The fourth thing in this general point is, that this wisdom and understanding is gotten by God's precepts. Mark, ' I hate every false way.' Why ? ' Because by thy precepts I get understanding.' Where have we it ? By studying God's word.' Kom. iii. 20, ' By the law is the knowledge of sin.' How is the knowledge of sin by the law ? Three ways: according to the nature of the sin, according to who is the sinner, and according to the guilt and dreadful estate of them that lie in a state of sin. So the knowledge of sin, that is, the nature of it, and where it lives, and where it reigns, and what will be the effects of it, all this knowledge is by the law.
1. By the law is the knowledge of sin, quoad naturam peccatL There are many things we should never know but by the law of God, though we have some general notions of good and evil. Eom. vii. 7, saith the apostle, ' I had not known sin but by the law ; for I had not
64 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeH. CXII.
known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.' Those first stirrings and secret lingerings of heart and inclinations to that which is cross to the will of God, that they go before all consent of will, and all delight, these things we could never discern by the light of nature.
2. Quoad subjectum, what is the sinner, and who is guilty of it ? So Eom. vii. 9, ' I was alive without the law once, but when the com- mandment came, sin revived, and I died.' He saw his lost, miserable, undone condition by the law of God. The acts of sin are discovered by the word of God ; it discovers the thoughts and intents of the heart, Heb. iv. 12, and state of sin ; our natural face, the condition wherein we are, is to be seen in this glass.
3. Quoad reaium ct magnitadlnem peccati, what will be the efTects of it? Kom. V. 20, ' The law entered, that the ofience might abound.' Therefore the law was given, that it might work a deep sense of the evil consequents of sin, and what wrath man was bound over to for violating tlie righteous law. The law represents the heinous nature of sin as it is avo/xla, a transgression of the law, as it strikes at God's being or at God's authority, seeks to jostle him out of the throne ; as it contradicts his sovereignty, and plucks the sceptre out of his hand and the crown from his head, and makes men to say, ' Who is lord over us ? ' As if we had nothing to guide us but our own lusts. The word of God discovers this pride of heart, and then the manifold mis- chiefs of sin are discovered ; we get this understanding by the word. It is better to know these mischiefs of sin by the threatenings of the word, than by our own bitter experience. It is sin that separates from God, and renders us incapable of all blessings.
Use 1. Study yourselves, and take a view of the case and state of your souls by the glass of the word ; see what you gain by every read- ing, hearing, every time you converse with him, what is given out to convince you of sin, or awaken your soul against sin.
Use 2. When you consult with the word, beg the light of the Spirit, which is only lively and efficacious. The apostle speaks of knowing things in the evidence and ' demonstration of the Spirit and of power,' 1 Cor. ii, 4. There is the same demonstration of the Spirit. Tiiere is a manifest difference between the evidence of reason and arguments held out from a natural understanding, and between the illumination or the demonstration of the Spirit. There are many that may have a full knowledge of the letter and the sense of the words, as they lie open to the evidence of reason, yet be Avithout the light and power of those truths, for that is a fruit of the demonstration of the Spirit, the lively light of the Holy Ghost that goes along with the word.
SERMON CXII.
TJiy ivord is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my 'path. —
Ver. 105.
The present world, as much as it suits with our carnal nature, it is but like a howling wilderness with respect to Canaan, in which there
VeR. 105.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. Q5
are many crooked paths and dansjerous precipices, j'ea, many privy snares and secret ambushes laid for lis by the devil and his instru- ments ; so that unless we have a faithful guide, a clear, full, and sure direction, we shall certainly miscarry, and every day run into the mouth of a thousand mischiefs. Now God, out of his abundant mercy, hath given us a light, a. rule to walk by, to set us clear from these rocks and preci[)ices, and to guide us safe to true happiness. And what is this light ? It is his word ; so David acknowledgeth in this verse, iJii/ word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto ym path.