SERMONS

ON

PSALM CXIX.

SERMON I.

VERSE 1.-Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

THIS Psalm is a choice piece of Scripture. In the Hebrew there is much exactness of composure to be observed. It is divided into twentytwo parts, according to the number of the Hebrew letters; every part containeth eight verses, all beginning with one and the same letter; in which I should think there is nothing of mystery intended, only a help to attention and memory. I shall go over the several verses in their order, the Lord giving life and assistance and because the same matter will be of frequent recourse, I shall endeavour to discuss each verse in a sermon. The Psalmist beginneth with a description of the way to true blessedness, as Christ began his Sermon on the Mount, and as the whole Book of Psalms is elsewhere begun. Blessedness is that which we all aim at, only we are either ignorant or reckless of the way that leadeth to it; therefore the holy Psalmist would first set us right in the true notion of a blessed man: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord."

In the words you have,—

1. The privilege, "Blessed."

2. The manner and form of its consideration, not so much in the nature and formality of it, as the way that leadeth to it. Or,

I. Here is a way spoken of in the general.

II. This way specified, "The law of the Lord." III. The qualification of the persons' sincerity, constancy, "who walk."

"the undefiled ;" and

I. That it standeth us much upon, to have a true notion of blessedness and blessed men. David beginneth with that.

1. All desire it, Christians, Pagans, all agree in this. When Paul was dealing with the heathens, he urgeth two notions wherein God might be taken up: That of a First Cause, "Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts xiv. 16, 17) ; and a chief Good (Acts xvii. 27). As in the one case there must be a

cause of showers of rain, and fruitful seasons; so in the other, there must be a universal Good, or else the inclinations of nature were in vain. Among Christians, the good and bad, that do so seldom agree in anything, yet agree in this, every man would be happy and not miserable. "There

be many that say, who will show us any good?" (Psalm iv. 6.) Good, good is the cry of the world; it is intended in the very nature of desire; for everything that is desired, is desired as good (sub ratione boni). As God implanted in us affections of aversation to avoid what is evil; so affections of choice and pursuit, to follow after what is good. Well then, out of a principle of self-love, all would be happy; they would have good, and they would have it for ever. Inanimate creatures are, by the guidance and direction of Providence, carried to the place of their perfection; the brute beasts seek the preservation and perfection of that life which they have; so do all men hunt about for contentment and satisfaction. To ask whether men would be happy or not, is to ask whether they love themselves yea or nay; but whether holy, is another thing.

2. All without grace are much mistaken in it. (1.) Some mistake in the end; they desire good in common, not t that which is indeed the true good they seek happiness in riches, honours, pleasures; and so they fly from that which they seek, whilst they seek it; they intend happiness, but choose misery. 66 Thy good things" (Luke xvi. 25); and "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased " (Psalm iv. 7). Their corn, wine, and oil; not only possessed by them, but chosen by them as their felicity and portion. (2.) They fail in the means; they know them not, like them not, or else faint in the prosecution of the end by them; they discern them but weakly, as a spire at a distance; they see it so, as they know not whether they see it yea or nay; as the blind man saw men walking as trees. The light of nature being so dim, they consider them but weakly; the mind being diverted by other objects, they desire them but weakly; the affections being prepossessed and intercepted by things that come next to hand, velleities and cold inclinations they may have, but no serious volition, or firm bent of heart. Or,

Suppose men under some conviction, both as to the end and means, yet their endeavours are very cold and slack; they do not pursue it with that earnestness, exactness, and uniformity of endeavour, which is requisite to obtain their happiness. They are like children that seem to desire a thing passionately, but are soon out of humour. "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing, for his hands refuse to labour." When true happiness is sufficiently revealed, we like it not upon God's terms. The Jews, when our Saviour told them of the bread of God that came down from Heaven to give life to the world, said unto him, "Lord, evermore give us of this bread" (John vi. 34): but it is said, upon hearing the conditions of obtaining it, "they murmured, went back, and walked no more with him" (verse 66). All would live for ever; but when they must follow a despised Christ up and down the world, and incur censures and dangers, they like none of that: "Yea, they despised the pleasant land; they believed not his word" (Psalm cvi. 24). The land was a good land, but the way to it was through a howling wilderness. When they heard of the strength and stature of the men, their fortifications, they fell into passion, and murmur, and gave over the pursuit of Canaan. Heaven is a good place, but men must get to it with such difficulty; therefore they are

