Psalm 119:59
Vekse 59. — iliought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy
testimonies.
In these words we have, — 1. David’s exercise, ‘’ I thought on my ways.”’
SKRMOXS OX rSALM CXIX.
2. The effect of it, “I turm-d my feet unto thy testimonies.”
In the furmer verse, he beiricth mercy and the favour of God: now, those that beg mercy, must be in a capacity to receive mercy. God is ready to show mercy, but to whom: To the penitent, that humbly seek it, and turn from the evil of their ways. We cannot expect God should be favourable to us while we continue in a course of sin: therefore, David showeth that he intreated God’s mercy and favour upon God’s terms, that he was one of those converted by grace. “I thoutrht on my ways.” &:c.: some copies of the Septuayint have it, ac ocut; an (uXoyiaufiJiv, I considered //if, ways, much to the same purpose; for a serious consideration of the excellency of God’s ways is of use, as well as of the naughtiness of our own. But other copies read better, according to the original Hebrew, “I thought on my ways,”’ our omissions, commissions, purposes, practices; the course of our thoughts, words, deeds.
In the other part, when we are said to turn our feet unto God’s testimonies, it is meant of the conversion of the whole soul evidenced by the course of our ieet or practices. So, “Keep thy foot when thou go’est to the house of God”’ i^Eccl. v. 1): the meaning is. Look to thy heart and affections. We are sometimes said to turn to God, and sometimes to the testimonies or commands of God. We turn to God, as the object or last end; to his testimonies, as the rule of our conversation to lead us thither: 60 tl’.at by it is meant an eifectual conversion of the whole man to walk according to the rule of God’s word.
The text issueth itself into this one point: —
Doctrine. — That serious consideration of our own ways maketh way for sound conversion to f Jod.
In the manay-ing of this doctrine. I shall discuss two things: —
1. The necessity of serious consideration in order to repentance.
2. How much it concerneth us, after we have considered elFeclually, to turn to the Lord.
I. The necessity of serious consideration in order to repentance. And there, —
1. What is consideration.
2. The objects of it. or the thintrs that must b(> considered.
3. I shall argue the necessity of this.
First, What is this considiration or thinking upon our ways. In the general, it is a returning tipon our hearts, or a serious debating with ourselves concerniuif our eternal condition. For the understanding whereof, consider that a carnal man is mindless and altogether careless of his eternal interests, like a fool, or madman, or one out of his wits. We were sometimes foolish, avoiirot (Titus iii. 3); like men asleep or distracted: they do not know what they are doing, nor what will be the issue of things, till (iod awaken their hearts to think of their condition; and then they be’in to act like men again, and to be sensible of their case. Thus it is said of the prodigal. mV iuvrdv iiX^n; that “he came to himst-lf” Luke XV. 17); as a man when he is drunk, we say he is not himself; he doth not consider what he doth, nor consider the danger of his actions. And the Psalmist, speakim; of the conversion of the (Jenliies, saith, “All the ends of the world shall rememl)er, and turn unto the Lord” (I’sahn xxii. 27); that is, shall reeollcct themselves, and consider t)f the end of their lives, whiMiei- they are, whithiT they are goim:. and what shall become of th’.iu to all eternity; as if all this while they had forgotten the purpose for
Avliich they were sent into the world, who was their Maker, what was their business. Alas! before this serious consideration, men in seeing see not, and in hearing hear not; as a man that is musing of another matter is not affected with what you tell him, he heareth and doth not hear. It is the awaking of the heart which is God’s first work, before he giveth other grace: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. v. 14). First awake, and then arise from the dead; before which, men have but such languid notions of God and Christ and salvation by him, as men have in a dream; but, when we come to weigh and scan things with affection and application, then the soul is awaked.
