Use. Let us take notice how affliction worketh. There is a double extreme, slighting the hand of God, or fainting under it, Heb. xii. 5 ; we must beware of both. There must be a sense, but it must be kept within bounds ; without a sense there can be no improvement ; to
20 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CLX.
despise them is to think them fortuitous. They come from God ; their end is repentance, their cause is sin. Two things men cannot endure to have despised, their love and their anger. When David's love was slighted, he vowed to cut off all that pertained to Nabal ; and Nebu- chadnezzar, when his anger was despised, commanded the furnace to be heated seven times hotter. Nor fainting, for that excludeth God's comforts. God hath the whole guiding and ordering the affliction, and while the rod is in his hand there is no danger. He is a wise God, and cannot be overseen ; a God of judgment, by whom all things are weighed, 1 Sam. ii. 3; every drachm and scruple of the cross; a just God, and will punish no more than is deserved : Job xxxiv. 23, ' He will not lay upon man more- than is right.' As well no more than is meet, as no more than is right. He is a good God, does only what our need and profit requireth : ' For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men/ Lam. iii. 33.
Doct, That it is the property of a gracious soul to delight in God's commandments.
It was David's practice, and it is the mark of a blessed man : Ps. i. 2, ' But his delight is in the law of the Lord ; ' and Eom. vii. 22, ' I delight in the law after the inward man ;' and Ps. cxii. 1, ' Blessed is the man that delighteth greatly in his commandments.' Delight in moral things, saith Aquinas, is the rule by which we may judge of men's goodness or badness — Delectatio est quies voluntatis in bono ; men are good and bad as the objects of their delight are ; they are good who delight in good things, and they evil who delight in evil things.
We shall consider the nature of delight —
1. In the causes.
2. In the effects of it. First, The causes are —
1. Proportion and suitableness. Sensitive creatures delight much in such food as is agreeable to their nature. Now the commandments are suitable to the renewed heart : ' The law is in their heart,' Ps. xl. 8 ; and Ps. xxxvii. 31 , ' The law of his God is in his heart.' Divine qualities are planted there, which suit with the rule of holiness and righteousness, Eph. iv. 24. And this is the sum of the law or com- mandments of God.
2. A second cause is possession of it and communion with it. Oritur, saith Aquinas, ex prwsentia connaturalis boni. Now one may be said to possess the law or enjoy the law in regard of the knowledge of it or obedience to it : John xiv. 21 , ' He that hath my command- ments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.' The knowledge of the law, so it be not superficial and fleshly, but full and thorough and savoury, is very comfortable, and goeth toward a good note ; but obedience to the law is the cause of delight therein. God's servants rejoice when they can bring on their hearts with any life and power in the way of God's testimonies : Ps. cxix. 14, ' I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies more than in all riches.' Thence cometh their comfort and obedience.
3. A third cause of delight is a precedent love of the object. Love is a complacency in and propension towards that which is good.
Veil 143.] sermons upon psalm cxix. 21
absolutely considered both in the presence and absence of it. Desire noteth the absence of a good, delight the presence and fruition of it. Therefore a love of the object delighted in is essentially pre-supposed to delight. So that it is impossible for anything to be delighted in but it is first loved. We have experience that many things are delightful in themselves, and known to be such, which yet do not actually delight if they be hated. A man may taste of the sweetness of honey, yet if he hath an antipathy against it he may loathe it. David in this psalm pre-supposeth love as antecedent to delight : Ps. cxix. 47, ' I will delight myself in thy commandments, Avhich I have loved.' Carnal men cannot say so ; ' For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,' John iii. 20. The renewed only love the command- ments. Yea, it doth not only pre-suppose a love of simple com- placency, but also a love of desire ; for all things are first desired before delighted in. None can truly delight in obedience but such as desire it. Such as can say with David, ver. 40, ' Behold, I have longed after thy precepts;' and ver. 131, 'I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed after thy commandments.' Now all such are blessed, Mat. v. 5.