In the literal explanation we have — (1.) The matter of the petition, tet them not oppress me. (2.) An argument insinuated from the quality and disposition of his enemies, the proud.
First, From the metaphorical notion, ' Be surety for thy servant,' we may observe this doctrine —
Doct. In deep distress we have leave and encouragement to desire God to interpose for his people's relief.
1. I shall open the notion of a surety.
2. Show why we have leave and encouragement to desire God to interpose.
First, For the notion of a suret}^ Symmachus, avaSe^at fxe ek dyaOov, receive me into thy protection for good. Septuagint, eKOe^ac re BovXov gov, suscipe servuni tuum. It is a phrase taken from men when they are sureties for a debtor, to take him out of the hands of a cruel creditor who is ready to cast him into prison. And thus the prophet speaketh to God when he was in extreme danger, and could think of no help but God's.
1. It implieth the danger imminent ; wlien a sergeant hath attached a man, and he is ready to go to prison, and there is no means for him to escape, unless somebody be his surety to answer all the challenges and demands of the law. In this sense Hezekiah used it : Isa. xxxviii. 14, ' I am oppressed ; undertake for me.' He spake it when he was sum- moned to the grave, to pay the debt we all owe to nature: I am like a poor debtor called to p;iy my debt speedily ; therefore. Lord, be my pledge, deliver me out of this danger. So doth David here, when the ])roud were cruelly set upon his destruction. We are driven to God alone, and beat to the throne of grace by our miseries ; yea, God lets the affairs of liis people run on to loss and ruin, till we be in the condition of a debtor going to prison ; he reserveth himself for such occasions till brouu-ht niixh to utter ruin, and all other inferior reliefs
VeR. 122.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 249
fail. And we must be content it should be so ; for there is no use of a surety till we are attached. Imminent danger givetli notice that the Lord is coming.
2. That this distress and misery cometh as a debt respecting God's laws and the higher court, where all things are decreed and sentenced before they are executed in the world, so it is a debt that must be paid, and distress is God's arrest. God is compared to a creditor, Luke vii. 41 ; therefore the miseries of God's people are expressed by chains, stocks, prisons, fetters, words that relate to a judicial proceed- ing. To chains : Lam. iii. 7, ' He hath made my chain heavy.' To stocks : Job xiii. 27, ' Thou puttest my feet into the stocks.' To a prison : Ps. cxlii. 7, ' Bring my soul out of prison.' To fetters : Job xxxvi. 8, ' And if they be bound in fetters, and holden in cords of afflictions.' To a debt that must be paid, so is sin considered with respect to its punishment. Mat. vi. 12 ; Luke xi. 4, ' Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.' God puts the bond in suit, the instruments are but as sergeants and officers to demand of us satisfaction for breach of covenant with God. They think not so, neither doth their evil heart mean so ; but so it is iu God's purpose. When you are in trouble God hath committed you to prison, and there is no coming out without submission and humilia- tion, urging the satisfaction of Christ. You are sent thither by God's autliority, and there is no getting out without his leave.
3. That the party is insolvent and undone unless some course be taken to satisfy the creditor ; he cannot help himself by his own wisdom and strength out of the danger. ' The debtor in the Gospel had nought to pay, Mat. xviii. 25. Why else should we look after a surety : Job xvii. 3, * Put me in a surety with thee : who is he that will strike hands with me ? ' Man is not able to stand alone under the weight of his afflictions ; it is a burden too heavy for us to bear. We have no might, 2 Chron. xx. 12. God's people are often brought into such a case. When the principal is not solvendo, the surety answereth. We are weak, but he is strong ; we are not able to subsist. They exceed us in carnal advantages ; if force be to be resisted by force, they will easily overcome us, unless another that is stronger than we undertake for us.
4. That the surety taketh upon him the debt of the principal person, and is to be responsible for it. God hath taken our obligation upon himself, to pay our debts, to oppose himself against all our wrongs. He will take our cause as his own : Ps. ix. 4, ' For thou hast main- tained my right and my cause ; ' and in his own time and manner will show it to the world, and justify us against our enemies. Oh ! how should our hearts rejoice in this, that he will be the party responsible, make otu* cause his own, and be liable to the suit as a debtor is to the creditor ! ' He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye,' Zech. ii. 8 ; ' He that despiseth you, despiseth me ;' ' Saul, Saul, why perse- cutest thou me?' Acts ix. 4; and Isa. Ixiii. 8, ' And he said. Surely they are my people, children that will not lie ; so he was their saviour.'