of worship And it is required to be a rational act Your reasonable service Religion cannot move blindfold And though Knowledge and Reason are not throughout words of the same signification and latitude yet the former is partly presupposed unto the latter and partly improved by it nor can therefore be sever'd from it In the present case it is especially necessary we distinctly know and apprehend the state of things between God and us That we understand our selves to have been with the rest of men in an apostacy and revolt from God that we are recalled unto him that a Mediatour is appointed on purpose thorough whom we are to approach him and render our selves back unto him That so this may be our sense in our return Lord I have here brought thee back a stray a wandring creature mine own self I have heard what the Redeemer of thy own constituting hath done and suffered for the reconciling and reducing of such and against thy known design I can no longer withhold my self 2. With serious consideration It must be a deliberate act How many understand matters of greatest importance which they never consider and perish by not considering what they know Consideration is nothing else but the revolving of what we knew before The actuating the habitual knowledge we had of things A more distinct reveiwing of our former notices belonging to any case a recollecting and gathering them up a comparing them together And for such as appear more momentous a repeating and inculcating them upon our selves that we may be urg'd on to suitable action And this though of it self without the power and influence of the divine Spirit is not sufficient yet being the means he works by is most necessary to our becoming Christians i. e. if we speak of becoming so not by fate or by chance as too many onely are but by our own choice and design Which is the same thing with dedicating our selves to God thorough Christ whereof we are discoursing For upon our having thus considered and comprehended the whole compass of the case in our thoughts either the temper of our hearts would be such that we would hereupon dedicate our selves or we would not If we would it is because we should judge the arguments for it more weighty than the objections which without such pondering of both we are not likely to apprehend and so for want of this consideration are never likely to become Christians at all Or if we would not it is because to the more carnal temper of our hearts the objections would outweigh And then if we do seem to consent it is because what is to be objected came not in view And so we should be Christians to no purpose Our contract with the Redeemer were void in the making we should onely seem pleased with the terms of Christianity because we have not digested them in our thoughts So our act undoes it self in the very doing It carries an implicit virtual repentance in it of what is done We enter our selves Christians upon surprize or mistake And if we had considered what we are consequently to doe what to forbear what to forego what to endure would not have done it And therefore when we do come distinctly to apprehend all this are like actually to repent and revolt As they Joh. 6. who while they understood not what it was to be a Christian seem'd very forward followers of Christ. But when they did more fully understand it upon his telling them plainly went back and walked no more with him And he lets them go q. d. mend your selves if you can see where you can get you a better Master 3. With a determinate judgment at length that this ought to be done There are two extremes in this matter Some will not consider at all and so not doe this thing and some will consider always and so never doe it Stand shall I shall I halt between two Opinions These are both of them very vicious and faulty extremes in reference to the management even of secular affairs both of them contrary to that prudence which should govern our actions i. e. when men will never consider what is necessary to be done and so neglect their most important concernments or when they will never have done considering which is the same thing as if they had never taken up any thought of the matter at all Indeed in the present case 't is a reproach to the blessed God to consider longer than till we have well digested the state of the case As if it were a difficulty to determine the matter between him and the Devil which were the better or more rightfull Lord We must at last be at a point and come to a judicious determination of the question As those sincerely resolved Christians had done John 6.68 69. who also express the reasons that had before that time no doubt determined them Lord whither shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the son of the living God 4. With liberty of spirit having thrown off all former bonds and quite disingaged our selves from other Masters As they speak Isai. 26.13 Other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy name For our Saviour expresly tells us No man can serve two masters Matth. 6.24 When those Dedititii the people of Collatia were about the business of capitulating in order to the surrender of themselves the question put on the Romans part was Estne populus Collatinus in sua potestate Are the Collatine people in their own power wherein satisfaction being given the matter is concluded In the present case of yeilding our selves to God the question cannot be concerning any previous tye in point of right or that could urge Conscience There cannot be so much as a plausible pretender against him But there must be a liberty in opposition to preingaged inclinations and affections And this must be the sense of the sincere Soul in treating the matter of its self-surrender and dedication with the great God to be able to say to the question Art thou under no former contrary bonds Lord I am under none I know that ought to bind me or that justly can against thy former sovereign right I had indeed suffered other bonds to take place in my heart and the affections of my Soul but they were bonds of iniquity which I scruple not to break and repent that ever I made I took my self indeed to be my own and have liv'd to my self onely pleas'd and serv'd and sought my self as if I were created and born for no other purpose and if the sense of my heart had been put into words there was insolence enough to have conceiv'd such as these not my tongue onely but my whole man body and soul all my parts and powers my estate and name and strength and time are all my own who is Lord over
