In these words you have:'
1. A compellation, blessed art thou, 0 Lord.
2. A supplication, teach me thy statutes.
First, The compellation carrieth the force of an argument: Because thou
art blessed, O Lord, therefore teach me. And therefore I shall open the sense
of this title that is here given to God, so as I may still make good the
argument.
For the sense, God may be said to be blessed objectively or subjectively.
First, Objectively, as he is the object of our blessedness. It is our
blessedness to enjoy God: Ps. cxliv. 15, ''Blessed is the people whose God is
the Lord.''That is our blessedness, to have God for our portion. As soon as we
are admitted into covenant with God, we have a right to him: ''I am thy God;''
and we have the full consummation of it when we enter into heaven; there we
have the highest enjoyment of God that we are capable of. We have many
fruitless and unquiet cares to enjoy the creatures, which are neither blessed
in themselves, nor can make us blessed; but now God is our summum bonum,
our chief good; the enjoyment of him is the chiefest good. Still we are capable
of a higher happiness until we enjoy God. In other things we can neither have
satisfaction nor security: the creature cannot satisfy, nor yet secure us in
the enjoyment of itself. In this sense the argument will hold good: ''Blessed
art thou, 0 Lord;'' that is, Thou art the object of my blessedness; my
blessedness lieth in the enjoyment of thee; therefore teach me thy statutes. If
God be our chiefest good and our utmost end, it concerns us nearly to learn out
the way how we may enjoy him: John xvii. 3, ''This is life eternal, to know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' It concerns
believers to study that wherein their eternal happiness consisteth, and what is
the way to get it: 'Thou art blessed, and therefore teach me thy statutes.''
Secondly, Subjectively; and so again God is blessed either in an active or in a
passive sense.
1. In an active sense. And here we must distinguish again; for so God is
blessed either with respect to himself or with respect to us.
[1.] Blessed in himself, as he hath the fulness of perfection and contentment.
Blessedness is often ascribed to God: 1 Tim. i. 11, 'The glorious gospel of the
blessed God.' I will open that place by and by: 1 Tim. vi. 15, 'Who is the
blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.' Now, how is
God blessed in himself? God's blessedness is that attribute by which the Lord,
from himself, and in his own being, is free from all misery and enjoyeth all
good, and is sufficient to himself, and contented with himself, and doth
neither need nor desire the creature for any good that can accrue to him by us.
Or, more shortly, God's blessedness is the fruition of himself, and his
delighting in himself. Mark, it lieth not in the enjoyment of the creature, but
in the enjoyment of himself. God useth us, but doth not enjoy us. As we enjoy a
thing for itself, but we use it for another; so uti and frui
differ: we use the means, but enjoy the end. God useth the creature in
subserviency to his own glory. So it is said: Prov. xvi. 4, 'God made all
things for himself.' His happiness lieth in knowing himself, in loving himself,
in delighting in himself.
But how is this used as an argument, 'Blessed art thou, O Lord; therefore teach
me thy statutes'? Either thus: God, that is blessed, hath enough for himself;
surely there is enough in him for us too: Gen. xvii.1, 'I am God
all-sufficient; walk before me, and be thou perfect.' I say, if God finds
satisfaction enough in himself, our souls surely will find satisfaction in him.
