[3.] It comforts us against the difficulties of obedience, when it groweth irksome to us. The difficulty and trouble is but for a while, but we shall everlastingly have the comfort of it : 2 Cor. iv. 17, ' For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory/ Then it will be no grief of heart to us to have watched, prayed, striven against sin, suffered, continued with him notwithstanding all temptations : Kom. ii. 7, ' To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, eternal life.'
[4.] It is a comfort in death. We change and are changed, but God is always the same, the righteousness of Christ will bear weight for ever : Dan. ix. 24, ' To bring in an everlasting righteousness.' The fruits of obedience last for ever : Ps. cxii. 7, ' His righteousness endureth for ever.' How comfortable is this to remember, that we may appear before God with this confidence, which he hath wrought in us, that the covenant of grace is an everlasting charter, that shall never be out of date nor wax old.
Use. Let it be thus with us ; let it be so deeply imprinted upon our minds that it may leave an everlastingness there upon the frame of our spirits ; for then we are transformed by the word, and cast into the mould of it. Now, who are they that have an everlasting righteous frame of heart ?
1. Such as act out of an everlasting principle, or the new nature ■which worketh above the world. The word ingrafted is called an incorruptible seed, or the seed of God, 1 Peter i. 23, ' that abideth in us,' 1 John iii. 9 ; when there is a divine principle in us, such a principle as is the seed and beginning of eternal life ; when the word hath rooted itself in our hearts.
2. Such as by their constant progress towards an everlasting estate are going from strength to strength, serving God, and cleaving to him in a uniform constant course of holiness, not by fits and starts, but unchangeably : Acts xxiv. 16, 'To have always a conscience void of offence.' Again, when you are in such an estate wherein you can bear the trial of those everlasting rules : Gal. vi. 8, ' He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to
30 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. CLXL
the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting ; ' Rom. viii. 13, 1 If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' In short, if you have everlasting ends: 2 Cor. iv. 18, 'While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal' Not making things temporal our scope and aim ; that will not satisfy us : when we are deeply possessed with the thoughts of the other world : 1 Cor. ii. 12, ' We have not received the spirit of the world,' and look upon all other things by the by, and use* the world as if we used it not, 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30.
Secondly, I come now to the prayer, ' Give me understanding, and I shall live.'
1. Here is the benefit asked, understanding.
2. The person asking, David, give me.
3. The person from whom it is asked, from God.
First, The benefit asked, ' Give me understanding ;' that is, the sav- ing knowledge of God's testimonies.
Doct. One great request that we have to put up to God should be for the saving knowledge of his testimonies.
The reasons why this should be our great request to God.
1. The necessity of understanding ; that will appear —
[1.] Because of our ignorance and folly, which is the cause of all our sin : Titus iii. 3, ' We ourselves were sometimes foolish and dis- obedient ; ' therefore disobedient because foolish. Every natural man is a fool, blind in spiritual things ; whatever understanding or quick- ness of judgment he hath in other things, in all things that relate to God and heaven, blind and foolish, and cannot see afar off: 2 Peter i. 9, ' He that lacketh these things is blind.' And you shall find that sinners are called fools : Prov. i. 22, ' How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ? and scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge ? ' Ps. lxxv. 4, ' I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly ; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn.' They follow their own wit and will, to the ruin of bodies and souls, and all that they have. Their mirth is the mirth of fools, Eccles. vii. 4, 5 ; their service the sacrifice of fools, Eccles. v. 1 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 10, ' I have done very foolishly;' therefore give me understanding.
[2.] Knowledge is our cure. The state of grace is called a state of light : Eph. v. 8, ' Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord/ So that the new estate is described by light, a directive and a persuasive light. It is very notable in Eph. v. 14, ' Arise from the dead, and God shall give thee light ;' and Acts xxvi. 18, ' To turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.' In our natural estate we are all over darkness, slaves to the prince of darkness, doing the works of darkness, and posting on apace into utter darkness ; and therefore it is light must cure us, and guide us into a better course : Col. i. 13, ' Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.'