those things that now please us shall pass from us, or we from them;" but those things that concern the other life are permanent as the numbers of eternity; and although at the resurrection there shall be no relation of husband and wife, and no marriage shall be celebrated but the marriage of the Lamb; yet then shall be remembered

how men and women passed through this state which is a type of that, and from this sacramental union all holy pairs shall pass to the spiritual and eternal, where love shall be their portion, and joys shall crown their heads, and they shall lie in the bosom of Jesus and in the heart of God to eternal ages. Amen.

DIVINE GRACE AND HOLY OBEDIENCE.+ To desire ease and happiness, under a general representation of it, is a thing of more easy and general persuasion; there is somewhat in nature to help the argument. But to find beauty in, and be taken with, the very way of holiness that leads to it, is more rare, and depends on a higher principle. Self love inclines a man to desire the rest of love, but to love and desire the labour of love is love of a higher and purer strain. To delight and be cheerful in obedience argues much love as the spring of it. That is the thing the holy Psalmist doth so plentifully express in this Psalm, and he is still desiring more of that sweet and lively affection that might make him yet more abundant in action. Thus here, "I will run," etc., he presents his desire and his purpose together, q.d., The more of this grace Thou bestowest on me, the more service shall I be able to do Thee.

This is the top of his ambition, while others are seeking to enlarge their barns, their lands or estates, or their titles; and kings to enlarge their territories or authority, to encroach on neighbouring kingdoms, or be more absolute in their own; instead of all such enlargements this

* "His preaching had a sublimity both of thought and expression in it. The grace and gravity of his pronunciation was such that few heard him without a very sensible emotion; I am sure I never did. His style was rather too fine; but there was a majesty and a beauty in it that left so deep an impression, that I cannot yet forget the sermons I heard him preach thirty years ago."-Bishop Burnet.

and

"The manner of his delivery added much to the effect of Leighton's discourses. His voice was feeble, but clear, flexible, and melodious. His pronunciation was deliberate and rather slow, yet distinct, warm, pathetic. His attitude and his gesture were highly graceful. He showed and he excited sensibility. His manner arrested attention: a wandering eye was never seen when he preached, and the audience were frequently dissolved in tears, while himself was visibly and deeply affected. His oratory [was] pure, soft, and insinuating; it resembled the flakes of falling snow." --Dr Jerment.

"I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my heart" (Psalm cxix. 32).

is David's great desire, an "enlarged heart to run the way of God's commandments."

And these other (how big soever they sound) are poor narrow desires: this one is larger and higher than them all, and gives evidence of a heart already large. But as it is miserable in those desires, so it is happy in this, that much would still have more.

Let others seek more money, or more honour. Oh! the blessed choice of that soul that is still seeking more love to God, more affection, and more ability to do Him service; that counts all days and hours for lost which are not employed to their improvement; that hears the Word in public, and reads it in private for this purpose, to kindle this love, or to blow the spark, if any there be already in the heart, to raise it to a clear flame, and from a little flame to make it burn yet hotter and purer, and rise higher; but, above all means, is often presenting this in prayer to Him on whose influence all depends, in whose hand our hearts are, much more than in our own. It follows Him with this desire, and works on Him by His own interest. Though there can be really no accession of gain to Him by our services, yet He is pleased to account with us as if there were. Therefore we may

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urge this Lord, give more, and receive more. I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart."

We have here, in these words, a required disposition, and a suitable resolution. The disposition relates to the resolution, as the means of fulfilling it; and the resolution relates to the disposition, both as the end of desiring it, and as the motive of obtaining it. The resolution occurs first in the words

"I will run," etc. The way resolved on, 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." This, man naturally struggles against and repines at. To be limited and bounded by a law is a restraint, and vain man could possibly find in his heart to do many

of the same things that are commanded, but he would not be tied, would have his liberty, and do it of his own choice. This is the enmity of the carnal mind against God, as the Apostle expresses it; "It is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be;" it breaks these bonds, and casts away the cords of His authority. This is sin, the transgression of the law; and this made the first sin so great, though in a matter one would think small, the eating of the fruit of a tree it was rebellion against the majesty of God, casting off His law and authority, and aspiring to an imagined self-deity. And this is still the treasonable pride or independency, and wickedness of our nature, rising up against God who formed us of nothing.