That which will fill a pottle, or greater measure, will fill a pint or a lesser
measure; that which will satisfy a prince, and be enough for him in that
estate, will satisfy a beggar, and supply his wants. God hath an infinite
fulness of knowledge, comfort, and holiness; therefore surely enough to satisfy
us, as empty as we are. Therefore we should desire to receive of this fulness
in God's way. Or, again, thus: If God be blessed, we had need to inquire after
his statutes, for these teach us the way how we may be blessed in God's
blessedness, how we may be conformed to the nature of God, and live the life of
God, and then surely we shall be happy enough. (1.) How we may be conformed to
the nature of God: 2 Peter i. 4, 'That we may be partakers of the divine
nature,' according to our measure, that ours may be such as his is. The
promises, or the word, have an influence that way. If we see a man hath a rich
trade, and secret ways of gain, every one would be acquainted with the
mysteries and art of his getting, and desirous to know it God is eternally
blessed, therefore we should study to be like him. (2.) That we may live the
life of God. Surely if we could learn to live such a life as God doth, we
should be happy. However our prejudices darken it, yet the life of God cannot
be a gloomy life. Now, ignorance of God's statutes is a great hindrance to the
life of God: Eph. iv. 18, 'Being alienated or estranged from the life of God,
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart'
Well, then, the consideration of this, that God is blessed, will certainly make
us prize his statutes, prize his word, for by that we are conformed to the
nature of God, and to the life of God; we are engaged in the same design
wherein God himself is engaged: God loves himself, and acts for himself, and
pursueth his own glory. Now when the word of God breaks in upon the heart, we
pursue the same design with God. Men are prejudiced against a course of
holiness; it seems to look upon them with a sour and austere face. Surely God
loves a pleasant life; whoever is miserable, he hath a full contentment. Doth
he that made all things want true joy and contentment?
Who should have happiness if God hath not? Now, when we learn God's statutes,
we come to be conformed to the nature of God; we love what he loves, and hate
what he hates, and then we begin to live the life of God. The happiness of God
lieth in loving himself, enjoying himself, and acting for his own glory; and
this is the fruit of grace, to teach us to live as God lives, to do as God
doth, to love him and enjoy him as our chiefest good, and to glorify him as our
utmost end. This is the first sense wherein God may be said to be actively
blessed, as he hath infinite complacency in himself.
[2.] God is actively blessed with respect to us as he is the fountain of all
blessedness. He is not only blessedness itself, but willing to communicate and
give it out to the creature, especially his saints. He fills all created things
with his blessedness: Ps. cxlv. 16, 'Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest
the desire of every living thing.' There is not a creature in the world but
hath tasted of God's bounty, but especially the saints: Eph. i. 3, 'Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in Christ.' These are vessels into which God is still
pouring more, until they be completely filled up. Now, this communicativeness
that is in God, without any irking of mind, is a certain argument or
encouragement to move us to seek of God grace to keep his statutes. This is
often urged in this case, his communicativeness to all his creatures: ver. 64,
'The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy; teach me thy statutes.' Thou art
bountiful to all creatures; and, 0 Lord, show thy bounty to me. The same again:
ver. 68, 'Thou art good, and dost good; teach me thy statutes.' Every good, the
more good it is, the more it is diffusive of itself. And it is a part of God's
blessedness that he is still of the giving hand: Acts xx. 35, 'Remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to
receive.' It was a maxim which Christ commended to his disciples: 'Remember the
words of the Lord Jesus;' that which he often inculcated, 'That it is more
blessed to give than to receive.' The words formally indeed are not found in
any evangelist; only there we may see the whole drift of Christ's doctrine was
to press men to give; it is a more blessed thing. This is the happiness of God,
that he gives to all, and receives of none; that he is so ready to communicate
of his own fulness upon such free terms: John i. 16, 'Of his fulness have all
we received, and grace for grace;' that is, grace for grace's sake. Thus we
have seen how God is actively blessed.
2. God is passively blessed as he is
blessed by us, or as worthy of all praise from us, for his goodness,
righteousness, and mercy, and the communications of his grace. There are two
words by which our thanksgiving is expressed - praise and blessing. You have
both in Ps. cxlv. 10, 'All thy works shall praise thee, 0 Lord; and thy saints
shall bless thee.' Praise relateth to God's excellency, and blessing to his
benefits. His works declare his excellency: but his saints, which are sensible
of his benefits, they bless him; they count him worthy of all honour and
praise, and are ever ascribing to him, Rev. v. 13, 'Blessing, honour, glory,
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever
and ever.' Why blessing? As for other things, so it was for opening the book
which was sealed with seven seals, and revealing his mind to his people; as you
may see, ver. 9. So David here, 'Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy
statutes.' As if he had said, Lord, thou art, and thou shalt be blessed: I
bless thee that thou hast taught me; and I desire thou wouldst teach me still,
that I may ever bless thee. Thus it may be taken in a passive sense, as he is
the object of our blessedness.
