3. Live in the daily habit of self-examination —
[Inward and unperceived uncleanness will come upon you, if you be not always on your guard. A mariner may be drawn from his course by currents, as well as driven by winds : and therefore from day to day, he consults his compass and his chart, to see whether there have been any deviation from his destined path. The same precautions must be used by you.
c 2 Cor. vii. 1. a Eccl. xi. 9. e Lev. ii. 14—16.
f 1 Pet. ii. 2. s 1 John ii. 14.
vol. vi. x
You must not only " examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith," but what progress you are making in the faith. Do this, beloved, daily, and with all diligence ; so shall ye "be blame- less and harmless, the sons of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, shining among them as lights in the world, and holding forth in your walk and conversation the word of lifeh :" and be assured, that in so ordering your conversation aright, " you shall at last behold the salvation of God."]
h Phil. ii. 15, 16.
Ps. cxix. 18. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous
things out of thy law !
THE necessity of Divine teaching, in order to a spiritual acquaintance with the truth of God, is by many denied ; and all expectation of the Holy Spirit's influence for that end is derided as enthusiasm. But, however the profane ungodly world may scoff at the idea, it is " by the Spirit of God alone that we can know the things which are freely given to us of Goda:" and the wisest of men, as much as the most ignorant, has reason to adopt the petition in our text, " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law ! "
From these words we shall take occasion to shew, I. What wondrous things are contained in God's law —
If we understand the law here spoken of, as im- porting the Law of Moses, it certainly is full of won- ders : the moral law, being a perfect transcript of the mind of God ; and the ceremonial law, being a shadow of all those good things which are revealed to us in the Gospel. But we apprehend that David is speaking rather of the Gospel, even of that " law which is come forth from Zion, and that word which has proceeded from Jerusalem." No one of the pro- phets, scarcely excepting even Isaiah himself, had clearer or richer views of Christ than David ; and as- he speaks of Christ in almost all his psalms, we may justly suppose, that in this place he refers to the wonders that are contained in the Gospel of Christ.
a 1 Cor. ii. 12.