Now God bringeth us to this, —
1st, Partly by his word, Avliich showeth our “natural face” (James i. 23, 24), or natural estate and condition before God. It is appointed for this purpose, to be the instrument to awaken men to discover them to themselves. Now, because this may make but a weak impression, such as may soon be blotted out, avpl -n-aaKvavTi, they forget and fall asleep again; therefore to this God joineth his rod. Therefore, —
2ndly, Partly by afflictions; as the prodigal, when he was reduced to husks and rags, then he came to himself, and was brought to his right mind. Again, “If they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent” (1 Kings viii. 47): the Hebrew is, bring it back to their hearts. Affliction is sanctified to this end, to open the eyes: it bringeth us to ourselves. So, “Consider your ways” (Hag. i. 5- — 7); ^£(T0£ riiQ KapSiag tTrl rag opbc i’/tiwj/, lay your hearts upon your ways. When they sowed much and brought in little, and what they earned was put into a bag with holes; that is, when the hand of God was upon them, and the visible curse of his Providence, when the word of God doth not effectually discover men to themselves; then he sends afflictions to put them upon a search, and by his rod whippeth them out of their sleepy dreams and carnal security.
3rdly, By his Spirit; and the first effect of his operations is compunction; “When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles. Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts ii. 37:) it makes them anxious and solicitous. I ascribe this work to the Spirit, because it was a time when the Spirit was newly poured forth. Well then; in the general, it is God’s awakening the heart to a serious and anxious debate with itself concerning its eternal condition, before which we go on sleepily in a course of sin; but then the soul crieth out, ‘What have I done? and what shall I do? how carelessly have I lived! and what shall become of me to all eternity?’
More particularly this thinking upon our ways involveth in its full latitude three grand duties: —
1. A.S it relateth to our past estate, or the ways wherein we have walked; self-examining, or a serious searching and inquiring in what condition we are before God. This is necessary to conversion and turning to the Lord: “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord” (Lam. iii. 40). There needeth a serious calling ourselves to an account, or a strict view and survey of our former courses, if we would amend what is amiss in them; and still, as we renew our repentance, this course must we take.
2. As it relateth to present actions, or the ways wherein we are to walk; so it implieth prudent consideration before we do anything: let us see our
VOL. I. 2 P warrant, that wo may do nuthini; but what is atrrccable to God’s word: “Ponder the path of thy fet-t, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the ri’ht hand nor to the left: rrniove thy foot from evil” (Prov. iv. 26, 27). W’c have a narrow line to walk by. but a foot of ground to iro upon; and therefore wo should not walk at hap-hazard, but with much exactness:” See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise’ (Eph. V. 15): therefore, we need to weii,di all our actions in the balance of the sanctuary, that, if anything displease God, mc may avoid it. The conscience of our weakness and the strictness of our rule should make us take the better heed to ourselves.
3. With respect to the tendency and issues of things; and so it noteth fore-consideration, or deliberation in order fo choice. God biddeth his people, “Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein” (Jer. vi. G; as travellers, when they are at a loss or in doubt of their way, seeing divers paths before them, are careful to inform themselves aright, that they may take the next, readiest, and best way for their journey’s end. An awakened conscience is like Hercules hi biv’io ,- there are two ays present themselves, the way of sin and tiesh-pleasing, and the way of God’s connnandments; or, as it is Matt. vii. 13, 11, the broad way and the narrow way. The broad way of sin seemeth pleasant and enticing; but it leadeth to death: the narrow way is rough and craggy, troublesome to flesh and blood; but the end is life and peace.- Now, the soul debateth upon the choice which of these is better, by weighing the loss and gain on either side, and the final issue and tendency of both these ways: or, rather, the awakened soul is in the case of a man that is yet to choose; or like a man that is out of the way, and wants his usual marks: he bethinketh himself, ‘If I go on in this broad, beaten road of corruption, I am sure to go down to the chambers of death, and jierish evermore. Oh! but let me make a stop! It is better to take Clod’s direction than the way of mine own heart; it is a way that will undo me for ever. Hitherto, I have gone awry; how shall I do to iet into the ritfht way? I would be hai)py, and this course will never make me so: surely, it is better to take God’s counsel than to please the flesh.” No course will satisfy conscience, no course will make you happy, but a life led according to the word of God. Thus you see, it implielli, —
