....Psal. cxxxii. 1, 2. Vows against sin, resulting from sorrow for sin, shall not be rejected as extorted by the rack, but graciously accepted as the genuine language of a broken heart, and fruits meet for repentance.

(2.) We are here to ask and receive mercy from God, and it comes petitioners to make vows. When Jacob found himself in special need of God's gracious presence, he vowed a vow, and set up a stone for a memorial of it....Gen. xxviii. 20. And Hannah, when she prayed for a particular mercy, vowed a vow, that the comfort she prayed for, should be consecrated to God. Great precious things we are here waiting to receive from God; and therefore, though we can. not offer any thing as a valuable consideration for his favors, yet it becomes us to promise such suitable returns as we are capable of making. When God encourageth us to seek to him for grace, we must engage ourselves, not to receive grace in vain, but to improve and employ for him what we have from him.

(3.) We are here to give God thanks for his favors to us: now, it becomes us in our thanksgivings to make vows, and to offer to God, not only the calves of our lips, but the work of our hands. Jonah's mariners, when they offered a sacrifice of praise to the Lord, for a calm after a storm, as an appendix to that sacrifice, made vows.... Jonah i. 16. The most acceptable vows are those which take rise from gratitude, and which are drawn from us by the mercies of God. Here I see what great things God hath done for my soul, and what greater things he designs for me; shall I not therefore freely bind myself to that which he hath by such endearing ties bound me to?

(4.) We are here to join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant. And it is requisite that our general covenant be explained and confirmed by par ticular vows. When we present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, with those cords we must bind that sacrifice to the horns of the altar; and, while we ex

perience in ourselves such a bent to backslide, we shall find all the arts of obligation little enough to be used with our own souls. As it is not enough to confess sin in the gross, saying, I have sinned, but we must enter into the detail of our transgressions, saying, with David, I have done this evil; so it is not enough, in our covenanting with God, that we enga ourselves in the general to be his, but we must descend to particulars in our own covenants, as God doth in his commands, that thereby we may the more effectually both bind ourselves to duty, and mind ourselves of duty. If the people must distinctly say amen to every curse pronouced on mount Ebal, (Deut.xxvii.) much more to every precept delivered on mount Horeb.

Come then, my soul, thou hast now thy hand upon the book to be sworn: thou art lifting up thy hand to the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth: think what thou art doing, and adjust the particulars, that this may not become a rich oath, inconsiderately taken. God is here confirming his promises to us, by an oath, to shew the immutability of his counsels of love to us.... Heb. vi. 17, 18. Here, therefore, we must confirm our promise to him by an oath, to walk in God's law, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God....Neh. x. 29. Some of the Oriental writers tell us, that the most solemn oath which the Patriarchs before the flood used, was, by the blood of Abel: and we are sure, that the blood of Jesus is infinitely more sacred, and speaks much greater and much better things than that of Abel. Let us thererefore testify our value for that blood, and secure to ourselves the blessings purchased by it, by our sincere and faithful dealings with God in that covenant, which this is the blood of.

The command of the eternal God is, that we cease to do evil, and learn to do well—that we put off the old man, and put on the new: And our vows to God must accordingly be against all sin, and to all duty: and under each of these heads we must be particular, according as the case is.

a

First, We must here, by a solemn vow, bind ourselves from all sin; so as not only to break our league with it, but to enter into league against it. The putting away of the strange wives, in Ezra's time, was not the work of one day or two, (Ezra x. 13.) but work of time; and therefore Ezra, when he had the people under convictions, and saw them weeping sore for their sin, in marrying them, very prudently bound. them by a solemn covenant that they would put them away...verse 3. If ever we conceive an aversion to sin, surely it is at the table of the Lord; and therefore we should improve that opportunity to invigorate our resolutions against it, that the remembrance of those resolutions may quicken our resistance of it, when the sensible impression we are under from it are become less lively. Thus we must by a solemn vow cast away from us all our transgressions, saying, with Ephraim, 'What have I to do any more with idols?? Hos. xiv. 8.

