are incompetent judges of these things: "The world knoweth us not" (1 John iii. 1).

USE. See the strange perversion of human nature. Men are ashamed where they should be bold, and bold and confident where they should be ashamed: "they glory in their shame," but think it a disgrace to speak of God, and own God, not before kings only, but before their familiars and companions. Be ashamed to be filthy, false, proud; but never be ashamed to go to a sermon, where you may profit in the ways of God, and the knowledge of his testimouies; to be strict in conversation, to speak reverently of God, though scorned by men. None of God's servants have reason to be ashamed of their master.

SERMON LIII.

VERSE 47. And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.

The man of God is giving arguments to enforce his request, "That the word of truth might not be taken utterly out of his mouth.

1. He could not bear it, because all his hopes of felicity were built upon it (verse 43).

2. He promiseth constancy of obedience (verse 44).

3. Liberty of practice (verse 45).

4. Liberty of profession, not hindered by fear or shame; but should be borne out with confidence in that profession.

5. He urgeth in the text with what delight he should carry on the work of obedience; "And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.' In which observe,

I. His great pleasure and contentment is asserted and professed: "I will delight myself."

II. The object of it, "in thy commandments."

III. The fundamental reason or bottom cause of this delight, "which I have loved.”

DOCTRINE. A gracious heart doth love and delight in the commandments of God. The godly are described by it: hence David makes it the character of a blessed man: "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Psalm i. 2). And, "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth greatly in his commandments" (Psalm cxii. 1). Paul asserts of himself, as a comfortable evidence of his sincerity, in the midst of his infirmities: "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Rom. vii. 22). By the "inward man" he means the renewed part, that is pleased with all things that please God; if we have such a delight as is above the delight of sense, &c. I will,— 1. Explain the point as it lieth here in the text.

2. Show how the heart is brought to this; for corrupt nature is otherwise affected.

First, To explain the point.

1st, His pleasure and contentment is asserted: "I will delight myself.” A Christian hath his joys and delights; but they are pure and chaste: they delight in the Lord, and in his word and ways: Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice" (Phil. iv. 4). He hath a liberty, ἀλλὰ

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póvov iv Kvpiy, but "only in the Lord" (1 Cor. vii. 37), not only may, but must; it is his duty. Joy is a great part of his work; not our felicity or wages only, but our work also. Now, I shall prove, that all the pleasures and delights of the earth, are nothing to the pleasures and delights which the godly do find in God, and in a holy life.

1. These delights are more substantial it is not a superficial joy that they are delighted withal, but a substantial joy. It must needs be so; partly because these are better grounded, not built upon a mistake and fancy, but the highest warrant, and surest foundation which man can build upon, the word of the eternal God, which can never fail; whereas the joy that is merely built upon carnal delights, is built upon a fancy and mistake. Both are represented by the Apostle: "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (1 John ii. 17). If they considered the shortness of their pleasures, and in what a doleful case their wealth, and honour, and fleshly delights will leave them, they would have little list to be merry, till they had looked after a more stable blessedness. The world will be soon gone, and the lust and gust thereof gone also; but he that goeth on with the work of holiness, building on the promise of another world, layeth a sure foundation partly because they do more intimately affect the soul. Sensual delights do not go so deep as the delights of holiness: "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased" (Psalm iv. 7): like a soaking shower, that goeth to the root. The other tickleth the senses; poor, slight, and outside comforts, that do not fortify the heart against distresses, much less against the rememberance of our Judge, or the fears of an offended God, or the serious thoughts of another world. For these two reasons, the joys of a Christian, stirred up in him by the conformity of his will to the will of God, are solid substantial joys. A wicked man may be jocund and jovial, but he hath not the true delight; they may have more mirth, but the Christian hath the true joy: "In the midst of mirth the heart is sorrowful." It is easy to be merry; but it is not easy to be joyful, or to get a substantial delight.

2. These delights are more perfective; a man is the better for them. Other delights that please the flesh, feed corruption; but these corroborate and strengthen graces. They are so far from disordering the mind, and leading us to sin, that they compose and purify the mind, and make sin more odious, and fortify us against the baits of sense, which are the occasion of all the sin in the world.

