(1.) Where the Spirit of God doth afi'ect men with an earnest de- sire of knowledge, and so affect them as to desire to know the will of God, for no other reason but that they may avoid what is displeasing to God, and do what is pleasing in his sight ; and therefore hear, pray
VeR. 104.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 55
read, meditate, and study the holy scriptures ; they are sure to be right for the main,
(2.) Not only avoid the belief and profession of falsehood, but hate it : ' I hate every false way.' Not the persons, but pity them : Phil, iii. 19, ' I tell you weeping.^ It should be the grief of our hearts to see them misled ; but as for the error, hate it, whatever is not agree- able to the rule of truth, or dissenteth from the purity of the word. There is too great a coldness and indifferency about the things of religion, as if truth were not to be stood upon. Carnal men hate the truth : Ps. 1. 17, ' They hate instruction, and cast my laws behind their backs.' Truly we have much more reason to hate error, without which we cannot be safe, it is so catching with our natures.
2. In point of practice, and so every falsehood may be applied —
[1.] To craft, or carnal wisdom. I hate fraud and deceit ; true under- standing makes us hate false wisdom. A simple, honest conversa- tion suits best with Christians : 2 Cor. i. 12, 'In simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world.'
[2.] Carnal or worldly vanities, and flattering or fallacious pleasures, these entice us with a fair outside, and promise a great deal of happi- ness and comfort to us ; but when we neglect better things, and run after them, they deceive us in the issue. They are called ' deceitful riches,' Mark iv. 19. And ' beauty ' is said to be ' deceitful,^ Prov. xxxi. 30. And those that run after these things are said to ' run after lying vanities,' Jonah ii. 8 ; those that fail when we hope to enjoy them.
8. I take it more generally for all sin. Sinful ways are false ways, and will surely deceive those that expect good from them or walk in them : Heb. iii. 13, ' Deceitfulness of sin ; ' and ' deceitful lusts,' Eph. iv. 22 ; and ' sin hath deceived me, and slew me,' saith Paul, Rom, vii, 11. Sin is false and deceitful many ways —
[1.] It presents itself in another dress than its own, proposing evil under the name of good, calling light darkness, and darkness light, Isa. V. 20, or shadoAvs of good for that which is really good, gilded trash for perfect gold.
[2.] As it promiseth happiness and impunity which it never per- formeth or maketh good. Dent. xxix. 19, 20 ; and so the poor sinner is led as an ox to the slaughter, Prov. vii. 22, 23. And we do not see the danger of it till it be too late to help it, and it appeareth in its own colours in the foulness of the act and the smartness of the punishment. Esau, when he had sold the birthright, bewailed it with tears when it was too late, Heb. xii. 16, 17. The foolish virgins tarried till the door was shut. Mat. xxv. 11, 12. It is good to have our eyes in our head, to see a plague when we may prevent it, Prov. xxii. 3. The foulness of the act terrifieth, as it did Judas when he betrayed his master, Mat. xxvii. 4. Their hearts give evi- dence against them, Rom. ii. 15 'Excusing or accusing one another ;' as Cain, Gen. iv. 14, ' My punishment is greater than I can bear.' The unclean person shall ' mourn at the last, when his flesh and his body shall be consumed,' Prov. v. 11. Adam and Eve were sensible too late, when their eyes were opened.
Doct. By the word of God we get that true, sound wisdom which maketh us to hate every false way.
5G SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CX.
Four things are implied in the point and in the text : —
1. A hatred of sin.
2. The universality of this hatred, every false vaij.
3. That this is a part and I'ruit of wisdom, I get wnler standing; therefore I hate.
4. Tliis wisdom and nnderstandins^ is gotten hi; God's precepts. First, That it is our duty to hate sin. Jt is not enough to reform
our })ractice, or to ahstain from the act, or to avoid the occasions that may lead to it, but it must be hated : Ps. xcvii. 10, ' Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.' He doth not say forbear it, but hate it. Love to the chiefest good is fitly accompanied with hatred of the chiefest evil. God, he is our chiefest good : you love the Lord, and you must also hate evil. The one is as natural to grace as the other ; for the new nature hath its slight and aversation, as well as its choice and pro- secution. As it inclines us to choose God for our portion, and to pur- sue after things that lead to God, so it hath a disposition to make us avoid that which is evil. There are things hurtful to the new nature as well as any other being ; now hatred is to arm us against it. In short, this hatred is required—