YeR. 94.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 445
2, 'I dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God dwells within curtains.' Here the Lord hath abundantly provided for me, but what have I done for God ? When you are in all things seeking the things of God, and laying out yourselves for the glory of God, and if God needs anything that is yours, you freely and willingly part with it.
Use 2. To persuade us to resign up ourselves to God, and to live as those that are God's.
First, To resign up ourselves to God : Isa. xliv. 5, ' One shall come and say, I am the Lord's ; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob ; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.' Come and sub- scribe to the God of Jacob, give it under hand and seal, enter your names in his muster-roll, that you are one of his subjects and servants. Motives are these : —
1. You owe yourselves to God, and therefore should give up your- selves to him : Philem. 19, ' Thou owest unto me even thine own self.' It is true with respect to God ; thou owest all that thou hast to him, thou hast nothing but what he gave thee first. God calls it a gift, ' My son, give me thy heart ; ' but it is indeed a debt, for God gave it, not to dispossess himself and divest himself, but gave it for his use and service. He gave you yourselves to yourselves, as a man gives an estate to a factor to trade with, or as a husbandman scatters his seed upon the ground, not to bury it there, but expecting a crop from thence. So God scatters his gifts abroad in the world, gives life and all things ; not to establish a dominion in thy person, but only a stewardship and a course of service. Hast thou life ? Man is not dominus vitce, but aistos — not lord of his life, but only the guardian and keeper for God. Now what is said of life is true of estates and all things else ; there is no proper dominion we have.
2. God offers himself to thee, and therefore it is but reasonable thou give up thyself to God. In the covenant there is a mutual engaging between God and the creature to be each other's, according to their several capacities ; ' I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' The great God, Quanhis quantus est, totus no^ter est, as great as he is, he becomes ours ; all in him ours, his wisdom, power, strength ; Father, ^on, and Holy Ghost are our everlasting portion. God the Father will be our portion for ever, he will give his Son to be our redeemer, and his Spirit to be our guide ; all the persons, with all their power and strength, are engaged for our use. Look, as when Jehoshaphat made a league with the king of Israel, this was the manner of it: 1 Kings xxii. 4, ' I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.' They mutually made over their strength one to another. So when God offereth to make over himself to us, this is the tenor, ' I will be for thee, and thou shalt be for me,' as Hosea iii. He makes over himself with all that is his. Now, when God offers to make over himself to us, and all that belongs to him to our use, his strength, power, and love, shall we stand demurring upon so blessed a contract, and not give up ourselves to the Lord ? God, that needs us not, will engage himself to us to be for us, if we will be for him. Oh, then, let us resign up ourselves, and put ourselves under the power and sovereignty of God !
446 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XCIX.
3. You never enjoy yourselves so much as when you give up your- selves to God ; it is not your loss, but your gain ; it is a kind of re- ceiving : for you give up yourselves to become his people, to be sancti- fied, to be preserved by his grace, and governed by his Spirit ; and all these are privileges, they are rather a gift for us. For a beggar to give up herself to match with a prince, she gets by giving ; you give up your hearts to God to be better. Other things that are dedicated to God are only altered in their use, as gold and silver dedicated to the sanctuary; but when a man is given to God, he is altered in his nature, he is governed and fitted for God's use. If there be any pre- tence of loss, it is this, a right or power to live according to your own will. Ay ! but that you never had by virtue of your creation. You are bound to live according to the will of God ; God's precepts bind as a law where they are not received as a covenant ; and therefore you have no power to dispose yourselves ; you are God's, whether you give up yourselves to him or no. When you consider how much you gain, you are interested in all the privileges of the Lord's grace ; it not only establisheth your duty, but your comfort and encouragement. If there were nothing but this free leave to go to God in all our straits and dangers, ' I am thine, save me,' this were a benefit not to be valued. If God be yours, you may expect salvation, temporal, eternal ; therefore the benefit of this gift is not God's, but ours ; you give up yourselves, not to bring aught to God, but receive from God.