1. An examination of our past course, or a looking into our own estate.
2. A careful watch over future actions.
3. A consideration of the issue and event of things. ‘I have viewed my life past, I hav<> been wrong, and I see it will be bitterness in the issue; therefore I purjjosi’ to give up myself to a course of obedience, and therefon- to consider well of my actions for the future.’ Now, this is a work that is not once to be done, but always. As often as we look to our- 8elv«’s, we shall find something that needeth amendment; an<l therefore we need to press tin- heart with new and jjreixnant thoughts t(» mind our duty, and to use constant caution, and taking heed to our ways that we may not go wrong. Thus did David to keep his heart right: “I thought on my ways” (Psalm xxxix. 1).
Secondly, The objects of this consideration, or the things that must be considered; that may be gathered out of the former disct»urse. But, 1st, A’lio made thee? ‘* KetniMuber now thy Creator in the days of thy youth’’ (Keel. xii. 1). It is a great advantage to call to mind whose creatures we are; for this will shame us that have done no more than we hav»’ done for him from whom we have all that we have, and this in youth, when the effects of this creating bounty are most fresh upon our senses. In good earnest consider, who was it that made thee a reasonable creature? Not a stone, and without life; nor a plant, and without sense; nor a beast, and without reason; but a man, with reason, and understanding, and will, and affections, that thou maj’est know him, and love him, and enjoy him. And hast thou never thought of the God that made thee? Art thou of those hair-brained fools’ that go on rashly in a course of sin, and God is not in all their thoughts? (Psalm x. 4.) How canst thou look upon the body, without thoughts of him whose workmanship! it is y or think of thy soul, without thinking of God whose image and superscription it bears, and without whom thou canst not so much as think? Shall it be troublesome to thee to have frequent thoughts of God, when thou canst go musing of vanity all the day long? Shall every trifle find a room in thy heart, when God findeth no room there? He is not far from every one of us (Acts xvii. 27); but we are far from him. He is before thee, behind thee, round about thee; yea, within thee; or else thou couldst not keep thy breath in thy body for a moment; and wilt thou not then take some time to season thy heart with thoughts of God? The first miscarriage of men came from this: “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Rom. i. 28); thoughts of God, and right opinions of God, were a burthen to them; and therefore they gave up themselves to an ungodly course and evil state of mind. And wilt thou put such a scorn and contempt upon thy Creator as never seriously to think of him; yea, when thoughts of God rush m upon thy mind, to turn them out as unwelcome guests? This is to degenerate into the state of devils, a part of whose torment it is to think of God, they “believe and tremble:” the more explicit thoughts they have of the name of God, the more is their horror increased. Oh! then, let thy meditations of God be sweet and serious (Psalm civ. 34). Everything that passeth before thuie eyes, proclaimeth an invisible God, an infinite and eternal power, that made thee and all things else. Shall the heavens above, the earth beneath thee say, ‘Remember God;’ and every creature, every pile of grass thou treadest upon, call to thee, ‘Remember God;’ and wilt thou be so stupid and scornful as not to cast a look upon him? Then we begin to be serious, when thoughts of God are more fastened upon our hearts.
2ndly, Why did he make thee? Not in vain; for no wise agent will make a thing to no purpose, especially with such advice, “Let us make man.” Certainly not for a life of sin, to break his laws, and follow your lusts, and satisfy your fleshly desires: was this God’s end, that the creature might rebel against himself? This is not consistent with his goodness, to make us for such an end; or, if so, why did he make the rules of justice and equity natural to us, so that man is a law to himself? (Rom. ii. 14.) Nor for sport and recreation, to “eat, drink, and be merry,” or to melt away your days in ease and idleness. He spalvc rather like a beast than like a man, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke xii. 19). If merely for pleasures, why did he give us a conscience? The brute beasts are fitter for such a use, who have no conscience, and therefore no remorse to embitter their pleasures. What was the end for which God made us? Was it to gather wealth, and that the soul might cater for the bodj’, and we might live well here in the world? No: for then God’s work would
2 p2
5S0 SERMOXS OV PSAI..M CXIX.
