2. A sincere resolution to walk with God, to keep in with God firmly set ; for here David saith, ' Depart from me, ye evil-doers ; for I will keep the commandments of my God.' His resolution was set, there- fore he shakes them off. When Ruth's resolution was set, Naomi left oft" persuading. When Paul's company saw his resolution, that he went bound in the spirit, they ceased, saying, ' The will of the Lord be done,' Acts xxi. 14. So this will fortify against all suggestion ; they will be discouraged from haunting you more when you are resolved.
3. Our company will be a great part of our happiness in heaven : Heb. xii. 22, ' We are come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven ;' and Mat. viii. 11, ' They shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.' Company will be a great part of our happiness, and for the present it will be a great hindrance or a great further- ance ; therefore, when we think of this, it will make us choose those with whom we shall converse to all eternity, that we may say, Now I shall change places, but not my company ; I shall but go from saints to saints.
4. Bad company can yield you no comfort hereafter when trouble of conscience comes. When your heart begins to wound you, they cannot or will not help : Mat. xxvii. 4, ' What is that to us ? see thou to that/ If they draw you to inconvenience, when it comes upon you they will yield you no relief or comfort. Well, he that considers he is to die and give an account, will not displease God to please men.
188 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXXVII.
SERMON CXXVII.
Uphold me according iinio iliy word, that I mmj live ; and let me not
he asliamed of my liojie. — Ver. 116.
*
In the former verse, David had hound himself hy a firm resolution to keep the commandments of his God. Now presently he turneth to prayer, ' Lord, uphold me according to thy word, that I may live ; and let me not he ashamed of my hope.' Our purposes and resolutions will not hold out without Grod's conhrming grace. David, that would have the wicked depart from him there, would have God draw nigh to him here. Both are necessary if we would keep the^connnands. The company of the wicked, as a great impediment, must he removed: ' Depart from me, ye evil-doers ;' and then the assistance of God nnist he entreated : ' Uphold me according unto thy word/ &c. Two things he hegs of God in this verse : —
1. Confirmation in waiting.
2. The full and final accomplishment of his hope. In the first request there is —
1. The hlessing prayed foi', confirmation or sustentation, upliold me.
2. The ground or warrant of asking, according unto thy word. Some translations have it, ' hy thy word/ making it the instrument of his support.
3. To what end, thcd I might live.
In the second request an ai'gument is intimated, that frustration or disappointment of his hope would hring shame.
I begin with the first, the blessing prayed for, sustentation and support, ' Uphold me.' David speaketh not this with respect to his outward man, as if God should keep him alive, inaugre the rage of his enemies. Indeed, God doth uphold his creatures in that sense, by his outward providence and divine maintenance. But he speaketh this of his inward man, the su])port of the soul, that God would sup- port him in a way of faith and comfort. In ver. 114, ' Thou art my hiding-place and my shield : I hope in thy word.' Now, Lord, that I might live, keep up the life of this hope. And ver. 115, ' I will keep the commandments of my God.' And now he desires God would support him in a way of courage and obedience. Hence observe —
Doct. Sustaining grace is necessary to the saints. Confirmation in a state of grace is as necessary to them as conversion to it.
There is a twofold grace which God gives — habitual and actual ; cither he works upon us 'per modmn habitus, infusing grace, pcrma- oientis, or else^^er modum auxilii iransientis.
First, There is habitual grace, called in scripture the new heart and new spirit, Ezek. xxxvi. 2G ; and by St John called crirepfxa avrov, 1 John iii. 9, the abidmg seed; and by St Paul, 2 Cor. v. 17, Kaivi) Kri(jL<i, the new creature. All these expressions intend those fixed and permanent habits which are the principles of holy actions.
Secondly, There is actual grace, for the former is not enough to carry us through all duties, and to uphold us in all the varieties of
VeR. 116.] SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. 189
this mortal condition. Why? Quia non totaliie}' sanat — haljitiial grace works not a total, but only a partial cure. Though there be the new creature wrought, though there be an abiding seed, yet there is something of sin, and something of the flesh still left in the soul. Therefore we want perpetual supplies of actual grace. Now this kind of grace serveth for divers uses.