Use 1. To persuade us to enter into this state of nearness by taking hold of God's covenant. It is an excellent thing in the general ; all will grant that it is good to draw near to God ; but it is not only good, but good for you, all things considered : Ps. Ixxiii. 28, ' It is good for me to draw near to God ;' it is our only blessedness. The practical judgment must be possessed with this truth, and then determine it so that it may have the authority of a principle ; and then the heart must be engaged to draw nigh to God by a hearty resolution to come unto God. Till the heart be engaged, we are too easily enticed away from God. Now the engaging the heart is by covenant : ' Yield yourselves to the Lord,' 2 Chron. xxx. 8. All God's servants, they are his by covenant : Ezek. xx. 37, ' I will cause you to pass under the rod, and bring you into the bond of the covenant ; ' as sheep, to pass one by one out of the fold. God doth not covenant with us in the lump and body, but every man for himself must engage himself to live according to the will of God. It is not enough that Christ engaged for us as our surety : Heb. vii. 22, ' Jesus was made the surety of a better testa- ment ;' something is to be done personally if we would have benefit by it. It is not enough that the church engage for us as a visible poli- tical body professing faith in Christ, Ezek. xvi. 7; but every man must engage his own heart. It is not enough our parents did engage for us, in behalf of little ones, avouch God to be their God : Deut. xxix. 10-12, ' Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God ; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of wood to the drawer of thy water ; that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day.' We must ratify their dedication and covenant in our own persons, 2 Cor. ix. 13, by a professed subjection to the gospel of Christ; this cove-
VEK. 151.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. Ill
riant and oath of allegiance. You eat at God's table to show that God and you are agreed, and entered into a strict union and fellowship one with another.
2. Let us live as in a state of nearness to God ; let us fear hirn, and love him, and walk with hirn, as Enoch did, Gen. v. 24 ; or set the Lord always before us, as David did, Ps. xvi. 8. How so ? In point of reverence, in point of dependence.
[1.] In point of reverence, that we may not displease God with whom we walk : Micah vi. 8, ' Walk humbly with thy God.' Thou shalt humble thyself to walk with God. It is not a fellow-like familiarity or the intimacy of equals, but the common subjection of inferiors, the obedience of children, diligently taking heed lest a breach fall out betwixt God and them : Deut. xxiii. 14, ' For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thee, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee ; therefore shall thy camp be holy, that he may see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.' God threatens to leave them if he saw any filthiness among them. If we sin against God, we may find him near as a judge to punish, not as a father to protect us. Besides it is for the honour of God that a people near and dear to him should study to please him in all things, and that they should walk worthy of God, with whom they profess to be in covenant, and whose friendly presence they enjoy. The nearer you are to God the greater your sins. If you be the spouse of Christ, your sins are adultery ; if you be the children of God, your sins are rebellion and parricide ; if you be the friends of God, Christ hath the more cause to complain : Ps. lv. 12, 13, ' For it was not an enemy that reproached me ; then I could have borne it : neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me ; then I would have hid myself from him : but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine ac- quaintance.' Your sins are the injuries of a false friend, if you be of the household of God. After you had eaten his bread, will you lift up the heel against him ? Ps. xli. 9, ' Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me.' It is treachery of an unfaithful domestic and servant. Men will endure injuries from strangers better than from nearer rela- tions. Those that do not belong to God, that are not so dear and near to him, their sins are not so grievous. In short, if you be the people of God, whom God will own in the world, you should take care to live to his honour.