Psalm 119:167
Verse 167. — il/y sotd hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.
The man of God goeth on in his plea. In the former verse, he had spoken of the influence of his hope upon obedience; now of the influence of his love, and so more expressly and directly raaketh out this qualification or title to the promise, mentioned verse 165.
Before we go on, let me answer a question or two.
First, How can a gracious heart speak so much of itself, and insist so much upon the plea of obedience r Is not this contrary to our Saviour’s doctrine, who in the j)ai-able of the Pharisee and publican that went up to pray (Luke xliii.), teaches us to make use of the plea of mercy, not of works?
1. I answer, as to that part of the scruple which concerneth TriinavyoXoyia, that cannot be imagined to be faulty in David, who was a prophet; and therefore, to instruct the world, propoundeth his own instance, and settt.’th forth himself as a pattern of obtaining comfort in the way of godliness.
2. As to the plea of works, they may be produced by way of evidence, not by way of merit; as they prove our interest in the promises, not as the ground of self-confidence. The Pharisee came not to beg an alms, but to receive a debt, and therefore went away without any mark and testimony of the Divine favour and approbation. But holy men plead this to God, as expecting mercy and favour at his hands; not in regard of any merit in themselves, or of reward deservedly for the same done to them; for they acknowledge all that they do or can do to be but duty, and due debt: but, in regard of the gracious promise freely made unto them, in a humble and modest manner they dare appeal to God himself for the sincerity and integrity of their hearts, for their serious care and sedulous endeavours to please him, and approve themselves to him.
Secondly, But why is this plea reiterated, for three verses together?
Answer. — Too much care cannot be used in making out an interest in so sweet a promise: and it teacheth us this lesson, that we had need examine again and again, before we can put in our claim. Jesus Christ puts Peter to the question thrice, “Lovest thou me?” (John xxi. 15 — 17.) So here, it was David’s plea thrice repeated, for the more assurance; I have done thy commandments, my soul hath kept thy testimonies, and again, I have kept thy commandments and thy precepts. After a believer hath found marks of saving grace in himself, it is wisdom for him to examine them over and over again, that he may be sure they are in him in deed and in truth. The heart is deceitful; our self-love is great, our infirmities many, and our graces so weak that we should not easily trust the search. Truly such a holy jealousy doth well become the best of God’s children, and doth only weaken the security of the flesh, not their rejoicing in the Lord.
In the words, you have the testimony of David’s conscience, concerning the sincerity of his heart, evidenced by two notes.
1. The sincerity of his obedience, “My soul hath kept thy testimonies.”
2. His exceeding love to the word, “I love them exceedingly;” or, if you will, by the manner of his obedience and the principle of it.
First. The spirituality of his obedience, “My soul hath kept thy testimonies.” Mark, the notion by which the act of duty is expressed, is varied: in the former verse, it is, I have done thy commandments; here it is, I have kept thy testimonies; “done” more expressly noteth his seduhty and diligence; “kept,’’ his constancy and diligence, perseverance, notwithstanding temptations to the contrary. And how kept them r Saith he, “My soul hath kept them;”’ not with outward observance only, but with inward and hearty respect: “my soul;” that is, myself; a pait for the whole, and the better part; I with my soul, and so it showeth his sincerity. It is a usual expression among the Hebrews, when they would express their vehement afteclion to anything, to say they do it with their souls: as, “Bless the Lord, O my soul ‘’ (Psalm ciii. 1 ); and,” My soul doth magnify the Lord” (Luke i. 45); as, on the contrary, vehemency of hatred: v’ Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth” (Isa. i. 14): that is, I hate them with my heart.
The note is, —
Doctrine. — God must be served with our souls as well as our bodies. David saith, “My soul hath kept thy testimonies.”
