One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on the Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm, Volume 3

Verse 124. — Deal tvith thy sertant according to thy mercy; and teach me thy statutes.

In this verse, we have two requests, the one general, the other particular; wherein he would have the Lord exercise his mercy to him, ‘Show thy mercy to me, in teaching me thy law.’ The one respects the privilege part of religion, the other the duty part. The one concerns time past, or the pardon of sin already committed, “Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy;” the other, prevention of sin for the time to come, That I may perform my duty for the future, “teach me thy statutes.” Mercy is the ground of his request; teaching God’s law, the matter of it. He would have this gift bestowed on him freelj’.

First branch, “Deal with thy servant,” &c. Where we have, —

I. His relation to God, “Thy servant.”

II. The terras upon which he would have God deal with him, not according to ray works, but “according to thy mercy.”

I. His relation is mentioned either, first, as a part of his plea, as if he had said, ‘Lord, thou ai’t merciful to all; for thy tender mercies are over all thj’ works (Psalm cxlv. 9), much more to thy servants; now, I am thy servant.’ God’s servants have a special claim and interest in God; besides his genei-al bounty, they expect his special mercy and favour: “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid” (Psalm cxvi. 16). Clear that, that you are some of Gods servants, once; and then you may the better expect your master’s bounty. Or, secondly, to show his need of mercy, though God’s servant. Such an emphasis it seeraeth to have: “Enter not into judgment with thy servant” (Psalm cxliii. 2). Non dicH cum hostihus tu’is; he doth not say, ‘Enter not into judgment with thine enemy;’ but, “with thy servant.” So here David, that was God’s servant, a man of singular holiness, desireth that God would deal with him in mercy: from first to last, the saints have no other plea. Theodoret on the text observeth, ‘O rocrawrjjc aptTyc tQyanjg iXkag Tvxi’iv, &c.; so great a worker of righteousness beggeth to receive mercy, and looketh for all his salvation by mercy. And again, oI’k divaiTiifiicrQov, aWa (piXavOpuwiav aiTu. He doth not challenge a reward, but asketh favour and kindness.

VOL. III. B

DocTKTNE. — That God’s best servants have no other and no better plea, than that God would deal with them in mercy.

First, Because there is and can be no merit on the creature’s part to-Avards God, according to the rule of justice. Adam in innocency could hnpetrarc, not mcrer’i. It was his grace to covenant with the creature, when innocency and purity did adorn our nature; how much more since the fall, and the distance between God and us hath been so widened by sin! What merits, must be indehitum and utile. It must be mdehitum. When our righteousness was perfect, yet still due, by virtue of our relation to God as creatures; and paying of debts deserveth no reward. The lawyers tell uii, J’’emo cojiscquit ur pra’m’mm, qucd fac’it ex officio debitum. We are bound, and do but our duty; but God is not bound to us. All that the creature hath, and is, and can do, it oweth to God, and hath received it from him; and God is in such a degree of excellency above us, that he cannot be obliged. Where there is so great- a disparity of nature and being, there is no common right to make him obnoxious, to make it justice to any action of ours to reward us. Aristotle denied children could requite their parents, and merit from them, and that the obligation of merit is only between equals; certainly, not between God and men. There was nothing which bound him necessarily to i-eward his creature, but his free covenant. Again, that which merits must be utile, pi’otitable to him from whom Ave chatlenge reward. If we be never so righteous, the benefit is ours, not God’s: he is not beholden to us, nseth us not out of indigence, but indulgence; not as if he needed anything, but we need his blessing. When we have done all, we are unprofitable servants; and, “My goodness extendeth not to thee” (Psalm xvi. 2). God giveth all, receileth nothing from us. The beam oweth all to the sun, the sun nothing to the beam.

Secondly, Because, since the fall, there is no claiming but by the covenant of grace and mere mercy. A sinner cannot expect anything, but upon terms of mercy. The covenant of works supposed us innocent and holy, and bound us so to continue; so that the law knoweth not how to do good to a sinner. Once a sinner, and for ever miserable; it leaveth no room for repentance. So that now there is no hope for the best, according to the rule of strict justice; but only according to the law of mercy. In the new covenant, there are special differences from the law of works.

1st, That there is not only grace, but mercy and grace too. In the first covenant, there was grace, but no mercy: grace doth all things gratis, freely; but mercy pitielh the miserable: therefore, till sin and misery entered, there could be no room for mercy. There was grace in that covenant; for it was of grace that God did enter into covenant with man at all, and of grace that he did accept man’s perfect obedience, so as upon performance of it to make him sure of eternal life. But now, in the new covenant, God doth show mercy and grace too; and grace in the most rich and glorious manner. Mercy and grace too in this way of salvation, in that there is hope for a sinner, a plank cast out after shipwreck. And grace in the richest and most glorious manner: partly, for the design and end that was driven at, it was the glory of grace: “To the praise of the glory of his grace” (Eph. i. 6); and partly, the ground of it was founded upon the infinite mercy of God and the infinite merit of Christ. The infinite mercy of God: mercy is the infinite goodness of God, flowing out freely to the creatiu’e, without any moving cause or worth on the creature’s

SERMON CXXXVI. — veuse cxxir. 3

part to expect it: “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God that showeth mercy” (Rom. ix. 16). And the infinite merit of Christ: “1 will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isa, Iv. 3); “And give thee for a covenant of the people” (Isa. xlii. 6); and, “I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant to the people” (Isa. xlix. 8). David, that is Christ, the seed of David; all the mercies of the covenant are exhibited in and by him, in whom the covenant is made with us, and made good to us (2 Cor. i. 20). And he is given for a foundation; that is, the foundation of a new and better covenant. And partly, because of the terms wherein it is dispensed, which is not unsinning obedience, but a sincere owning of Christ, unto the ends for which God hath appointed him. So that, in effect, a thankful acceptance of a free discharge, is all that we do for paying the debt, or to make way for our acceptance with God: “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed” (Rom. iv. 16). And, “By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. ii. 8). By the grace of faith, we lay hold upon, or apply to ourselves, Christ and all his benefits; and that faith God giveth us by his mere grace, not exhibited by any work of others. The whole work of salvation, from its first step in regeneration to its last step in glorification, doth entirely flow from God’s free grace, and not from any worth in us. So that this being the end, grounds, terms of the new covenant from first to last, mercy doth all on which our hope dependeth. We must claim by mercy.

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