Sermon 10

Psalm 119:9. With what shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to it according to your word.

In the former part the Psalmist shows that the word of God points out the only true way to blessedness. Now the main thing which the word enforces is holiness. This is the way which we must take, if we intend to come to our journey's end. This David applies to the young man in the text: With what shall a young man cleanse, etc.

In the words there is, (1.) a question asked, and (2.) an answer given.

In the question there is the person spoken of, a young man, and his work: With what shall he cleanse his way? Omnis quaestio supponit unum & inquirit aliud. In this question there are several things supposed.

1. That we are from the birth polluted with sin; for we must be cleansed. It is not direct his way, but cleanse his way.

2. That we should be very early and timely sensible of this evil; for the question is propounded concerning the young man.

3. That we should earnestly seek for a remedy, how to dry up the issue of sin that runs upon us. All this is to be supposed.

That which is inquired after is, what remedy there is against it? What course is to be taken? So that the sum of the question is this: How shall a man that is impure, and naturally defiled with sin, be made able as soon as he comes to the use of reason, to purge out that natural corruption, and live a holy and pure life to God? The answer given is, By taking heed to it according to your word. Where two things are to be observed: 1. The remedy. 2. The manner how it is applied and made use of.

1. The remedy is the Word; by way of address to God, called your Word; because if God had not given direction about it, we should have been at an utter loss.

2. The manner how it is applied and made use of, by taking heed to it, etc., by studying and endeavoring a holy conformity to God's will.

1. I begin with the question; for as the careless world carries the matter, it seems very impertinent and ridiculous. What has youth and childhood to do with so serious a work? When old age has snowed upon their heads, and the smart experience of more years in the world has ripened them for so severe a discipline, then it is time to think of cleansing their way, or of entering upon a course of repentance and submission to God. For the present, Dandum est aliquid huic aetati. Youth must be a little indulged; they will grow wiser as they grow more in years. Oh! no: God demands his right as soon as we are capable to understand it. And it concerns every one, as soon as he comes to the use of reason, presently to mind his work both in regard of God and himself.

1. In regard of God, that he may not be kept out of his right too long (Ecclesiastes 12:1): Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. He is our Creator, we have nothing but what he gave us, and that for his own use and service. And therefore the vessel should be cleansed as soon as may be, that it may be fit for the Master's use. It is a kind of spiritual restitution for the neglects of childhood, and the forgetfulness of infancy, when we were not in a capacity to know our Creator, much less to serve him. And therefore as soon as we come to the use of reason, we should restore his right with advantage.

2. In regard of himself: The first seasoning of the vessel is very considerable (Proverbs 22:6): Train up a child in the way in which he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. When well principled and seasoned in youth, it sticks by them, before sin and worldly lusts have gotten a deeper rooting. If Solomon's observation be true, a man's infancy and younger time is a notable presage of what he will prove afterwards (Proverbs 20:11): Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. Much may be known by our young inclinations. But alas, this is not fully the case. The vessel is seasoned already: but with what shall a young man cleanse his way? Which presupposes a defilement. No infant is like a vessel that newly comes out of the potter's shop, indifferent for good or bad infusions. The vessel is tainted already, and has a taint of the old man, and the corruptions of the flesh (Psalm 51:5): Behold I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. We came polluted into the world; our business is to stop the growth of sin. As a child wallows in his filthiness, so we do all spiritually wallow in our blood (Ezekiel 16:4-5): As for your nativity, in the day you were born, you were not washed in water, nor swaddled at all. No eye pitied you, to do any of these to you, to have compassion upon you, but you were cast out into the open field, to the loathing of your person in the day that you were born. And when I saw you polluted in your own blood, I said to you, when you were in your blood, Live, etc. Therefore the question is very worthy and profitable: With what shall a young man, etc.

But why is the young man only specified?