All our joy is to be considered with respect to its use and profit: "I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doth it?" (Eccl. ii. 2.) The more a man delighteth in God, and in the ways of God, the more he cleaveth to him, and resolveth to go on in this course, and temptations to sensual delights do less prevail: for, "the joy of the Lord is our strength." The safety of the spiritual life lieth in the keeping up our joy and delight in it: "Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Heb. iii. 6). "Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness" (Isa. lxiv. 5). But now, carnal delights intoxicate the mind, and fill it with vanity and folly. The sensitive lure hath more power over us, to draw into the slavery of sin: "For we ourselves were also foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures" (Titus iii. 3). Surely then, the healing delights should be preferred before the wounding, killing pleasures that so often prove a snare to us.

2ndly, The object is to be considered, "thy commandments." Here observe,

1. David did not place his delight in folly or filthiness, as they do that glory in their shame," or delight in sin, and giving contentment to the lusts of the flesh; as the Apostle speaks of some that "sport themselves with their own deceivings" (2 Peter ii. 13), that do not only live in sin, but make a sport of it, beguiling their own hearts with groundless apprehensions, that there is no such evil and hazard therein as the word declareth, and conscience sometimes suggesteth; they are beholden to their sottish error, and delusion for their mirth. Neither did he place his delight in temporal trifles, the honours, and pleasures, and profits of the world, as brutish worldlings do; but in the word of God, as the seed of the new life, the rule of his conversation, the charter of his hopes, that blessed word by which his heart might be renewed and sanctified, his conscience settled, his mind acquainted with his Creator's will, and his affections raised to the hopes of glory. The matter which feedeth our pleasures, showeth the excellency or baseness of it. If, like beetles, we delight in a dunghill rather than a garden, or the paradise of God's word, it shows a base, mean spirit, as swine in wallowing in the mire, or dogs to eat their own vomit. Our temper and inclination is known by our complacency or displacency: "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death" (Rom. vii. 5). Therefore see which your hearts carry you to, to the world, or to the word of God. The most part of the world are carried to the pleasures of sense, and mastered by them; but a Divine Spirit or nature put into us, makes us look after other things: " Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises" (2 Peter i. 4); even of the great blessings of the new covenant, such as pardon of sin, eternal life, &c.

2. Not only in the promissory, but mandatory part of the word, [commandments] is the notion in the text. There is matter of great joy contained in the promises; but they must not be looked upon as exclusive of the precepts, but inclusive. Promises are spoken of: " Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart" (Psalm exix. 111). They contain spiritual and heavenly riches, and so are matter of joy to a believing soul; but the commandments call for duty on our parts. The precepts appoint us a pleasant work, show us what is to be done, and left undone. These restraints are grateful to the new nature; for the compliance of the will with the will of God, and its conformity to his law, hath a pleasure annexed to it. A renewed soul would be subject to God in all things; therefore delights in his commandments, without limitation or distinction.

3. It is not in the study or contemplation of the justice and equity of these commandments, but in the obedience and practice of them. There is a pleasure in the study and contemplation; for every truth breedeth a delectation in the mind: "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart" (Psalm xix. 8). It is a blessed and pleasant thing to have a sure rule commending itself with great evidence to our consciences, and manifesting itself to be of God; therefore the sight of purity and certainty of the word of God, is a great pleasure to any considering mind; no other study can be compared with it. But the joy of speculation, or contemplation, is nothing to that of practice. Nothing maketh the heart more cheerful than a good conscience, or a constant walking in the way of God's com

mandments: "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that with simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world" (2 Cor. i. 12). Let me give you this gradation: the pleasures of contemplation exceed those of sense; and the delights of the mind are more sincere and real than those of the body for the more noble faculty is, the more capable of delight. A man in his study about natural things, hath a truer pleasure than the greatest epicure in the most exquisite enjoyment of sense: "My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honey-comb, which is sweet to thy taste so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul; when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off" (Prov. xxiv. 13, 14). But especially the contemplation of divine things is pleasant; the objects are more sublime, certain, necessary, profitable; and here we are more deeply concerned, than in the study of nature. Surely this is sweeter than honey and honey-comb, to understand and contemplate the way of salvation by Christ. This is a Heaven upon earth, to know these things: "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John xvii. 3). As much as the pleasures of the natural mind do exceed these bodily pleasures, so much do these pleasures of faith and spiritual knowledge exceed those of the natural mind. These things the angels desire to pry into. Now, the delights of practical obedience do far exceed those which are the mere result of speculation and contemplation. Why? Because they give us a more intimate feeling of the truth and worth of these things, and our right in them thereby is more secured, and our delight in them is heightened by the supernatural operation of the Holy Ghost. The joy of the Spirit is said to be "unspeakable, and full of glory" (1 Peter i. 8). In short, it is exercised about noble objects, the favour of God, reconciliation with him, and in the hope of eternal life; all these as belonging to us: and it is excited by a higher cause, the Spirit of God: and lastly, it giveth us a sense of what we have but a guess before: "We know the grace of God in truth" (Col. i. 6), we know it is so as to taste of it.