And this is the power and substance of religion, the new impress of God upon the heart, obedience and resignment 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. Not only every action and every word, but even every thought too, must be subject. The soul is not so much as thought free. "Every thought is brought into captivity," as the apostle speaks, 2 Cor. x. 5; and so the licentious mind accounts it. Not only the affections and desires, but the very reasonings and imaginations are brought under this law.

Now, to yield this as reasonable and due to God, to own His sovereignty, and to acknowledge the law to be holy, just, and good; to approve, yea, to love it, even when it most contradicts and controls our own corrupt will and the law of sin in our flesh; this is true spiritual obedience to study and inquire after the will of God in all our ways what will please Him, and, having found it, to follow that which is here called "the way of His commandments;" to make this our way, and our business in the world, and all other things but accessories and by-works, even those lawful things that may be taken in and used as helps in our way, as the disciples passing through the corn, plucked the ears, and did eat in passing as a by-work, but their business was to follow their Master. And whatsoever would hinder us in this way must be watched and guarded against. To effect that, we must either remove and thrust it aside, or, if we cannot do that, yet we must go over it, and trample it under foot, were it the thing or the person, that is dearest to us in the world. 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 of sermons, and praying at home, keeping a road 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 humour and pride, our passions and pleasures; to have all these subdued and brought under by the power of the law of love within us-this, and nothing below this, is the end of religion. Alas! amongst 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 cannot 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 here, 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 discant 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 the 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 endeavouring onwards, and, 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 without anything 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, Phil. iii. 13, “. 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

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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 is to run, stretching forth to that, inflamed with frequent looks at the mark and end. Some are retarded by looking on what is past as not satisfied; they have done nothing, as they think, and so stand still discontented. But, even in that way, it is not good to look too much to things behind; we must forget them rather, and press onward.

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 humour. 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 and running), they think their project is now spoiled, their thoughts are broken off: they would have had somewhat to have rejoiced 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 indeed teach him 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 thy 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 lightly as may be, "lay aside every weight" (Heb. xii. 1, 2). 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 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, closecleaving 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

And

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. 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 thee 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 that 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."

"When Thou shall enlarge my heart." In all beings the heart is the principle of motion, and according as it is more or less perfect in its kind, those motions which flow from it are more or less vigorous. Therefore hath the Psalmist good reason, to the end his spiritual course may be the stedfaster and the faster, to desire that the principle of it (the heart), may be more enabled and disposed, which here he expresses by its being "enlarged."

What this "enlargement of the heart" is, a man's own inward sense should easily explain to him. Surely it would, did men reflect on it, and were they acquainted with their own hearts; but the most are not. They would find the carnal natural heart a narrow, contracted, hampered thing, bound with cords and chains of its own twisting and forging, and so incapable of walking, much less of running, in this way of God's commandments, till it be freed and enlarged.

The heart is taken generally in Scripture for the whole soul, the understanding, and the will, in its several affections and motions; and the phrase being here of an "enlarged heart," it seems very congruous to take it in the most enlarged "large

sense.

It is said of Solomon that he had a heart" (the same word that is here), "as the sand of the sea-shore" (1 Kings iv. 29); that is, a vast comprehensive spirit, that could fathom much of nature, both its greater and lesser things. "He spake of trees, from the cedar in

Lebanon, to the hyssop in the wall, and of great beasts and small creeping things." Thus, I conceive, the "enlargement of the heart" compriseth the enlightening of the understanding. There arises a clearer light there to discern spiritual things in a more spiritual manner; to see the vast difference betwixt the vain things the world goes after, and the true solid delight that is in the "way of God's commandments"-to know the false blush of the pleasures of sin, and what deformity is under that painted mask, and not be allured by it; to have enlarged apprehensions of God, His excellency, and greatness, and goodness; how worthy He is to be obeyed and served. This is the great dignity and happiness of the soul; all other pretensions are low and poor in respect of this. Here then is enlargement, to see the purity and beauty of His law; how just and reasonable, yea, how pleasant and amiable it is, "that His commandments are not grievous," that they are beds of spices,-the more we walk in them, still the more of their fragrant smell

and sweetness we find.