I answer, all men are concerned in this work; old men are not left to themselves, not wholly given over as hopeless, but youth need it most, being inclined to liberty and carnal pleasures, and most apt to be led aside from the right way by the motions of the flesh. And being headstrong in their passions, and self-willed, they need to have their fervor abated by the cool and chill doctrines of repentance and conversion to God. And therefore though others be not excluded, the young man is expressly mentioned; unbroken colts need the stronger bits. The word is of use to all, but especially to youth, to bridle them, and reduce them to reason.

2. The Answer: By taking heed thereto according to your word: The word as a remedy against natural uncleanness is considerable two ways: As a rule, and as an instrument. 1. As the only rule of that holiness which God will accept; all other ways are but by-paths; as good meaning, or the suggestions of a blind conscience, custom, example of others, our own desires, laws of men, superstitious observances, an Apocryphal holiness. Nothing is holiness in God's account how specious soever it be, unless it be according to the Word. What does the Word do about all these as the rule? It shows the only way of reconciliation with God, or being cleansed from the guilt of sin, and the only way of solid and true sanctification, and subjection to God, which is our cleansing from the filthiness of sin. All religions aim at this, Ut anima sit subjecta Deo, & peccata in se; no true peace without the Word, nor no true holiness. The first is proved (Jeremiah 6:16): "Thus says the Lord, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls." The second is proved (John 17:17): "Sanctify them through your truth, your word is truth." So that a young man that is like Hercules in bivio, to choose his path to true happiness, will never attain to true peace and sound satisfaction of conscience, nor to true grace, or an hearty subjection to God, but by consulting with the Word. No other rule and direction will serve the turn.

1. It is the only rule to teach us how to obtain true peace of conscience. The whole world is become obnoxious to God, and held under the awe of Divine Justice. This bondage is natural, and the great inquiry is how his anger shall be appeased (Micah 6:6-7): "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Now here is no tolerable satisfaction offered, no plaster for the wounds of conscience, no way to compromise and take up the controversy between us and God; but by the propitiation which the Gospel holds forth, all this is effected. The Gentiles were at a loss, the Jews rested in the sacrifices, which yet could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience (Hebrews 9:9). Therefore they fled to barbarous and sinfully cruel customs, offering their first-born, etc. There was no course to recover men from their entanglements and perplexities of soul, how to pacify God for sin, but they were still left in a floating uncertainty, till God revealed himself as reconciling the world to himself in Christ. Now no doctrine does propound the way of reconciliation with God, and redemption from those fears of his angry Justice, which are so natural to us, with such rational advantages, and claims such a just title to human belief as the doctrine of the Gospel. Oh then, if the young man would cleanse his conscience, and quiet and calm his own spirit, he must of necessity take up with the Word as his sure direction in the case. Look abroad, where will you find rest for your souls in this business of atonement and reconciliation with God? What strange horrible fruits and effects have men's contrivances on this account produced? What have they not invented, what have they not done, what not suffered upon this account, and yet continued in dread and bondage all their days? Now what a glorious soul-appeasing light does the doctrine of satisfaction and atonement by the blood of Christ the Son of God, cause to break in upon the hearts of men! The testimony of blood in the conscience is one of the witnesses the believer has in himself (1 John 5:8): "And there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood." And (verse 10): "He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself."

2. It is the only rule of true holiness: Never was it stated and brought to such a pitch as it is in the Scriptures; nor enforced by such arguments as are found there; it requires such a holiness as stands in conformity to God, and is determined by his will. Now it is but reason that he that is the supreme Being should be the rule of all the rest. It is a holiness of another rate than the blind heart could find out, not an external devotion, nor a civil course, but such as transforms the heart and subdues it to the will of God (Romans 2:15). If a man would attain to the highest exactness that a rational creature is capable of, not to moral virtue only, but a true genuine respect to God and man, he must regard and love the Law of God that is pure. A man that would be holy, had need of an exact rule, for to be sure his practice will come short of his rule, and therefore if the rule itself be short, there will no due provision be made for respects to God or man. But now this is a rule that reaches not only to the way, but the thoughts, that converts the soul (Psalm 19:7): "The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul." Take the fairest drafts of that moral perfection which yet is of human recommendation, and you will find it defective and maimed in some parts either as to God or men. It is inferioris Hemisphaerii, as not reaching to the full subjection of the soul to God. There is some dead fly in their box of ointment, either for manner or end.

