218 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX, [SeE. LXXV.
M'as pleased to offer and prescribe. We are not left free to model and brinsf down the terms to our own liking, to take hold of them, not to appoint them : Isa. Ivi. 4, ' For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and do the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant ; ' for though he condescendeth to treat with us, yet still he keepeth the place of a sovereign : and therefore, if we be- lieve promises, and do not believe God's commandments, it is not God's covenant, but one of our own devising, when we take and leave, and part and mingle, and chop and change at our own pleasures. The cove- nant requireth a total, universal, unlimited resignation of ourselves to the will of God : ' I will be your God, you shall be my people.'
[3.] The gratitude that resulteth necessarily from faith, or believing the promises, will put us upon this ; it apprehendeth love, and leavetli the stamp of it upon the soul, and worketh by love, Gal. v. 6. Now, how are we to express our love to God ? Not in a fellow-like familiar- ity, but dutiful subjection to his laws : 1 John v. 3, ' For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments ; and his command- ments are not grievous ; ' and John xiv. 21, ' He that hath my com- mandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; ' not by glavering respects, or a fond remembrance and esteem of his memory, Mat. vii. 11. If we live to God, not to the world, not to the flesh, if faith be lively, it will put us upon this : 2 Cor. v. 15, ' And that he died for all, that they that live should not henceforth live unto them- selves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.'
[4.] Our trust in the promises is always commensurable to our fidel- ity in the commandments. Faith in the one is maintained by faith- fulness in the other, and assurance of acceptance with God cannot be greater than our care of obedience. When love to the world and the flesh tempt us to omit any part of our duty, then do we weaken our confidence thereby, and sin will breed distrust if we be serious and mind our condition : ' The fruit of righteousness is peace ; ' 1 John iii. 21, ' Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God ; ' and Heb. vii. 2, ' Being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace ; ' and Christ saith, Mat. xi. 29, ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.' Confidence and comfort follow grace, as heat doth fire ; and fears and doubts follow sin, as pain doth the pricking of a needle, or any sharp thing wherewith a man pierceth himself ; there- fore, when sensual objects oversway us, and take us off from obedience to the command, they will also make us doubt of the mercy of God, as well as transgress our duty. We cannot trust him when we have offended freely and without restraint ; sin will breed shame and fear.
At present all sinners feel it not ; yet hereafter that sin that now weakeneth the faith we have in the commandments, will in time weaken the faith we have in the promises. Every part of our trust in God's declared will cometh to be tried one time or another : our confi- dence in God's mercy is not fully and directly assaulted till the hour of death, and the time of extraordinary trial. When the evil day cometh, then the consciousness of any one sin whereunto we have been indulgent, and of the delight and pleasure we took in transgressing God's com-
Ver. G6.] sermons upon psalm cxix. 219
mandments,will be of force to withdraw our assent from God's mercies: 1 Cor. XV. 56, ' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the hxw.'
[5.] Faith in the promises, if it be not a conceit and a vain dream, is not only an act enforced by our necessity, bat done in obed- ience to God's will ; therefore we believe because God hath commanded it : 1 John iii. 23, ' And this is his commandment, that we should be- lieve on the name of his Son Jesus Christ ; ' John vi. 29, ' This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' It sensibly appeareth many times, a poor soul hath no other motive or encourage- ment. It ventureth, notwithstanding all discouragements to the con- trary, in the strength and sense of a command ; as Peter, Luke v. 5, ' Mas- ter, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing ; nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.' Now that which is done, if rightly done, merely in obedience to a command, cannot be the ground of dis- obedience in other things. We must not pick and choose. Certainly if we believe the promises on God's command, we will make conscience of other things commanded also; for he is truly obedient to no precept that doth not obey all enforced by the same authority.