3rdly, The fundamental or bottom cause of this delight is expressed, "which I have loved." There is a precedent love of the object before there can be any delight in it. Love is the complacency and propension of the soul toward that which is good, absolutely considered, abstracting both from presence and absence. Desire regardeth the absence and futurition of a good; delight, the presence and fruition of it. It is impossible anything can be delighted in, but it must be first loved and desired. None can truly delight in obedience, but such as desire it. By nature we were otherwise affected, counted his commands burdensome, because contrary to the desires of the flesh: "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. viii. 7). But when the heart is renewed by grace, then we have another love, another bias upon our affections: "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous" (1 John v. 3); to others they are against the bent and the hair, and too tedious; but love maketh way for delight.

Secondly, Reasons why a gracious heart doth love and delight in the commandments of God.

1. The matter of these commandments showeth how much they deserve our love and delight. The matter respects either law or Gospel. (1.) That

which is strictly called the moral law is the Decalogue; a fit rule for a wise God to give, or a rational creature to receive; a just and due admeasurement of our duty to God and man: the world cannot be without it. To God-that we should love him, serve him, depend upon him, delight in him; that we may be at length happy in his love. "The law is holy, and just, and good; not burdensome to the reasonable nature, but perfective. Surely to know God, to love him, and fear him, and trust and repose our souls on him, and to worship him at the time, in the way and manner appointed, is a delightful thing, and should be more delightful to us than our necessary and appointed food. To man-justice, charity: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy," &c. (Mic. vi. 8); "Keep mercy and judgment" (Hos. xii. 6). Now, all kind of justice should not be grievous; either political justice, between the magistrates and the people: how should we live else? This maintaineth the order of the world. Private justice between man and man: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matt. vii. 12). Family justice, between husband and wife, parents and children, masters and servants; how else can a man have any tolerable degree of safety and comfort? Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge" (1 Peter iii. 7). Then for mercy, there is not a pleasanter work in the world than to do good; it is Godlike. A man is an earthly god, to comfort and supply others: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts xx. 35); and blessedness is not tedious; the work rewards itself: the satisfaction is so great of doing good, and of being helpful to others, that certainly this is not tedious. (2.) The Gospel, it offereth such a suitable remedy to mankind, that the duties of it should be as pleasant and welcome to us as the counsel of a friend, for our recovery out of a great misery into which we had plunged ourselves. In the law, God acteth more as a commander and governor; in the Gospel, as a friend and counsellor. Surely to those that have any feeling of their sins, or fears of the wrath of God, what can be more welcome than the way of a pardon and reconciliation with God, whom his word and providence, and the fears of a guilty conscience, represent as an enemy to us? Surely this should be more pleasant than all the lust, sport, and honours, and pleasures of the world. Here is the foundation laid of everlasting joy, a sufficient answer to the terrors of the law and the accusations of a guilty conscience, which is the greatest misery can befall mankind. In short, that the matter of God's commands deserves our delight and esteem, is evident,

(1.) Because those that are unwilling to submit to them, count them good and acceptable laws. When their particular practice, and sinful customs, have made them incompetent judges of what is fittest for themselves in their health and strength; yet their conscience judgeth it a more excellent and honourable thing in others, if they can deny the pleasures of the flesh, and overcome the temptations of the world, and deny themselves the comforts of the present life out of the hopes of that which is to come: such are accounted a more excellent and better sort of men : "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour" (Prov. xii. 26); he hath more of God and of man than others, as he hath a freer use of his reason, and a greater command of his own lusts and passions. There is a reverence of such darted into the consciences of wicked men: "Herod feared John, VOL. I.

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