07 - Chapter 07
CHAPTER VII. A Suasive to this holy Delight in Religion.
Use 1. Exhortation. LET me persuade christians to labour for this holy delight; comment upon the text, ’Let your delight be in the law of the Lord:’ And that I may the better enforce the exhortation, I shall lay before you several weighty considerations.
1. There is that in the law of God which may cause delight; as will appear in two things. There is in it,
1. Truth.
2. Goodness.
1. Truth; the law of God is a series of truth, Psalms 119:160. ’Thy word is true from the beginning.’ The two Testaments are the two lips by which the God of truth hath spoken to us. Here is a firm basis for faith.
2. Goodness, Nehemiah 9:13. Thou gavest them true laws, good statutes. Here is Truth and Goodness; the one adequate to the understanding, the other to the will. Now this goodness and excellency of the law of God shines forth in nine particulars.
1. This blessed law of God is a letter sent to us from heaven, indited by the Holy Ghost, and sealed with the blood of Christ; see some passages in the letter, Isaiah 62:5. ’As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee;’ and Hosea 2:19. ’I will betroth thee unto me for ever in righteousness and in loving kindness, and in mercies.’ Is it not delightful reading over this love-letter?
2. The law of God is a light ’that shines in a dark place,’ 2 Peter 1:19. It is our pole-star to guide us to heaven; it was David’s candle and lanthorn to walk with, Psalms 119:105. Now light is sweet, Ecclesiastes 11:7. it is sad to want this light; those heathens who have not the knowledge of God’s law, must needs stumble to hell in the dark. Hierom brings in Tully with his oratory, and Aristotle with his syllogisms, crying out in hell: they that leave the light of the word, following the light within them, as some speak, prefer the shining of the glow-worm before the sun.
3. The law of God is a spiritual glass to dress our souls by. David oft looked himself in this glass, and got much wisdom, Psalms 119:104. ’Through thy precepts I get understanding.’ This glass both shews us our spots, and takes them away; it may be compared to the laver which was made of the women’s looking glasses, Exodus 38:8, it was both a glass and a laver; a glass to look in, and a laver to wash in; so the law of God is a glass to shew us our faces, and a laver to wash away our spots.
4. This law of God contains in it our evidences for heaven; would we know whether we are heirs of the promise, whether our names are written in heaven? we must find it in this law book, 2 Thessalonians 2:13. ’He hath chosen us to salvation thro’ sanctification.’ 1 John 2:14. ’We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren;’ and is it not comfortable reading over our evidences?
5. The law of God is a place of ammunition, out of which we must fetch our spiritual artillery to fight against Satan. It may be compared to the ’Tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers; all shields of mighty men,’ Song of Solomon 4:4. It is called the ’sword of the Spirit,’ Ephesians 6:16. It is observable, when the devil tempted our Saviour, he runs to scripture for armour, ’it is written;’ three times Christ wounds the serpent with this sword, Matthew 4:4, &c. Is it not good having our armour about us when the enemy is in the field.
6. The law of God is our spiritual physic-book, or book of receipts. Basil compares the word of God to an apothecary’s shop which hath its pan pharmakon; when there is any disease growing in the soul, here is a recipe to take; if we find ourselves dead in duty, here is a recipe, Psalms 119:50. ’Thy word hath quickened me:’ if our hearts be hard, here is a recipe, ’Is not my word as fire?’ Jeremiah 23:29. This is able to melt the rock into tenderness. If we grow proud, here is a recipe, 1 Peter 5:5. ’God resisteth the proud;’ if there be any fresh guilt contracted, here we have a sovereign medicine to take, John 17:17. ’Sanctify them through thy truth.’ The law of God is like a physic-garden, where we may walk and gather any herb to expel the poison of sin.
7. The law of God is a divine treasury to enrich us; here are the riches of knowledge, and the riches of assurance to be found, Colossians 2:2. In this law of God are scattered many truths as precious diamonds to adorn the hidden man of the heart. David took the law of God as his heritage, Psalms 119:111. In this blessed mine is hid the true pearl; here we dig till we find heaven.
8. The law of God is our cordial in fainting times; and it is a strong cordial, Hebrews 6:18. ’That we might have strong consolation.’ They are strong consolations indeed that can sweeten affliction, that can turn water into wine, that can stand against the fiery trial. ’This is my comfort in affliction, for thy word hath quickened me,’ Psalms 119:50. The comforts of the world are weak consolations; a man hath comfort in health, but let sickness come, where is his comfort then? he hath comfort in an estate, but let poverty come, where is his comfort then? these are weak consolations, they cannot bear up against trouble; but the comforts of the word are strong consolations, they can sweeten the waters of Marah. Let sickness come, the comforts of the word can allay and stupify it, ’the inhabitant of the land shall not say I am sick,’ Isaiah 33:24. Let death come, a christian can outbrave it: ’O death, where is thy sting?’ 1 Corinthians 15:55. and is it not comfortable to have such a julap lying by, as can expel the venom of death?
9. The law of God is manna; an heavenly manna that suits itself to every christian’s palate. What doth the soul desire? quickening? strengthening? he may find all in this manna.
