Ans. Yes ; then look up to God, the father and fountain of comfort, as David doth here ; for the more special means whereby he sought to recover himself was by laying a charge upon his soul to trust in God. For having let his soul run out too much, he begins to recollect himself again, and resign up all to God.
§ I. Quest. But how came David to have the command of his own soul, so as to take it off from grief, and to place it upon God ? Could he dispose of his own heart himself ?
Ans. The child of God hath something in him above a man ; he hath the Spirit of God to guide his spirit. This command of David to his soul was under the command of the great commander. God commands David to trust in him, and at the same time infuseth strength into his soul by think- ing of God's command, and trusting to God's power, to command itself to trust in God ; so that this command is not only by authority, but by virtue likewise of God's command. As the inferior orbs move as they are moved by a higher, so David's spirit here moves as it is moved by God's Spirit, which inwardly spake to him to speak to himself.
David, in speaking thus to his own soul, was, as every true Christian is, a prophet and an instructor to himself ; it is but as if inferior officers should charge in the name and power of the king. God's children have a principle of life in them from the Spirit of God, by which they command themselves. To give charge belongs to a superior. David had a double supeiior above him, his own spkit as sanctified, and God's Spirit guiding that. Our spirits are the Spirit's agents, and the Holy Spirit is God's agent, maintaining his right in us. As God hath made man a free agent, so he guides him, and preserves that free manner of working which is agreeable to man's nature.
By this it appears that David's moving of himself did not hinder the Spirit's moving of him, neither did the Spirit's mo\TDg of him hinder him from moving himself in a free manner ; for the Spirit of God moveth according to our principles, it openeth our understandings to see that it is best to trust in God ; it moveth so sweetly, as if it were an inbred prin- ciple, and all one with our own spirits. If we should hold our will to move itself, and not to be moved by the Spirit, we should make a god of it, whose property is to move other things, and not to be moved by any.*
We are in some sort lords over our own speeches and actions, but yet under a higher lord. David was willing to trust in God, but God wrought
* Ergone ita liberi esse volunt, ut nee Deum volunt habere Dominum ? — Aug. de Spir. et Lit.
198 THE soul's conflict.
that will in liim. He first makes our will good, and then works by it. It is a sacrilegious liberty that will acknowledge no dependence upon God. We are wise in his wisdom, and strong in his strength, who saith, ' With- out me ye can do nothing,' John xv. 5. Both the bud of a good desire, and the blossom of a good resolution, and the fruit of a good action, all comes from God. Indeed, the understanding is ours whereby we know what to do, and the will is ours whereby we make choice of what is best to be done ; but the light whereby we know, and the guidance whereby wo choose, that is from a higher agent, which is ready to flow into us with present fresh supply, when by virtue of former strength we put ourselves forward in obedience to God.* Let but David say to his soul being charged of God to trust, I charge thee, my soul, to trust in him, and he finds a present strength enabling to it. Therefore, we must both depend upon God as the first mover, and withal set all the inferior wheels of our souls agoing, according as the Spirit of God ministers motion unto us. So shall we be free from self-confidence, and likewise from neglecting that order of work- ing which God hath established. David hearkened what the Lord said, before he said anything to himself, — so should we. God's commands tend to this, that we should command ourselves. God, and the minister under God, bid us trust in him, but all is to no pm-pose till grace be wrought in the soul, whereby it bids itself. Our speaking to others doth no good, till they, by entertaining what we say, speak the same to their own souls.
In this charge of Da-vid upon his own soul, we may see divers passages and privileges of a gracious heart in trouble.
§ II. Obs. 1. As 1. lliat a Christian, when he is beaten out of all other comforts, yet hath a. God to run unto. A wicked man beaten out of earthly comforts, is as a naked man in a storm, and an unarmed man in the field, or as a ship tossed in the sea without an anchor, which presently dashes upon rocks, or falleth upon quicksands ; but a Christian, when he is driven out of all comforts below, nay, when God seems to be angry with him, he can appeal from God angry to God appeased, he can wrestle and strive with God by God's own strength, fight with him with his own weapons, and plead with God by his own arguments. What a happy estate is this ! Who would not be a Christian, if it were but for this, to have something to rely on when all things else fail ? The confusion and unquietness which troubles raise in the soul may drive it from resting in itself, but there can never be any true peace settled, until it sees and resolves what to stay upon.