1. Because he hath a right to both, as he made both, and therefore hath required that both should serle him. He that organized the body, and framed it out of the dust of the ground, did also breathe into us the breath of life, and framed the spirit of man within hmi; therefore, since God may ehallena:e all, it is fit he should have the best. “My son, give me thine heart” ^(Prov. xxiii. 26). Look upon it; whose image and superscription doth it bear? Give unto Csesar the things that are Ceesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s; he hath redeemed both: “Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God both in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. vi. 20). Shall we rob God of his purchase so dearly baught? We would not rob a man of his goods; and will you rob God? He challengeth a peculiar right in souls, “All souls are mine f and therefore they should be used and exercised for his glory. If we use them for ourselves only, and not according to his direction, we do as Reuben did, that went up into his father’s bed. To withhold the heart from God, is a robbery: nay, sacrilege, which is the worst kind of robbery; for God’s right in redemption is confirmed and owned by our personal dedication in baptism. Once more, God hath right to the service of both body and soul, because he offereth to glorify both, and reward both, in the heavenly inheritance. The body and the soul are sisters and co-heirs, as Tertullian speaketh. If we expect wages for both, we must do work with both; if God should make such a division at death, as men do all their life to him, can they be happy, if any part of them be excluded from Heaven? If the body and lifeless trunk were taken into Heaven, and the soul left in torments, what were you the better? But that cannot be, God will have all, or no part; therefore, “your whole spirit, and soul, and body, [must] be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. v. 23): otherwise, your souls cannot be joined to God in Heaven, if they be divided from him on earth.
2. Because this is service suitable to his nature, when we serve him and obey him with our souls. God is an all-seeing spirit, and therefore will be worshipped in spirit and truth (John iv. 23, 24). It is agreeable to his spiritual nature; therefore shows and fashions have little respect with him, but reality and substance; for he searcheth the heart and trieth the reins: it is not the bowing the body, so much as the humble, affectionate reverence and submission of the soul. God hath appointed service for the body; and, so far as God hath appointed it, we must submit to it; but chiefly for the soul: our worship must be chiefly inward, flowing from grace engaging the heart in God’s service. Bodily exercise is of little profit: that worship which is most agreeable to God’s nature, is most pleasing to him: he hath not eyes of flesh, and seeth not as man seeth (Job x. 4). Therefore external duties, without the inward exercise of the spirit, is scarce worthy the name of worship to God: he is not taken with the pomp of ceremonies, and external observances: “For man looketh on the outward appearance; but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Sam. xvi. 7). Men are taken with external pomp and formalities, they suit
SEKMON CLXXXII. — YEKSE CI>XVII. 425
wilh their fleshly natures; but the more sphitual, the more suitable to God. That which you do, be it in worship, it is not done unto God, but unto men, when the heart is not in it: “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Col. iii. 23). ^^’ithout the heart, all that we do is but a mocking of God, giving him the shell without the kernel.
3. Because the soul is the principal thing. That swayeth the body, and s.tirrcth it up to all that it doth: it being of itself a senseless block, it followeth the disposition and inclination of the heart. I shall make it good in two considerations. First, it is fons actionnm ad extra. And Secondly, it is terminus actionum ad intra. It is the fountain of all actions that go outward, from man towards God; and the subduing the heart to God’s will, is the end of all operations inward, from God towards man.
(1.) Fons actionum ad extra, the fountain of all actions that go outward from man towards God. All natural actions proceed from the soul or heart. It is not the eye that seeth, nor the ear that heareth, nor the hand that toucheth, nor the feet that walk; it is the soul seeth by the eye, and heareth by the ears, and toucheth by the hand, and walketh by the feet. So in all moral actions, the heart is all: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life’ (Prov. iv. 23). All our actions proceed thence; all the evil that we do, cometh from the heart: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies”’ (Matt. xv. 19). All that we speak, and think, and do, followeth the frame of the heart. This is the burning furnace from whence the sparks fly: the occasion of sin pay be without; but the cause of it is ever from the heart. It is the heart that filleth the eyes with wantonness, pride, and fury; and the tongue with blasphemy, slanders, and detraction; the hands with blood. So for good actions and thoughts, they come out of the good treasury of the heart: “A good man out of the good treasury of the heart bringeth forth good things” (Matt. xii. 35). The tap runneth according to the liquor wherewith the vessel is filled; that a man hath laid up in his heart, that he laj’eth out in his thoughts, and speeches, and actions: it is the heart that enliveneth all our duties, and we act ever according to the constitution of our souls.
