2. Because they are guilty of great wrong to God and to their own souls.
[1.] To God ; it is a contempt of his authority when men will not study to know and do his declared will ; that is, make it their business to do so ; for it is a great slighting of him, looking upon his direction as of little importance : Hosea viii. 12, ' I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing,' and therefore were strangers to it, as if there were no danger in walking contrary to it.
[2.] To themselves ; God's statutes concern our salvation as well as his own glory : Luke vii. 30, ' The pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves.' Thus a wicked man is felo de se : Prov. viii. 35, 36, ' Whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord ; but he that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul ; all they that hate me, love death.'
Use 1. You see now who are far from salvation, they that do not study the word of God to conform themselves thereunto.
Use 2. Let us be sure to be far from the disposition of the wicked ; let us with all our hearts seek to comply with the precepts of God, and be more diligent and earnest in bringing our hearts to a true scriptural holiness, that we may not be in this danger.
158 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. CLXXIV.
Motives: —
1. From the excellency of these statutes. To be employed in the service of God is the greatest honour and the roost blessed life upon earth. If it be irksome, it is a sign of a disease, and some great dis- temper or inclination to some base dreggy delights of the flesh. If the soul were rightly constituted, it would be our greatest pleasure, honour, and content; other work spendeth our strength, this increaseth it: ' The way of the Lord is strength to the upright.'
2. From salvation ; it is great, sure, near. Great, both as to body and soul ; sure, God's word passed is unalterable ; near, should we faint in the sight of our country, and be sluggish and negligent, when heaven is at hand ?
3. There is present content in the sight of our qualification and clear distinction from the wicked.
SEEMON CLXXIV.
Great are thy tender mercies, 0 Lord : quicken me according to thy judgments. — Ver. 156.
In the former verse we presented you with the judgment of God against the wicked ; we shall now present you with a more comfortable argument, his mercies to his people. Whenever we think or speak of the damnable condition of the wicked, we should remember the grace of God, that hath made the difference between us and them. We were by nature no better than they, only mercy interposed for our rescue, and snatched us as brands out of the burning. So here David flieth to God's mercy, as the original cause of all that he had or hoped for from him : ' Great are thy tender mercies, 0 Lord,' &c. In the words there is —
1. An eulogy, or an ascription of praise to God, ' Great are thy tender mercies, 0 Lord.'
2. A prayer, ' Quicken me according to thy judgments.'
The one maketh way for the other; for because God's mercies are so great, therefore he is encouraged to come unto him for help. In the eulogy we have the thing praised, God's mercy. It is set forth by a double adjunct, one taken from the quality, the other from the quantity. From the quality, it is tender and bowel-mercy ; from the quantity, it is great. Or the word may be rendered ' many ; ' the mercies of God, as one saith, are many and mother-like. Having laid this foundation for his hope, the man of God proceedeth to his prayer, which is our second branch, where you have the request, ' Quicken me;' the argument, 'According to thy judgments ;' that is, thy pro- mises in the new covenant as we before explained the word. Those promises are called judgments, because they are rules of proceeding in the new court which God hath set up.
Many things might be observed from these words.
1. That the primary cause of all that we have and expect from God is his mercy. The man of God beginneth here, when he expected dif-
VEB. 156.] SEKMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 159
ferent usage from the wicked, or that God should deal with him in another manner than with them.
2. That this mercy is so great and large, that it is every way suffi- cient for our help.
3. The terms and rules according to which we are to expect this mercy are set forth in the new covenant, where God hath bound him- self to show mercy to his people, upon such conditions as are there specified. So that this covenant doth inform us and assure us both of God's mercy and God's quickening.
4. One special new- covenant blessing is the preservation of the life of grace in our souls. There is a great necessity of it, because in the spiritual life we are subject to fainting ; and the children of God have a great value and esteem for it, for they are more sensible of soul-dis- tempers than other men ; and when they see others stark dead in tres- passes and sins, they are the more displeased with their own remaining deadness, and therefore would have the distinction between them and wicked men made more clear and sensible, by the activity and vigour of grace, and their diligence and care of salvation (which the wicked neglect) , awakened by new influences from God ; and therefore do they so often pray for quickening. According^, God in the new cove- nant, as the God of their life and salvation, hath undertaken to keep them fresh and lively ; and therefore, whenever we are under deadness, we should not be satisfied with it, or think it a light evil, but present our condition to God, looking to the promise of the new covenant, wherein God hath promised to put his Spirit into our hearts, to cause us to walk in his ways.