aims and intents of the heart, that is God's work (1 Cor. iv. 5), and it is the Devil's work, if, when the practice be good and fair, to suspect them of hypocrisy. Besides, too, if there be some grievous fault, you do not know what were their temptations, how it may be alleviated by the temptation, still you must consider yourselves lest you also be tempted (Gal. vi. 1), and you do not know whether they have repented of it. The Devil is a slanderer. Why? He doth accuse the children of God of what they are guilty of, and they give him too much cause to accuse them. Ay, but after repentance, after they are justified by God, and quitted by the grace of God, so he is a slanderer. So, after they have repented your insisting on those faults, it is a great evil.

2ndly, Speak not of him, but to him. When men are absent it is not fit they should be judged, for then they are not able to make a defence, then it is backbiting. When you thus speak of them, you exchange a duty for a sin: admonition for reproach. It is an unquestionable duty to admonish one another; but it is an unquestionable sin to speak evil of one another.

3rdly, If of him, it should be done with tenderness and grief. When they are incorrigible, when they are like to pervert others, and dishonour the Gospel, or for the manifest glory of God. Oh, if we would but lay restraints upon ourselves in this kind, and never speak of others, but when manifestly the glory of God calls for it; and then it should be with grief: "Of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping" (Phil. iii. 18), saith the Apostle. There are a crew of heretics, it is supposed he means the Gnostics, filthy and impure persons, that had debauched the Gospel to a licentious life, yet the Apostle speaks of them weeping; and therefore we should be very tender of speaking of them. Not out of idleness and for want of other talk, that is tattle, forbidden in many places of Scripture. Not out of hatred and revenge, for that is malice; there may be malice where the thing you speak is truth. Not to please others, that is flattery. But if ever you speak of them (and it should be with these cautions), out of zeal for the glory of God, and the good of the church. If men did consider what restraints are laid upon them, they would not so easily fall upon censuring, reproaching, and speaking evil of others. Thus to those that devise slanders and reproaches.

2. Secondly, To those that receive them. He is a slanderer that wrongs his neighbour's credit, by upholding an evil report against a man. It is hard to say which is worse, railing or receiving. A citizen of Sion is described to be one that taketh not up "a reproach against his neighbour" (Psalm xv. 3); and you shall see on the contrary, "A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips: and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue" (Prov, xvii. 4). He is a liar that receives a lie when brought to him as well as he that brought it. If you love the lie, though you do not devise it, the Lord will curse all them that love lies as if you did imagine them. All that are acquainted with the matter are accountable to God; you are responsible for your ear, as they for their tongue. It is good to have a healing tongue, to heal that which others wound: "The tongue of the wise is health" (Prov. xii. 18); it is healing, and therefore we should labour to show forth this Christian meekness: as not to devise slander against others, so not to cherish them, and uphold them against others. USE III.-If this be a usual and grievous evil, it puts us upon seeking

comforts against reproaches. Now what are the comforts we should seek against reproaches?

1. The witness of a good conscience, for then this will be matter of great joy and great peace to you: "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience," &c. (2 Cor. i. 12). If men reproach you, yet let not your hearts reproach you (Job xxvii. 6). The heart hath a reproaching, condemning power. Conscience is registrar, witness, and judge; and that which troubles our quiet is these heart-smitings, and heart-reproaches. Let any other man in the world be your enemy rather than your own conscience be an enemy. Certainly, where conscience is a friend, if you be innocent, you need not care for the reproaches of others. If they speak against you as faulty, they do but speak against another, whom the slanderer takes to be thee; and in time you will out-wrestle the reproach. Look, as the hair will grow again as long as the roots remain: so, though the razor of censure and reproach brings on baldness, the hair will grow again.

2. Another comfort against reproaches is the approbation of God; that should satisfy against all the censures of the world. You have the greatest, best, and wisest on your side, if you have God on your side. The world decries those that profess strictness in God's ways as hypocrites; but you are hypocrites indeed that are troubled at this; if you value man's approbation rather than God's; no, you shall be of that temper: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect! It is God that justifieth” (Rom. viii. 33, 34). If the Lord will acquit you, no matter what men say. The world's filth may be God's jewels. Many times a contempt doth but manifest God's esteem, and give us a further sense of it; they cannot impose upon God; they cannot burden your cause before the Lord; and therefore if the Lord hath covered your filth, it is no matter though they rake in it : "Blessed is the man whose sin is covered," &c. (Psalm xxxii. 1). The Lord will not ask their opinion, their vote and suffrage, whether he shall condemn or acquit you; but he will go according to the laws of his own covenant, and therefore the approbation of God should be enough to you. 3. The consideration of those promises, that do concern the vindicating our name from contempt. God is wont to scatter the reproaches of his servants as the sun gets from within the cloud, to bring forth their righteousness as the noon-day.

