3. Let me prove it by experience, that the word is such a sure direction.
[1.] Because natural men have a sense of it, and upon that account fear it. See John iii. 20, 21, ' Every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.' Natural men will not come to the word, they fear it as discovering, and therefore never feel it as refreshing. Evil-doers hate the light ; they are afraid of the word lest it should convince them, and discover them to themselves ; therefore they stand off, and shun all means of closing with it ; there is such conviction in the oar,i a secret jealousy of the searching power that is in the word of God.
[2.] Godly men do find a great deal of comfort and satisfaction from this light as to all the doubts and fears of the soul : Ps. xix. 8, ' The. statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.' All their scruples vanish ; here is an apt and fit doctrine accommodated to the heart of man. A man hath never true and rational delight till he is fully satisfied in point of religion, till he can have rest for his soul, and commodious notions of God. Now, if you would have rest for your souls, Jer. vi. 16, here it is, the children of God find it. There is a fair compliance in this doctrine with all those natural principles and ingrafted notions within us concerning God and his will ; they find satisfaction in it to conscience, though not to fond curiosity ; the one is necessary, the other dangerous and unprofitable. Christians ! there is a great deal of difference between these two, satisfying conscience and satisfying curiosity, as much as between quenching the thirst of a sober man and satisfying the lust and appetite of a drunkard. Here is enough to satisfy conscience, a fair accommodation of excellent truths to a reason- able nature, truths becoming God, truths suiting with the heart of man, and therefore here they find it to be light, that is a sure direc- tion. The wicked feel the discovery of it, and the saints feel the impression of it.
[3.] We have this external and outward experience to assure us of our rule and light that shines in the word of God, because those that go against this light and direction do sensibly miscarry, and are sure to split themselves upon some rock or other. Our first parent, Adam, when he hearkened to the voice of the serpent rather than the voice of the Lord, destroyed himself and all his posterity. As long as he obeyed the word of God, he remained in a blessed estate in paradise, but when he gave heed to other counsels, he was cast out of paradise, and ren- dered liable to many sorrows, yea, eternal death. !So all that walk in the imagination of their own hearts, and have not light from the word, they presently run themselves into sundry mischiefs. The young pro-
' Qu. ' ore ' ? That is, in a rudimentary state. — Ed.
VeR. 105.] SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. 69
pliet is an instance of this, 1 Kings xiii. 21. To go to particular instances would be innumerable, every day's experience will furnish us with enough of this ; they that will not take the light of God's word, .stumble upon dark mountains, for Grod hath owned his word to a tittle, owned both the tables : Eom. i. 18, ' The wrath of God is revealed from heaven,' &c. ; from heaven, by the effects of his wrath. If men be ungodly and unrighteous, they are punished ; nay, not only in the general, but in particular : Heb. ii. 2, ' For if the word spoken by angels were steadfast ' — why ? — ' for every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward.' By every transgression he means a sin of omission ; by every disobedience, a sin of commission. And as he will do so for sins against tlie law, so sins against the gospel ; that place wliere the gospel was first propounded smarted for the neglect of it : 1 Thes. ii. 16, ' Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost,' for despising tlie gospel. And still God secures the certainty of our direction by new judgments ; those that will go contrary to the word, turn aside to paths of their own, they perish in their devices.
4. Let me prove it by reasons that certainly tlie word must needs be light, that is, a clear and sure direction. I prove it from the author, tlie instruments, and penmen, and from the ends why God hath given the word.
[1.] From the author of it, it is God's word. Everything that comes from God hath some resemblance of his majesty : ' God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all,' 1 John i. 5. His word is light. If God would give us anything to direct us, it must needs be clear and sure,. it must have light. As at first God gave reason to direct man: John i. 4, ' That life was the light of men;' as it came from God, before it was weakened by the fall, it was a full direction, it discovered its author ; and now since the fall, still it discovers its author. Conscience, which remains with us, it is called ' the candle of the Lord,' Fro v. xx. 27. From a glorious sun now it is dwindled to a candle, yet it is called the candle of the Lord ; it is a candle lighted by God himself. The understanding and conscience that is privy tc our most secret motions, thoughts, and actions ; though it may be maimed and lessened by sin, it is sensible of some distinction between good and evil, and acts God's part in the soul, sometimes condemning, sometimes approv- ing, accusing and excusing by turns, Piom. ii. 15. But, alas ! if we were only lett to this light, we should be ibr ever miserable. The light of reason is too short for us now, and there is a double reason ; partly, because our chief good and last end being altered by sin, we shall strangely mistake things, if we weigh them in the balance of the flesh, which we seek to please. Now our chief good is altered, or rather we are apt to mistake it ; all our business is to please the flesh, and to gratify lust and appetite, Ps. xlix. 12. Therefore go to a man led by carnal and unsanctified reason, he shall ' put light for darkness, and darkness for light ; good for evil, and evil for good,' Isa. v. 20. He shall confound the names and natures of things, so miserably grope in the dark, and not find out the way to true happiness, either stumbling, dashing his foot against a stone, or wander out of the way in a maze of a thousand uncertainties ; therefore it is a blessed thing not to be left to this candle of reason, the light within us, for that will not guide