(2.) It is terminus actionum ad intra, all actions inward. The aim of it is to come to the heart. The senses report things to the phantasy; the phantasy represents them to the mind, that counsels the heart. So, in God“s operations upon us, his business is to come at the soul. Wherefore doth he speak, and reason, and plead, but that we may hear r And wherefore do we hear, but that the truth may be lodged in the heart or soul r” Let thine heart retain my words” (Prov. iv. 4). Ay; then God’s word hath its effect upon us. We are never subdued to God, till the heart be subdued. The word, for a while, may stay in the memory, and it is gooel when the memory is planted with the seeds of knowledge, as children receive the principles of religion in catechisms; but the end is not there: at length, they exercise their understandings about them, when they begin to conceive of what they learned by rote; and afterwards they begin to have a judgment and a conscience: these truths begin to stir and awaken then). But it must not rest thei’e neither; it soaketh further, and wisdom entereth upon the heart (Prov. ii. 10). Ay; that was God’s aim, to bring the work thither; and then the cure is wrought with man;” Ye have
426 sEii-Moxs ox rSALM CXIX.
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered j’ou” (Rom. vi. 17). So this is the end of all the oyerations of grace, that the soul and heart may keep God’s testimonies. So where is it that Christ would dwell, when he taketh up his abode and residence in us? The Apostle will tell you: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. iii. 17). Till he get possession of the heart, ail is as nothing. He will not dwell in the body only; that is the temple of the Holy Ghost at large. There is a holy of holies, a more inward place, whei’e he will dwell. He will not dwell in the tongue or in the brain, memories or understandings, unless by common gifts; but the heart, the will, and the affections of man are the chief place of his residence: there he dwelloth as in his strong citadel, and from thence commandeth other faculties and members: so that the heai’t is the beginning and ending of the whole work of religion; from thence come all holy actions, and thither tend all holy, gracious operations.
4. It is thy hearty soul-service only that will bear weight in the balance of the Gospel. There may be many defects in the action; yet, if the heart be right, God will accept the will for the deed, and you will iind comfort in that another day, when you most need it: “Remember now,. O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart” (Isa. xxxviii. 3). Hezekiah had his infirmities and failings; but his heart was upright: “In all things, willing to live honestly” (Heb. xiii. 18): that is a Gospel good conscience, and will yield comfort to you. God accepts the will without the deed, but never the deed without the will: infirmities may overtake the action; but, when the heart is unfeignedly set to serve God, we shall be accepted. We allow grains to true, but not to counterfeit, gold: the church pleadeth, “The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee” (Isa. xxvi. 8). When we follow in rugged ways, though we oftentimes stumble, yet, if our soul be with him, we may have comfort.
Use I. — This is for the conviction of divers persons, that they do no more serve God in their souls, do not keep his testimonies.
1st, There are some that serve God with neither body nor soul, as all loose persons, who do not so much as make a show of his service. They are all for their brutish pleasures; their souls to hunt them out, and their bodies to pursue and follow them. Their soul is a cage of unclean birds, and a sty of all filthiness; and their bodies only a strainer for meats and drinks to pass through, or a channel for lust to run in; so that they have nothing at all to spare for God. The soul is an ill guide, suggesting all manner of evil; and the body, a ready instrument to accomplish it. These are those that yield up their members to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity (Rom. vi. 19). Oh! the time will come, when God will tear them in pieces, and rend the guilty soul from the embraces of the unwilling body. A sad time it will be for these. The soul will curse the body, as an ill instrument; the body the soul, as a corrupt guide; and curse the day of their first union, when they cannot expect but to meet again in flames.
2ndly, Some that give their bodies to God, but withhold their souls from him. How may this be done?
Answer. — 1. Generally, when men content themselves with a naked profession of Christianitj% and some external conformity thereunto. It is a sUipid religion that consists in outward actions: Judas was externally a disciple; but Satan entered into his heart (Lukexxii. 3). Ananias joined himself to the people of God; but Satan filled his heart (Acts v. 3), Simon Magus was baptized; but his heart was not right with God (Acts viii. 22). Many men may not only make profession, but perform many good actions; be, as to external conformity, blameless; yet, till their hearts are subdued to God, they should not be satisfied with their condition. Though you pray with the Pharisee (Luke xviii:), pay thy vows with the harlot (Prov. vii.), ofi’er sacrifice with Cain, fast with Jezebel, sell thine inheritance to give to the poor with Ananias and Sapphira; it is all in vain, without the heart. Many hypocrites are all ear, to hear; all tongue, to talk; all face, to appear; but not a heart, to obey. Something must be done for religion for fashion’s sake and shame of the world: yea, though thou dost not dissemble, do manj- things; yet, if your hearts be not renewed and changed, all is nothing: you do not keep the testimonies of the Lord with your souls.