4. Heaven will make amends for all the dishonour that men put upon you. Though the proud scorn you, yet if you keep God's statutes, and go on waiting upon him for eternal life, great will be your glory in Heaven.

SERMON XLV.

VERSE 40.-Behold, I have longed after thy precepts; quicken me in thy righteousness.

In the close of the former verse David had given this commendation of the statutes of God, that they were good. Now, to show that he did indeed account them so, he alledgeth his desires after them. "Behold I have longed," &c. In the words you have

I. A narrative.

II. A request.

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The one is used as the reason of the other. In the narrative he ex-
presseth his sincere desire of conforming his heart and ways to the laws of stemmere
God. Where (1.) The matter of his plea, " I have longed after thy pre-lingen
cepts." Not to know them only, but to do them; not to satisfy curiosity, nyszeriz
but to understand and obey the will of God, and to make it the rule of his
life and actions. Then (2.) The sincerity of it, that is intimated in the word
"behold." There is ecce admirantis, the behold of admiration, and ecce
demonstrantis, the behold of demonstration. This last is here to be under-
stood We must look upon David astappealing to God, as offering himself
unto his trial and approbation, who is the best witness and judge of the
hearts of men, who knows all things, and cannot be put off with shows. "O
Lord," he speaks thus to God, "Behold, I have longed after thy precepts."
Now, this is spoken here; either as a reason of his own asking, behold, I
seek it not out of custom, or to speak words of course, my soul is in this
matter; or as a reason of God's granting, he urgeth sincere affection to
obedience as an argument likely to prevail with God. Lord I have an
ardent desire to serve thee,' and certainly this is a great argument with
God, for he delights to crown his own work; when he hath given the affec-
tion, he will give the deed, and give the performance. Look, as Paul
urgeth others to pray for him, "Pray for us, for we have a good conscience,
in all things willing to live honestly" (Heb. xiii. 18). So David here
speaks of himself to God. Lord, "I have longed after thy precepts;" it
is my desire that I may be put into the readiest, fullest way of compliance
with thy will.

Secondly, Here is his request. There we have (1.) the thing prayed
for, "Quicken me;" he prays for renewing, exciting grace.
(2.) The
ground of confidence, "In thy righteousness." He had argued before
from the disposition of the subject, now he argues from the quality of the
donor, "In thy righteousness." The law of God is sometimes called
righteousness, and so some expound it in that sense, "Quicken me in thy
righteousness," that is, in the way wherein thou wouldest have me to walk.
I think rather it is to be applied not to the righteousness he had required,
but the righteousness that is in God himself. So, "Lead me, O Lord, in
thy righteousness" (Psalm v. 8). Now the righteousness of God is put
for the whole perfection of the divine essence; for his justice, in rendering
every one their due, according to his covenant; or for his holiness, for his
requiring, approving, delighting in the obedience of the creature; and for
his mercy, for giving out grace to men; and for his veracity and faithful-
ness, in making good his promise, which is a branch of his Gospel, justice,
or righteousness; as thou art faithful in making good thy promises, and
never wanting to those that make use of thy word, so Lord quicken me.
Three points,-

1. To love and long for a holy, and perfect, and entire subjection to the
will of God, is a good frame of heart.

2. Those that do indeed long for holiness, will see a need of quickening. 3. Those that would have quickening, must seek to God who hath promised to satisfy them that desire, grace to walk with him.

DOCTRINE I.-To love and long for a holy, and perfect, and entire subjection to the will of God, is a good frame of heart.

This may be confirmed by these considerations,—

1. All natures have a propension unto their perfect estate; as fire to go upward, where its place is; and heavy bodies to move downward, where

is their seat and rest; plants have a virtue in their seed which is ever working to produce their flower; beasts have an appetite by which their nature is nourished and preserved; and man hath a desire to prepare and fit him for that which is good and proper for him. The Psalmist tells us, that "God openeth his hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing" (Psalm clxv. 16). There is an instinct in every living thing which leads them towards the sustaining and perfecting of that nature which they have. That which is called inclination in the creatures without life; attraction of nourishment in plants; and appetite in the beasts; is in man, desire. And so now proportionably, the new-creature, the saints, they have an appetite suitable to their nature: “As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby" (1 Peter ii. 2). Appetite still followeth life, and prepares men for receiving things good for them: "Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble, thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear" (Psalm x. 17). A desire of relief vented in prayer, prepares and fits us to receive those blessings which are good for us. And, therefore, as all natures have a propension to their perfect estate, so those that are new creatures, long and vehemently tend towards holiness.