2. The Word is considerable as an instrument which God makes use of to cleanse the heart of man. It will not be amiss a little to show the instrumentality of the Word to this blessed end and purpose. It is the glass that discovers sin, and the water that washes it away. (1) It is the glass wherein to see our corruption. The first step to the cure is a knowledge of the disease; it is a glass wherein to see our natural face (James 1:23). For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like to a man beholding his natural face in a glass, etc. In the Word we see God's image and our own. It is the copy of God's holiness, and the representation of our natural faces (Romans 7:9). What fond notions have we of our own spiritual beauty! but there we may see the leprous spots that are upon us. (2) It sets us to work to see it purged; it is the water to wash it out. The word of command presses the duty; it is indispensably required. What does every command sound in our ears, but wash you, make you clean? This is indispensably required (1 John 3:3). And every man that has this hope in him, purifies himself, even as he is pure. And (Hebrews 12:14): Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Some things God may dispense with, but this is never dispensed with. Many things are ornamental, that are not absolutely necessary, as wealth, riches: wisdom with an inheritance is good; so learning. Many have gone to heaven that were never learned, but never any without holiness. (3) The word of promise encourages it (2 Corinthians 7:1). Having therefore these promises, (dearly beloved) let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And (2 Peter 1:4): Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. God might have required it upon the account of his Sovereignty, we being his creatures, especially this being the perfection of our natures, and rather a privilege than a burden; but God would not rule us with a rod of iron, but deal with rational creatures rationally, by promises and threats: On the one side he tells us of a pit without a bottom, on the other of blessed and glorious promises, things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard of, neither have entered into the heart of man to conceive. Therefore the word has a notable instrumentality that way.

3. The doctrine of the Scripture holds out the remedy and means of cleansing: Christ's blood; which is not only an argument or motive to move us to it. So it is urged (1 Peter 1:18). Whom having not seen, you love, in whom though now you see him not, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable, etc. It presses holiness upon this argument — why? God has been at great cost to bring it about, therefore we must not content ourselves with some smooth morality, which might have been whether Christ had been, yes or no. Again, the word propounds it as a purchase, whereby grace is procured for us, so it is said (1 John 1:7). He has purchased the Spirit to bless us, and turn us from our sins. And it excites faith to apply and improve this remedy, and so conveys the power of God into the soul (Acts 15:9). Purifying their hearts by faith.

2. The manner how the word is applied and made use of, If he take heed thereunto according to your word: This implies a studying of the word, and the tendency and importance of it; which is necessary if the young man would have benefit by it. David calls the statutes of God the men of his counsel. Young men that are taken with other books, if they neglect the word of God, that book that should do the cure upon the heart and mind, they are with all their knowledge miserable (Psalm 1:2). His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. If men would grow wise to salvation, and get any skill in the practice of godliness, they must be much in this blessed book of God, which is given us for direction (1 John 2:14). I have written to you young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. It is not a slight acquaintance with the word that will make a young man so successful as to defeat the temptations of Satan, and be too hard for his own lust; it is not a little notional irradiation, but to have the word dwell in you, and abide in you richly. The way to destroy ill weeds is to plant good herbs that are contrary. We suck in carnal principles with our milk, and therefore we are said to speak lies from the womb. A kind of a riddle — before we are able to speak, we speak lies; namely as we are prone to error and all manner of carnal fancies by the natural temper and frame of our hearts (Isaiah 58:2). And therefore from our very tender and infant age we should be acquainted with the word of God (2 Timothy 3:15). And that from a child you have known the holy Scriptures. It may be children by reading the word get nothing but a little memorative knowledge, but yet it is good to plant the field of the memory; in time they will soak into the judgment and conscience, and from there into the heart and affections.