2, And more particularly, when men make conscience of ceremonies and outsides, rather than sincere obedience.
As the Pharisees: “Ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but within they are full of extortion and excess” (Matt, xxiii. 25, 26); 2ii”etend great purity in eating their meat, but care not with how great iniquity they purchase it. Papists think they have done enough, if they mutter over a few idle words, without spirit and life: the most part of their service, it is but that of the body, without the soul: they worship in a strange language, not knowing what they do or say; and, nearer home, draw nigh with their lips, when their hearts are far from him (Matt. v. 8). These leave their hearts at home; the Devil findeth them other work, that suffer their hearts to straggle, and to be, like the fool’s eyes, in the corners of the earth, when with their bodies they are engaged in serious and solemn duties of God’s worship.
Use IL — Is to press you to serve God with your hearts and souls, as well as your bodies.
1. This is the character of true worshippers: “God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit” (Rom. i. 9); and, “God whom I serve, &:c., with pure conscience” (2 Tim. i. 3). This was not peculiar to Paul alone; it is the description of the spiritual circumcision: “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. iii. 3). These are such as are true worshippers.
2. God will accept of no other; for he looketh for the heart, and knoweth whether we give it him, yea or no. Men care not for fawning and the obsequiousness of empty courtships; but look for reality, if they could discern it: “Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy lieart?“’ (2 Kings X. 15): it was Jehu’s question to Jehonadab, the son of Rechab; Dost thou really affect me as I do thee? And men do not look to the matter of the gift, but the mind of the giver; and will God, think you, who can infallibly judge, and will one day bring the hidden thoughts of the heart to light (1 Cor. iv. 5), will he be put off” with shows and empty formalities? Well then, see that your souls be in it; otherwise, he will not accept of rivers of oil and thousands of rams; all your pomp and cost upon outside services is lost. But it is not every soul that Mill keep God’s testimonies. When the people said. All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do it, “Oh! that there were such a heart in them!” (Deut. v. 29.)
4*28 SERMOXS ON rSALM CXIX.
It must be such a heart; lor man is naturally averse from God: sin sets up its throne in the heait. and thence ditiiiseth its venom into his actions (Gen. vi. 5). It must be, —
1. A broken heart.
2. A renewed heart.
3. A heart puritied by faith.
4. And acted by love.
1. A broken heart it nuist be; for, before that, all that we do is forced and superlicial. We are never serious, till acquainted with brokenness of heart; but serve God in a slitrht, careless fashion. That bruising is to cast into a new mould; it is a preparative to the new heart. Wheat is not bread till it be grinded; and a cracked vessel cannot be renewed, till it be melted in the furnace; nor we formed anew, till we be first melted, humbled, and broken for sin.
2. The heart must be renewed by grace; for it is a renewed soul only that keepeth the commandments: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will, &c., cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezek. xxxvi. 26). The hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil, till God change them, and renew a right spirit within them: “The heart of the wicked is little worth” (Prov. x. 20). A vain, sottish, sensual, careless heart, will never do God any service: there must be life before there can be action; a supernatural principle, before there can be supernatural operation; for all things act according to their form. All that we do else, is but like adulterating coin, gilding over copper or brass.
3. A heart puritied by laith (Acts xv. 9). There are tleshly lusts in us which must be mortitied more and more, and deadened to the pleasures, and profits, and honours of this world, by remembering our great obligations, and expectations from Christ’s death, and eternal life; for, while any — tleshly or worldly lust prevaileth with us, and is the chief principle in our hearts, we cannot heartily serve God.
4. A heart acted by love: “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that, if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. v. 14, 15). This is the active principle which sets us a work with cheerfulness: Christ often intimateth that keeping the commandments is the fruit of love (John xiv. lo), all the expression of our love to him, is turned into that channel.
Secondly, I come now to the second evidence and testimony of his sincerity, his love to the word; “I love them exceedingly.” Mark, —
1. Ilis ati’ection. I love thy testimonies.
2. The degree, in the word “exceedingly.”
1st, From his affection, note, —
DocTKixE. — That it is not enough to keep the commandments; but we must love them, and that obedience they require from us.