Well, then, all that I have said upon this
compellation may be reduced to these six propositions : -
1. That God is
over all, and above all, blessed enough in himself, and needeth nothing from us
to add to his happiness and perfection. That he is blessed enough in himself:
Rom. ix. 5, 'God over all, blessed for ever.' That he needs nothing from us to
add to his happiness and perfection: Ps. xvi. 2, 'My righteousness, my
goodness, extendeth not to thee.' He is above our benefits and injuries. If
there could result any one happiness to God from the creature, surely then he
would have made the world sooner; what hindered him? for why should he keep
himself out of his own happiness? And therefore he made the world, not that he
might be happy, but that he might be liberal. Before ever there was hill or
mountain, man or angel, God was happy enough in himself. The divine persons
took infinite delight and complacency in each other; as their rejoicing is
expressed: Prov. viii. 30, 31, 'I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him.' God had infinite complacency in Christ, and Christ in God, both in
the Spirit, all in each, and each in all, before ever there was hill or
mountain. The world is upheld, as stones are in an arch, by a mutual
dependence, by a combination of interests. We need one another, but God doth
not stand in need of us. 'The head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of
thee;' the greatest stand in need of the meanest, of their labours, their
service; the meanest parts have their use in the body. But now, God standeth in
no need of us, for he giveth all, and he receiveth nothing back again; as the
fountain hath no need of the stream, but the stream hath need of the fountain.
The sun fills the lap of the earth with blessings, and the earth returns
nothing but vapours, that obscure its beams rather than add anything to its
brightness. God filleth every living thing, especially his saints, with
blessing, and receiveth nothing from us again.
2. Though God stand in no need
of us, yet he is willing to communicate his blessedness, and to make us happy
in the enjoyment of himself. There is a threefold consideration which doth
advance the bounty of God - that to us, that himself to us, and that so
readily and freely.
[1.] That to us, who can neither hurt him nor help him: Ps.
viii. 3, 4, 'Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man
that thou visitest him?' What a poor sorry creature is man ! wilt thou set
thine eyes upon such a one? What would God lose if we were all damned? or what
would he gain if all were saved? He would lose no more by us than a bounteous
man doth by the death of a company of beggars and maimed persons, which live
upon his expense and charge. Wherein can we be useful to God?
[2.] Herein lieth
the bounty of God, to give us such a blessing as the enjoyment of himself. When
he had no greater thing to swear by, saith the apostle, he sware by himself.
When God hath no greater thing to give us, he gives us himself: 'I am thy God.'
He scatters and sheds abroad some common influences upon all creatures; but to
us he gives not only that which is his, but gives us himself, that when our
happiness is at the highest, we may immediately enjoy him. For the opening of
this blessedness in giving us the fruition of himself, consider we enjoy God
two ways - mediately and immediately; one proper to this world, the other to
the next.
(1.) Mediately. We enjoy God when he communicateth himself to us by
secondary means, or the interposition of the creature between him and us. Thus
in common mercies, when he feeds us by his meat and drink, and enlighteneth us
with his sun. Here in the world we have blessings at second or third hand: 'I
will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth,' etc., Hosea ii. 21,
22. Whatever one creature affordeth to another, it hath it first from God. The
creature is but an empty hollow pipe through which the blessing runs, and it
passeth from pipe to pipe. God poureth out his influences to the heavens, and
the heavens pour out their influences upon the earth; and the strength of the
earth runneth up into corn, wine, and oil, and by corn, wine, and oil Israel
hath his refreshments. So still from pipe to pipe is the blessing conveyed to
the creature. So for special mercies; we have them by degrees; life, comfort,
grace by the word and seals, But the Lord will not only supply us at second and
third hand, but -
(2.) Immediately. When God communicates himself to us
without any other thing between us and him; when we are immediately present
with God, and have immediate influences from God, this is the happiness of
heaven. In the heavenly state 'God shall be all in all,' 1 Cor. xv. 28. He
shall be both the dispenser and the dispensation. There we see him face to
face, 'and in his face and presence there is fulness of joy,' Ps. xvi. 11. That
is our happiness in the next world, where immediate influences and virtue doth
pass out from him. In heaven there is no temple, Rev. xxi. 22, 'But the Lamb is
the temple of it.' There is a service of God, and constant influences in that
God supplieth all immediately from himself.
