VOL. ix. s
274 sermons upon psalm cxix. [Ser. CLXXXVI.
4. Motive. Choose, for you will never have cause to repent of your choice. The Lord stands upon his justification, is very tender of giving his people any cause to repent of his service : Micah vi. 3, ' 0 my people ! what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee ? testify against me.' Pray what hurt hath holiness done you ? Who was ever the better for sinning, or who was the worse for holiness ? There was none that ever made a carnal choice hut first or last they had cause to repent of it. Either they repent of it in a kindly manner, while they may mend the matter, or else they shall repent for ever in misery. Bat who ever repented of his repentance, or cursed the day of his new birth? To whom ever was it any grief of heart that they were acquainted with God and Christ, or the way that leadeth unto life ? Who dieth the sweeter death ? or who repents of their choice then, the serious or the carnal ? Oh ! they that have chosen the world, they cry out how the world hath deceived them ; but never any repented of choosing God and the ways of God. Let these things persuade you to choose his precepts.
Secondly, For directions.
1. In choosing, the object is to be regarded. God's precepts in- definitely, all of them, not one excepted, the smallest as well as the greatest, the troublesome as well as the easy, the most neglected as well as the most observed. We must choose all God's precepts, not abate anything, but especially the main or the essential precepts of Christianity, or the funclamental points of the covenant. Now the ques- tion is, what is the fundamental point of the covenant ? Truly that is known by the form of baptism. Baptism is the solemn seal of entering into covenant with God ; it is the seal of our initiation or first entrance into covenant with God, Mat. xxviii. 19. Now what is to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ? When you first choose the ways of God, here you must begin ; you must close with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, heartily take them to be your God ; that is, you must close with God the Father, as your all-sufficient portion, or chiefest happiness, to be loved above all ; and also as your highest Lord, that he may be served, pleased, and obeyed above all. Well, and in the name of the Son, that is, Jesus Christ, he must be taken as your saviour and redeemer, to bring you to God, and to re- concile you to him. And to be baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost is this, to take him as your sanctifier, guide, and comforter, to make you a holy people to God, to cleanse your hearts from sin, to write all God's laws upon your hearts, and put them into your minds, and to guide you by the word and ordinances to everlasting life. This is the main thing that is first to be minded, because it contains all, and doth necessarily infer the rest ; for otherwise, to be resolute in some by-point of religion, though it be right, this is but the obstinacy of a faction, not the constancy of a Christian zeal.
2. As you must look to the object of this choice, so to the causes of it ; and what are they ? An enlightened mind, a renewed heart, a love to God, and then the Spirit of God enlightening and inclining our hearts.
[1.] An enlightened mind is a cause of choosing the ways of God, when the Lord hath taught us his precepts. An enlightened mind discovers a beauty and amiableness in the ways of God : Ps. cxix. 128,
VeR. 173.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 275
' I esteem all thy precepts to be right, and they are the rejoicing of my soul.'
[2.] A renewed heart, wherein all the precepts of God are written over, again. They were written upon our hearts in innocency, but that is a blurred manuscript, therefore in regeneration they are written over again. God writes his law in our hearts, and puts them in our inward parts, Heb. viii. 10 ; and then the law within suits with the law without, for the new creature is created after God in righteousness and true holiness. In true holiness, which relates to the first table of the law, and righteousness, which relates to the second table of the law ; the renewed heart that hath this inclination and propension is carried out to them.
[3.] Love to God, for that is implied in the choice : John xiv. 21, ' He that hath my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me ;' and he that loves me hath my commandments and keeps them. It follows the other way ; where there is love to God, there will be choosing of his ways.
[4.] God's Spirit, the Lord enlightening and inclining our hearts to this choice. God enlightens, for he teacheth us the way that we shall choose ; and when we see these things in the light of the Spirit, then we see the beauty of them, Ps. xxv. 12. It holds good as to the path of life, and in particular cases ; but chiefly in the main case God teacheth him the way that he shall choose. And the Spirit of God inclines the heart too, as well as enlightens the mind : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Ye have puri- fied your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.'