4G8 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CI.
Avill never be found out unless God will discover it himself ; for how could any man divine what God purposed in his heart before he brought it to purpose, until he himself had revealed it ? Therefore it is a good word, because it reveals reconciliation by Christ.
[2.] There is something more to draw our hearts to the word — that is, eternal salvation. We grope and feel about for an immortal good. Nature will give us some presages of a state after this world, some kind of guesses ; and we are groping and feeling about for an eternal good, Acts xvii. 27. Man, who hath a soul that will not perish, must have some happiness that will last as long as his soul shall last ; he would fain be eternally happy. Now, it is the word of God only re- veals both the thing and the way to God ; the thing itself, that there is such a state, and what it is : 2 Tim. i. 10, ' Christ hath brought life and immortality to light througli the gospel' It lay in darkness be- fore, hidden under some guesses and representations to the old people of God, but now it is brought to light in the gospel. Heathens in their dark notions did stumble upon the immortality of the soul, which they did rather dream of than understand distinctly ; but now all i,s open and clear, and God hath manifested to you that ' there is a rest for the children of God,' and a happiness after this life. And also God hath revealed the way how to seek it, and how to attain and get this eternal liappiness ; therefore the holy scriptures are said to be ' able to make "wise to salvation,' 2 Tim. iii. 15 : it doth direct you in this way ; that is wisdom indeed, to be wise to salvation. To be able to turn and wind in the world, to be wise only in the present generation, as the children of this world are, it is folly rather than wisdom ; as when children can set forth their toys, we do not look upon it as any piece of wisdom, but folly. Wisdom lies in fixing a right end, in a choice of fit means, and in a dexterous prosecution of those means for the attainment of this end. Now the holy scriptures make you wise to salvation — that is, to fix upon a right end, for they discover that there is a happiness that we may fix upon, and they direct us in the way ; and then by mighty and potent methods of reasoning they quicken and awaken us to look after this business, that we may dexterously pursue it as the great care that lies upon us ; therefore the children of God delight in the word, because this makes them wise to salvation. Here they have a perfect blessedness, and a powerful way of argumentation, and the soul is quickened to look after these great and everlasting hopes.
3. The doctrines of the word are profound truths : ' Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them,' Ps. cxix. 129. They are remote from vulgar and ordinary knowledge. The word of God is not only called ' a doctrine according to godliness/ 1 Tim. vi. 3, but a ' mystery of godliness,' 1 Tim. iii. 16. Since the fall there is a curi- osity of knowledge, a desire whereby man not only seeks what is true and good, but what is rare and profound ; we have no need to run to other books. True depth and true profoundness are to be found in the word of God. There are wonders in God's law, if we had eyes to see them : Ps. cxix. 18, ' Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold won- drous things out of thy law;' things indeed so profound and so mysterious that the angels desire to pry into them, 1 Peter i. 12. Those spirits that live in the blessed vision and constant fruition of
VeR. 97.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 469
God, y^'t they did find a depth of wisdom in salvation by Christ, sucli a ravishing; mystery, that they curiously are taken up in the study of it, and they delight in the view of those things which are commended to us for our study: Eph. iii. 10, 'To the intent that now, unto the principalities in heavenly jjlaces, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.' God's word is a glass wherein those glori- ous creatures do, as in a mirror, behold his wisdom, and are in some sort bettered by it. The state of angels is a happy state, but it is finite, cajiable of being improved and bettered, and that by the doctrine of the holy scriptures. Well, then, such are the depths and various excellences of the word of God, that the saints know not how more pleasantly and contentedly to spend their thoughts and time than in the search and view of those truths, where such notable mysteries are revealed about the nature of God, creation, providence, the story of man's fall, redemption by Christ, the way to true happiness, and the like. Both the grounds of faith and rules of practice are all such as are above the pitch of human understanding; natural reason cannot find them out, and now they are revealed by God, the mind doth not fully apprehend them.