is love to us; and not only gives the greatest encouragements to us to come to God for mercy and peace, but lays the strongest engagements upon us to walk with God in duty and obedience. We are bound in conscience, bound in honour and in gratitude, to love him, and to live to him who loved us and died for us. This concern should much affect us, and lie very near our hearts, how we may answer the intentions of this love!

We should be affected with a jealous fear; lest we prove ungrateful, and, like Hezekiah, "render not again according to the benefit done unto us." We cannot but know something, by sad experience, of the treachery and deceitfulness of our own hearts, and how apt they are to start aside like a broken bow; and therefore we have no reason to presume upon our own strength and sufficiency. We are told of many who eat and drink in Christ's presence, and yet are found at last unfaithful to him; and what if I should prove one of those? This thought is not suggested here to alarm any that tremble at God's word, or to weaken the hands and sadden the hearts of those that are truly willing, though very weak; but to awaken those that slumber, and humble those that are wise in their own conceit. Distrust thyself, O my soul, that thou mayest trust in Christ only; fear thine own strength, that thou mayest hope in his. He that has done these great things for thee, must be applied to and depended on to work those great things in thee, which are required of thee. Go forth, therefore, and go on in his strength. If the same that grants us those favours, give us not wherewithal to make suitable returns for them, we shall perish for ever in our ingratitude,

We should be filled with serious desires to know and do our duty, in return for that great love wherewith we are loved. The affections of a grateful mind are very proper to be working in us at this ordinance. Does not even nature teach us to be grateful to our friends and benefactors? Let us be so to Christ then, the best of friends, and kindest of benefactors.

Come, my soul, here I see how much I am indebted, and how I owe my life, my joy, and hope, and all, to the blessed Jesus: and is it not time to ask with holy David, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?" Shall I not take the cup of salvation, as he does, with this thought, "What shall I render?" Let David's answer to that question, which we find in the 116th Psalm, be mine.

"I love the Lord," (ver. 1.) Love is the loadstone of love; even the publicans love those that love them. Lord, thou hast loved me with an everlasting love; from everlasting in the counsels of it, to everlasting in the consequences of it: and shall not my heart, with this loving kindness, be drawn to thee? Lord, I love thee; the world and the flesh shall never have my love more: I have loved them too much, I have loved them too long; the best affections of my soul shall now be consecrated to thee, O God, to thee, O blessed Jesus! "Whom have I in heaven but thee? Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I I love thee." It is my sorrow and shame that I am so weak and defective in my love to thee: what a wretched heart have I, that I can think, and speak, and hear, and see so much of thy love to me, and be so little affected with it! So low in my thoughts of thee, so cool in my desires towards thee, so unsteady in my resolutions for thee! Lord, pity me, Lord, help me! for yet I love thee, I love to love thee. I earnestly desire to love thee better, and long to be where love shall be made perfect.

"I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving," (ver. 17.) As love is the heart of praise, so praise is the language of love. What shall I render? I must render to all their due; tribute to whom tribute is due; the tribute of praise to God, to whom it is due. We do not accommodate ourselves to this thanksgiving feast, if we do not attend it with hearts enlarged in thanksgiving: this cup of salvation must be a cup of blessing; in it we must bless God, because in it God blesses us. Thankful acknowledgments of God's favour to us are but poor returns for

rich receivings; yet they are such as God will accept, if they come from an upright heart. "Bless the Lord, therefore, O my soul, and let all that is within me bless his holy name." Speak well of him who hath done well for thee. Thank him for all his gifts both of nature and grace, especially for Jesus Christ, the spring of all. "As long as I live, I will bless the Lord, yea, I will praise my God while I have my being;" for he is the God of my life, and the author of my well-being: and when I have no life, no being on earth, I hope to have a better life, a better being in a better world, and to be doing this work for ever in a better manner.

