Where the affections are thus gained over, the other sublime faculties follow of course. The contrariety of the will is broken, and made to bend in submission to the divine will. Reason resigns its pretensions to the sacred authority of revelation; and the intellectual powers are extricated from the teeming darkness of nature, and brought, by the irradiating spirit, into the bright regions of light and liberty. And the memory is so sanctified as to become the faithful repository of sacred truth. Conscience is reinstated in her viceregency in the soul; and being cleansed by the blood of Christ from the guilt and pollution of sin, establishes peace in the heart, and pours the balm of pardoning love into all its wounds. All the passions are made the willing captives of the prince of peace; and instead of rending the heart with their impetuous and clashing propensities, unite in forming concord and harmony there, by exerting their respective powers in subordination to the grace of God. Thus fear, joy, desire, hope, anger, sorrow, hatred, are no longer so many noxious springs fraught with impoisoned waters, but convey to the heart, in their respective streams, the health and purity which they have derived from the fountain of life. Those things are dreaded, which had been once pursued with eagerness. Indignation burns against once beloved idols; and affection fixes on objects, that had formerly been rejected with scorn and contempt. The heart weeps over what it once rejoiced in; and bleeds at the remembrance of those things, which, but lately, perhaps, were the spring of all its shallow and unholy mirth. Objects are now desired insatiably, for which the heart never before panted, and upon which the mind never bestowed one serious thought. Instead of living under the anguish of worldly disappointments, hope now plumes her golden wing, and stretches with a nobler flight towards the confines of a glorious eternity; leaves the sordid trash of earth below, and soars in joyful anticipation of heavenly realities. The slavish fear of the creature gives place to the filial fear of God; and he who was awed by the frown of a worm like himself, now reveres the great Omnipotent, who hath power to destroy both body and soul in hell. The love of the world is expelled by the love of Jesus; and the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, all lose their charms, or rather appear infinitely odious, when compared with even the reproach of the cross, much more when contrasted with the happy prospect of a crown of glory. The “sorrow of the world, which worketh death,” is exchanged for that godly sorrow, which worketh repentance unto life; and “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” succeeds the bitterness of conviction of sin, and brings a foretaste of heaven. God, whom the heart once hated, and the sinner shunned, is contemplated in all his august and amiable perfections, with delight and wonder; while the humble believer, enraptured with a view of him as reconciled to him in the Son of his love, gives vent to the fulness of his heart in the most glowing effusions of gratitude and astonishment.
“—Thou my All!
My theme! my inspiration! and my crown!
My strength in age! My rise in low estate!
My soul’s ambition! pleasure! wealth! my world!
My light in darkness! and my life in death!
My boast thro’ time! bliss thro’ eternity!
Eternity, too short to speak thy praise,
Or fathom thy profound of love to man!
To man, of men the meanest, ev’n to me!
My sacrifice! My God!—What things are these!”Young.
3. An outward evidence that the heart is given to God, appears in the habitual consecration of the corporeal faculties, of time, health, fortune, family, &c. to the honor of God.
As in every science some first rudiments or primary principles must precede the attainment of complete knowledge; and in every structure a foundation must be well chosen for the security of what is to rest upon it; so, in the great concerns of religion, some permanent principles must be rooted in the heart, before the sacred superstructure of holiness and righteousness can be reared in the life. Where the former are implanted, the latter will follow of course; as a good tree in a rich soil will necessarily produce good fruit. But this fertilization produced in the heart is the effect, not of natural goodness, but of efficacious grace. When, therefore, the citadel is stormed and taken, the outworks fall with it, in consequence. So that, as soon as the heart is given to God, outward fruits appear in the conversation; without which, nothing can be more fallacious or fatal than the most towering profession. And, therefore, in the clause that stands in immediate connexion with the text, it is added, “And let thine eyes observe my ways.” For, “if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” 2 Cor. v. 17. The conversation takes a new turn; and pure words and true, issue from that mouth which was once filled with malice, blasphemies, and uncleanness. The feet are swift to bear the renewed sinner to the house of God, which once carried him to the haunts of the profane. Health is no longer consumed in the service of sin; nor time wasted on the egregious follies of pleasure and dissipation. The body, once a co-partner with the soul in rebellion against God, is now the sacred temple of his in-dwelling Spirit; and all the members are now “yielded as servants to righteousness unto holiness.” Rom. vi. 19. And the principles, which lead to this universal dedication, are arguments of its genuineness, while they provide for its permanency: which reminds me of the second general head, under which I proposed considering,
II. The manner or temper, which should actuate us in making the surrender of all we have and are to the glory of God.
1. This great affair should be done solemnly. If reciprocal acts of covenant and amity among the children of men, require deliberation, and are executed in a manner the most serious and binding, where only temporal inheritances or transitory engagements are concerned; how much more deliberate and solemn should that act be, whereby the soul maintains an intercourse with the awful Majesty of Heaven, and soul and body, with their respective functions, are surrendered to the service of the Most High for ever! in which God is chosen as the soul’s portion, and every thing is to be sacrificed to his injunctions, or given up to his care and guardianship! O with what profound reverence and self-abnegation should we make the tender of our hearts to Him, when his majesty, or our vileness, is considered. “Commune with your own heart, therefore, and in your chamber,” about this solemn act, and “pay thy vows unto the Most High.” Count the cost of surrendering your heart to him; since, without due reflection, you may be disappointed and basely retract, when you hear that unless you deny yourself, and take up your cross, you cannot be his disciple.
