3. Some do good out of craft and design, there is some by-end in the cause ; as Jehu was not so much zealous for God as his own interests, 2 Kings x. 16; and our Lord telleth us of some that make long prayers to devour widows' houses, Mat. xxiii. 14 ; made piety a colour and pretext to oppression, and, that they might be trusted, took a show of great devotion ; and of this strain were those that followed Christ for the loaves, John vf. 20, to be fed with a miracle and to live a life of sloth and ease. God never set any good thing afoot but some temporal interest grew upon it, with Avhich men were swayed more than with what belongeth to God.
Use 2. To persuade you to choose God's precepts : ' I. have chosen thy precepts,' said the man of God. To this end I shall give you both motives and directions ; motives why you should choose them, and then directions in what manner things are to be attended upon in your choice.
First, For the motives.
1. Choose them because they are God's, to whom you are indebted for life, being, and all things. Shall we not obey him that made us, and in whom still we live, move, and have our being ? We are debtors to him for all that we have, and truly we cannot have a better master. He was angry with his people, that when the beasts would own their benefactors, that his people would not own him from whom they had all things, Isa. i. 3. The brute beasts, the dullest of them, the ox and the ass, are willing to serve those that feed them, and pay a. kind of gratitude ; and shall not we own God ? Every day your health, .strength, and comforts come out of his hands, so every night's rest and ease ; and after this can you sin against God that keeps you by night and by day ?
2. These precepts are all holy, just, and good. What is it the Lord requires of you, but to love him, and serve him, and fear him, and forbear those things which hurt the soul ? Thus he speaks to Israel, Deut. x. 12. Surely these commands are not unreasonable nor grievous.
VER. 173.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 273
You dare not say sin is better, that it is more profitable to please the flesh, and to wallow in and seek after worldly things. Why then do you not choose God's precepts before the work which Satan puts you upon? for these precepts commend themselves by their own evidence.
3. In keeping them there is a great deal of benefit.
[1.] For the present, there is a deal of comfort and peace to be found in the ways of God. If there were no reward of heaven, yet there is such comfort and peace that attends holy living, even as heat from the fire, that certainly this should draw our choice : ' All her ways are ways of pleasantness,' Prov. iii. 17. And again, the prophet tells you, ' The fruit of righteousness is peace.' A man that doth evil hath a sting in his conscience and a wound in his own soul. But every good action is followed with a serenity of mind, and an approbation from the heart of him that doeth it. Nay, you shall not only have peace, but joy in the Holy Ghost ; for if you walk in the fear of God, you walk in the comforts of his Spirit, Acts ix. 31 ; and the kingdom of God stands in righteousness and peace. Ay ! and a distinct privilege, joy in the Holy Ghost, Kom. xiv. 17. What is the difference between peace and joy in the Holy Ghost ? Peace is a tranquillity of mind re- sulting from the rectitude of our actions, but this joy is an impression of the comforting Spirit. This joy hath God for its author, he puts it into our hearts; therefore it will more affect us than the bare act of our natural faculties. Peace is an acquittance from conscience, but joy in the Holy Ghost is an acquittance from God, who is our supreme judge, and is the beginning of that endless joy which he hath prepared for them that love him in heaven.
[2.] For the future and final reward, that is great and glorious indeed. Surely the glory of the everlasting kingdom should invite us to choose God's precepts, whatever it may cost us to keep them ; for in choosing holiness you choose life, and in choosing the ways of God you choose the heavenly inheritance, which is the certain end and issue of them. So Prov. viii. 35, 36, ' Whose fiudeth me, findeth life, and ob- taineth favour of the Lord ; but he that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me, love death.' Christians, when you are about choosing, these are the terms propounded to you, and they should be seriously weighed by us — evil and death, good and life. Will you choose sin and death, or holiness and life ? Is the pleasures of the flesh for a few hours better than the endless joy of the saints ? If you believe heaven and hell, as you profess to do, why should you stand demurring ? Are you content to be thrust out from the presence of the Lord, with the devil and his angels, into unquenchable flames, for a little contentment here in the world, for a little ease and delight here given to your carnal nature ? Is an earthly life, that you cannot long hold, more valuable than an eternal heaven you shall enjoy forever? No ; let us go to heaven, though we get thither with many pains and sufferings. If you forsake all, not only in vow and purpose, but actually and in deed, yet still you have something better ; you shall be no loser in the end ; you shall so choose the blessed God, and live with him for evermore, and be filled with his love as full as you can hold, and be employed in his service ; and all this in an eternal perfection and glorified estate.