christ, the covenant, the promise of eternal life to support us. This is the first reason ; the word of God is the only means to comfort us, because it contains proper quickening considerations, that may keep life and vigour in us, if either carnal distemper invade the heart, or worldly sorrow and fear, which is apt to perplex us.
2. The quickening Spirit delights to work by this means. The ordinary chariot, that carrieth the influences of grace, is the word of grace. The Spirit that speaks in the word speaks his own lively comforts to us. Alas ! they are but cold comforts we can find else- where. The Spirit of God rides most triumphantly in his own chariot. The word and the Spirit are often associated, to show they go together. The word goes with the Spirit : Isa. lix. 21, ' My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart,' &c. Isa. XXX. 20, when God promiseth, ' Their eyes shall see their teachers,' it is promised also, ' They should hear a voice behind them, saying, This is the way ;' God would afford tlie word and Spirit in times of their affliction. The Spirit works still in concomitancy with the word, that it may the better be known to be a revelation from God. If God will set up a word and revelation of his mind distinct from the light of nature, it is fit it should be owned ; and that is done by a concomitancy of his grace, and powerful operations of his Spirit, that goes along with his word : John xvii. 17, ' Sanctify them by thy truth ; thy word is truth.' We find the word to be truth, because it is asso- ciated and accompanied with the operations of the Spirit : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.' The Spirit still goes along with the truth of the gospel, and with God's word. His word is the sword of the Spirit. God will not bless any other doctrine so much as the word to quicken, revive, and comfort the soul ; and therefore here we should busy ourselves, for it contains the surest grounds of comfort, and the Spirit is associated with it, and goes along with it, to bless it to our souls.
Thirdly, Though the word be the means, yet the benefit comes from God, ' for with them thou hast quickened me.' Life comes from the fountain of life. The gospel is a sovereign plaster, but it is God"s hand that must apply it and make it stick, make it to be peace, com- fort, and quickening to our souls. It is said, 1 Tim. vi. 13, ' That he that quickeneth all thiags is God.' The quickening of life natural or life spiritual is to be ascribed to God alone. Let me evidence this by three considerations : —
1. The life of grace is begun and carried on in a constant way of dependence upon God ; he will not trust us with a stock of grace in our own hands, but our life is in Christ's hands : 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son, hath life ; and he that hath not the Son, hath not life.' He hath it in his own hands, and he gives and conveys it to us. And Gal. ii. 20, ' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' Christ made the purchase, and therefore it pleased the Father that the pur- chased treasure should be put into his hands, and not immediately into ours. We have so foully miscarried already, that God will trust liis honour in our hands no more, as at first he did. We have nothing
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434 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. XCVIII.
but what we have daily from Christ and in Christ : lie must influence us, and without him Ave can do nothing: John xv. 5, %&)pt? ifio'v. Apart from him we can do nothing, therefore we cannot quicken our- selves ; for God hath reserved this life of grace, and kept it in his own hands, that we may have our daily supplies from Christ.
2. The vitality or liveliness of grace is not dispensed by a certain law, but according to the sovereign will and good pleasure of God. God gives life to his people, but the activity of it is only from his good pleasure : Phil. ii. 13, ' For it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of (or according to) his good pleasure.' He gives out comfort, and he gives degrees of quickening as he pleaseth, to some more, to some less, and not always in the same degree to the same persons ; therefore we must look up unto God if we would have this life and quickening ; it is very necessary to our well-being, but it is a favour, ' he worketh in us according to his good pleasure.'
3. The means cannot work without the principal agent. As the word could not convert us at first but by the power of God, or as his grace works by it, quickening a dead soul, purifying a defiled heart, humbling a proud mind ; so when the conscience grows sleepy, you need quickening excitations to duty. The same grace which caused a spiritual life doth give us spiritual strength, and maintain that life, by inclining the mind and will, by stirring up the affections by longing desires after Christ and glory ; so the soul is still kept alive in the same way as it Avas begotten by God at first : 1 Cor. iii. 7, ' Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, but it is God that giveth the increase.' All is of God, who only hath the supreme power over men's hearts, to enlighten the mind, incline the will, and enlarge the affections. Though we use the means (and we sin if we do not), yet it is God that quickeneth us ; he hath the supreme power over the heart of man.