on. To avow the
resolution, to abandon the service of satan and to fight under the
banner of Christ, is an exercise that entails momentous consequences.
And corresponding to its importance should be the fixedness of heart
called to its performance. In it a solemn attestation and adherence to a
choice of God as a Lord and Master, is made before him. Joshua's
patriotic and pious address at Shechem was delivered, not that Israel
should all choose God as if none of them had chosen him before, but that
those who had not cleaved to his Covenant should then cleave to it, and
that those who had taken hold upon it before, should again adhere to it.
He said, "If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this
day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served 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." And all attempting such an exercise, should possess a devotedness
such as that evinced by the answer returned by the people,--"God forbid
that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods, for the Lord our
God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of
Egypt, from the house of bondage."[133]

Fourthly. Covenanting should be engaged in with sincerity, and with a
resolution to perform the engagement made. Dreadful are the
denunciations uttered against such as swear falsely. The Lord swears in
truth: he will not turn from it. And how daring on the part of any is it
to swear falsely in making a covenant! In an oath given falsely, God is
defied, his power to punish is challenged, and the stroke of his
indignation is impiously invoked to descend upon the guilty juror's
head. "If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid
upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in
this house: then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants,
condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying
the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness."[134] The
people of God swear, "The Lord liveth," in truth, in righteousness, and
in judgment. With David they can declare, "I have sworn, and I will
perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments."[135] Each of them
may be denominated, "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who
hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."[136]
And firm will be their purpo