ttTininatc in itself. Ami why wfic such noblf riuultics given us. sucFi n hi’h-riyiiiir reason that hath a sense of another world, if this were all (io<ls end, that we might yrovel here upon earth, and scrape and heap up this worlds riches r We see they are the basest of men who are given up to this kind of pursuits. Surely, this was not God’s end; but why was it? ‘’ The Lord hath made all things for himself (Prov. xvi. 4), for his ^Mory; and so man, to glorify him and enjoy him. The beasts were made to gloiify him in their kind, but man to enjoy him. This is my end, to seek after God, to ])lease him, to serve him: “The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek Ciod.” (Psalm xiv. 2). God, that hath fixed his end. observeth what man doth in compliance with it; what affection and care they have to find him, i)lease him, glorify him. Reason will tell us, as well as Scripture, that the first cause must lie the last end. and we must end there where we began at first: “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God” ( 1 Cor. x. 31 ). Well then, I was not made for nothing; not to sin away my life, nor to sport it away, nor to talk it away, jior to drudye it away in the servile and basest offices of this life: niv end is to enjoy (iod, and my work and business is to serve and glorify him.
3rdly, How little you have answered this end. God complaineth of our backwardness to this work: “No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, ^’hat have I doner“’ (Jer. viii. 6.) God, upon a review, found every day’s work good, very good, in themselves, and their correspondence and frame (Gen. i. 31); but, when we consider our ways, we shall find that all is evil, very evil. “‘e have too long gone on in a course of sin; and the more we go on, the more we shall go astray, and wander from the great end for which we were created, which was God’s service and honour. Oh! consider your ways, especially when conscience is set a work by the word, or when we smart under the folly of our own wanderinirs, and God maketh us sensible of our mistake bj- some smart scourge. If we never seriously thought on our ways before, then is a time to think of them, and to count it a mercy that we are not left to go on in a coui-se of sui without checks and disajipointmcnts. Oh! look upon the drift and c()urse of your lives and actions, pry into every corner of them: ‘What have I been doing hitherto? Spending my days in vanity and sin? have I remembered my Creator, made it my work to serve him, my scope to glorify him? Have I looked after this as the iivftm ttrci’ssariiitn, the <;reat law and business of my life? that I might enjoy conmiunion with (pod? Oh! for how long a time hath (iod be<n kept out of his riLrht, and I have Ix-en sowing to the Hesh, and never minded the great errand for wliicli I was sent into the world!’ None can excuse himself.
Ithly, The unkindness and baseness of such a coui“se, that you mav make it odious to the soul. ’ (Jod hath not only made me, but kept mo, and provided for me day after day.” The (iod which fed me all my life Ion;;.” saith Jacob ((Jen. xhiii. 15). I have been fed at his table, clothed at his cost, defended, ke])t, when long ago (Jod might have struck me dead in my sins; and yet all this while I have not thought of (iinl, to pay tinreturn of my thanks and obedience to my great benefactor. The very beasts are more dutiful in their kind to man, who, as (iods insfrumenf, provideth for them: “” The ox knoweth his owner, and the a;«s his master’^ crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider”. Isa. i. 3 How senseless have I been of the irreat obliirations wherein I stand bound to God!’ There is the fault: we do not know, and will not consider, what hath been done to God for this.
