4. You cannot give other things to him unless you give up your- selves to him. 2 Cor. viii. 4, it is rendered as a reason of their for- wardness in a good work, ' They first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.' AVhen a man hath given himself to God, all things else will succeed more easily in the spiritual life ; as a woman and man in the conjugal relation, they are easily kind one to another when they have bestowed themselves one upon another. As Quintus Fabius Maximus, answering to the ambassador that offered him gold, that it was not the fashion of the Eomans to have gold under their power, but they were under a power that were owners and possessors of their gold. Apply it ; the first thing God looks after is the person.
5. It is your honour to be in relation to God, therefore give up 3-ourselves : Ps. cxvi. 16, ' 0 Lord, truly I am thy servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid.' He repeats it thrice, as if he were wonderfully pleased with the relation. Mean offices about a prince are accounted honourable in the world ; so to be in the meanest degree of service about God is a great honour ; therefore give up your- selves to God.
Secondly, Live as those that are God's. The first thing we should do is to determine whose we are, then to make good that relation. You are not your own, that is clear, 1 Cor. vi. 19 ; therefore not to live to your own will, j^our own ends, your own interest. All the disorder that is in the world comes from a man's looking upon himself as his own : Ps. xii. 4, ' Our tongues are our own ; ' and therefore they take liberty to speak what they please. And saith Nabal, ' My bread and my wine.' When we are so eager to establish our own dominion and propriety, then we miscarry. As Bernard saith, Horreo qnicunque
VeR. 94.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 447
de meo ut sim mens — we should be in utter detestation of living to our- selves, and rather be God's bondmen than our own freemen. And as they are not their own, so not the world's : John xv. 19, ' Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hates you.' The world hates the godly because they have other principles and other ends. You should not conform to the world in judgment or practices, for you are not of the world ; you are not of the flesh : Eom. viii. 12, ' We are not debtors to the flesh ; ' therefore this should not be your care and study to pamper and please the flesh. You are not Satan's, for you are taken out of his power. Col. i. 13. Whose are you ? You are the Lord's ; therefore your business should be to please God and honour God. It is easy to say, I am thine ; do we make it good in our practice ? This may be known two ways : —
1. When we make his glory to be the scope of our lives : Phil, i, 21, 'To me to live is Christ ; ' that is my business and employment, not to seek my own things, but the things of Christ Jesus. Do you give up yourselves to be governed and ordered by his Spirit, acting and living for his s^ory ?
2. When we walk so as God may own us with honour ; take his law for our rule, as well as to fix his glory for our scope. Exod. xxxii. 7, saith God to Moses, ' Thy people whom thou hast brought up out of Egypt : ' tJit/ people ; God would not own them when they had cor- rupted their ways. We would say to God, Lord, I am thine ; but alas ! we act not as the Lord's, but as if we were of the flesh, as if we belonged to Satan, to lust, and passion, and anger ; by those cursed influences are we acted and swayed in our conversations. It is as sweet an argument and as forcible a reason as you can use to God in prayer to say, Lord, I am thine, if we could use it in good conscience, saith Chrysostom. All men are so, but how few can thus speak to God ; for, saith he, his servants you are whom you obey ; and the vservant of sin lieth when he saith, I am thine. Alas ! most every kind of sin may say, Thou art mine ; lust and covetousness and ambi- tion may challenge us. It is not words.'but affections and actions that must prove us to be the Lord's ; then we are his when we seek to please him in all things. Judas was Christ's in profession, but the devil's in affection. David saith, ' I am thine,' but presently adds, ' I seek thy precepts,' I endeavour to do thy will. Oh ! then, live not as your own, as of Satan and the flesh, but as the Lord's.
Let us come to the ground of his plea, ' Save me.' David doth not say, ' Thou art mine, save me,' but, ' I am thine.' These two are correlates ; he that speaks the one speaks both ; if we be God's, God is ours : ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine ; ' and yet David saith, ' I am thine/ but doth not say, Thou art mine, for four reasons : —