5. It must be a resolution for the ]iresent, not for the future ; for all resolutions for the future are false : Ps. xxvii. 8, ' When thou saidst, Seek ye my face;' like a quick echo, ' My heart answered. Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' And we must resolve so to engage presently, for what we do for hereafter it is but a cheat we put upon ourselves, merely to elude the workings of heart, to avoid the present impulse.
6. It must be a resolution according to the covenant of grace, in a sense of our insufficiency and dependence upon Christ, not in a con- fidence of our own strength. Peter went forth in a confidence of his own resolution, and how soon did he miscarry ! Therefore we must resolve in the strength of God : Ps. cxix. 8, ' I will keep thy precepts ; 0 forsake me not utterly.' If God forsake, all will come to nothing. Thus we should solenmly dedicate ourselves to his use and service.
Secondly, Having entered into such a solemn engagement to be the Lord's, keep this covenant and oath made with God. For motives : —
1. From the nature of such a solemn engagement ; it hath more in it than a single promise. There is in every solemn dedication or vowing of ourselves to God an attestation or calling upon God to take witness, and there is an imprecation. An attestation, a calling God to witness of our serious intentions to perform, and will you call God to be witness to a lie ? And an imprecation, a calling upon God to punish us if we do the contrary ; therefore, being entered into the bond of such a holy oath, how should we tremble to break it ! For lie that renews his oath of allegiance to God, he doth as it were dare God to do his worst, for you thereby wish some heavy plague to fall upon your heads if you do not fulfil the duty of your oath ; that is, he that eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ unworthily, he is guilty of damnation, guilty of the Lord's blood, because these solemn rites do not only confirm the promises, but confirm the threatening ; and there is implied not only an invocation of blessing, but an imprecation upon ourselves ; that is, if you do not fulfil the duty of the covenant, you offer yourselves as it were to God's curse.
94 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXVI.
2. Consider the tenderness of God's people in case of any oath or solemn promise, though it concerned tlieir dnty to man. Josh. ix. 19, 20, it is spoken of tlie leagne with the Griheonitcs, 'We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel : now therefore we may not touch, them, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which wo sware unto them.' They looked upon it as horrible impiety to break an oath. Now much more doth this hold in our engagements to God. Shall we not look upon it as a horrid impiety to break a solemn oath so solemnly renewed, and our faith so solemnly plighted ? Every sin of ours is made the more heinous because of this oath,
3. Kemember the great quarrel that God hath against the Christian world and all the professors of his name is about his covenant and oath taken. What is the reason God doth visit Christendom with famines, pestilences, inundations, and wars ? Because they do not stand to the oath of God that is upon them. Every professor of the name of Christ, he is su}>posed to be in covenant with God : Heb. x. 29, ' Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he Avas sanctified an unholy thing?' All visible professors of Christianity are under a covenant with God, to take God for their God, and to live as his people ; now because of their looseness and profaneness, they do not stand to their engagement, therefore so many plagues are upon them : Lev. xxvi. 25, ' I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant ;' that is, because they did not perform the duties sworn to him.
SERMON CXVI.
I am offiided very much ; quichen me, 0 Lord, according unto thy
luord. — Ver. 107.
Here we have — (1.) A representation of his case and condition, I am afflicted ; his condition was calamitous, and here is the degree of it, very much. (2.) His prayer, quicken me, 0 Lord, according unto thy ivord; wherein we have the nature of his request, quicken me, 0 Lord; then the argument, according unto thy loord.
For the first, '1 am afflicted;' it may be understood of outward pressures, or soul troubles. From thence note —
Doct. God's people are liable to sad and sore afflictions here in the world.
He doth not so fondly and delicately bring up his children but that he exerciseth them with sharp afflictions. David, a man dear to God, much in communion with him, ever and anon you hear him com- plaining of trouble. It is the church's name, Isa. liv. 11, ' 0 thou afflicted, and tossed with tempest, and not comforted.' God's people are sometimes afflicted in the outward, sometimes in the inward man. In the outward man, either by enemies, the more because they are godly: 2 Tim. iii. 12, 'All they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution.' They must not dream of worldly case, and