4. Because by covenant all that is God's is theirs, for their use. His strength is theirs : Eph. vi. 10, ' Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.' And his salvation is theirs : Ps. Ixviii. 20, ' He that is our God is the God of salvation.' If God be a God of salva- tion, he is our God. If he hath salvation to bestow, it is ours. A believer hath full right to make use of all that God hath.
Use 1. To press you to get this interest in times of danger. We should now be more careful than at other times to get and clear up our interest in God. Oh, it will be no advantage to say, Tliis and that is mine, but a great advantage to say, God is mine. When deso- lations are on the earth, there is great havoc made of great estates, and outward supplies will come to nothing ; but this will be an ever- lasting comfort to say,' God is mine. See 1 Sam. xxx. 6, ' But David comforted himself in the Lord his God ;' Hab. iii. 18, ' I will rejoice in the Lord ; I will joy in the God of my salvation.'
2. It presseth you to make your interest more evident by fruits of obe- dience; as David, ' I am thine.' How makes he it good? ' I sought thy precepts.' We would have mercy, but neglect duty. Therefore saith David, ' I sought thy precepts.' It is an emphatical expression. To seek God's precepts is more than barely to do them ; to seek them, that is, with all diligence. We labour after the knowledge of them, and
VeR. 96.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 451
grace to practise them ; it is to give up our minds and hearts ; it notes earnest study and affection to them, will, and care, and all to the prac- tice of God's will. Where there is an honest and earnest endeavour to obey God's command in all things, this proves a believer's interest. In times of trouble you must expect your confidence will be assaulted. Now when Satan or conscience represent God as putting thee off thus. What ! come you to me ? thou art a grievous sinner ; but, Lord, I am thine. How prove you that? I seek to know thy will. ' How to perform that which is good, I find not,' Rom. vii. We cannot always find it ; that is, serve God with exactness of care ; but if this be the bent of our hearts, if we seek it, we may come with confidence, and look God in the f\\ce, and say, Lord, I am thine.
3. We may improve it with confidence in prayer, I am thine, save me. God saves man and beast, Ps. xxxvi. 6, therefore will save his own, he that is our father and our God : ' I know that my God will save me,' saith David, Ps. xx. 6-8. There are some God will not save : ' They are not mine, therefore I will break down their bulwarks.' In the Book of Chronicles it is said, ' Why transgress you the com- mandment of God, that you cannot prosper ? ' There is an utter incapacity when men will be sinning away their protection. Here is your great plea in time of danger, in adversity, go to God and say, I am thine ; Lord, save me.
SEEMON C.
I have seen an end of all perfection ; hut thy commandment is exceeding broad. — Ver. 96.
In this verse the scripture, as the charter of our hopes, and the seed and principle of our spiritual being, is recommended above all things in the world as that which doth chiefly deserve our respect and care. Consider the word by itself, and you will find it excellent ; but consider it by way of comparison with the vanity and insufficiency of other things, and the excellency thereof will much more appear. As in a pair of balances, when things come to be weighed together, you will soon see the difference, and which is heaviest ; so here in the text both scales are filled ; on the one side there is the world and the perfections thereof, and on the other side the word of God and the benefit that we have thereby, and sensibly the beam breaketh on the word's side ; in the one scale there is limited perfection, which will soon have an end ; in the other, a happiness that hath length and breadth, ' I have seen an end,' <fcc.
In the words there is a thesis or proposition, and then an antithesis, or something said by way of opposition to that position. The thesis, ' I have seen an end of all perfection ; ' and the antithesis, ' But thy commandment is exceeding broad.' Both together will yield us this point : —
Doct. That the serious consideration of the frailty and fadingness of all natural and earthly perfections should excite and quicken us to look
452 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. C.
after that better and eternal estate wliich is offered to us in the word of God.
I shall make good this proposition bj^ going over the circumstances of the text as they are offered to us.