230 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX, [SeR. CXXXI.
' As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them.'
3. The more God doth own his law by his judgments, the more let our love be increased. Tliis is to wash our feet in the blood of the wicked : Ps. Iviii. 10, ' Tlie righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance : he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.'
SEEMON CXXXI.
3Iy flesh tremhletli for fear oftliee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.
— Ver. 120.
In this psalm you find the man of God under divers passions, some- times of joy, sometimes of sorrow, sometimes of hope and courage, and sometimes of fear. As there is a time for all things in this world, there are several conditions and duties that we riui through, and we have affections planted in us that suit with every condition. Eeligion doth not nullify, but sanctify our affections. Some have vainly thought affections to be an after-growth of noisome weeds in our nature cor- rupted ; whereas they are wholesome herbs, implanted in us by God at our first creation, of great use to grace when rightly stirred and ordered : Anima minquam melms agit, &c. The passion expressed in the text is fear ; for two or three verses his meditations had been taken up in the observation of God's judgments upon evil-doers : ' Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes ; for their deceit is falsehood ' (ver. 118). They were once high, but God hath brought them down with ignominy and contempt ; they had borne themselves out in their sinful courses on account of their pros- perity, but at length they are utterly ruined and broken. And why ? ' For their deceit is falsehood ;' that is, they were unmasked, and all their pretences of piety and justice found to be fraud and imposture. In ver. 119 he still insisteth upon the same argument : ' Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross ; therefore! love thy testi- monies.' They seemed to cleave to the church and people of God as dross to gold or silver. That God, wiio is the purger and refiner of his church, failed not to put a difterence, and to consume the dross and refine his silver. The use that David made of these judgments was twofold :— (1.) To love God's ways so much the more, and to cleave to them with greater firmness, ' Therefore 1 love thy testimonies. (2.) To fear before the Lord, and tremble at the Lord's judgments, as in the text. There are two atfections wherein we should always seek to profit — the love of God and the fear of God. Of this last in the text, ' My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.' In which words we have —
1. The degree of his fear, my flesh trembleth.
2. The object of his feav, fur fear of thee.
3. The ground and reason of his fear, I am afraid of thy judgments. 1. The degree of his fear, ' My llesh trembleth.' The word samar
St Hierorae rendereth, horrivilavit caro mea — my flesh is in horror
VeR. 120.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 231
and affrightment. Symmaclius before bim, Qp6oTpL-)(el diro rou (fiolBov V crap^ /LLov — my flesh maketh my bair stand on end, as tbe prickles of a bedgehog, wliich is an emblem of horror. The poet Persius exprcssetb such an affrightment thus, Excussit memhris tremor alhus aristas — my fear made my bair stand up like a field of corn, from the contraction of the skin. So it bappeneth in cases of fear. You have the like expression, Job iv. 14, 15, ' Fear came upon me, and trem- bling, -which made all my bones to shake ; the bair of my flesh stood up.' And elsewhere the same word is so used. The Septuagint reads it imperatively, KaQy'fkoyaov eic rou (fyo/Sov ra<; aapKa^ jxov, airo jap twv Kpi/jLurav (Tov i(f3o0}]d7]v — pierce through my flesh with fear, as with nails. Surely it notetli some deep sense and high degree of fear ; as the prophet Habakkuk expresseth upon like occasion, Hab. iii. 15, ' When I heard this, my belly trembled, my lips quivered, rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in my flesh ;' his bowels did beat and shake for fear, and his lips quivered for fear, that he could not speak. The judgments of God ought to beget a deep sense and trembling, not a slight affection in us. The prophet saith, Amos iii. 8, ' The lion roareth ; who will not fear ? ' We have need to stir up our hearts again and again. Wlien the Lord roareth and cometh forth to judgment, we have need be ashamed of our stupidity when we are not affected.
2. The object of his fear, ' For fear of thee.' It was not tbe fear of man that put him into such an agony and consternation. We are always dissuaded from the fear of man, but we are exhorted to the fear of God : Mat. x. 28, ' And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.' The one is a snare— Pro v. xxix. 25, ' The fear of man bringcth a snare ; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe ' — but the other is a duty. The great preservation of the soul from spiritual dangers is tlie fear of God. We are tiUi si cauti, securi si attoniti, saith Tertullian — tbe fear of God maketh us circumspect, and so bringeth safety to us ; yea, the one is the cure of the other, Isa. viii. 12, 13. As one nail driveth out another, or as Moses' rod did eat up the rods of the magicians, so doth the fear of God against all contrary fears and terrors, whereby the heart may be turned from God. Man can only kill the body, but God can cast both soul and body into bell-fire ; so that we may set God against man, soul and body against the body only, and hell-fire against temporal punish- ment. As tbat holy man said, Da veniam, imperator, ho carcerem com- minaris, Deus autem comminatur Gehennam — -thou threatenest bonds and imprisonment, he threateneth everlasting danmation ; therefore it is God is to be feared : Ps. Ixxvi. 7, ' Thou, even thou, are to be feared ; and who can stand in thy sight when thou art angry ? ' Not man, in comparison of God. Man against man may stand, and wicked men in the time of his patience may stand ; but when God judgeth, who can stand ? Now of God there is a double fear — filial, which draweth us to bim ; and servile, which driveth us from him: Exod. xx. 20, ' And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your face, that ye sin not.' Fear not with a slavisli fear, but an awful feai', composed of reverence and love.