[3.] This is upon free terms: John
i. 16, 'Of his fulness have we all received, and grace for grace.'
3. The word
of God, especially the gospel part, doth only teach us the way how we may be
blessed in the enjoyment of God.
That is a notable place to this purpose: 1
Tim. i. 11, 'The glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my
trust.' Mark there, first, he calls it 'the glorious gospel.' When he speaks of
the law in that place he saith, 'We know that the law is good,' - compare it
with ver. 8; but when he comes to speak of the gospel, he calls it 'the
glorious gospel' The law is good, but the gospel glorious, because more of the
glory of God is displayed and discovered to the creature. And 'the glorious
gospel of the blessed God.' Titles are always suited to the case in hand;
therefore it is called 'The glorious gospel of the blessed God,' because there
God is discovered as ready to bless us; there is the way how we may come to be
blessed in God, how he may with respect to us be a fountain of blessedness;
there we have the highest discoveries of this mystery, the most moving arguments
to persuade us to look after it; and with this gospel there is a grace, a
virtue dispensed to enable us to walk in this way. So that if we would enjoy
the blessed God, we must consult with his statutes, nnd especially the gospel.
4. If we would profit by the word of God, we must go to God, and desire the
light and strength of his grace.
If we would enjoy the blessed God, according
to the direction of his word, we must not only consult with the word, but with
God. Nothing else can draw us off from the world, and persuade us to look after
heavenly things; nothing else will teach us the vanity of the creature, the
reality of spiritual privileges. Until we see these things in a divine light,
the heart hangs off from God; and therefore saith David, Ps. xvi. 7, 'I will
bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel.' He had chosen God for his portion,
and then 'I will bless the Lord,' etc. We shall still run after lying
vanities until God doth open your eyes to see the mysteries of the word, and to
be affected with the way. Those that are drawn to God must first be taught of
God: John vi. 44, 'No man cometh to me, except the Father which hath sent me
draw him;' for Christ adds presently, 'They shall be all taught of God.' Our
hearts can never be drawn unto God until he take us into his own hands.
5. The
more we are brought to attend upon the word, and the more influence the word
hath upon us, the nearer the blessing.
Christians, we are not far from the
kingdom of God. There is some blessedness when we begin to look after the
directions of the word, and to wait upon the teachings of God: Prov. viii. 34,
'Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at
the posts of my doors.' Then you are in a hopeful way to true blessedness when
you begin to be careful to attend upon God's teaching, much more when you have
the fruits of it, when you know him so as to love him, so as to have your
hearts drawn off from sin and folly: Acts iii. 26,' Him hath God sent to bless
you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.' The great business
of Jesus Christ is to make us blessed in the enjoyment of God. But how is it?
only by bare knowledge? No, it is by turning every one from his iniquity. So
the more this teaching of God prevails upon the heart, the more blessed we are:
Ps. cxix. 1, 'Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the
Lord.' Otherwise, to have a golden head and feet of clay, that is monstrous, as
in Nebuchadnezzar's image; to have a naked knowledge of God, and not brought
under the power of it. You read of the heathens, when they sacrificed to their
gods, they were wont to hang a garland upon the heads of the beasts, and to
crown them with roses, so they were led on to sacrifice. Many may have garlands
upon their heads, ornaments of knowledge, yet are going on to destruction;
therefore that light and teaching which conveyeth blessedness is such as
prevaileth upon the heart, and doth effectually turn us to God.
6. It is not
only an affront put upon God, but also a great wrong, to neglect the word of
God, and the way he prescribes, and to seek blessedness in temporal things.
Here you have the true way to blessedness set down in God's statutes; but in
outward things there wants fulness, sincerity, eternity.
