Use. Oh ! then, beg this gift of God. Lord, give me understanding eyes. Do not beg riches, and honours, and great things in the world, but beg for understanding ; it is pleasing to God, 2 Chron. i. 12. This will bring other things with it. Be importunate, take no nay ; Prov. ii. 3, cry for knowledge, lift up thy voice for understanding. It will not come at the first call. Follow God as the blind man, Mark x. 5, * Lord, that my eyes may be opened, that I may receive my sight.' So be earnest with God that the eyes of your understanding may be opened, that you may have such a sight of heaven as that your affections may be set upon things above ; such a sight of hell as that ye may flee for refuge as if the avenger of blood were at your heels. Without this there can be no true piety : Ps. xiv. 3, ' There is none that under- standeth, there is none that seeketh after God.' Nay, there can be no salvation without this: Isa. xxvii. 11, 'It is a people of no under- standing; therefore he that made them will have no mercy upon them,' &c. Ignorant people have a saying, He that made them will save them ; but it is said they have no understanding ; therefore he that made them will not save them ; and therefore beg of God that he would break in upon your minds with the lively light of his Spirit.
Secondly, Here is the person asking this request, David, one well acquainted with God and his ways.
Docf. None know so much of God and his ways but they still need to know more. Petitions for understanding do not only become begin- ners, but grown Christians.
VER. 144.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 33
Three reasons of this point : —
1. That we may escape the deceits of a subtle devil, who lieth in wait for us, and assaults us on every hand, and maketh great advantage of the relics of our ignorance. The devils are called, Eph. vi. 12, ' Eulers of the darkness of this world.' The dark part of the world is the devil's territory ; and so much of ignorance as is in the children of God, so much advantage hath Satan against us : 2 Cor. ii. 11, ' Lest Satan should get an advantage ; for we are not ignorant of his devices.' The more we know, the less advantage the devil hath of us ; he layeth snares for us where we least suspect.
2. That we may serve a holy God with that exactness and diligence as will become his excellency. The fault of the heathen was that ' when they knew God, they glorified him not as God/ Kom. i. 21 ; because they knew so little, they did not improve the knowledge they had ; and this is true in some degree of every Christian. God would be more loved, feared, trusted, served, did we know more of him. The clearer our sight, the warmer our hearts will be in his service : 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, ' Know thou the God of thy fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart and willing mind.' If we did know God, we would devote ourselves to his service.
3. That we may be prepared for our everlasting estate by degrees. Our everlasting estate is called the inheritance of the saints in light. Now we grow more meet for it by increasing in holiness : Prov. iv. 18, 19, ' The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more to the perfect clay ; the way of the wicked is darkness, they know not at what they stumble/ The just man is like the light that increaseth as the day groweth ; the wicked are like the night that increaseth to thick darkness, till at last they fall into utter darkness.
Use. Well, then, let not only poor ignorant creatures, or young beginners, take up David's prayer, but also grown Christians of longer standing. Go to God, and say, Give me understanding. Partly because practical knowledge is never at a stand ; knowing of things as we ought to know them, it is possible for a man to see round about the compass of revealed truths. Though extensively no more truths are to be known, yet intensively we may know them better. The best are defective in their knowledge. And partly, too, because it is a very satisfactory thing to be sure we are in God's way ; in some nice debates it is hard to discern God's interest, when all circumstances must be considered, and temptations hinder the sight of our duty. And partly that we may justify the ways of God against cavils, Mat. xxiv. 24. We have to do with men that would even puzzle the very elect, if it were possible.
Thirdly, To whom is this petition made ? To God.
Doct. If we would have the knowledge of divine things, we must seek to God.
I will give you some grounds of this. Partly because he is the fountain of knowledge, the first mind or intellect, called in scripture ' the Father of lights,' James i. 17. He is the sun that must not only shine on us, to make us see things, but shine through us to make us be enlightened ourselves. Ours is but a participation. Now, to show whence we receive all, God will be asked. And partly, too, because God gave the rule, and therefore he must interpret it, ejus est