2. It implies a care and watchfulness over our hearts and ways, that our will and actions be conformed to the word. This must be the young man's daily prayer and care, that there be a conformity between his will and the word, that he may be a walking Bible, Christ's living epistle, copy out the word in his life, that the truths of it may appear plainly in his conversation.

All that I have said issues itself into three points:

1. That the great duty of youth, as soon as they come to the full use of reason, is to inquire and study how they may cleanse their hearts and ways from sin.

2. That the Word of God is the only rule sufficient and effectual to accomplish this work.

3. If we would have this efficacy, there is required much care and watchfulness that we come to the direction of the Word in every tittle; not a loose and unattentive reflection upon the Word, careless inconsiderateness, but a taking heed thereunto.

Now why in youth, and as soon as we come to the use of reason, we should mind the work of cleansing our way: 1. Consider how reasonable this is. It is fit that God should have our first and our best. It is fit he should have our first, because he minded us before we were born. His love to us is an eternal and an everlasting love; and shall we put off God to old age? Shall we thrust him into a corner? Surely God that loved us so early, it is but reason he should have our first, and also our best; for we have all from him. Under the Law the first-fruits was God's, to show the first and best was his portion. All the sacrifices that were offered to him, they were in their strength, and young (Leviticus 2:14). And if you offer a meat-offering of your first-fruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the meat-offering of your first-fruits, green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears. God would not stay till ripened. God will not be long kept out of his portion. Youth, it is our best time (Malachi 1:13); when they brought a weak and sickly offering, should I accept this of your hand, says the Lord? The health, strength, quickness of spirit, and vigor, is in youth. Shall our health and strength be for the Devil's use, and shall we put off God with the dregs of time? Shall Satan feast upon the flower of our youth, and fresh time, and God only have the scraps and fragments of the Devil's table? When wit is dulled, the ears heavy, the body weak, and affections are spent, is this a fit present for God?

2. Consider the necessity of it: 1. Because of the heat of youth, the passions and lusts are very strong (2 Timothy 2:22). Fly also youthful lusts. Men are most incident in that age to pride and self-conceit, to strong affections, inordinate and excessive love of liberty (1 Timothy 3:6). Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the Devil. A man may make tame, fierce creatures, lions and tigers; and the fury of youth needs to be tempered and bridled by the word. It is much for the glory of grace, that this heat and violence is broken, when the subject is least of all disposed and prepared. 2. Because none are tempted so much as they. Children cannot be serviceable to the Devil, and old men are spent, and have chosen their way; but youths, who have a sharpness of understanding, and the stoutest and most stirring spirits, the Devil loves to make use of such (1 John 2:13). I write to you young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. They are most assaulted; but it is for the honor of grace when they overcome, when their fervency and strength is employed, not in satisfying lusts, but in the service of God, and fighting against Satan. Therefore it is very needful they should be seasoned with the word betimes.