5thly, What it will come to, or what will become of you, if you should still so continue; or, ‘If I should go on in this course, what will be my portion for ever?’ Nothing but an eternal separation from God, and endless torments with the Devil and his angels: “Now, consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver”’ (Psalm 1. 22). Oh! this is the means to awaken the conscience, and to affect the heart with high and right thoughts of God. What will be the end of those that go far away from God, if they do not make haste to come home to him? Eternal and merciless vengeance: for God will not always bear with forgetful sinners: they shall be torn in pieces, the soul sent to Hell, and the body to the grave. Oh! it concerneth the poor impenitent wretch that now goeth on fearless in a course of sin, immediately to stop in his march, lest he be hurried away to the place of torment, and there be no escaping. Now, urge this upon the heart, and exercise your thoughts in the remembrance of it; and, if you have overcome and overwrestled some former qualms of conscience, now lay it to heart, and do so no moi’e. It may be the hour is at hand, when God will take away your souls from you, and all your sins shall be set in order beft)re you, and the stupid conscience that is now senseless shall have a lively feeling of all your rebellions and unkindnesses done to God, as the paper which was but now white, when stamped with the printing irons, hath a story written upon it in legible characters.
6thly, How much it concerneth you to come out of this condition speedily; for God is not a God to be neglected or dallied with. When he calls in the seasons of grace, he will be observed; otherwise, you may call, and he will have no regard: “Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me” (Prov. i. 28). When you receive many checks of conscience, entreaties of grace, motions of the Spirit, in vain, God will be gone. God doth commonly give men a day, and no man or angel knoweth how long this day shall last. God gave Cain a day: “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.”’ Oh! then, when you begin to have thoughts of turning unto God, let them not be quelled. God reckoneth every hour: “These three years,”’ “This second epistle,” “This second miracle;” and when his patience will expire, you cannot tell.
7thly-, How happy it will be for you, when once you change your course. The prodigal remembered the plenty in his father“s house; you will find a manifest difference: “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Rom. vi. 21,22): in the way, no such gripes of conscience, no shame, sorrow, fears; in the end, everlasting life. It was your mistaking that called the days of sin good days: oh! but, when fruitful in holiness, you will have jJresent comfort and serenity of mind, a taste of the clusters of Canaan in the wilderness, hope of a glorious state, and the best will be at last. Compare pain with pain, pleasure with pleasure. We do not compare right, the pains of godliness with pleasures of sin; and yet there you may sec, the discharg-
5S2 SEHMONS ON TSALM CXIX.
in{» of our duty will yickl more true comfort and peace than all the jjleasurcs of sin can brintf us.
Stilly, What hopes by Christ: ‘• Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calliuLT, consider the Apostle and Hi’irh Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus’ (heb. iii. 1); what provision God hath made. Thirdly, Let me argue the necessity of this consideration. 1st, Otherwise, men are rash, careless, and precijjitant, and act as they arc carried on by their own lusts; whereas, if they did consider, it would stop them in the course of sin. They rush, like a horse, into the battle, because no man saith, “What have I doner’ (Jer. viii. 6.) Men run on, like a headstrong horse, after their lusts and Aincies; whereas, if they do seriously bethink themselves, and cast in a few grave thoughts about things to come, it would be like the putting in of cold water into a boiling pot, abate the fervour of their lusts. Men are wicked because they are inconsiderate: there are artrmnents enout:h against sin, if they woukHiut pause and weigh them seriously; but we do not think of Heaven and Hell, and therefore they do lujt work upon us: •’ Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into juilgment” (Eccl. xi. 9).
2ndly, This serious consideration is a good means to awaken us from the sleep of security. ‘hen we consider the end why we were made, the rule we are to walk by, and pose ourselves about conformity or nonconformity to this rule, and do withal revolve the issues of things in our minds, it cannot but rouse us up out of our sloth and stupidness, and make us act more vigorously and regularly as to the ends of our creation. Oh! what shall I do? The first grace is awakening; that maketh way for other graces: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead;’ and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. v. 14): whereas, otherwise, when we consider not, we are stujjid and sottish: “None considereth in his heart, Is there not a lie in my right hand? I have l)urnt part in the fire” (Isa. xliv. 19, 20): they offer the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they have done evil (Eccl. v. 1): they do not weigh their actions. The reason why they go wrong and continue wrong is, they do not seriously ponder and debate with themselves what it will come to.