(1.) We must solemnly vow, That we will not indulge or allow ourselves in any sin. Though sin may remain, it shall not reign; though those Canaanites be in the land, yet we will not be tributaries to them. However it may usurp and oppress as a ty rant, it shall never be owned as a rightful prince, nor have a peaceful and undisturbed dominion. I may be, in some particular instances, through the surprise of temptations, led into captivity by it; but I am fully resolved in the strength of Christ, that I will never join in affinity with it....will never espouse its cause, never plead for it, nor strike in with its interest. Bind thyself with this bond, O my soul, that though, through the remainders of corruptions, thou canst not say, Thou hast no sin: yet, through the beginnings grace, thou wilt be able to say, Thou lovest nonethat thou wilt give no countenance or contrivance to any sin; no, not to secret sins, which, though they shame thee not before men, yet shame thee before God and thine own conscience; no, not to heart sins, those

of

first-born of a corrupt nature, the beginning of its strength. Vain thoughts may intrude, and force a lodging in me, but I will never invite them, never bid them welcome, nor court their stay; corrupt affections may disturb me, but they shall never have the quiet and peaceable possession of me: no, whatever wars against my soul, by the grace of God, I will war against it, hoping, in due time, to get the dominion, and have its yoke broken from off my neck, when judgment shall be brought forth into victory, and grace perfected in glory.

(2.) We must solemnly vow, That we will never yield to any gross sin, such as lying injustice, uncleanness, drunkenness, profanation of God's name, and such like, which are not the spots of God's children. Though all the high places be not taken away, yet there shall be no remains of Baal, or of Baal's priests and altars, in my soul. However my own heart may be spotted by sins of infirmity, and may need to be daily washed, yet, by the grace of God, I will never spot my profession, nor stain the credit of that by open and scandalous sin. I have no reason to be ashamed of the gospel, and therefore it shall be my constant endeavor, not to be in any thing a shame to the gospel, it is an honor to me...I will never be a dishonor to it: I will never do any thing, by the grace of God I will not, which may give just occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the worthy name by which I am called.' So shall it appear, that I am upright, if I be innocent from these great transgressions, and truly penitent for all my transgressions.... Psal. xix. 13.

(3.) We must solemnly vow, That, with a particular care, we will keep ourselves from our own iniquity. That sin, which, in our penitent reflections, our own consciences did not charge us with, and reproach us for, that sin we must in a special manner renew our resolutions against. Was it pride? Was it passion? Was it distrust of God, or love of the world? Was,

it an unclean fancy or an idle tongue? Whatever it was, let the spiritual force be mustered and drawn out against that. The instructions which Samuel gave to =Israel, when they were lamenting after the Lord, are observable to this purpose: 1 Sam. vii. 3....' If ye do return to the Lord with all your hearts,' and would be accepted of him therein, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth.' Was not Ashtaroth one of the strange gods, or goddesses? Yes; but that is particu larly instanced in, because it had been a beloved idol, dearer than the rest, that especially must be put away. Thus, in our covenanting with God, we must engage against all sin, but, in particular, against that which, by reason of the temper of our minds, the constitution of our bodies, or the circumstances of our outward af fairs, doth most easily beset us, and we are most prone

to.

Knowest thou thine own self, O my soul? If thou dost, thou knowest thine own sickness, and thine own sore, that is thine own iniquity: bring that hither, and slay it; let not thine eye spare, neither do thou pity it. Hide it not...excuse it not...indent not for leave to reserve it, as Naaman did for his house of Rimmon: though it had been to thee as a right eye, as a right hand, as thy guide, and thine acquaintance, it hath been a false guide and an ill acquaintance-pluck it out, cut it off, and cast it from thee. Now come and fortify thy resolutions in the strength of Christ against that; double thy guard against that: fetch in help from heaven against that; be vigorous in thy resist ance of that; and how many soever its advantages are against thee, yet despair not of a victory at last.

(4.) We must solemnly vow, That we will abstain from all appearance of evil; not only from that which is manifestly sin, and which carries the evidence of its own malignity written in its forehead, but from that which looks like sin, and borders upon it. Wisdom is here profitable to direct, so as that we may not on the one hand indulge a scrupulous conscience, and yet,

r