This love to the law, is often spoken of in this psalm; therefore there needeth the less to be said now. Paul speaketh of this love, as well as David: ‘• I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Rom. vii. 22),
The reasons of the point: —
1. ^^’e can never thoroughly and constantly keep the law, without love to it. It is no easy thing to keep the law of God; there needeth much labour and striving. Now, where there is a sincere love of the law of God planted in the heart, there will be this striving and endeavouring to perform it. None so sensible of the weight of sin, none so active for God’s glorj’; there is nothing so difficult, but love maketh easy; nihil amarum. In a word, labour and toil pro e a pleasure, and pain a matter of delight, where we lole; the careful mother, who bringeth forth the child with pain, and nurseth it up with toil and trouble, is well enough pleased with her work,. and cheerful in it, because of the love she hath to the fruit of her womb, and her child is dear to her. Jacob’s seven years’ labour seemed to be a few days, for the love he had to Kachael (Gen. xxix. 30). So God will have us serve him out of love, because nothing is grievous to love ( 1 John v. 3). It beareth -all things, suffereth all things; poverty, nakedness, bonds, injuries, labours; never tireth, or groweth weary (2 Cor. xiii. 7).
2. Except we obey because we love, our obedience is not sincere and acceptable: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and ha e not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal; and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing:” kliv tljxi (I Cor. xiii. 1, 2). Many are frighted into a course of religion, and go on from duty to duty out of a fear of being damned. This is not true obedience, that is done servilely and by constraint; these unwilling services which we perform to Christ, out of urging of conscience, and fear of wrath: “They have turned their back unto me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us” (Jer. ii. 27). They come to God, not out of delight and choice, but out of necessity, and only then. They that did not care for God at other times, will then come with their flocks and their herds” (Hos. v. 6). The spirit of bodage is clamorous for duty% as the spirit of adoption sweetly inclineth to it. Many obey God no further than they are forced; as slaves, whom nothing but fear induceth to perform their masters’ command; and so do not love the work, nor do it for the work’s sake.
3. The next object to God, fit for our love, is God’s law. It is clear that God is primum mnabile, the first thing that is to be loved; but what is the second? Surely that which hath most of God in it; next after God, his word. There is vestigium in the creature, there is imago in his testimonies: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. iii. 1 8); the fairest draft and print of God that can be taken; his people have his image, but it is overshadowed with weakness; it is but the dTTO(ipaivi>Jiia, the ofF-set of his word: it is the word that maketh saints. There is the liveliest stamp and print of God; his testimonies lead, not only to the knowledge of God, but also to the fruition of him. Whatsoever leadeth us to the fruition of God, is incomparably better than any other thing; therefore, if we love God, we must love his precepts, love them so as to keep them: it is the greatest testification of that love we can show to God.
Use. I. — Is to show us the reason why so many miscarrj- in the profession of godliness. Many walk in the ways of God for a while, but have no sound love to them. Either by-ends or slavish fears forced them into some profession; but they did not love godliness as godliness, and therefore cannot hold out with God. “‘hen a man is biassed and poised by his heart to a thing, you cannot easily divert and break his incUnation; that is a rooted evih Others were but forced; and forced subjection will not always hold. Men are hoping they shall shake off an unpleasing task; and, where they obey from constraint, and the ii’on yoke of terror, they will not long obey.
Use II. — To press us not only to keep God’s testimonies, but to love them.
Let me use some arguments.
1. From its excellency. To love is more than to do; as to love sin is a greater evil than to commit it. Gruvius est peccatum diUgere, quam facere. A man may commit sin out of infirmity; but he that loveth it, sin reiineth in him. Practice may be overruled; a man may do evil that hateth it, being overborne by the violence of a temptation; as Paul saith of himself, “What I hate, that do I.” So a man may do good, that hateth it, being influenced by by-ends; but our love is our own, the genuine offspring of the soul.
2. The necessity of it. Unless we love our work, we shall never be the more earnest in the performance of it. Nature, of itself, is unwilling: the heart hangeth off, till it be poised by love. Reasons and motives will not do it: “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law” (Rom. via. 7). The commandments of God cross our will, profit, and pleasure; therefore we need not only reasons with us, but a strong inclination of heart to hold us to it; else we shall be off and on with God. The building went on, because “the people had a mind to the work” (Neh. iv. 6). Nothing else will do it but this.