“O Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant." (ver. 16.) I acknowledge myself already bound to be so, and further oblige myself by solemn promise to approve myself so. What shall I render? Lord, I render myself to thee, my whole self, body and soul and spirit, not in compliment, but in truth and sincerity; I own myself thy servant, to obey thy commands, to be at thy disposal, and to be serviceable to thine honour and interest: it will be my credit and ease, my safety and happiness, to be under thy. government; make me as one of thy hired servants.

"I will call upon the name of the Lord." (ver. 13.) This is an immediate answer to that question, What shall I render? and it is a surprising answer. It is uncommon among men to make petitions for further favours, or returns for former favours; yet such a return as this, the God that delights to hear prayers will be well pleased with. Is God my Father? I will apply myself to him as a child, and call him Abba, Father. Have I an advocate with the Father? Then I will come boldly to the throne of grace. Are there such exceeding great and precious promises made me, and sealed to me? Then will I never lose the benefit of them for want of putting them in suit. As I will love God the better, so I will love prayer the better as long as I live; and having given myself unto God, I will give myself unto prayer, as David did, till I come to the world of everlasting praise.

"Return unto thy rest, O my soul." (ver. 7.) The God who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, would have them easy to themselves; and that they can never be, but by reposing in him; this, therefore, we must render. It is work that has its own wages: honour God by resting in him, please him by being well pleased in him. Having received so much from him, let us own that we have enough in him, and that we can go nowhere but to him with any hopes of satisfaction. Lord, whither shall we go? He has the words of eternal life.

"I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." (verse 9.) A holy life, though it cannot profit God, yet glorifies him; and therefore it is insisted upon as a necessary return for the favours we have received from God. While I am here in the land of the living, I will walk by faith, having mine eyes ever towards the Lord, to see him as he reveals himself, hoping that shortly in that land above, which is truly the land of the living, I shall walk by sight, having mine eyes ever upon the Lord, to see him as he is. God has here sealed to be to me a God all-sufficient: here therefore I seal to him, according to the tenor of the covenant, that, his grace enabling me, I will "walk before him and be upright."

"I will pay my vows unto the Lord." (ver. 14, 18.) Those that receive the blessings of the covenant, must be willing, not only to come, but always to abide under the bonds of the covenant. Here we must make vows, and then go away and make them good. More of this in the next chapter.

DIRECTIONS CONCERNING THE SOLEMN VOWS WE ARE TO MAKE TO GOD IN THIS ORDINANCE.

Four reasons why, at the Lord's Supper, we must make vows. I. We must, by solemn vows, bind ourselves up from all sin; largely opened in five things. II. We must bind ourselves up to all duty. To the duties of religion in general; opened in four things. To some duties of religion especially; opened in four things. Duties which we have most neglected, which we have experienced most benefit by, which we have most opportunity for; and the duties of our respective callings and relations.

A RELIGIOUS Vow is a bond upon the soul; so it is described, Numb. xxx. 2, where he that vows a vow unto the Lord, is said thereby to bind his soul with a bond. It is a solemn promise, by which we voluntarily oblige ourselves to God and duty, as a "willing people in the day of his power." The cords of a man, and bonds of love, wherewith God draws us and holds us to himself, call upon us by our own act and deed to bind ourselves; and these vows also are cords of a man, for they are highly reasonable; and bonds of love, for to the renewed soul they are an easy yoke, and a light burden.

From all the other parts of our work at the Lord's table, we may infer that this is one part of it: we must there make solemn vows to God, that we will diligently and faithfully serve him.

We are here to renew our repentance for sin, and it becomes penitents to make vows. When we profess ourselves sorry for what we have done amiss, it is very natural and necessary to add, that we will not offend any more as we have done; "if I have done iniquity, I will do so no more." We mock God when we say we repent that we have done foolishly, if we do not at the same time resolve that we will never return again to folly. Times of affliction are proper times to make vows; and what is repentance but self-affliction? Trouble for sin was not the