loth to be at the cost. Men would be happy, with that kind of happiness which is true happiness; but not in the way which God propoundeth, being prepossessed with carnal fancies. It is counted a foolish thing to wait upon God in the midst of straits, conflicts, and temptations. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14). More prejudices lie against the means than the end; therefore out of despair, they sit down with a carnal choice, as persons disappointed in a match take the next offer: since they cannot have God's happiness, they resolve to be their own carvers, and to make themselves as happy as they can in the enjoyment of present things.

3. Our mistakes about it will cost us dear. God is very jealous of what we make our happiness, and therefore blasteth the carnal choice. Those that will try experiments smart for it in the issue. Solomon came home by weeping-cross: "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit" (Eccles. i. 14). He hath proved it to our hands. He had a large heart, and a large estate, and gave himself to pleasures, to extract happiness from the creatures, to hunt after worldly satisfactions in a more artificial way than brutish sots, that merely act according to lust and appetite: "I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity" (Eccles. ii. 1). He gave himself to pleasures, not merely upon sensual, but curious and artificial aims, yet found his heart secretly withdrawn from God. Whoever maketh trial, will either run into utter mischief, or must come home again by a sound remorse; and so he learns it, and dearly to his cost.

Let us study this point well :

That

First, That we may not take up with a false happiness, or set up our rest in temporal enjoyments, as height of honour, abundance of riches, favour of great men, &c.; things useful in their sphere, and beneficial to sweeten and comfort the life of man, who hath placed his happiness in God. Pleasures being enjoyed, they do not satisfy; being loved, they defile; being lost, they increase our trouble and sorrow. (1.) They cannot satisfy, because of their imperfection and uncertainty. They do not answer the whole desire of man, carry no proportion with the conscience. which maketh a man happy, must bear a thorough proportion with all the wants, desires, and capacities of the soul; so as conscience, and heart, and all, may say it is enough. But, alas! these things cannot give us solid peace and contentment. "Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread; and your labour for that which satisfieth not ?" (Isa. lv. 2.) Till a hungry conscience be provided for, we cannot be happy. But besides their low use, consider the uncertainty of enjoyment. Nothing can give us solid peace, but what doth make us eternally happy. These flowers wither in our hands while we smell at them. Nothing but the favour of God is from everlasting to everlasting. We have not a sure possession of these things in the world. They are possessed with fear. It is the apostle's counsel, that "they that buy," should have such remiss affections to the world, "as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passeth away (1 Cor. vii. 30, 31). A man must look for changes, and lay forth for several conditions in the world. "When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth :

surely every man is vanity. Selah" (Psalm xxxix. 11): like glass, brittle, when most glistering. (2.) Being inordinately loved, they defile: there is not only gall but poison in them. They cannot make us better; but may easily make us worse, as they defile and draw the heart from God, and enslave us to our own lusts: "But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which, while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Tim. vi. 9, 10). (3.) Being lost, they increase our trouble and sorrow. A man that has not learned to be abased, as well as to abound, his abundance maketh his case the more miserable. It is hard to go back a degree or two. They are apt to bring much trouble upon the heart of him that is conversant about them. "All is vanity and vexation of spirit.' The more we make them our happiness, when lost, they increase our trouble.