in the spirit on the Lord's day To be in the flesh is expounded by being and walking after it Hence men onely love and savour the things within this sensible sphere They that are after the flesh do onely savour the things of the flesh Where the regenerate divine life is implanted it doth malè habitare is ill lodg'd in conjunction with a strong remaining sensual inclination So that where the Soul is somewhat raised by it out of that mire and dirt there is a continual decidency a proneness to relapse and sink back into it Impressions therefore of an invisible Ruler and Lord as of all unseen things are very evanid soon in a great degree worn off Especially where they were but in making and not yet throughly inwrought into the temper of the Soul Hence is that instability in the Covenant of God We are not so afraid before nor ashamed afterwards of breaking engagements with him as with men whom we are often to look in the face and converse with every day Therefore there is the more need here of the strictest ties and most solemn obligations that we can lay upon our selves How apprehensive doth that holy excellent Governour Joshua seem of this when he was shortly to leave the people under his conduct And what urgent means doth he use to bring them to the most express solemn dedication of themselves to God that was possible First representing the reasonableness and equity of the thing from the many endearing wonders of mercy as here the Apostle beseeches these Romans by the mercies of God which he recounts from the beginning to the 14th verse of that 24th chapter Then thereupon exhorting them to fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity c. in that 14th verse Telling them withall if they should all resolve otherwise to a man what his own resolution was vers 15. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom ye will serve whether the Gods which your Fathers serv'd that were on the other side of the flood or the Gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Taking also their express answer which they give vers 16 17 18. But fearing they did not enough consider the matter he as it were puts them back esteeming himself to have gotten an advantage upon them that they might come on again with the more vigour and force Ye cannot serve the Lord for he is an holy God He is a jealous God he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins If you forsake the Lord and serve strange Gods then he will turn and doe you hurt and consume you after that he hath done you good Vers. 19 20. Hereupon according to his expectation and design they reinforce their vow Nay but we will serve the Lord. And upon this he closes with them and takes fast hold of them Ye are witnesses saith he against your selves that ye have chosen the Lord to serve him And they say We are witnesses vers 22. He exhorts them afresh and they engage over again vers 23 24. Thus a Covenant is made with them vers 25. After all this a record is taken of the whole transaction 't is book'd down vers 26. And a monumental stone set up to preserve the memory of this great transaction And the good man tells them Behold this stone shall be a witness unto us for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us It shall therefore be a witness unto you lest ye deny your God So he dismisses them and lets them go every one to his inheritance Nor is it to be neglected that Isa. 44.5 which is generally agreed to refer to the times of the Gospel it is so expresly set down One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himself by the name of Israel In the rendring of which words Subscribe with the hand the versions vary Some reade Inscribe in their hands the Lords name counting it an allusion to the ancient custom as to servants and souldiers that they were to carry stampt upon the palm of their hands the name of their Master or General The Syriack reads to the same sense as we Shall give an hand writing to be the Lords That the thing be done and with great seririousness distinctness and solemnity is no doubt highly reasonable and necessary about the particular manner I prescribe not Nor can I imagine what any man can have to object but the backwardness of his own heart to any intercourse or conversation with the invisible God Which is but an argument of the miserable condition of deprav'd Mankind None that the thing is not to be done For that backwardness must proceed from some deeper reason than that God is invisible A reason that should not only convince but amaze us and even overwhelm our souls in sorrow and lamentation to think what state the nature and spirit of man is brought into For is not the Devil invisible too And what wretch is there so silly and ignorant but can by the urgency of discontent envy and an appetite of revenge find a way to fall into a league with him Is this that God is less conversable with men less willing to be found of them that seek him No surely but that men have less mind and inclination to seek him And is this a posture and temper of spirit towards the God that made us the continual spring of our life and being In which it is fit for us to tolerate our selves Shall not the necessity of this thing and of our own case not capable of remedy while we withhold our selves from God overcome all the imagined difficulty in applying our selves to him And upon the whole if we agree the thing it self to be necessary It cannot be doubted but it will appear to be of common concernment to us all and that every one must apprehend it is necessary to me and to me whether we have done it already or not done it If we have not it cannot be done too soon If we have it cannot be done too often And it may now be done by private silent ejaculation the convinced perswaded heart saying within it self Lord I consent to be wholly thine I here resign and devote my self absolutely and entirely to thee None of you know what may be in the heart of another to this purpose even at this time Why then should not every one fear to be the only person of those who now hear that disagrees to it If any finds his heart to reluctate and draw back 't is fit such a one should consider I do not know but this self-devoting disposition and resolution is the common sense of all the rest even of all that are now present but mine And who would