[1.] There wants
fulness. That which makes us blessed, it must fill up the heart of man. As a
vessel is never full until it have as much as it can hold, so we can never be
said to have a full happiness and contentment until we have as much as we can
hold. That which fills must be greater than the thing filled. Now man's heart
is such a chaos of desires, that it can never be filled up but in God: Ps. xvi.
11, 'In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for
evermore.' Therefore, of the joy and happiness we have in God, it is said,
'Enter into thy master's joy,' Mat. xxv. When we speak of a cup of water, that
enters into the man, that is taken down into the man; but if we speak of a
river of water, or tub of water, that is greater than the man is capable of, or
can receive, - the man enters into it; so this joy and happiness, which is
truly and genuinely so, it must exceed our capacity, greater than we can
receive, that we may enter into it; it is the infinite God can only satisfy the
heart of man. In temporal things there is no kind of fulness; you have not one
worldly comfort, but you desire more of it. Ahab was a king, yet still he wants
something, Naboth's vineyard. A man is not satisfied with abundance, neither is
his soul filled with increase of worldly things; yet we may desire more,
Eccles. v.; and if we have one thing to the full, yet we shall need another. If
a man be strong, he may needlearning; it may be though he hath some kind of
learning and knowledge, yet he hath not wisdom. Naaman was rich, wise, valiant,
and honourable, but he was a leper. There is a but upon all worldly happiness;
therefore there is no fulness in these things.
[2.] There is no sincerity in
them. All that is in the world is but a semblance and an appearance, that which
tickles the senses; it doth not go to the heart. You would have thought
Belshazzar was merry at the heart when he was quaffing and carousing in the
cups of the temple; but how soon is the edge of his bravery taken off, Dan.
v. 5,6. Haman in the midst of his honours was troubled at the heart for want of
Mordecai's knee. Those things which seem to affect us so much cannot allay one
unquiet passion, certainly cannot still and pacify the least storm of the
conscience; and therefore, whatever face men put upon temporal enjoyments, if
they cannot see God's special love in them, they want sincere joy. There is
many a smart lash they feel when the world hears not the stroke: Prov. xiv. 13,
'Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is
heaviness.' All the laughter and merriment which men seem to receive from the
creature, it is but a little appearance, not such as will go to the conscience,
that will indeed and thoroughly rejoice and comfort a man, and give him solid
joy.
[3.] There wants eternity. An immortal soul must have an eternal good,
'pleasures for evermore,' Ps. xvi. 11. In this world we have but a poor
changeable happiness: Luke xii. 20, it was said to the rich fool, 'This night
thy soul shall be required of thee.'
Thus much for the first branch, blessed
art thou, 0 Lord.
Secondly, I come from the compellation to the supplication,
teach me thy statutes. And here observe - (1.) The person teaching; he
speaks to God, 'Do thou, 0 God, teach.' (2.) We may consider the person
taught, 'Teach me;' I, that have hid the word in my heart. David, that was a
prophet, is willing to be a disciple. Those that teach others have need that
God should teach them. The prophet saith, 'Teach me, 0 Lord.' David, a grown
Christian, he desires more understanding of God's will. Certainly we should
still 'follow on to know the Lord' Hosea vi. 3. Heathens, that only knew
natural and moral things, yet they saw a need of growth; and the more they
knew, the more they discovered their ignorance; and always as they grew older,
they grew wiser. How much more sensible would they have been of their defects
in the knowledge of spiritual things, if they had in a little measure been
acquainted with the mysteries of godliness, that pass all understanding, and
are so much from human sense, and above the capacities of our reason ! Prov.
xxx. 3, Agur said, 'I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the
holy.' There is very much yet to be learned of God, and of his ways. Many think
they know all that can be taught them. David, a great prophet, a man after
God's own heart. yet is earnest that God would teach him his statutes. (3.) The
lesson or matter to be taught, 'thy statutes;' so he calls the word, because
the doctrines of it have the force of a law published; they do unalterably
bind, and that the soul and conscience; and therefore the precepts, counsels,
and doctrines of the word are all called statutes.