3. Consider the many inconveniences that will follow, if they do not presently mind this work. 1. Death is uncertain, and therefore such a weighty business as this will brook no delay. God does not always give warning. Nadab and Abihu, two rash and inconsiderate young men, were taken away in their sins; and the bears out of the forest devoured the children that mocked the prophet. The danger being so great, as soon as we are sensible of it, we should fly from it. When children come to the fullness of reason, they stand upon their own bottom; before, they are reckoned to their parents. Oh, woe be to you if you die in your sins. Certainly as soon as a man is upon his own personal account, he should look to himself, lest God cut him off before he has made his peace with him. 2. Sin grows stronger by custom, and more rooted; it gathers strength by every act. A brand that has been in the fire, is more apt to take fire again. A man in a dropsy, the more he drinks, the more his thirst increases. Every act lessens fear, and strengthens inclination. (Jeremiah 13:27) Woe to you, O Jerusalem, will you not be made clean? When shall it once be? A twig is easily bowed; but when it grows into a tree, it is more troublesome and unpliable. A tree newly set, may be transplanted; but when long rooted, not so easily. The man that was possessed of a Devil from his childhood, how hardly is he cured? (Mark 9:29) 3. Justice is provoked the longer, and that will be a grief to you first or last. If ever we be brought home to God, it will cost us many a bitter tear; not only at first conversion (Jeremiah 31:18). I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: You have chastised me, and I was chastised, etc. But afterwards: David, though he began with God betimes (Psalm 25:7), yet prays, Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgression. And (Job 13:26) For you write bitter things against me, and make me to possess the iniquities of my youth. Old bruises may trouble us long after, upon every change of weather, and new afflictions revive the sense of old sins. They may stick by us. We think tricks of youth are not to be stood upon; you may have a bitter sense of them to your dying day. 4. You will every day grow more useless to God; the exercise of religion depends much on the vigor of affections. Again, it is very profitable, it brings a great deal of honor to God to begin with him betimes. All time is little enough to declare your respects to God. And it is honorable for you. Seniority in grace is a preferment, They were in Christ before me, says Paul. An old disciple is a title of honor. To grow gray in Christ's service, and to know him long, it makes the work of grace more easy. The dedication of the first-fruits, sanctified the whole lump. (Lamentations 3:27) It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth, to be inured to strictness betimes. Dispositions impressed in youth, increase with us. Again, it will be very comfortable when the miseries of old age come upon you. As the ant provides in summer for winter; so should we provide for age. Now what a sweet comfort will it be, when we are taken off from service, that while we had any strength and affections, God had the use of them? Then our age will be a good old age.

USE 1. is for lamentation, that so few youths take to the ways of God. No age does despise the word so much as this, which has most need of it. It is a rare thing to find a Joseph, or a Samuel, or a Josiah, that seek God betimes. Go to the universities, and you will find that those that should be as Nazarites consecrated to God, live as those that have vowed and consecrated themselves to Satan (Amos 2:11). And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites, etc. The sons of the prophets in their youth were bred for a more strict discipline in their holy calling, separated from worldly delights, to be a stock of a succeeding ministry. But alas! they spend their time in vanity, bringing nothing from there but the sins of the place, and vainly following the sinful customs of the country. How few regard the education of their youth in knowledge or religious practice? Families are societies to be sanctified to God, as well as churches. The governors of them have as truly a charge of souls, as the pastors of churches. They offer their children to God in baptism, but educate and bring them up for the world and the flesh. They bewail any natural defect in them; if their children have a stammering tongue, a deaf ear, or a withered leg; but not want of grace. We have a prejudice, and think they are too young to be wrought upon, but God's word can break in with weight and power on young ones. (Luke 11:1) One of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And (Matthew 21:15) when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore displeased, and said to him, Do you hear what these say? And Jesus said to them, Indeed; have you never read, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise. They learned it of their parents (Matthew 21:9). And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. We should often be infusing good principles in youth. Corruption of youth is one of the saddest symptoms of approaching judgment.

USE 2. Is exhortation to young ones. You that are to begin your course, begin with God; you have no experience, yet you have a rule. You have mighty lusts, but a stronger Spirit. No age is excluded from the promise of the Spirit (Joel 2:28-29). And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. Of John Baptist it is said (Luke 1:15), He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. And (Mark 10:14), Suffer little children to come to me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. There is power to enlighten you, notwithstanding all your prejudices; to subdue your lusts, notwithstanding the power of corruptions. (1 John 2:13-14) I write to you young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you little children, because you have known the Father, etc. And see (Genesis 39:9). It will be a great comfort to you when you die, that your great work is over. Oh what a sad thing is it, that when the body is going to the grave, the soul has not yet learned to converse with God! (Hosea 8:12) I have written to them the great things of my law, but they were counted a strange thing. God has written an epistle to us, and we will not read it, nor consult with it, are wholly strangers to it; but now when acquainted with God, it will not be so irksome to go to him.