THE SWORD OF THE WICKED. 107
reproach me ; wliile they say unto me daily, Where is thy God ?' vcr. 10. He had complained once of this before, but it had a fresh working with his thoughts again, ' As with a sword in my bones,' &c. Hereupon, he is forced the tlurd time to expostulate, and to fall out with his soul, ' Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? and why art thou disquieted ? hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God,' ver. 11. He comes to his former remedy, he had stilled his grief once before with the same meditation and upbraiding of his own soul, and chiding himself ; but he comes to it here as a probation est, as a tried remedy, he takes up his soul very short, ' Why art thou so cast down, 0 my soul ? why art thou disquieted within me ?' You see how David's passions here are interlaced with comforts, and his comforts with passions, till at last he gets the victory of his own heart. Beloved, neither sin, nor gi'ief for sin, are stilled and quieted at the first. You have some short- spirited Christians, if all be not quiet at the first, all is lost with them ; but it is not so with a true Christian soul, with the best soul living. It was not so with David : when he was in distemper, he checks himself ; the dis- temper was not yet stilled, he checks himself again ; then the distemper breaks out again, then he checks himself again ; and all little enough to bring his soul to a holy, blessed, quiet temper, to that blessed tranquillity and rest that the soul should be in, before it can enjoy its own happiness, and enjoy sweet commimion with God. As you see in physic, perhaps one purge will not carry away the peccant humour, then a second must be added ; perhaps that will not do it, then there must be a third ; so when the soul hath been once checked, perhaps it will not do, we must fall to it again, go to God again. And then it may be there will be breaking out of the grief and malady again ; we must to it again, and never give over ; that is the right temper of a Christian.
Before I come to the words, observe in general this, that a livinri soul, the soul that is alive in, grace, that hath the life of grace quickening it, is most sensible of all, in the want of spiritual means. As here, the grief of griefs was (which he begins with), that he was banished from the tabernacle.
What shall we think therefore of those that excommimicate themselves from God's assembly, where there is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all the Trinity dispensing their bounty, and where the prayers of God's people meet together in one as it were, and bind God ? What shall we think of them that prefer their private devotions, as they say, before God's assem- blies ? Sm'ely they ai'e not of David's mind ; and it is a shrewd argument, that they never had the life of grace in them yet : for where life is, there will be himger and thii'st. Acrius urgent qucB ad naturam. It is a true aphorism, those things press upon natm'e hardest that touch upon the neces- sities of natm-e, rather than those that touch upon delight. We can want de- lights, but necessities of natm-e we cannot ; therefore hunger and thhst, they are such passions as will not be quiet. Delicacies and novelties the soul of a hungiy man can be content to want, but not spiritual food for the soul. We see how famine wrought upon the patriarchs, it made them go down into Egj-pt for food. I note it only by the wa}', that men may know how to judge of themselves, when they can very well be content, without a blessed supply of holy means. Holy David, when the means was but dark and obscure, when the canon was not enlarged, when all was in types and clouds, yet he felt that comfort in the tabernacle and in the ordinances of God, that he could not endm-e the want of them ; but as the hart brayeth after the water- brooks, so his soul panted after God. But to come to the words themselves,
108 THE SWOED OF THE WICKED.
* As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, when they say unto me daily, where is thy God ?'
Here are two things considerable in the words.
The carriage and disposition and eocpression of others to David.
And David's affection towards it, how he was disposed towards if, how he did bear it.
For their disposition, they were enemies, mijie enemies, dc.
The expression of it, thei/ reproach me.
The specialty of that expression, how they reproached him, they said unto him, ' Where is thy God V They do reproach him in his religion.
The aggravation of that specialty is, they say, openly to his face, they go not beiaind my back, they esteem so slightly of me, they say it to my face. And continually too, they are never weary, they say daily. Where is thy God ? They are enemies, they reproach, they reproach in this, * Where is thy God ?' and they do it impudently, and daily.