[5.] Whether God answereth or no, it is the duty of faith to answer itself. The answer of his providence is not so sure as the answer of his word, and that faith hath to do with. See Ps. vi. 4, ' Keturn, 0 Lord; deliver my soul ; save me, for thy mercies' sake.' Compare ver. 8, 9, ' The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping : the Lord hath heard the voice of my supplications; the Lord will receive my prayer.' When trembling for fear of wrath, yet in prayer his heart groweth confident as if it had received news of an answer from heaven : Ps. lv. 2, ' Attend unto me, and hear me;' compared with ver. 19, ' My God shall hear, and afflict them.' He is confident of it that the prayer should not miscarry. So Ps. liii. 1, 2, ' Deliver me from mine enemies,
0 my God ; defend me from them that rise up against me ; deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men ; ' ver. 10, ' The God of my mercy shall prevent me ; God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.' Faith sees its own deliverance in the pro- mise and all-sufficiency of God. When we have prayed according to God's will, we should take our prayer for granted, and leave it lying at God's feet : 1 John v. 14, ' And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.' God's delay is not always an argument of his hatred, but some more glorious purpose which is to be helped on by prayer : John xi. 5, 6,
1 When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.'
I observe again, that he not only repeateth his prayer, but reneweth the promise of obedience, to f-how that it was no vanishing notion, but a settled conclusion; as Christ maketh Peter profess his love thrice to engage him the more, John xxi. So David, 'I will keep thy statutes ;' and again, ' I will keep thy testimonies ; ' as if he had said, Indeed Lord, I will ; it is the settled purpose of my heart
60 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. OLXVI.
to return to thee in the sincere obedience of ray whole life. The note is —
Doct. That purposes ami promises of obedience should not be slightly made, but with the greatest advertency and seriousness of mind.
1. Because we are usually too slight in devoting ourselves to God : Deut. v. 27-29, ' Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say ; and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it, and do it. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me, and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee ; they have well said, all that they have spoken. Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever.' The Israelites again, when Joshua puts them to the question whether they would serve the Lord or other gods, Joshua xxiv. 18, 19, ' We will serve the Lord, for he is our God. Joshua said unto them. Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is an holy God.' What is the reason men are so slight? Partly because they measure their strength by the present pang of devotion that is upon them, not considering the latent principle of sin, and that proneness to transgress that is in their hearts. Partly they take up duty by the lump, and the general bulk and view of it, without sitting- down and counting the charges, as Christ advises, Luke xiv. ; whether they can be content to bear difficulties, renounce lusts, crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof. A foolish builder doth not think of storms, Mat. vii. ; if his building stand for the present, he is satis- fied. Partly because men will promise God fair to be rid of the present anguish and troubles, yield to anything to be out of the present danger ; but when they are out, they seldom regard the vows of their distress ; as those, Ps. lxxviii. 34-37, made great promises, ' but their heart was not right with God, neither were they steadl'ast in his covenant/ Partly too when they are out of a temptation, and lusts are not stirring, they are other men than when in temptation, and so think all will be easy.
2. Because the nature of the work calleth for advertency and seri- ousness, because it is a work of the greatest moment, and so must be done with the greatest deliberation. This devoting ourselves to God both entitleth us to all the comforts of Christianity, and engageth us to all the duties of it. It entitleth us to all the comforts ; you enter yourselves heirs to the covenant of grace when you enter into the bond of the holy oath, or give your hand to the Lord to be his people: 1 Cor. iii. 22, ' All things are yours, because you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' If you have owned Christ as your dearest Saviour and sove- reign Lord, with love, thankfulness, and subjection, and given him the supreme command of your souls, then you are Christ's, and God is yours, and all things yours : glory and salvation shall be yours in the world to come; grace, help, maintenance, ordinances, and providences shall be yours in the present world ; and death, as the connection be- tween the two worlds, as the passage out of the one into the other, shall be yours also. It is also the beginning and foundation of all obedience, and if this were once seriously and heartily done, other things would succeed the more easily. He that is indeed God's will