One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on Psalm 119

2. Nor is it to be understood, that it is in a man's power to resolve: this would put grace under the dominion of our will: It is by preventing grace that we are brought to a serious purpose, Phil. 2. 13. He giveth to will and to do. Man's will is the toughest sinew in the whole Creation. The very purpose and bent of the heart, is the fruit of Regeneration. Free-will hath its pangs, its velleities, which are like a little morning-dew that is soon dried up. Hos. 6. 4. Our righteousness is as the morning-cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. But the will and resolution that we are to understand here, is the fruit of grace.

3. Not as if the obligation to obedience did arise from our own purpose and promise, rather than from Gods Command: this were to set mans authority above Gods; and to lay aside the Precept, which is the surer bond and obligation, and to bind the soul with the slender thread of our own resolutions. When we purpose and promise obedience, we do but make the old bond and engagement of duty the more active and sensible upon the soul; so that it is not to jostle out Gods Authority, but to yield our consent. However, the obligation is the greater: for to disobey after we have acknowledged an authority; among men it is counted a more heinous crime, than standing out against the authority it self. A thing that is not due before, yet when we have promised or dedicated it to God, then it is not in our power, as in the case of Ananias, Act. 5. but now we are not free before the contract, we have bonds upon us; and the business of our promise and resolution is only to make our obligation more powerful upon the conscience.

3. Not as if the obligation to obedience did arise from our own purpose and promise, rather than from Gods Command: this were to set mans authority above Gods; and to lay aside the Precept, which is the surer bond and obligation, and to bind the soul with the slender thread of our own resolutions. When we purpose and promise obedience, we do but make the old bond and engagement of duty the more active and sensible upon the soul; so that it is not to justle out Gods Authority, but to yield our consent. However, the obligation is the greater: for to disobey after we have acknowledged an authority; among men it is counted a more heinous crime, than standing out against the authority it self. A thing that is not due before, yet when we have promised or dedicated it to God, then it is not in our power, as in the case of Ananias,