3. That we should praise God especially for spiritual benefits. Usually those are overlooked, but they deserve the greatest acknow- ledgment ; these are discriminating, and come from special love. Corn, wine, and oil are bestowed upon the world, but knowledge and grace upon his saints ; these are the favour of his peculiar people : Ps. cvi. 4, ' Eemember me, 0 Lord, with the favour that thou bearest to thy people ; 0 visit me with thy salvation.' To have the favourite's mercy is more than to have a common mercy. Protection is the benefit of every subject, but intimate and near admission is the privilege of special favourites. Love and hatred cannot be known by the things before us, Eccles. ix. 1-3. Christ gave his Spirit to the good disciples, the keeping of the purse to Judas.
[1.] Partly because these concern the better part, the inward man, 2 Cor. iv. 16. He doth us more favour that healeth a wound in the body than he that seweth up a rent in the garment. Is not the body more than raiment, the soul more than the body ? and the soul as furnished with grace more than the soul only as furnished with natural gifts and endowments ?
[2.] Partly because these are brought about with more ado than temporal favours. God, as a creator and merciful upholder of all his creatures, doth bestow temporal blessings upon the ungodly world, even upon heathens, who never heard of Christ ; yet saving grace he bestoweth only as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Eph. i. 3, with respect to the merit of Christ, who was to purchase these blessings before he could obtain them.
[3.] Partly because they are pledges of eternal blessings, and the
1 Qu. 'he'?— Ed.
VER. 171.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 247
beginning of our eternal well-being, John vi. 27. These and eternal blessedness are so linked together than they cannot be separated : Eorn. viii. 29, 30, ' For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformable to the image of his Son : that he might be the first- fruits among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified;' and Phil. i. 6, 'Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.'
[4.] Partly because these incline and fit the heart for praise and thanksgiving ; the one giveth occasion to praise God, the other a heart to praise God. Outward mercies give the occasion to praise God, these the disposition ; other mercies the motives, these the prepara- tions ; these dispose the heart to it : Ps. cxix. 7, ' I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I have learned thy righteous judg- ments/ Here they dispose the lip and open the mouth : Ps. li. 15, ' 0 Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.' The work of grace doth set our lips wide open in the magni- fying and praising of God. Grace is the matter of God's praise, and also giveth a ready will to praise God, yea, the very deed of praising him.
[5.] Partly because temporal favours may be given in anger, but the graces of the Spirit are never given in anger. God may give an estate in judgment, and indulge large pastures to beasts fitted for destruction ; but he giveth not an enlightened mind and a renewed heart in anger; it is a token of his special love : ' To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,' Mat. xiii. 11. Well, then, for all these things should we praise God. We have a quick sense in bodily mercies, but in soul concernments we are not alike affected.
4. That among spiritual blessings divine illumination is a very great gift, and accordingly should be acknowledged by us. To make this evident, I shall —
[1.] Open the nature of this divine illumination. [2.] Show you the worth of it, and how much it should be valued by us.
[1.] For the nature of it. There is a twofold wisdom and know- ledge of divine mysteries : —
(1.) One which is only a gift : 1 Cor. viii. 1, ' We know that we all have knowledge: knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.' This is an excellent gift, but yet it floweth from the common influence of the Spirit, and puffeth up the party, because it is apprehended only by such an excellency as conduceth to the interests of the flesh, and to attain esteem in the world ; and because he hath not thereby a deep and piercing knowledge of his misery, but is cold and weak, and doth not warm the heart with love to the thing known. Therefore we should see to it what kind of knowledge we have, whether it be a gift or a grace, whether we use it to exalt God or ourselves. The bare gift puffeth us up with a lofty conceit of ourselves and a disdain of others, but grace keepeth us humble ; for the more we know that way, the more we see our defects, and what little reason we have to glory