VER. 176.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 303
neglectful of God, and unmindful of heavenly things, and we come also to grow more so ourselves.
5. To represent the danger of straying. Sheep when they are out of the pasture, are in harm's way, exposed to a thousand dangers : Jer. 1. 7, 'All that find them have devoured them.' So are we in danger to become a prey to the roaring lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour, and to the dogs and wolves that are abroad. In his sinful state man is a sheep, whom no man taketh up, out of God's protection, and a ready prey for Satan, taken captive by him at his pleasure, 2 Tim. ii. 26, till the Lord recover him by repentance. Thus God forms, represents, and points out our condition before con- version. Certainly before we were converted to God we were as sheep wandering in our ignorance and sinful ways to our own destruction, and in hazard to be preyed upon continually by the roaring lion.
Secondly, See if it be better with us after conversion. For here is a man of God ; he saith, ' I have gone astray like a lost sheep.' Now, after grace received, though our heart was set to walk with God for the main, yet we often swerve from our rule through ignorance or through inadvertency, and sometimes are blinded by worldly desires and fleshly lusts, and so transgress our bounds and neglect our duty : Ps. xix. 12, ' Who can understand his errors ? ' Our errors are so many, who can bear them all in mind ? who can know and remember them all ? I say, even the best, who are tender of displeasing and dishonouring God by sin, they have their errors, yea, and sometimes too their foul faults.
Let me a little show this.
1. There are some unavoidable infirmities and frailties which we cannot get rid of though we fain would ; as Horn. vii. 15, ' What I hate, that do I ;' and ver. 19, ' The good that I would, that I do not ; and the evil that I would not, that do I ;' and Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.' A true Christian would love God more perfectly, delight in him more abundantly, and bring every thought into subjection to his will. He would get rid of the fountain of sin, of natural concupiscence, and of the stirrings of envy, lust, pride, anger ; but alas ! the spirit that worketh in us lusteth to envy, and bewrayeth itself in these carnal affections. These are aberrations from the strict law, which God hath given to us, but such as men are subject unto in this state of frailty. Though they be hated, resisted, though they be restrained in a great measure, that they do not break out into gross acts, yet a child of God cannot get rid of them ; though this fire is not blown up but smothered, yet in some degree it burns in our bosoms ; there is life in it still.
2. There are other things which they might get rid of if they would, and yet they are not always so happy as to withstand it ; certain sins that are avoidable by the ordinary assistances of grace which God vouchsafes to his people, yet a believer may relapse into them many times. Men are not always so watchful, nor is the bent of their hearts so strongly fixed in them ; and there is very much security in the saints, and they run into the snare till they be awakened either by some powerful convictions or some smart affliction ; as David saith,
304 SERMONS UPON l'SALM CXIX. [SEK. CXC.
Ps. cxix. 67, ' Before I was afflicted, I went astray.' The best of God's children many times in their peace and prosperity they fall asleep and forget themselves, and so let some infirmity still be upon them, before God doth awaken them, and bring them to themselves again. Hezekiah was no sooner settled in a peaceful estate, but presently he forgets himself, and suffers pride to steal upon his heart, till the Lord humbled him for the pride of his heart, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25, 26. When all things went happily with him, he was recovered out of his sickness, and had congratulatory messages from the princes of the nations round about him, and lived in great prosperity, then his heart was lifted up. Some carnal distemper may grow upon us, or evil prac- tice we may fall into. David, when he had gotten a carnal pillow under his head, he lay down and slept, and dreamt of nothing but prosperity, a perpetual uninterrupted temporal happiness, Ps. xxx. 6. He was full of carnal complacency, until God made him look about him. Thus by our carelessness do we often provoke God to use sharp remedies. There are some are not avoidable, but left for humiliation ; but those that are avoidable by such ordinary assistances of God's grace to his people, yet many times, through our folly and inadvertency and sleepiness of conscience, we run into them.
Having showed the kinds of these sins, let me now show the causes, why many times those whose hearts are right with God, that do not forget his precepts, yet they go astray like lost sheep.