And then, consequently, upon the larger and clearer knowledge of these things, the heart dilates itself in affection; the more it knows of God, still the more it loves Him, and the less it loves this present world. Love is the great enlarger of the heart to all obedience. Then nothing is hard, yea, the harder things become the more delightful.

All love of other things doth pinch and contract the heart, for they are all narrower than itself. It is framed to that wideness in its first creation, capable of enjoying God, though not of a full comprehending of Him. Therefore all other things gather it in, and straiten it from its natural size, only the love of God stretches and dilates it. He is large enough for it; yea, it, in its fullest enlargement, is infinitely too narrow for Him. Do not all find it, if they will ask themselves, that in all other loves and pursuits in this world, there is still somewhat that pinches? The soul is not at its full size, but, as a foot in a strait shoe, is somewhere bound and pained, and cannot go freely, much less run; though another who looks on cannot tell where, yet each one feels it. But when the soul is set free from these narrow things, and is raised to the love of God, then is it at ease and at large, and hath room enough; it is both "elevated" and "dilated." And this word signifies a "high raised soul," and is sometimes taken for "proud" and "lofty," but there is a "greatness" and "height" of spirit in the love of God and union with Him, that doth not vainly swell and lift it up, but, with the deepest humility, joins the highest and truest magnanimity. It sets the soul above the snares that lie here below, in which most men creep and are entangled in that "way of life" which "is on high," the just," as Solomon speaks.

Good reason hath David to join these together,

and to desire the one as the spring and cause of the other; an "enlarged heart," that he might "run the way of God's commandments."

Sensible joys and consolations in God do encourage and enlarge the heart, but these are not so general to all, nor so constant to any. Love is the abounding fixed spring of ready obedience, and will make the heart cheerful in serving God, even without those felt comforts, when He is pleased to deny or withdraw them.

In that course or race are understood con

stancy, activity, and alacrity, and all these flow from the enlargement of the heart.

1. Constancy. A narrow enthralled heart, fettered with the love of lower things, and cleaving to some particular sins, or but some one, and that in secret, may keep foot a while in the way of God's commandments in some steps of things, but it must give up quickly, is not able to run on to the end of the goal. But a heart that hath laid aside every weight, and the most close-cleaving and besetting sin (as it is in that fore-cited place in the Epistle to the Hebrews), hath stripped itself of all that may falter or entangle it, it runs and runs on without fainting or wearying, it is at large, hath nothing that pains it in the race.

2. Activity. Not only holding on, but running, which is a swift nimble race. It stands not bargaining and disputing, but once knowing God's mind, there is no more question or demur. "I made haste and delayed not," as in this psalm the word is; did not stay upon why and wherefore. He stood not to reason the matter, but ran on. And this love, enlarging the heart, makes it abundant in the work of the Lord, quick and active, despatching much in a little time.

3. Alacrity. All is done with cheerfulness, so no other constraint is needful where this overpowering sweet constraint of love is. "I will run," not be hauled and drawn by force, but "skip" and "leap," as the evangelic promise is "That the lame shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert" (Isa. xxxv. 6). The spouse desires her beloved to hasten as a roe and hind in the mountains of spices," and she doth so, and each faithful soul runs towards him to meet him in his way.

It is a sad heavy thing to do anything as in obedience to God while the heart is straitened, not enlarged towards Him by divine love; but that once taking possession and enlarging the heart, that inward principle of obedience makes the outward obedience sweet; it is then a natural motion. Indeed the soul runs in the ways of God as the sun in his course, which finds no difficulty, being naturally fitted and carried to that motion; he "goes forth as a bridegroom, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race."

This is the great point which our souls should