December 9

I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.—Psalms 119:32.

THE way resolved on, is, that of God's commandments; not the road of the polluted world, not the crooked ways of his own heart, but the highway, the royal way, the straight way of the kingdom, and that in the notion of subjection and obedience, "the way of thy commandments."

And this is the power and substance of religion, the new impress of God upon the heart, obedience and resignation to him. To be given up to him as entirely his; to be moulded and ordered as he will, to be subject to his laws and appointments in all things; to have every action, and every word, under a rule and law, and the penalty to be so high, eternal death; all this to a carnal or haughty mind is hard. Till the heart be brought to this state and purpose, it is either wholly void of, or very low and weak in the truth of religion.

We place religion much in our accustomed performances, in coming to church, hearing and repeating sermons, and praying at home, keeping a round of such and such duties. The "way of God's commandments" is more in doing than in discourse. In many, religion evaporates itself too much out by the tongue, while it appears too little in their ways. Oh! but this is the main: one act of charity, meekness, or humility, speaks more than a day's discourse. All the means we use in religion, are intended for a further end, which if they attain not, they are nothing. This end is to mortify and purify the heart, to mould it to the way of God's commandments in the whole track of our lives; in our private converse one with another, and our retired secret converse with ourselves, to have God still before us, and his law our rule, in all we do, that he may be our meditation day and night, and that his law may be our counsellor, as this psalm hath it; to regulate all our designs and the works of our callings by it; to walk soberly, and godly, and righteously, in this present world; to curb and cross our own wills where they cross God's; to deny ourselves our own humor and pride, our passions and pleasures, to have all these subdued and brought under by the power of the law of love within—this, and nothing below this, is the end of religion! Alas! among multitudes who are called Christians, some there may be who speak and appear like it, yet how few are there who make this their business, and aspire to this, the way of God's commandments.

His intended course in this way, the psalmist expresses by running. It is good to be in this way, even in the slowest motions. Love will creep where it can not go. But if thou art so indeed, then thou wilt long for a swifter motion. If thou do but creep, be doing, creep on, yet desire to be enabled to go. If thou goest, but yet halting and lamely, desire to be strengthened to walk straight; and if thou walkest, let not that satisfy thee—desire to run. So David did walk in this way, but he earnestly wishes to mend his pace: he would willingly run, and for that end he desires an enlarged heart.

Some dispute and descant too much whether they go or not, and childishly tell their steps, and would know at every pace whether they advance or not, and how much they advance, and thus amuse themselves, and spend their time of doing and going, in questioning and doubting. Thus it is with many Christians. But it were a more wise and comfortable way, to be endeavoring onward, if thou make little progress, at least to be desiring to make more; to be praying and walking, and praying that thou mayest walk faster, and that in the end thou mayest run; not to be satisfied with any thing attained, but yet, by that unsatisfiedness, not to be so dejected as to sit down, or stand still, but rather excited to go on. So it was with St. Paul: Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press forward. If any one thinks that he hath done well, and run far, and will take a pause, the great apostle is of another mind: Not as if I had already attained. Oh, no! far from that; he still sets forward, as if nothing were done: like a runner, not still looking back to see how much he hath run, but forward to what he has to run, stretching forth to that, inflamed with frequent looks at the mark and end.

Some if they have gone on well, and possibly run for a while, yet if they fall, then they are ready, in a desperate malcontent, to lie still and think all is lost; and in this peevish fretting at their falls, some men please themselves, and take it for repentance, whereas indeed it is not that, but rather pride and humor. Repentance is a more submissive, humble thing. But this is what troubles some men at their new falls, especially if after a long time of even walking or running, they think their prospect is now spoiled, their thoughts are broken off: they would have had somewhat to rejoice in, if they had still gone on to the end, but being disappointed of that, they think they had as good let alone, and give over. Oh! but the humble Christian is better taught: his falls teach him indeed to abhor himself; they discover his own weakness to him, and empty him of self-trust; but they do not dismay him to get up and go on, not boldly and carelessly forgetting his fall, but in the humble sense of it, walking the more warily, yet not the less swiftly; yea, the more swiftly too, making the more haste to regain the time lost by the fall. So then if you would run in this way, depend on the strength of God, and on his Spirit leading thee, that so thou mayest not fall. And yet if thou dost fall, arise, and if thou art plunged in the mire, go to the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and wash there; bemoan thyself before the Lord; and if hurt and bleeding by thy fall, yet look to him, desire Jesus to pity thee, and bind up and cure thy wound, washing off thy blood, and pouring in of his own.

However it is with thee, give not over, faint not, run on. And that thou mayest run the more easily and expeditely, make thyself as light as may be, lay aside every weight. Clog not thyself with unnecessary burdens of earth, and especially lay aside that which, of all things, weighs the heaviest, and cleaves the closest, the sin that so easily besets us, and is so hardly put off from us, that folds so connaturally to us, and we therefore think will not hinder us much. And not only the sins that are more outward, but the inner, close-cleaving sins, the sin that most of all sits easily to us; not only our cloak, but our inner coat, away with that too, as our Saviour says in another case; and run the race set before us, our appointed stage, and that with patience, under all oppositions and discouragements from the world without, and from sin within. And to encourage thee in this, look to such a cloud of witnesses, that compasseth us about to further us, as troubles, temptations, and sin, do to hinder us. They encountered the like sufferings, and were encumbered with the like sins: and yet, they ran on, and got home. Alexander would have run in the Olympic games, if he had had kings to run with: now, in this race, kings and prophets, and righteous persons, run; yea, all are indeed a kingly generation, each one heir to a crown as the prize of this race.

And if these encourage but little, then look beyond them, above that cloud of witnesses, to the sun, the Sun of Righteousness; looking off from all things here, that would either entangle thee or discourage thee, taking thine eye off from them, and looking to him who will powerfully draw thee and animate thee. Look to Jesus, not only as thy forerunner in this race, but also as thy undertaker in it, the author and finisher of our faith. His attaining the end of the race, is the pledge of thy attaining, if thou follow him cheerfully on the same encouragements he looked to: "Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God."