TETH. PART. IX.

65. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according to thy word.

As the sense of our wants should prepare the mind for prayer, so gratitude for blessings received should tune the heart to praise. In preferring our petitions, self-love may sometimes have a share; but thankfulness is the offspring of an ingenuous spirit, and the love of God. Let a man carefully recount the divine mercies shown to him from his birth, considering withal how unworthy he hath been of the least of those mercies, as also how far preferable his state is to that of many others; and he will find reason in all things to give thanks, to acknowledge, with David, the goodness and truth of Jehovah, and to say, "Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according to thy word."

66. Teach me good judgment and knowledge; for I have believed thy commandments.

From thanksgiving the Psalmist returneth again to prayer, as, while we continue in this world we must all do. The gift for

which he now prayeth, is that of "a good judgment with knowledge," as the former must enable us to make a proper use of the Jatter. The word or which is here translated judgment, signifies bodily taste, and that faculty in the mind which answers to it, the faculty of discerning, distinguishing, and judging rightly of things moral and spiritual, as the palate doth of meats, their different flavours, and qualities. Without this taste, or discretion, we must mistake falsehood for truth in our studies, and wrong for right in our practice; superstition and enthusiasm may pass with us for religion, or else licentiousness may intrude itself upon us, under the name and notion of liberty; in a word, our learning and knowledge prove useless, if not prejudicial to us. A sound mind, therefore, should, above all things, be desired of God in our prayers; and those prayers will be heard, when we can sincerely profess a readiness to be directed by God's laws, through faith in their author, his promises and threatenings; on which ground David urgeth his request; "for I have believed thy commandment."

67. Before I was afflicted 1 went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

We collect from this verse, that prosperity is too often the parent of sin; that adversity is, first, its punishment, then its remedy; and that every considerate man, who hath been afflicted, will thankfully acknowledge as much. "When afflictions fail to have their due effect, the case is desperate. They are the last remedy which indulgent Providence uses; and if they fail, we must languish

and die in misery and contempt. Vain men! How seldom do we know what to wish, or to pray for! When we pray against misfortunes, and when we fear them most, we want them most. The shortest and the best prayer which we can address to Him who knows our wants, and our ignorance in asking, is this-Thy will be done." Lord Bolingbroke's Reflections on Exile, p. 276.

68. Thou art good, and doest good: teach me thy statutes.

In other words, as Bishop Patrick hath well connected and paraphrased it, "Thou art in thine own nature kind and good; and nothing else can proceed from thee, who designest our good, even when thou afflictest us; take what methods thou pleasest with me, only teach me effectually to do as thou wouldest have me."

69. The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy · precepts with my whole heart.

Every disciple of Christ, who, like his Master, goeth contrary to the ways of the world, and condemneth them, must expect to be, like that Master, slandered and calumniated by the world. To such slanders and calumnies, a good life is the best answer. When a friend once told Plato, what scandalous stories his enemies had propagated concerning him, I will live so, replied that great philosopher, that nobody shall believe them.

70. Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.

The fatness of the heart implieth, in this place, two things in those of whom it is affirmed; luxury, and its consequence, insensibility to those spiritual and divine truths, which are not only the study, but the delight of temperate and holy persons, who gladly fly from large companies, full tables, costly meats, and rich wines, to enjoy in private the more exalted pleasures of abstinence, meditation, and prayer.

71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted: that I might learn thy statutes.

God's statutes are best learned in the school of affliction, because by affliction the great impediments to our learning them are removed: pride is subdued, and concupiscence is extinguished. “He that hath suffered in the flesh," saith an apostle," hath ceased from sin;" 1 Pet. iv. 1. and in an immunity from sin consisteth one of the greatest felicities of heaven, which thus descends into the afflicted soul, so as to render even the state of sickness itself, in some sort, desirable. Strange as this proposition may appear, the reader will find its truth demonstrated, by the inimitable Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in that truly golden tract, "The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying," chap. iii. Sect. 6. on "the Advantages of Sickness."

72. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

Affliction taketh from us the inclination to offend, and it giveth us, in return, a knowledge of that law which is better, and which, when we are thoroughly acquainted with it, we shall esteem to be better, than thousands of gold and silver; better in its nature, for it is from heaven, they are from the earth; better in its use, for it bringeth salvation to our souls, whereas they can only procure sustenance for the body; better in point of duration, for the benefits of one are certain and eternal, the advantages of the other temporal and uncertain. Blessed are they, who seek in the scriptures the true riches; who traffic for the spiritual gains of celestial wisdom; for surely "the merchandize of it is better than the merchandize of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold," Prov. iii. 14.

XXV DAY. EVENING PRAYER. JOD. PART X. 73. Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.