Secondly, That we may not be prejudiced against the true happiness. Men think it a happiness to live without the yoke of religion; to speak, and think, and do what they please without restraint; but to be always in bonds and held under the awe of the word, that they count unreasonable and grievous. "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us" (Psalm ii. 3). In studying of this point, (1.) "Lean not to thine own understanding ;" "Labour not to be rich; cease from thy own wisdom" (Prov. xxiii. 4); but seek direction from God by his word and spirit. God can only determine who is the blessed man, in whose hand alone it is to make us blessed. (2.) Take the light of faith; sense and carnal reason will deceive you. Blessedness is a riddle which can only be

found out by faith, "which is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. xi. 1). That a poor godly man who is counted the filth and off-scouring of all things, should be the only happy man; and that the great men of this world who have all things at will, should be poor, blind, miserable, and naked; is a paradox that will never enter into the heart of a natural man, that hath only the light of sense and carnal reason to judge of things, for to sight and reason it is nothing so. (3.) Wait for the light and power of the Spirit, to incline and draw thy heart to God. Many times we are doctrinally right in point of blessedness, but not practically; we content ourselves with the mere notion, but are not brought under the power of these truths; that is the work of the Spirit. It is easy to prove that it is the beasts' happiness to enjoy pleasure without remorse; easy to prove the uncertainty of riches, and what unstable foundations they are for the soul to rest on; but to draw off the heart from these things to God, is the work of the Holy Ghost. "This their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings" (Psalm xlix. 13). Many a man who stands over the grave of his ancestors, will say, Ah! how foolish were they to waste their time and strength in pleasure, and in hunting after worldly greatness, and esteem, and favour with men; what doth it profit them now? And yet their posterity approve the same; that is, they live by the same principles, are as greedy upon worldly satisfactions as ever those were that have gone before, that neglected God and heavenly things, and went down to the grave, and their honour was laid in the dust. Until the Lord take off our heart by the light and power of his grace, we remain as sottish, and foolish, and worldly as they. Thus you

see how much it concerns you to be right in the notion of true blessedness.

II. That sincere, constant, uniform obedience to God's law, is the only way to true blessedness.

This is called a "way ;" and this way is said to be "God's law ;" and in this way we must be "undefiled;" which implies not absolute purity, and legal perfection, but Gospel sincerity; and in this way we must 'walk;" which notes both uniformity and constancy; it must be our course, and we must persevere therein.

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Three things need to be opened.

1. Speak to the rule.

2. Of conformity to the rule, that it must be sincere, uniform, and con

stant.

3. How this is the way to true happiness and what respect it hath to true blessedness.

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First, The rule is the law of God. All created beings have a rule. Christ's human nature was the highest of all creatures, and yet it is to be in subjection to God; Christ is under a rule, " made of a woman, made under the law" (Gal. iv. 4). The angels, they have many immunities above man; they are freed from death, from the necessities of meat and drink, but they are not freed from the law, they are not sui juris, at their own dispose; They obey his commands, hearkening unto the voice of his word " (Psalm ciii. 20). Inanimate creatures, sun, moon, stars, are under a law of Providence, under a covenant of night and day: "He hath also established them for ever he hath made a decree which shall not pass (Psalm cxlviii. 6). They have their courses, and appointed motions, and keep to the just points of their compass. All creatures are under a law, according to which they move and act. Much more now is man under a law, because he hath election and choice. But if the law were not a rule to a Christian (as some Antinomians have that opinion) if it were not in force, then there should be no sin or duty: "for where there is no law, there is no transgression" (Rom. iv. 15); "for the nature of sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John iii. 4). Certainly the law as a rule is a very great privilege; and surely Christ did not come to lessen or abolish the privileges of his people. "There is no nation hath such statutes;" "He hath made known his statutes to Israel," was their prerogative. If the law might be disannulled as to new creatures, then why doth the Spirit of God write it with such legible characters in their hearts? This is promised as the great blessing of the covenant of grace (Heb. viii. 10). Now that which the Spirit engraves upon the heart, would Christ come to deface and abolish? The law was written upon tables of stone, and the great work of the Spirit is to write it upon the table of the heart; and the ark was a chest in which the law was kept, and with allusion to it God saith, "I will put my law into their heart." Clearly then there is a rule, and this rule is the law of God; now this rule must be consulted upon all occasions, if we would obtain true blessedness, both to inform us and to

awe us.

1st, To inform us, that we may not act short, or over.

1. Not short. There are many false rules with which men please themselves, and are but so many by-ways that lead us off from our own happiness; for instance, good meaning, that is a false rule; the world lives by guess, and devout aims: but if good meaning were a rule, a man