Use 2. Information why the people of God press through so many difficulties to enjoy his word. They are urged and pricked on by a strong desire ; they would fain enjoy more of God, and therefore press after the means, where it is most clearly and powerfully revealed : John xi. 12, ' From the days of John the Baptist until now, the king- dom of heaven sutfereth violence, and the violent take it by force.' Where the gates of heaven stand open they will break through hin- drances to get in.
Use 3. It should quicken our duluess, and exhort us to get this affection. If the heart were as it should be, a little bidding would serve the turn.
1. These good desires discover a good frame, for a man is as his desires are. ISucli motions, when they are in their strength and live- liness, are signs of heroical grace, when your hearts are sick of love ; yea, in a more temperate degree, where there are strong and prevailing desires, they show truth of grace, where there is such an affection as is industrious and unwearied, and keepeth us hard at work : Acts xxvi. 7, ' Unto whicli promise the twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.' Such an affection as is troubled when we are interrupted in our main design of bringing the heart into complete
VeR. 132.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 3(i5
subjection to God, or being capable of the fruition of him : Prov. xiii. 12, ' Hope deferred maketh the lieart sick, but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life/ If you come for grace, and are troubled and grieved when you are interrupted, if you are refreshed when you have tasted anything of God's graciousness, any increase of light and grace is as welcome to you as bodily refreshment to a weary, panting traveller, or water to one that is in a great thirst ; this is that the lieart mindeth most, studieth most, remembereth most, that you never have enough of it, and are longing for more ; if there be such an affection, it is a good sign, for sensitive stirring is not so great an evidence as a settled constitution of spirit.
2. These holy desires, as they have something of burthen, so some- thing of pleasure in them. Though the absence of the thing desired be a trouble, yet the exercise of holy desire is a pleasure to us, because it is an act of love ; the more our hearts are enlarged in them, the greater it is, even before satisfaction. While we are hungering and thirsting we are blessed. It is a blessed thing to be a desirer : Mat. V. (3, ' Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.'
3. This is a desire which God will satisfy : Ps. Ixxxi. 10, ' Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it ;' Isa. xliv. 3, ' I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.' This insatiate thirst of grace and comfort shall be satisfied: John vii. 37, 38, 'In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' The soul is prepared by it for fruition : Isa. Iv. 1, ' Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.'
If we would get it — (1.) We must get a new heart, which is the soul of these desires, and is God's promised gift in the covenant : Ezek. xxxvi. 26, ' A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.' (2.) Mortify and mode- rate your affections to the world and worldly things, and meddle sparingly with the comforts thereof ; otherwise your hearts will be apt immoderately to leak out after them, to the interruption of the spiritual life.
SEEMON CXLY.
Looh tliou upon me, and he merciful unto me, as tJiou usest io do unto those that love thy name. — Ver. 132.
The prophet having praised the word, and expressed his affection to it, presents his petition to God for a favourable look from him, upon the account of his grace and mercy, according to the manner and law of his dispensations towards others of his people. They that love the
366 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [Ser. CXLV.
word may with the Uke confidence expect the grace of God. Observe in the words —
1. The petition or favour asked, looh thou upon me.
2. The ground of asking, or the cause of that favour, and. he mei'ciful unto me.
3. The terms according to wliich it is dispensed, as thou zcscst to do, secundum judicium, according to the law, or according to thy custom towards those that love thy name.
4. The description of God's people ; they love Ms name.