1. A spiritual gust to relish knowledge and spiritual things. A brutish soul admires the sweetness of carnal things ; the sober part of the world, that prize intellectual food, the perfections of the mind, they have a taste and relish for those things : Ps. cxix. 103, ' How sweet is thy word to my taste ! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.' A sensual heart is not affected with these things.
2. A diligent search : Eph. iii. 9, ' And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery Avhich from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.' The more diligently we search into these things, the more we admire them. A superhcial view satisfieth and contenteth sooner than a deep search. Herein they differ from other things, for the more they are searched into, the less they are admired ; imperfections which formerly lay hid then come in view.
3. A thorough insight or spiritual illumination : Ps. cxix. IS, ' Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law ; ' and ver. 27, ' Make me to understand the way of thy precepts ; so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.' The testimonies of God have more in recess than in open view.
4. Experience ; if we have felt the wonderful power, majesty, and authority of the word : John viii. 32, ' Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' Where there is no such effect they have no experience.
5. Show forth the wonderfulness of God's testimonies by the raised- ness of your conver.sations. They disparage the word that live at a mean rate : 2 Tim. iii. 5, ' Having a form of godliness, but denying tlio power ;' 1 Peter iv. 14, ' If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you : on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.'
346 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. CXLIII.
SEPtMON CXLIII.
The entrance of thy word giveth light ; it giveth understanding to the simple. — Ver. 130.
In the former verse, David had commended the word from the wonder- fulness and mysteriousness thereof; here from its clearness and per- spicuity, ' Thy testimonies arc wonderful ; ' yet they give light, ' The entrance giveth light to the simple.' The one property doth not hia- dcr the other, upon a twofold account : —
1. Because the truths revealed in scripture are of two sorts : some are plain doctrines, fit for the entertainment of novices, and may be called the porch and entrance ; others are deep mysteries, to exercise the wits of the strongest. In the waters of the sanctuary in some places the elephant may swim, in others the lamb may wade. The penmen of the scripture acknowledged themselves to be debtors to wise and foolish, learned and unlearned : Kom. i. 14, ' I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.' And accordingly were made use of to discover truths of all sorts. There are BvauoTjrd nva, not all things, nor the most material, but some things hard to be understood, 2 Peter iii, 16. God hath expressed his mind in some points so, that the sharpest-sighted will not at first glance easily take up the meaning of it. Other things are plain and easy and obvious, so that the very entrance or first sight of them giveth under- standing.
2. From the manner; because though there are mysteries, and things naturally unknou'n to us, yet they are not obscurely delivered, so as that we should despair to understand them ; but in a plain and familiar style, de[)ths of mystery in plainness of words. Therefore the simplest who desire to know so much as may comfort and save their souls, ought not to be hindered and discouraged in the study of the scrii)tures. The sum is : some things are open and clear, other things dark and mystei'ious ; but though hard to be understood, yet not im- possible to be understood ; most things plain, none impossible: ' The entrance of thy word giveth light ; it giveth understanding to the simple.' In these words —
1. What, or the benefit we have by the scriptures, set forth by two words, the one metaphorical, giveth light ; the other literal, it giveth understanding. That is it which is meant by light.
2. How or whence we have this light, from the entrance of the luord.
3. To whom, to the simple.
The first thing is explained in the text ; it giveth light, that is, it giveth understanding. Two questions then remain by way of ex- plication : —
1. What is meant by ' the entrance of thy word ' ? Some render it ostium, the door, as Jerome ; the Septuagint, Sr]\(0(n<; ; the vulgar, the declaration ; we, the entrance. The word petack signilieth door, gate, or opening. Tlie expression giveth us occasion —
[1.] To distinguish of truth in scripture. There is ostium and penetrale, the porch of knowledge and the secret chambers of it. The
VeR. 130.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 347