3. Not as if the obligation to obedience did arise from our own pur- pose and promise, rather than from God's command ; this were to set man's authority above God's, and to lay aside the precept, which is the surer bond and obligation, and to bind the soul with the slender thread of our own resolutions. When we purpose and promise obedience, we do but make the old bond and engagement of duty the more active and sensible upon the soul, so that it is not to jostle out God's autho- rity, but to yield our consent. However, the obligation is the greater; for to disobey after we have acknowledged an authority, among men it is counted a more heinous crime than standing out against the autho- rity itself. A thing that is not due before, yet when we have promised or dedicated it to God, then it is not in our power ; as in the case of Ananias, Acts v. But now we are not free before the contract, we have bonds u[)on us ; and the business of our promise and rei-olution is only to make our obligation more powerful upon the conscience.
72 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. IX.
4. Not as if it were an arbitraiy thing thus to do, and practised by the saints only for the more convenience of the spiritual life. No ; but it is a thing required : Acts xi. 23, He ' exhorteth them that, with full purpose of heart, they would cleave to the Lord.'
Fositively : 1. It is a course which God will bless ; he hath ap- pointed ordinances for this end and purpose that we might come to this resolution. The promise is first implicitly made in baptism ; there- fore is it called, 1 Peter iii. 21, ' the answer of a good conscience towards Grod.' How so ? Why, the covenant binds mutually on God's part and on ours, and so do the seals which belong to the covenant. It doth not only seal pardon and sanctification on God's part, but there is a promise and answer on our part. An answer to what ? To the demands of the covenant. In the covenant of grace God saith, I will be your God ; baptism seals that, and we promise to be his people. Now our answer to this demand of God, and to this interrogatory he puts to us in the covenant, it is sealed by us in baptism, and it is renewed in the Lord's Supper. Look, as in the old sacrifices, they were all a renew- ing of the oath of allegiance to God, or confirming their purposes and resolutions, you have the same notion to the sacrifice that is given to the Lord's Supper, for it is called ' the blood of the covenant,' Exod. xxiv. 7, 8. In the ordinance of the Lord's Supper there we come to take an obligation upon us ; half of the blood is sprinkled upon us. And this purpose and resolution to it is still continued and kept afoot in our daily exercise, invocation, and prayer, wherein either we ex- plicitly or implicitly renew our obedience ; for every prayer is an im- plicit vow, wherewith we bind ourselves to seek those things we ask, or else we do not engage God to bestow them. Thus it is a course that God will bless.
2. It is of great necessity to prevent uncertainty of spirit. Until we come to resolution we shall be liable to temptation ; until we fully set our faces towards God, and have a bent and serious purpose of heart, we shall never be free from temptation from the devil, and from evil men, or from ourselves. From the devil : James i. 8, 'A double- minded man is unstable in all his ways.' As long as we are wavering, and suspensive, we can never carry on uniformity of obedience. While we halt between God and Baal, Satan hath an advantage against us. So from evil men : David doth express himself as coming to a resolution in this psalm, ver. 115, ' Depart from me, ye evil-doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God.' There is no way to shake ofi' those evil companions and associates till there be a bent seriously to- wards heaven. So from ourselves : we have changeable hearts, that ' love to wander,' Jer. xiv. 10. We have many revoltings and reluctancies ; therefore, until a sanctified judgment and will concur to make up a resolution and holy purpose, we shall still be up and down. The saints, being sensible of their weakness, often bind this upon themselves: Ps. cxix. 57, ' I have said that I would keep thy words ; ' there was a practical decree past upon the conscience. And ver. lOG, ' I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.' An oath is the highest assurance among men, and most solemn engage- ment, and all little enough to hold a backsliding heart under a sense and care of our dutv. As Ions; as the Israelites had a will to Canaan,
VeR. 8.] SERMONS UrON PSALM CXIX. 73
so loni^ they digC5?tGcl the inconveniences of the ■wilderness. Every difficulty and trouble will put us out of the way, and we cannot be secured against an unsteady heart, but by taking up such a course, a serious resolve of maintaining communion with God. And as it is useful to prevent temptation, so to excite and quicken our dulness : we forget our vow and purpose, and therefore we relapse into sin. The apostle saith, 2 Peter i. 9, ' He hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins;' that he did renounce these things in baptism. And Paul puts us in mind of our engagement : Eom. viii. 12, ' We are not debtors to the flesh, to live after tlie flesh.' You make vows and pro- mises to God, to renounce the flesh and vanities of the world, and to give up yourselves to God's service ; and these things are forgotten, and therefore we grow slight, cold, careless in the profession of godliness.