3. The utility. We shall have more comfort in the sincerity of our affections, than we can ever have in the perfection of our actions. The people of God, that cannot plead the perfection of what they do, plead the reality of their love: “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee’” (John xxi. 17).
4. Ex (lebito. We owe so much love to God, that everything that he requireth should be welcome to us for God’s sake. They are his testimonies; therefore your souls should love them, and bind them upon your hearts, and the rather, because we are to do our duty, not as servants, but as friends: “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John XV. 14); not. Ye are my servants. Between friends, there is a perfect harmony and agreement in mind and will; to do a thing for love’s sake to one’s friend, this is an act of friendship. Not by servile constraint, but to keep them as they are his; we are to do what Christ commandeth, because he commandeth it; and that is to do it in love: otherwise, we break the commands, when we keep them. Besides the outward act, there must be a ready inclination, and delight in our work. Carnal men, the good they do, they would not do. That obedience is not worthy the name of obedience, that is extorted from us; men had rather live ungodly, if they durst for fear of punishment. It is but a slight kind of religion, when fear prevaileth more than love: they do somewhat God willeth, but they had rather leave it undone. A man is never firmly gained to God, till he prefer service before liberty, and love holiness as holiness.
But how must we show this love? By two things; by being aweful and cheerful; grieved when we offend him, glad when we please him: aweful in avoiding what he forbiddeth, and cheerfid in performing what he requireth.
(1.) Aweful. You dare nol break with God in any one point, but are very chary and tender of the connnandments, keep them as the apple of his eye (Prov. vii. 2), that is otlended with the k-ast dust; or keeping of jewels: “Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck” (Prov. vi. 24), as jewels. Choice of them.
(2.) By being cheerful, ready, and forward to every good work: A willing people (Psalm ex. 3). You need not stand urging and pressing; the inclination of their hearts swayeth them. A man is hardly kept from that he loveth: “Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected “’ (1 John ii. 5).
Secondly, The degree; “I love them exceedingly.”
Doctrine. — Our love to the law must be an exceeding love.
1st, In the general. It noteth the height and intensiveness of our love; not a cold love, as children love things, but are soon put out of the humour; but a high, strong love, that will not easily be broken or diverted; such as doth deeply affect the heart: *’ Oh! how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day “(Psalm cxix. 97). We that are so coldly affected to spiritual things, do not understand the force of these expressions. A high and strong love will break forth into meditation, operation; make us sedulous and serious in obeying God:” My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved “(Psalm cxix. 48). Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected” (I John ii. 5). Lift up our eyes to the receiving, our ears to the hearing, our hands to the doing of thy commands; this argueth love.
2ndly, The prevalency; not only high and strong, but to a prevailing degree.
1. Such as prevaileth over things without us. This is such a love as is greater than our love to all other things, wealth, honour, credit, estate; yea, life itself; for, if anything be loved above our duty to God, it will soon prove a snare to us: sold all to buy the field wherein the treasure was hid (Matt. xiii. 44); all for the pearl of price. A believer seeth such a treasure in the word of God, that he maketh no reckoning of any worldly thing in comparison of it, but will part with whatever is pleasant and profitable to him to enjoy it, rather than be deprived of his grace. If any fleshly, sensitive good or interest lieth closer to the heart than the word of God, it will in time prevail so as to make God“s will and glory stoop to it, rather than this interest shall be renounced or contradicted. There is no talking of serving God, till you have this prevailing love, and hate all things in comparison of your duty to God: “If any man, &c., hate not his father and mother” (Luke xiv. 26).
2. Such as doth prevail over carnal desires and evil affections within us; if it be not a love that doth eat up and devour our lusts within us, if the bent of your hearts be not more for God than for sin. See Baxter, pp. 273 to 279, in his Directions about Conversion. There will be evil in the best, and some good in the worst: the critical difference lieth in the prevalent bent of the heart. When your dislike of sin is greater than your love, then you may say, “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom. vii. 20). There must be a renewed self that prevaileth above corrupt self.
Well then, rest not in some general approbation of the ways of God, or inclination to good, but this prevailing affection that justkth sin out of the soul.