VOL. VIII. 2 B
386 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Seu. CXLVII.
or custom, and many evil habits : 2 Cor. iv. 4, ' The god of this world hath blinded men's eyes.' There are many inordinate aflt'ections that increase u])on us. So it is then that a man is blind by nature, more blind by custom and inordinate affection, is exceedingly blinded; which have a great influence upon our judgments in all practical cases. Though we should know general rules, yet to bring them down to every particular action is very grievous, and hard to bring the heart to. But you will say, When we liave received the Spirit, God hath put his law into our minds, this blindness is cured ; there- fore why should such as David pray, ' Lord, order my steps,' &c. ? Yes, we are cured, but in part, non totaliter. Grace doth heal us but in part, much of the matter that clouded the mind before is yet upon us ; and when lusts are awakened by temptations, we strangely forget ourselves, our own reason, our senses, and examples of others ; we are misled, so that we know not what to do, unless the Lord order our steps. Well, as we are blind, so we are opposite too. When we know our way, what we should do, yet we are apt to stumble at every stone. Naturally the wisdom of the flesh is opposite : Eom. viii. 7, ' The carnal mind is enmity against God.' And so much as the wisdom of the flesh still remains, we are apt to be discouraged from walking with God according to his strict rule, and in the way that he hath given us, and we are extremely slack, that unless we be quickened by the lively and strengthening light of the Spirit, alas ! how soon shall we miscarry ! Therefore this ordering is a strengthening against the reluctances of the flesh : Ps. xvii. 5, ' Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.' Alas ! when a man finds a good way, he is either apt to lie down out of laziness, or to stumble and fall, and we cannot keep our footing against temptations. Ev^ery man of experience seeth the need of this. Therefore, Lord, direct me, ' Order my steps.'
4. The reason is taken from the value of the blessing here asked. It is one of the chiefest blessings of his grace and favour to have his illu- minating. After he had said, ' Lord, be merciful unto me/ presently follows, ' Lord, order my steps.' To prove this must needs be a great blessing and favour. It will appear out of the words of the text ; partly from the word ' order ;' it makes our lives orderly and regular. Alas I what a confused, disproportionable thing is a man that is half in and half out with the ways of God ! His conversation is not all of a piece, sometimes right and sometimes wrong ; there is not that beauty, that harmony, that holiness to be found in them. Solomon tells us, Prov. xxvi. 7, ' The legs of the lame are not equal ; so is a parable in the mouth of fools.' 13aines on the place saith thus. The man hath knowledge to speak well, but he lives ill ; so his conversation is halt- ing, like the legs of the lame. Sometimes his speculative light will incline him to do easy things, but his practical endeavours will carry him another way ; there is no even and uniform strain of godliness. Then is a man's conversation ordered, when all is carried on with a fair respect to his last end ; for it is the last end that fixeth a man's mind, and cuts off impertinences and inconsistencies, and makes a man's con- versation beautiful ; otherwise the man is tossed up and down in a various uncertain motion, distracted by a multiplicity of ends and
VeR, 133.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 387
objects that his will is in no composed and settled frame. I remember David prays : Ps. Ixxxvi. 11, ' Unite my heart to fear thy name.' It is a blessed thing when a man is united, when his conversation is all of a piece ; and James i. 8, 'A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.' A divided mind will beget an uncertain life. I say, the last end of our lives doth unite all the parts of it, and there is a regu- larity and harmony between them. But others, their life is a mere lottery ; the fancies by which they are governed are jumbled together by chance, and they live at peradventure and haphazard, and there is not a comely, entire, uniform order to a blessed end. Again, partly, too, from the reason here, ' Order my steps according to thy word; and let no iniquity have dominion over me.' This will prevent the dominion of sin. Perverse affections are apt to sway us, but when the Lord supplies fresh directions, the tyranny and dominion of sin is prevented and crushed in the egg. Sin usually steals into the throne by insensible degrees ; temptations and occasions reduce us to some evil practice. Well, and that produceth another, then do multiplied acts get strength, then they ensnare us ; and when once the soul is ensnared then this bondage daily increaseth, and is hard to be broken ; for by multiplied acts custom creeps upon us, and that is another nature, and that which was but indifferent at first grows more difficult. As diseases looked to at first are easily cured, otherwise they grow desperate ; so sins when they come to a slavish tyranny and custom, they cannot help it. All this is prevented by the seasonable warnings of the Holy Spirit. Partly, too, because this is only vouchsafed to God's special poople. God, as he loves any, so he manifests himself to them. This appears out of the text ; for in the verse before the text the words run thus, ' Look upon me, and be merciful unto me ; as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name ; ' and what then ? ' Order my steps in thy word.' Oh ! this is to do good to us, as he useth to do good to them that fear his name. Mark, some have only providence and natural conscience ; there are others that have the word, and have an enlightened conscience, that plead God's interest in them ; but there are others are honoured so far that they are his people, that have not only his word, but Spirit, to enforce his word upon their hearts. How did Christ declare his love to his people ? John xv. 15, ' I call you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.' There is God's love declared, when he shows us his whole will, when he doth guide us in all his ways ; this is the favour of his people : Ps. xxv. 14, ' The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; and he will show them his covenant.' There is the great privilege that God vouchsafes to his peculiar people ; they know the mind of God more than others do, and in all doubtful de- bates and uncertain controversies they are not left in the dark : Mark iv. 11, ' Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.' David surely found such direction to be a very special blessing. Again, another argument from the text that this must needs be a very great blessing, partly because it helpeth us in our way to true happi- ness. I gather that from the word ' steps ;' for all motion hath a term to which it tends, and every journey hath its period. Now, whither doth the path of the word lead us, but to God, and to the everlasting