158 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXXIV.
the grace of Grod into lascivloiisness ;' wresting the truth from its purpose to countenance a laziness. It is good to observe the diiFerent arguings in scripture from the same principle. To instance in this principle, our time is short, what doth a holy man argue from it ? 1 Cor. vii. 29, ' Let those that have wives be as those that have none, those that weep as though they wept not,' &c. Therefore wo should be strict, temperate, sober in the use of all these things. Now, let a carnal w^retch work upon this principle, and what inference doth he draw? ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die,' 1 Cor. xv. 32. See this other principle, ' The grace of God brings salvation ' to poor sinners, Titus ii. 12. How doth a gracious heart work upon it ? ' Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts,' &c. Oh ! what shall be done for this God, the grace that offers such salvation by Christ ? Let a carnal wretch work upon this ])rinciple, and he will take liberty to sin that grace may abound : Rom. vi. 1, ' Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound ? God forbid.' Such kind of reasonings there are in the hearts of the godly : 2 Sam. vii. 2, uaith David, ' I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelletli within curtains.' G6d hath fenced me with his providence, what then ? Here I may sit down and rest, and take my ease and pleasure, and gratify my sensual lusts ? No ; he doth not argue so, l)ut what shall I do for God, that hath done so much for me ? Now see those ungracious Jews after their return, how they reason : Hag. i. 2, ' The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built ;' no matter for God's house. It is the Lord's hand, let Eli work upon that: 1 Sam. iii. 18, 'Let him do what seemeth him good ;' he draws from it a submissive patience. Oh ! the sovereign God will take his own way, and the creature must not murmur, repine, and set up an anti-providence against him. But now saith that carnal wretch, 2 Kings vi. 33, ' Behold, this evil is of the Lord ; what should I wait for the Lord any longer ? ' He murmurs, and frets, and grows im- patient. Solomon tells us, Prov. xxvi. 9, ' As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.' A thorn was their instrument of sewing ; now when a drunkard should manage his needle, he wounds and gores liimself ; so is a parable in a fool's mouth : a carnal heart wounds and gores himself with the most holy principle of religion.
2. The second sort of vain thoughts are ivdvix-qaei^, musings ; and here take notice the vanity of our thoughts appears —
[1.] In the slipperiness and inconstancy of them. We run from object to object in a moment, and our thoughts look like strangers one upon another, wandering like those 'vagabond eJews,' Acts xix. 13 ; so they are called because of their uncertain station and frequent removes. Eccles. vi. 9. ' Better is the sight of the eyes than the wan- dering of the desire ;' in the original, it is the working out of the soul. Usually we have a straggling soul, roving, wandering here and there, and all in an instant ; especially this roving madness may we take notice of when we are employed in holy things, hearing, prayer, meditation. It is strange to see what impertinent, sudden discursions there are from good to lawful, from lawful to sinful, and how far the heart is removed from God when we are before him ; when a man hath brought liis body to God, his heart is turned back again. These
VeR. 113.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 159
vain thoughts pursue and haunt us in duties, so that we mingle sul- phur with our incense (it is Gregory's comparison), even in our prayers and holy addresses to God.
[2.] The unprofitahleness and folly of our musings. Our thoughts are set upon trifles and frivolous things, neither tending to our own profit nor the benefit of others : Prov. x. 20, ' The heart of the wicked is little worth ; ' all their debates, conceits, musings are of no value. 'The tongue of the just is as choice silver;' but all their thoughts are taken up about childish vanity and foolish conceits : Prov. xxiv. 9, 'The thought of foolishness is sin;' not only the thought of wicked- ness, but foolishness. Thoughts are the first-born of the soul, the immediate issues of the mind, yet wo lavish them away upon every trifle. Follow men all the day long, and take an account of their thoughts. Oh ! what madness and folly are in all the musings they are conscious to ! Ps. xciv. 11, ' The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity.' If we did judge as God judges, all the thoughts, reasonings, discourses of the mind, if they were set down in a table, we might write at the bottom, Here is the sum and total account of all, nothing but vanity.