a conftant Watchfulness over ourselves, to prepare our Hearts to receive fo noble a Gueft: For, as long as we carry this Flesh and Blood about us, and have the Affections and Appetites of it to incite us to Evil, the Solicitations of Pleasure to move us to worldly Enjoyments, the Temptations of Honour and Interest to shake our Integrity, fo long it must be difficult to us to refign our Wills to the Conduct of the Law of God, and intirely to love what intirely thwarts the Bent and Inclination of our corrupted Nature: For it is not enough fo only to love the Law as to approve and admire it, and to purfue the Righteousness of it with faint Defires and diftant Wishes, which is fuch a Love as every felf-condemned Sinner has for it; but our Love must be active and fruitful in the Works of the Law, and satisfied with nothing less than the Poffeffion and Enjoyment of the Holiness and Righteousness which the Law prefcribes. And this will more fully appear under the Second Head; which was,

To confider who they are who may faid to love the Law of God.

be

In this Pfalm we often find holy David declaring how much he loved the Law of

VOL. IV.

God: In thy Law, fays he, is my Delight: I have chofen thy Precepts: My Soul hath kept thy Teftimonies, and I love them exceedingly : I love thy Commandments above Gold, yea, above fine Gold: I trust in thy Word: I have hoped in thy Judgments: And many other like Expreffions full of Regard and Affection to the Laws of God occur frequently. David then loved the Law of God: May we therefore, from his Character, fafely draw the Picture of a Man who loves the Law of God? By no Means; for though at the Time of penning this Pfalm his Heart was right with God, yet at other Times he had highly provoked and grievously offended him: David was a different Man at different Times; and, when he was a Lover of the Law of God, he heartily condemned and lamented what he was before, and bleffed God for vifiting him with fuch Afflictions as ferved to awaken his Conscience, and make him fee and forfake the Errors of his Ways. Thus, in this very Pfalm, he confeffes, Before I was afflicted I went aftray; and immediately after, It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy Statutes: And soon after he acknowledges the Mercy and Goodnefs of God to him in afflicting him, I know,

O Lord,

O Lord, that thy Judgments are right, and that thou in Faithfulness haft afflicted me. What therefore David in himself condemned when he loved the Law of God, cannot be thought to be confiftent with the Character of one who loves the Law of God. It is a . vain and imaginary Comfort therefore which Sinners raise to themselves, out of the worst Part of the Character of David, and other holy Men; endeavouring, by their Example, partly to defend, and partly to excufe their Sins. There is a Comfort, indeed, which Sinners may draw from hence: Thefe Examples are a great Encouragement to Repentance and the Forfaking of Sin; fince here they may fee how readily God embraced the returning Prodigal. From hence they may hope, that though their Sins be red as Scarlet, yet fhall they be washed white as Snow; though they, like David, are grievous Sinners, yet, like him, may. they become Lovers and beloved of God, if, like him, they repent and condemn their Iniquities. This is the Inftruction which the Scripture holds forth to us in thefe Examples: But as long as Men make use of them to footh and flatter their Confciences in the quiet Enjoyment of Sin, fo long do they

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they abuse the Goodness and Mercy of God in fetting forth to us these Instances of his Patience and Long-fuffering towards Sinners.

But though the Example of David in all Parts of it is no fafe Direction to us, yet his inspired Writings are; and we need go no further than this Pfalm for the righteous Man's Character: In the very beginning of it he describes him to be a Man undefiled in the Way, who walks in the Law of the Lord, who keeps his Teftimonies, and feeks him with the whole Heart, who does no Iniquity. In speaking of himself, the first good Thing he found to say was his Repentance: This was his first Step towards becoming a Lover of God: I thought, fays he, on my Ways, and turned my Feet unto thy Teftimonies: I made Hafte, and delayed not to keep thy Commandments. His next Step was to forfake his wicked Companions, and to affociate with fuch as feared the Lord: I am a Companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy Precepts. The Refolutions he had formed of persevering in Holiness he thus expreffes: Thy Teftimonies have I taken as an Heritage for ever: I have inclined mine Heart to perform thy Statutes always to the End. In the Verses before the Text, and where he is defcribing

defcribing that Senfe of Religion which was the Source of all the Peace and Joy which he found amidst his bittereft Perfecutions and Afflictions, and which afterwards, in the Words of the Text, he comprehends under the general Term of loving the Law, he thus fpeaks: My Heart ftandeth in awe of thy Word: I rejoice at thy Word: I hate and abbor Lying: Seven Times a Day do I praife thee.

You fee then what firm Refolutions of Obedience, how conftant a Perseverance in Holiness, how regular and frequent Acts of Devotion, how irreconcileable an Hatred to Sin and Wickedness, must meet together to complete the Character of the Man who loves the Law of God. To hate and abhor Sin, to love and delight in the Law of God, are Expreffions which imply no small Degree of Perfection: They suppose the main Difficulties of Religion to be conquered, the Struggle with Sin to be over, the Paffions and Affections to be fubdued to Holiness and Obedience, and a Man's Heart to be in the Intereft of Virtue, and to lead the Way to all the Good he does. There are fome who, upon different Views, fuch as are fuggefted merely by Fear, or by Interest, or prefent

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