Obs. 5. We learn, again, that it is good to submit to God's insti- tutions ; though the persons employed in them be never so mean, yet if they be clothed with lawful authority, by a conscientious attending upon God's ordinance, we may get a great deal of wisdom more than the teacher ever had, as they set your thoughts awork. Surely, if teachers be corrupt, as they sit in Moses' chair, though they are cor- rupt, yet as far as they do God's message they are to be regarded. Certainly we are not to turn back upon one meaner gifted if godly, or be a discouragement to those that are weak, though they are not so able, and have not so strong a gift. God may make a mean teacher a means for the increasing of knowledge.
06s. 6. We learn the glory of all profiting ; it must not be given to the instruments, but to God, for the scholar may become wiser than the teacher ; that is, God may give more grace by an instrument than the
14 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CVI.
instrument hath in himself, to show that all is of him, that it doth not lie in the teachers <;ift. All 2)rofiting must be ascribed to God; therefore the glory of all must redound to him, to his grace : 1 Cor. XV. 10, ' By the grace of God I am what I am ; and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain : I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.' If never so able, it is still from God.
Secondly, The reason, 'I have more understanding than all my teachers : for thy testimonies are my meditation.'
Point. That meditation is a great help towards gracious improve- ment. David grew in such a manner as that he did excel all his teachers, and he giveth this reason of it : ' For thy testimonies are my meditation.' The scripture calleth for this : 1 Tim. iv. 15, 'Medi- tate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profit- ing may appear to all. So consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things ; ' and Ps. 1. 22, ' Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver ; ' and Luke ii. 19, 'Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.' Here I might show— (L) What this is ; (2.) What a notable means this is for spiritual improvement and growth in know- ledge ; to debate things with himself. Who made him, and for what end he was made. But of this you may see at large, ver. 15.
SERMON CYL
I widerstand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. —
Ver. 100.
Man is a rational being, and should close with things more or less as they do perfect and polish his understanding. Now among all the inventions of mankind to remedy the defects of nature, not one of them can compare with the means which God offers for curing of the blind- ness and darkness of the mind which is introduced by the fall. Man hath found out grammar to rectify his speech, rhetoric to adorn it and make it more cogent and powerful in persuasion, logic to revive reason, medicine or physic to preserve the health of the body, politics for go- vernment of human societies, and ibr ordering our converse with others in the world, economics for prudent ordering of families, ethics for the tempering of each man's spirit, that it may live under the domin- ion of natural reason. But mark, for commerce and communion with God, wherein our happiness lies, there all the inventions of man are very short, and only the word of God can guide us, and furnish us with this wisdom; and because of this is the word so desirous^ and precious to the saints. ' Oh, how they love the law of God ! ' for it is their wisdom. Well, David having showed how it prevailed with his own heart, ' Oh, how I love thy law ! ' for thereby I get spiri- tual wisdom and understanding ; to draw in other men to love and study the word, and to make this motive strong and pressing upon them, he doth compare the wisdom that men may get by the word
^ That is, "desirable," or "desired." — Ed.
VeR. 100.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 15
with other things that look like wisdom ; he compares it with the sagacity of enemies, the speculation and knowledge of the teacher, and the prudence we get by age and experience.
1. With tlie sagacity of enemies, whose wit was sharpened with their own malice. There he shows that a man that taketh counsel of the v/ord to secure liis great interest, by getting into the favour of God, and walketh by the plain rule of the word, without consulting with flesh and blood, hath the advantage of all other men, and will be found to be the wisest man at length. He compares this wisdom he got by the word with the speculations and knowledge of teachers. He that doth not content himself with the naked rules delivered by them, but labours with his own conscience to make them profitable to his own soul, he will see more by his own eyes as to the particular duties and concernments of the spiritual life than his teachers could ever direct him unto.