3rdly, By consideration we come to find wh«>re the work of God stiektih with us; and so conviction, beiuLT the more particular, worketh the more kindly. A blunt iron that toucheth many points, doth not so soon go to the quick, as a needle that toucheth but one point: they said, ‘• When-in shall we return?” (Mai. iii. 7:) we do not see the heed of repentance so nuicli as by prying narrowly into our own ways. In short, without this, life is not so rei,’idar, the heart is not overpowered with such strong and fidl reason to comply with (Jods counsel.
II. How nuich it conccrneth us, after we have considered our wavs, to turn to the Lord, and diliyently to pursue the course which he hath j)re-Kcril)ed. I “turned my feet unto thy testimonies:” a sound conversion is here described.
First, I “turned,’’ in the thorough purpose of his heart; that is the act on our part. It is by CJods grace that we are turned, but we tmii ourselves when the purpose of our .souls is fixed.” Turn thou me, and I shall be turned.” God inclineth the heart; and we manifest it by binding ourselvi-s by a thorouih purpose. A wish, an offer, when it endelh only in that, wi- hale not considered enoui’h; but. wht-n the Inart is bent, I am turned. The prodigal, when he took up, came to himself, and had reasoned the case, says,” I will arise, and go to my Father’’ (Luke xv. 18): it must be such a purjiose as is diligently pursued.
2ndly, The object or rule, “my feet unto thy testimonies.” By his feet is meant the course of his life. Our will and natural inclination should be no rule to us, but God’s testimonies. We must entirely give up ourselves to the direction of his word. “As many as walk according to this rule” (Gal. vi. 16): we are not to walk as we list. There is a fixed determinate rule, which must be kept with all accurateness and attention: a godly man is very tender of breaking this rule; he makes conscience of keei:)ing to this rule.
Now, it concerneth us to make sure work of it.
1. Because convictions lost occasion the greater hardness of heart. No iron so hard as that which has been often heated and oft quenched; and no heart so bad as theirs that seemed to have some serious and anxious thoughts about their eternal condition. The Devil is more busy and watchful about them, because of their offer to escape: and God is the more provoked, because they started aside when they were at the point of yielding. As better a match were never proposed, than to break off just as it is ready to be concluded. Always according to the closeness of the application, if it succeed not, so doth our hardness of heart increase: they that were ministerially stirred, when they pull away the shoulder, their hearts grow like an adamant stone: “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. vii. 11, 12). When the Spirit is in a way of striving (Gen. vi. 3), when you are any way affected, if resistance be contumed, he withdraws. When men blunt the edge of conscience, deaden their affections, they lose all feeling: “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning; for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (2 Peter ii. 20, 21). They sin against former knowledge, experience, and sense of the truth. As their light is, so their resisting causeth hardness; and all the sensible work comes to nothing. But Uiat is not all: it turneth to loss; it niaketh it more difficult than it was before in regard of us: it maketh us more careless: when we had some stiirirg in our consciences before, we healed it slightly; and we think to do so a<’-nin.
2. You will provoke God to use a rougher dispensation, when the persuasions of the word and the strivings of the Spirit cannot bring you to repentance. They will not be won by arguments; God teacheth them by blows, as Gideon did the men of Succoth by briars and thorns: therefore, they shall shortly find themselves so involved in the fruit of their sins, as they shall not look off from it; their guilt shall lay hold of them at every hand: “They consider not in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness; now their own doings have beset them about” (PIos. vii. 2). We should be much with our hearts, considering our case, how it is with us. God useth not the rod till forced to it:” He doth not afflict willingly
584 SEllMOXS ox rs.VLM CXIX.
nor frrieve the children of men*’ (^Larii. iii. 33). When milder means work but half a cure, the rest is supplied by some pressing judgments: his work is stopped, and therefore he promotes it this way.
