Thirdly, Tlie use of scripture, the ends for which God liatli ap- pointed it, and the uses for which it was given.
1. To increase the knowledge of God. Now, the saints would know more of God, and better their notions of him ; as Moses, his great request to God is, ' Tell me thy name ;' when he learned that, ' Show me thy glory ;' he would fain know more of God. So the saints would fain know more of God ; therefore the word is dear and precious to them, because it discovers so much of God, Hosea vi. 3. Tliis is their property, they ' follow on to know the Lord.' They do not content themselves with their first and infant notions, but aspire to know him more and more ; for their love, fear, and trust, and all, doth depend upon the knowledge of God. If we had more knowledge of God, we should love him more and trust him more : Ps. ix. 10, ' They that know thy name will put their trust in thee.' We know God but as men born blind know the fire ; they know there is such a tlnng as fire, for they feel it warm them, but what it is they know not ; so that there is a God we know, but what he is we know little, and indeed we can never search him out to perfection ; a finite creature can never fully comprehend that which is infinite. The saints are following on to know the Lord ; they desire to know more and more, and there is no such means to discover God to them as this way.
2. The use of the word is to convert the soul and to bring it home to God : Ps. xix. 7, ' The law of God is perfect, converting the soul.' There is the perfection of God's word, it is God's instrument for con- verting of souls, or turning of them back to him again. For conver- sion, take it in its wiiole latitude, conipriseth tliis, to humble us, to cleanse us, to bind U}) our broken hearts. Because of all these uses, the children of God love his word. It serves —
[1.] To humble us for sin : Jer. xxiii. 29, ' Is not my word like as a fire ? suith the Lord ; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? ' He appeals to it as things that we may find by experience, that the word ot God is not only a hammer to break, but a fire to melt.
470 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CI.
As a battered vessel, when it is to be new formed, must be melted, that it may be capable of this new form, so no such way to melt the heart, cind make it capable of God's purpose, as the word of God ; no such thing to break the heart, no such terrors and agonies like those the word works ; and to melt the heart, to make it pliable to God's use, no such thing as the word of God to affect us for sin, for sin as it is a breach of God's law, or an offence to God.
[2.] It hath this use, to cleanse the heart, and subdue it to the obedience of Christ: Ps. cxix. 9, 'Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his Avay ? By taking heed thereunto according to thy word.' Young men, who more stubborn and boisterous than they, that are carried on with great strength and fervour in the very heat of their rebellion against God ? Well, the word of God can cleanse the heart of a young man. As Plato saith of youth, that it is such a beast as will not easily come to hand. Now for cicurating and taming this beast, for the captivating tho.se rebellious affections in youth, and cleansing and working out the filthiness that is in us, nothing like the word. And it is by these spiritual weapons that every thought is brought into captivity to Chri.st, 2 Cor. x. ; and then, as it is obstinate, the power of the word breaks the force of our lusts.
[3.] For comforting and binding up the broken-hearted. Human wisdom and eloquence can do nothing to purpose this way ; but when God by the Avord reveals to a man his righteousness, then ' his flesh shall come again as a child's, he shall return to the days of his youth,' Job xxxiii. 25. Though a man l)efore did walk up and down as a ghost, was, as it were, a walking skeleton, and liis marrow was sucked out of his bones by the terrors of the Lord that were upon him, yet when he hath Gods word to show, under God's hand, for his pardon, this brings his comfort ; his flesh shall revive, he shall return fresher than a child, and shall return to the days of his youth; his strength, joy, and comfort shall come again. Therefore, oh, how they love the law! because they have felt in their heart it nuist be God's word ; for that which wounds must also heal.
3. To make us perfect as well as to begin the work : 2 Tim. iii. 17, it is said, ' The word of God is able to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works ; ' so that in this perfection there are three uses for which the word serves : —