The formation of man was the last and noblest work of God, and it is a standing miracle of divine wisdom and power. The consideration that God made us, is here urged as an argument why he should not forsake and reject us, since every artist hath a value for his own work, proportioned to its excellence. It is, at the same time, an acknowledgment of the service we owe him, founded on the relation which a creature beareth to his Creator. And the petition implieth in it a confession of our present inability to know his will without his revelation, and to do it without his grace.

74. They that fear thee will be glad when they see me because I have hoped in thy word.

They who fear God are naturally glad when they see and converse with one like themselves; but more especially so, when it is one whose faith and patience have carried him through troubles, and rendered him victorious over temptations; one who hath hoped in God's word, and hath not been disappointed. Every such instance affordeth fresh encouragement to all those, who, in the course of their warfare, are to undergo like troubles and to encounter like temptations. In all our trials, let us, therefore, remember, that our brethren, as well as ourselves, are deeply interested in the event, which may either strengthen or weaken the hands of the multitudes.

75. I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

This humble, pious, and dutiful confession, will be made by

every true child of God, when under the correction of his heavenly Father. From whatever quarter afflictions come upon us, they are the judgments of God, without whose providence nothing befalleth us. His judgments are always right or just, duly proportioned to the disease and strength of the patient; in sending them, God is faithful and true to his word, wherein he bath never promised the crown without the cross, but hath, on the contrary, assured us that the one will be necessary in order to our obtaining the other; and that they who are beloved by him shall not sin with impunity, nor go astray without a call to return. All this we ought to know, or to be assured of beyond doubt, as we may be from the many declarations in scripture, from our own experience, and from that of others.

76. Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.

In the former verse, the criminal, finding that the hand of God was upon him, had owned the justice and the faithfulness of his judge in the punishment inflicted. Judgment having thus had her perfect work, the offender, now humbled and penitent, maketh application to the throne of grace, and sueth for that mercy which God by his word hath promised to his servants, who are chastened, not for their destruction, but for their salvation. When God's judgments have brought us to an acknowledgment of our sins, his merciful kindness will speedily be our comfort.

77. Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.

The mercies of God are tender mercies, they are the mercies of a father to his children, nay, tender as the compassion of a mother over the son of her womb. They come unto us, when we are not able to go to them. By them alone we live the life of faith, of love, of joy, and gladness. And to such as delight in his law, God will grant these mercies and this life; he will give them pardon, and by so doing, he will give them life from the dead.

78. Let the proud be ashamed, for they dealt perversely with me without a cause; but I will meditate in thy precepts.

This complaint of the Psalmist hath been made by the faithful in all ages, that the men of the world dealt perversely with them without a cause, or oppressed them falsely, first spreading slanders or calumnies concerning them, and then persecuting them for those supposed crimes. Such usage should have no other effect upon us, than it had upon David. He prayed that shame and disappointment might teach humility to the proud, and applied himself still more and more to meditate in the precepts of his God.

79. Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies.

David beseecheth God, if any good men have been alienated from him, either through fear, prejudice, or offence, that they might return to him, join and acknowledge him. To thee, O thou Son of David, and King of the spiritual Israel, let those among thy people, who, through any temptation, have fallen from their allegiance, return, and be subject.

80. Let my heart be found in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed. This is a prayer necessary for all men to use at all times, but more particularly in seasons of persecution and temptation. By "soundness of heart" is meant solidity and steadfastness in grace and virtue, as opposed to the mere form of godliness, or fair show of the hypocrite, which conceal the rottenness and corruption lurking within; and also to the sudden and vanishing goodness of the temporary convert, which quickly disappears like the morning dew, and withers like the seed sown on a rock. When internal holiness accompanies and actuates that which is external, when the word is thoroughly rooted, and faith hath acquired the sovereignty over our desires, then our "hearts" are "found in God's statutes," and there is hope, that in the day of trial, we shall not give our brethren cause to be ashamed of us, nor be ourselves ashamed before God.

CAPH. PART XI.

81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation ; but I hope in thy word, or, I have expected thy word.

Thus have the true servants of God, in every age, expressed their ardent desire of his salvation. Thus did the patriarchs, the prophets, the kings, and the faithful people, formerly wish to behold the advent of their Saviour in the flesh; until Simeon, taking him in his arms, spoke what, they would all have spoken, had they been present, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." But the Bridegroom was soon taken away, and the heavens have received him, until the restitution of all things; for which the church upon earth at this day waiteth and prayeth; that she may be delivered from all her troubles, and inseparably united to him in whom she delighteth. Every individual, when oppressed by sin and sorrow, may make his supplication in the same words, for that salvation which is by grace through faith. 82. Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, when wilt thou comfort me?

While the promised salvation is delayed, the afflicted soul