2. Desires set upon holiness are an affection properly exercised, and upon its due object. Desire, it is an earnest reaching forth of the soul after good absent and not yet attained. The object of it is something good, and the more truly good it is, the more is our desire justified. There are certain bastard goods of a base and transitory nature, as pleasure, profit; we may easily overlash and exceed in these things. But, on holiness which is more high and noble, and is truly good, and of greater vicinity and nearness to our chiefest good, than those other things are, we cannot exceed; there the faculty is rightly placed. When we are hasty and passionate for these other things, the heart is corrupted, it is hard to escape sin: “ He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent" (Prov. xxviii. 22), and he that loves pleasure is in danger of not loving God, or loving it more than God (2 Tim. iii. 4). But now in holiness there is no such snare: a man cannot be holy enough, nor like enough to God, and therefore here we may freely let out our affections to the full. When our desires are freely let out to other things, they are like a member out of joint, as when the arms hang backward; but here they are in their proper place; this is that which cannot be loved beyond what it doth deserve. A Christian should set no manner of bounds to himself in holiness, for he is to be "holy in all manner of conversation" (1 Peter i. 15), and to be "perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect" (Mat. v. 48). And then desire is not only after that which is good, but after a good absent. Desire ariseth from a sense of vacuity and emptiness; emptiness is the cause of appetites, and therefore it is compared to hunger and thirst: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt. v. 6). So it is in desiring holiness, we have not yet attained (Phil. iii. 13). There is an indigence and emptiness, we are not already perfect, we want more than we have, and our enjoyments are little in comparison of our expectations. And, therefore, we should make a swifter progress towards the mark, and with more earnestness of soul should press after that sinless estate we expect. That little we have doth but quicken us to inquire after more; not cloy but provoke the appetite. As a man hath a better stomach sometimes when he doth begin to eat: so when we begin with God, and have tasted of holiness, and tasted of

comfort, being brought into a sense of obedience and subjection to God, we should desire more; for certainly he is not good that doth not desire to be better; so that David might well say, "I have longed after thy precepts."

3. Consider the nature of these desires; they are the genuine birth and offspring of the soul, motions of the heart, freest from constraint, and so do best discover the temper of it, and show that it is not tainted and biased with secular and wordly delights. No man can be constrained to will that which he doth not love. Practices may be overruled. Ill men, they dare not act so much evil as they desire for fear of shame, punishment and other by-ends: and good men do not act so much good as they do desire, because of that weak and imperfect state wherein they are. Paul was better at willing than at doing: To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not (Rom. vii. 18). And other of the saints of God though they could not plead their exact performance, and their full and effectual compliance with the will of God, yet have pleaded their desires: "The desire of our soul is to thy name Isa. xxvi. 8). "We desire to fear thy name (Neh. i. 11). And Peter appeals to Christ's omnisciency, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee" (John xxi. 17). The temper and constitution of their heart, and the strength of grace, is seen more in desiring many times than in doing. These are the pulses by which you may feel the state of your souls, when there are longing and vehement desires of your souls after God's precepts.

4. Consider the use and necessity of these desires, still the point will be justified. The natural use of desire is to engage us to act, and to keep us up in an earnest prosecution of that which is good for us, notwithstanding the oppositions and discouragements which come between desire and fruition. For all good being hard to come by; unless desires be strongly fixed, men are soon put out of the humour, and so nothing would be done to any purpose in the world. Surely holiness, that is so difficult and distasteful to flesh and blood, would be but little looked after, if there were not strength of desires to keep it up. Therefore is this affection, that we may encounter difficulties and oppositions. As when there were difficulties and straits, it is said, "They built the wall, for the people had a mind to work" (Neh. iv. 6); that is, their hearts were set upon it. So, if we had a mind to any excellent thing, it is this mind that keeps us up in the midst of all difficulties and labours. All excellent things are hard to come by, it is so in earthly matters, much more in spiritual. The Lord will will have it so to make us prize them more, for things soon got are little esteemed. As riotous heirs which know not how to get an estate, lavishly spend it. A man is chary of what is hardly gotten. Jacob prized Rachel the more because he was forced to serve for her so long; so we shall prize heavenly things the more, when they cost us a great deal of diligence and labour to get them. Now, sluggish desires soon fail, but vehement longings keep the heart awork.

5. Consider the issue of these desires. As they come from a good cause, which is the new nature, and a new life (for appetite follows life) so they tend to a good effect, are sure of a good accomplishment and satisfaction. God is wont to give spiritual things to those that desire them; there the rule is, "Ask and have." It is not so in carnal things; many that seek and hunt after them with all the strength and labour of their souls, at