2. Delight in religion crowns all our services. Therefore David counsels his son Solomon, not only to serve God, but to serve him ’with a willing mind,’ 1 Chronicles 28:9. Delight in duty is better than duty itself; as it is worse for a man to delight in sin than to commit it, because there is more of the will in sin: so delight in duty is to be preferred before duty: ’O how love I thy law,’ Psalms 119:97. It is not how much we do, but how much we love; hypocrites may obey God’s law, but the saints love his law; this carries away the garland.
3. Delight in spiritual things evidenceth grace; it is a sign we have received the spirit of adoption. An ingenuous child delights to obey his father; he that is born of God is enobled by grace, and acts from a principle of ingenuity; grace alters the bias of the heart, and makes it of unwilling, willing. The Spirit of grace is called a free spirit, Psalms 51:1-19. not only because it works freely, but because it makes the heart free and cheerful in obedience; a gracious heart doth not act by pure constraint, but by free consent.
4. Delight in religion will make the business of religion more facile to us. Delight makes every thing easy; there is nothing hard to a willing mind; delight turns religion into recreation; it is like fire to the sacrifice, like oil to the wheels, like wind to the sails, it carries us ful1 sail in duty; he that delights in God’s way, will never complain of the ruggedness of the way; a child that is going to his father’s house, doth not complain of bad way. A christian is going to heaven in the way of duty; every prayer, every sacrament, he is a step nearer his Father’s house; sure he is so full of joy he is going home, that he will not complain of bad way. Get then this holy delight. Beloved, we have not many miles to go, death will shorten our way, let delight sweeten it.
5. All the duties in religion are for our good. We shall have the benefit; ’If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself,’ Proverbs 9:12. God hath twisted his glory and our good together. ’I gave them my statutes, which if a man do, he shall even live in them,’ Ezekiel 20:11. There is nothing the Lord requires, but it tends to self-preservation. God bids us read his word, and why? this word is his will and testament wherein he makes over a fair estate to be settled upon us, Colossians 1:12; 1 John 2:25. ’And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life;’ he bids us pray, and this duty carries meat in the mouth of it, 1 John 5:14. ’This is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.’ Ask what you will, he will sign your petitions. If you had a friend that should say, Come to me when you will, I will furnish you with money, would you not delight to visit that friend? God will give to more than half the kingdom, and shall we not delight in prayer? God bids us believe, and there is a honey-comb to be found in this precept, ’Believe and you shall be saved.’ Salvation is the crown that is set upon the head of faith. Well may the apostle say, ’his commandments are not grievous.’ O then, if religion be so beneficial, if there be such gold to be dug out of this mine, it may make us delight in the ways of God. What will tempt, if not self-interest?
6. How did Christ delight in the work of our redemption? ’Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will, O my God,’ Psalms 40:7-8. It is by expositors agreed that it is spoken mystically of Christ; when he came into the world to sacrifice his life for us, it was a free-will-offering. ’I have a baptism to be baptised with,’ Luke 12:50. Christ was to be, as it were, baptised in his own blood, and how did he thirst for that time? ’How am I straitened till it be accomplished?’ Did Christ so delight in the work of our redemption, and shall not we delight in his service? Did he suffer willingly, and do we pray unwillingly? Did he so cheerfully lay down his life for us, and shall not we give up our lives to him? Certainly if any thing could make Christ repent of shedding his blood, it would be this, to see christians come off so hardly in duty, bringing it rather as a penance than a sacrifice.
7. Delight in God’s service makes us resemble the angels in heaven. They serve God with cheerfulness; as soon as God speaks the word, they are ambitious to obey. How are they ravished with delight while they are praising God! In heaven we shall be as the angels; spiritual delight would make us like them here; to serve God by constraint, is to be like the devil; all the devils in hell obey God, but it is against their will, they yield a passive obedience; but service which comes off with delight is angelical: This is that we pray for, that ’God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven;’ is it not done with delight there?
8. His delight in God’s law will not breed surfeit. Carnal objects do oft cause a loathing and nauseating; we soon grow weary of our delights; hence it is we change from one sense to another; from colours to music, from music to smell, &c. Too much pleasure is a pain; but spiritual objects do not cloy or tire the soul; the more we study in the law of God, the more delight we find. And in this regard David might say, the words of God’s mouth were ’sweeter to his taste than honey,’ Psalms 119:103. because one may soon surfeit upon honey, but he can never surfeit with the word of God. He that hath once, with Jeremiah, ’found the word and ate it,’ Jeremiah 15:16. will not be cloyed with it; there is that savouriness in the word, that a christian cries out, ’Lord, evermore give me this bread.’ There is that sweetness in communion with God, that the soul saith, "O that I might be always thus; O that what I now feel I might ever feel!" He that delights in God, doth not complain he hath too much of God, but rather too little: he opens and spreads the sails of his soul to take in more of those heavenly gales, he longs for that time when he shall be ever delighting himself in the sweet and blessed vision of God.
9. Without this holy delight we weary ourselves, and we weary God too, Isaiah 7:13. ’Will ye weary my God also?’ Our delighting in God would make him delight in us; but when we begin to say ’what a weariness is it to serve the Lord,’ Malachi 1:13. God is as weary as we are; he is even sick of such services. When duties are a burden to us, they are a burden to God, and what should we do with them? when a man is weary of a burden, he will cast it off. Let all this quicken delight in God’s service.