The point is -
Doct. If
we would know God's statutes so as to keep them, we must be taught of God.
Here I shall inquire -
1. What it is, or how doth God teach us?
2. The necessity
of this teaching.
3. The benefit and utility of it.
First, How doth God teach
us ?
Outwardly, by his ordinance, by the ministry of man.
Inwardly, by the
inspiration and work of the Holy Ghost.
1. The outward teaching is God's
teaching, because it is an ordinance which is appointed by him. Now both these
must ever go together, external and internal teaching: 'Despise not prophecy,
quench not the Spirit.' If you would have any enlightening and quickening of
the Spirit, you must not despise prophecy. We teach you here, and God blesseth.
Jesus Christ, when he comes to teach his disciples, first he openeth the
scripture, Luke xxiv. 37; and then, ver. 45, 'he opened their understandings.'
Of Lydia it is said, 'God opened her heart in attending to the things spoken by
Paul,' Acts xvi. 14. She was attending, and then God openeth her heart, When
the eunuch was reading, then God sends an interpreter. The outward means are
necessary; it is God's teaching in part; but the inward grace especially. Both
these must go together; for it is said, John vi. 45, 'Every man that hath
heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.' There must be a hearing
of the word, and so there is a teaching from God. But -
2. The inward
teaching, which is the work of the Spirit, that needs most to be opened. What
is that? It consists in two things - (1.) When God infuseth light into the
understanding, so as we come to apprehend the things of God in a spiritual
manner: Pa. xxxvi. 9, 'In thy light shall we see light.' There is no discerning
spiritual things spiritually, but in God's light. There may be a literal
instruction which one man may give to another, but 'in thy light only shall we
see light;' such a lively affective knowledge as disposeth the heart for the
enjoyment of God. There is a seeing, and a seeing in seeing: Isa. vi. 10, 'Lest
in seeing they shall see.' A man may see a truth rationally that doth not see
it spiritually. Now, when we have the Spirit's light, then in seeing we see.
Or, as the apostle calls it, Col. 1. 6, 'A knowing of the grace of God in
truth,' since you did not only take up the report, but feel it, and had some
experience of it in your hearts. Again, (2) God's teaching consisteth not only
in enlightening the understanding, but in moving and inclining the heart and
the will; for God's teaching is always accompanied with drawing: John vi. 44,
'No man cometh to me, except the Father draw him;' which Christ proves, ver.45, because 'they shall be all taught of God.' The Spirit's light is not only
directive, but persuasive; it is effectual to alter and to change the
affections, and to carry them out to Christ and to his ways; he works
powerfully where he teacheth. When the Holy Ghost was first poured out upon the
apostles, there was a notable effect of it; it came in the appearance of cloven
tongues, like as of fire, Acts ii. 3, to show the manner of the Spirit's
operation by the ministry; not only as light, but as fire: it is a burning and
a shining light; that is, such a light as is seasoned with zeal and love, that
affects the heart, that burns up our corruptions. And therefore, you know, when
Christ would put forth a divine effect in his conference with his two
disciples, it is said, 'Their hearts burned within them while he talked with
them,' Luke xxiv. 32. There is a warmth and heat conveyed to the soul. Thus for
the nature of this teaching.
Secondly, The necessity of this teaching will
appear in several things.
1. If we consider the weakness of a natural
understanding: I Cor. ii. 14, 'The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned.' They must be
spiritually understood. There must be a cognation and proportion between the
object and the faculty. Divine things cannot be seen but by a divine light, and
spiritual things by a spiritual light, else they shall have no savour and
relish. Can sense, which is the light of beasts, trace the workings or the
flights of reason? Can you see a soul or an angel by the light of a candle?
There is no proportion between them. So, can a natural man receive the things
of the Spirit ? He receives them not. Why ? Because spiritual things must be
spiritually discerned.