2. No reserve must enter into any act of dedication to God; much less into that, by which we restore him his own property. He is a jealous God, and will have the whole heart or none. He cannot, he will not bear a rival. He must have the pre-eminence in the affections. A divided heart is his abomination. Remember how the Lord’s anger was kindled against Saul, because, when commanded to destroy the Amalekites, “he spared Agag and the best of the sheep, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them.” 1 Sam. xv. 9. And ponder well the case of the rich young man, in the gospel, who approached the Lord Jesus with a seeming desire to give him his heart, but “went away sorrowful,” when Jesus insisted on the sacrifice of his bosom sin, and recommended the utility of taking up the cross. It was upon that memorable occasion, that our Lord said, “A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven,” Mat. xix. 23; that is, the difficulty of entering heaven is great to all who have riches, and rises to an impossibility, where they are trusted in, and idolized. And the case is the same in every circumstance, where the heart is divided between any thing and God. So that, if there be a competitor within, that shares your affections, so as to rob Jesus of his prerogative over them, be assured you are yet in “the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.” And the idol, whether it be the love of pleasure, or profit, or honor, or self, must be pulled down, or it will dethrone Christ, and ruin your immortal souls.
3. The heart should be given up cheerfully. In every offering presented to God, it is required, that we should not “give grudgingly or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.” 2 Cor. ix. 7. This is a requisition more especially important, when the heart is the gift, and God the receiver. Why should we hesitate or grudge to give him his own? Instead, therefore, of entertaining one repining thought at the idea, we should rather rejoice that we have hearts to give the Lord, and that he is so condescending as to take them at our hands. Mark with what readiness and vivacity the sensualist and the pleasure-taker devote their time and affections to pursuits of the most trifling and sordid nature. These poor deluded idolizers of a perishing world, think no time too long, and no pains too great, though exhausted in a service that is perfect bondage. They want no arguments to enforce conformity to the world, neither is the smallest compulsion necessary to drive them to their pleasures. Self-gratification is a sufficient inducement. Earthly things have an irresistible attraction. The current of their affections carries them away with an impetuous tide; and they glide swiftly and cheerfully along, though the objects of their false felicity are empty and precarious as the bubble, and the deceitful stream is wafting them with a rapid but imperceptible course, to the gulf of ruin. And shall these infatuated triflers be such willing slaves of Satan, such cheerful devotees to folly? and we engage in the service of the blessed Jesus, with reluctance or reserve? Shall they give the world and its God their whole hearts? and we divide ours with Him, who made them and redeemed them? Shall they fly, when dissipation solicits, and amusements call? and shall we creep, when the God of love cries “Follow me?” Forbid it gratitude, devotion, and common sense! Rather may we say, “Thine we are, Lord, by ties the most sacred, and obligations the most binding, and thou shalt have our whole hearts; for, thou art worthy!” And, in order to prevail on you to do this, give me leave to urge those,
III. Motives, which ought to prompt our compliance with the reasonable demand in the text. Now, these are founded upon the state of the human heart by nature—the many mercies we receive from God, the uncertainty of time, and the great danger of procrastination—and the nature of Him, who makes the demand.
1. If the heart were now in its primeval state of rectitude and purity, the requisitions of its attachment and obedience would be superfluous. But as it is very far gone from original righteousness, and estranged from its great original of blessedness and perfection; the effaced characters of holiness and purity must be restored by the agency of the Holy Ghost; and the foul stain of sin expunged by the blood of Jesus. Hence, the scriptures so strongly insist upon the necessity of “a new heart and a right spirit,” Psal. li. because the natural heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Jer. xvii. 9. And, as the same infallible authority declares, that “except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven,” John, iii. 3, see the important necessity of that great change, and of the act of voluntary surrender, by which it takes place. If you wish that obduracy, which steels them both against threatenings and promises, softened; and that corruption, which makes your hearts naturally the sink of sin, pardoned and subdued, you must give them to Jesus, for these great purposes. Fancy not that any power of the creature is sufficient to accomplish this. Sad experience may teach you the contrary. Therefore, until your heart be given to God, the fountain being evil, the streams must be so of course. So that, all your thoughts, words, and actions, like the foul exhalations that ascend from a stagnated and putrid lake, must partake of the polluted source, from whence they rise, and be infinitely odious in the sight of the Lord. And sooner shall God cease to be, or his word fail in its accomplishment, than any sinner, with an unchanged heart, shall enter his kingdom.