294 sermons upon PSALM cxix [Ser. CLXXXIX.
and loved but for this end, even God's glory. How grievous a thing is it to go out of the world ere we know why we came into the world ! We live not barely to eat and drink, as brute beasts live ; we live not to live as heathens. The end of our life is service and obedience to God ; yea, and it is the life of our lives, the perfection of them. Well, then, since we live by God, we must live to him.
[2.] It is preserved by him. It is God's prerogative to kill and to make alive ; to wound and to heal, Dent, xxxii. 39. Our life dependeth wholly on him. It is said, Job xii. 10, ' In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.' God hath a dominion over all his creatures, over every living thing, and man in especial, to dispose of them according to his pleasure ; not an hair of our heads can fall to the ground without him, Mat. x. 29, 30. Our life is wholly in his hands ; we cannot add one cubit to our stature, make one hair white or black at our pleasure. Life cannot be taken away without him, how casual soever the stroke is : Exod. xxi. 13, ' If a man lie not in wait for his brother, but God delivereth him into his hand,' &c. Well, then, in all reason we should serve and glorify him who by his providential influence continueth life to us every moment : Deut. xxx. 20, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and cleave unto him ; for he is thy life, and the length of thy days.' It is a charge against Belshazzar, Dan. v. 23, ' God, in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.' We must not look ivpon ourselves as made for ourselves, but for God. He gave us life, and keepeth it, that we may wholly be at his disposing. While we have it, we must have it for God, that he may be glorified in the use of it ; and when he cometh to take it away, he may be glorified by our submitting to his domi- nion. It is a presumption and encroachment on God's right to seek satisfaction to ourselves in any state, without a subordination and sub- serviency to his glory. He that giveth and preserveth life may dispose of it at his pleasure ; and our life so continually preserved by him ought to be devoted to him.
[o.] When he preserveth it in any imminent danger, it is twice given. I say, in such preservations our life is twice received from God — in our birth, and as spared in the danger ; and therefore, in all justice it ought to be dedicated to his service ; 2 Cor. i. 9, 10, ' But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead ; who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.' Manjr times there is but a step between us and death, as if God were putting the old bond in suit, and executing the sentence of the law upon us. Deliverance in such a case is called a pardon and remission ; and even in the case of the wicked and impenitent : Ps. lxxviii. 38, ' He being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not/ It was but properly a reprieve for the time, a forbearance of the temporal judgment, not executing the sentence, or not destroy- ing the sinner presently ; much more to a godly man : Isa. xxxviii. 17, ' Loved my soul from the grave.' To be loved out of a danger, and loved out of a sickness, that is a blessed thing, a great obligation upon us.
VER. 175.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 295
[4.] We must surrender our life to him again ; and therefore, while we have it, we must employ it for him, Luke xix. 23 ; into his hands we must resign our spirits. Every one must give an account of himself to God, what honour he hath by our lives.
[5.] We shall never glorify him in heaven unless we glorify God on earth first, or carefully serve him : John xvii. 4, 5, 'I have glorified thee on earth ; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do : and now, 0 Father, glorify me, with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.' Here is our trial, our present service. Saints above are e'|&>/3e\ei9 ; that is our reward, to glorify God in heaven.
Secondly, That we may desire life upon these ends ; as Ps. xxxix. 12, ' 0 spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence and be no more.' A little time of relaxation, to serve and glorify thee ere I die.
1. Long life is in itself a blessing, taken into the promises, though more frequently in the Old Testament than in the New. Of this, see more at large, ver. 17.