3. It is a sign your consideration is not serious when you are off and on, and it produceth no good effect in the soul. A plaister may be sovereign; but, when you are still pulling it ofl’ and putting it on, it does no good. Light thoughts work not: when they are deep and ponderous, then they leave a durable imj)ression. Still it is “remember and turn:’’” All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord’’ (Psalm xxii. 27): bethink and repent, “If they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent” (1 Kings viii. 47), search and try, and turn unto the Lord. Some are semper viefi/?-/, always considering, about to live; but you must once resolve: kindly conviction swill not die, nor let the convinced sinner alone, till they appear in the fruits of ol)edience.
4. The Devil hath his jMuposes: the wicked one “catcheth away that which was sown in his luart” (Matt. xiii. 10): he watcheth troubled sinners, that the work may die away.
Use I. — To reprove us.
1. For not considering our ways. When did you ever go aside, and seriously debate with yourselves about your turning to God? Did you ever lay it to your hearts how matters stand between you and God? There are certain seasons when God calleth you to it; and that is, —
(1.) When the doctrine of life and the way of salvation have been represented unto you with evidence and power, and you have felt some stirring and trouble in your consciences, did you go home and say, “‘hat shall we, then, say to these things?’” (Rom. viii. 31.) God hath spoken to me this day; now, shall all this be lost and come to nothing? “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?’ (Heb. ii. 3.) Now I am called to mind Christ and salvation more: if I should give no heed to these things, or only give them the hearing for the present, oh I what will become of me? There is a special providence in every message, warning, offer, or instruction by the word: “To you is the word of this salvation sent” (Acts xiii. 26): he doth not say. We brought it; but, God sent it, as some message of God for your trial. Do we think of these things which we have heard and learned?
(2.) When God appeareth against you in a course of judgments, cutting off one comfort after another; now taking away a child, then blasting the estate. Now consider your ways: ‘* In the day of adversity consider” (Eccl. vii. 14): then is the duty in season. .VfHiction doth not rise out of the dust, God lialh some end in these providences; and what is his end but to make me mindful of my duty to him? See for what end these things come, and to what issue they tend, that we may hear the rod, and know the meaning of tlic providence. If you do not consider, God will make you consider before he hath done with you. “The anger of the Lord tihall not return, till he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it j)erfectly’ (Jcr. xxiii. 20). (iod will follow blow after blow, till we do consider his mind and purpose: “The lieree anger of the Lord shall not return, luitil lie have done it, and until he hae performed the intents of his heart” (Jer. XXX.24).
2. To reprove us for nut taking this advantage. When we are set thinking of our ways, we have many thoughts and sensible stirrings; but they come to nothing, because we do not follow it close. You think, and have some workings of conscience; but do they end in a fixed pvu-pose? Some break through all, as Saul forces himself (1 Sam. xiii. 12); break through all restraints of conscience. Felix had his qualm; but he puts it off to another season. Oh! consider, these things will one day be a witness against you, the sensible workings upon your hearts by the word and rod.
Use II. — Is to stir us up to this work, serious consideration in order to sound conversion.
1. Be frequent in it. If daily you called yourselves to an account, all acts of grace would thrive the better. Seneca of Sextius, Quid hodie malum sanasti? cut vitio obstitisti? You have God’s example in reviewing every day’s work, and in dealing with Adam before he slept. The man that was unclean was to wash his clothes at eventide.
2. Seriously set yourself to it: “Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day” (Deut. xxxii. 46). It is a weighty matter of life and death. “Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still” (Psalm iv. 4): this is the way to check sin, and to come on most hopefully in a course of obedience.
3. Drive your thoughts to a resolution, to rectify whatever is amiss. Never leave thinking of your ways, till you grow anxious about eternal life; nor let your anxiousness cease, till you bring it to somewhat. Grow to some resolution about the ways of God. Pray God to make your consideration effectual. “Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things” (2 Tim. ii. 4): this is but the means, God giveth the grace.