me And while I pleas'd my self with such an imagined liberty and self-dominion no Idol was too despicable to command my homage I have done worse than prostrated my body to a stock my soul hath humbled it self and bow'd down to a clod of clay My thoughts and desires and hopes and joys have all stoopt to so mean trifles as wealth or ease or pleasure or fame all but so many fragments of earth or the less-consistent vapours sprung from it And whereas this world is nothing else but a bundle of lusts none of them was too base to rule me And while I thought my self at liberty I have been a servant to corruption But now Lord I have through thy mercy learnt to abandon and abhor my self Thy grace appearing hath taught me to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Thou hast overcome enjoy thine own conquest I am griev'd for it and repent from my soul that ever I did put thee to contend for and conquer thine own And so doth this Self-dedication carry in it repentance from dead works and towards God 5. With a plenary full bent of heart and will As that I have sworn and will perform that I will keep thy righteous judgments Psal. 119.106 Or that I have inclin'd my heart to keep thy statutes always unto the end vers 112. And herein doth this Self-dedication more principally consist viz. in a resolved willingness to yeild my self as God's own property to be for him and not for another Which resolvedness of will though it may in several respects admit of several names or be clothed with distinct notions is but one and the same substantial act It may be called in respect of the competition which there was in the case choice Or in respect of the proposal made to me of such a thing to be done consent But these are abstracting from these references the same act which in it self considered is onely a resolute volition I will be the Lords Which resolution if one do whether mentally or vocally direct to God or Christ then it puts on the nature of a vow and so it fitly called devoting oneself It carries in it as a thing supposed the implanted divine life and nature whereby we are truly said to present our selves living Sacrifices as in the Text or as it is exprest in that other place chap. 6.13 to yeild our selves to God as those that are alive from the dead as vers 11. alive to God thorough Christ Jesus our Lord. Which life is not to be understood simply but in a certain respect For before we were not dead simply we were not dead disinclin'd or disaffected to every thing but peculiarly towards God and his Christ. That way we were without any inclination motion tendency or disposition And so were dead quoad hoc as to this thing or in this respect Were alienated from the life of God Now we come to live this life and are made by his grace to incline and move towards him of our own accord Dead things or destitute of life may be moved by another are capable of being mov'd violently without or against inclination hither or thither But a living creature can spontaneously move it self as of its own accord it inclines And whereas there are two more-noble principles that belong to this divine life and nature Faith and Love A great and noted pair as may be seen in divers places of the New Testament These have both an ingrediency into this Self-dedication The nature of each of them runs into it and may be perceived in it And it is hereupon a mixt act partaking an influence and tincture as it were from the one and the other of them Faith respects the promises of God and what we are thereupon to expect from him And so our dedicating our selves to God is a self-committing We give up our selves to him as a trust as the Apostles emphatical expression intimates I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he will keep that which I have committed unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my pawn or pledge my fidei commissum against that day The Soul flies to God as in a distress not knowing to be safe another way As once a people not able to obtain tutelage on other terms surrender'd themselves to them whose help they sought with some such expression Si non nostros saltem vestros If not as ours yet at least as your own save protect and defend us Nor in our surrendring our selves to God is this any way unsuitable either to us or to him Not to us for we are really distressed ready to perish 't is agreeable to the state of our case Not to him for it is glorious to him A thing worthy of God to be a refuge and sanctuary to perishing Souls and is thereupon a pleasant thing a Godlike pleasure suitable to a self-sufficient and all-sufficient being who hath enough for himself and for all others whom he shall have taught not to despise the riches of his goodness He taketh pleasure in them that fear him and them that hope in his mercy Psal. 147.11 He waits that he may be gracious and is exalted in shewing mercy Isa. 30.18 He lifts up himself when he does it and waits that he may expects the opportunity seeks out meet and suitable objects as with thirst and appetite an enterprising valiant man is wont to doe encounters for none were ever so intent to destroy as he is to save yea makes them prepares them for his purpose Which he doth not and needs not doe in point of misery so they can enough prepare themselves But in point of humility sense of their necessity and unworthiness great need and no desert nor disposition to supplicate These are needfull preparations make it decorous and comely to him to shew mercy A God is to be sought with humble prostrate veneration And such an opportunity he waits for· 'T is not fit for him not great not majestick to throw away his mercies upon insolent and insensible wretches For as there it follows he is the God of iudgment a most accurate judicious wisedom and prudence conducts and guides all the emanations of his flowing goodness The part of which wisedom and judgment is to nick the opportunity to take the fit season when mercy will be most fitly plac't best attain its end relish best be most acceptable to them that shall receive it and honourable to him that shews it And therefore as is added blessed are they that wait for him that labour to be in a posture to meet him on his own terms and in his own way Let such as have a mind to surrender and yield themselves to him consider this Apprehend you have undone your selves and are lost Fall before him Lie at the footstool of the mercy-seat Willingly put your mouths in the dust if so be there may be hope And there is hope He seeks after you and will not reject what he seeks he onely waited