2. There is not only blindness, but obstinacy and
prejudice. When we come to judge by sense and reason, the whole business of
Christianity seems to be a foolish thing to a carnal heart. To give up
ourselves to God, and all our interests, and to wait upon the reversion of a
happiness in another world, which is doubtful whether there will be any such
thing or no, is a folly to him. To deny present lusts and to the wits at
Athens, they scoffed at him; they entertain his doctrine as fire is entertained
in wet wood, with hissing and scorn. To do all, and suffer all, and that upon
the account of a happiness to come, to a carnal heart this is but a fancy and a
mere imagination.
3. As blind and obstinate, so we are apt to abuse truth.
Carnal hearts turn all to a carnal purpose. As spiders assimilate and turn all
they suck into their own substance, so doth a carnal heart turn all, even the
counsels and comforts of the word, to a carnal purpose. Or as the sea, whatever
comes into it, the sweet rivers and droppings of the clouds, turns all into
salt water: Hosea xiv. 9, 'Who is wise, and he shall understand these things;
prudent, and he shall know them; but the transgressors shall stumble therein.'
As right excellent and as notable as the doctrines of the word are, yet a
carnal heart finds matter in them to stumble at; he picks that which is an
occasion of ruin and eternal perdition from the scripture; therefore the
apostle saith, Eph. iv. 21, 'If ye have learned of him as the truth is in
Jesus.' We are never right, and truth never works us to regeneration, but it is
only fuel for our lusts, until we have learned it as it is in Jesus. Carnal men
undo themselves by their own apprehensions of the truths of God. Luther calls
some promises bloody promises, because of the mistakes of carnal men by their
perverse application. Therefore, that we may maintain an awe of God in our
soul, we need to be taught of God.
4. We are apt to abuse our knowledge. Saving
knowledge makes us more humble, but carnal knowledge more proud. Where it is in
gift rather than in grace, there men are puffed up. The more we know God or
ourselves by a divine light, the more humble we shall be: Jer. xxxi. 18, 19,
'When I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth.' The more light we have from God,
the more we look into a vile heart. When Adam's eyes are opened, he runs into
the bushes; he was ashamed. So when God opens the eyes, and teacheth a
Christian, this makes him more humble.
5. There needs God's teaching, because
we are so apt to forsake when we have known the things of God: Ps. cxix. 21,
'The proud do err from thy commandments.' What is the reason David was so
steadfast in the truth ? He did not take it up from the teachings of man, but
from the teachings of God. When a man leads us into any truth, another man may
lead us out again. But now, when God hath taught us, and impressed truth upon
the heart, then it is durable. What is the reason believers are not as fickle
as others, and not led away by the impure Gnostics, and like those libertines
now among us? 1 John ii. 20, 'Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know
all things.' They had an unction which came down from Jesus Christ upon their
hearts; and then a man is not led away by every fancy, but begins to grow
stable in spirit.
6. We cannot tell how to master our corruptions, nor restore
reason to its dominion again. It is not enough to bring light into the soul,
but we must have power and efficacy, or true conversion will not follow. Man's
reason was to govern his actions. Now, all literal instruction scatter them; it
can discover sins, but cannot quell them: Rom. vii. 9,.' When the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died.' He could not tell how to bridle his lusts; he
found them more outrageous: 'The good that I would do, I do not; and the evil
which I would not, that I do.'
Thirdly, The benefit and utility of God's teaching. When God teacheth, truth cometh upon us with more conviction and demonstration, 1 Cor. ii. 6, and so hath a greater awe and sovereignty. Those that have made any trial can judge between being taught of God and men. Those that are taught of men, the charms of rhetoric may sometimes stir up some loose affection, but it doth soon vanish and wear away again; but the work of God makes deep impression upon the soul, and truths are then more affective. Man's knowledge is sapless, dry, and unsavoury: 2 Peter i. 8, 'For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' There may be an empty belief, and a naked and inactive apprehension of Christ, which stirs up no affection; but the light which comes from God enters upon the heart, Prov. ii. 10; it affects the whole soul. It doth not only stay in the fancy, float in the brain, but affect the heart. And then it is renewing. Man's light may make us more learned but God's light more holy. We are 'changed by beholding the glory of God into the same image,' 2 Cor. iii. 18.