No man has a right to
refuse to do so. It is our duty to serve God. It is our duty to promise
to serve him. In certain cases, it is our duty to vow and swear to serve
him. What it is our duty to do, it is our duty to engage by Covenant
with Him to do. If men neither serve God nor vow to serve him, they are
chargeable with two classes of sins;--that of disregarding the duty of
Covenanting with God,--and that of refusing to perform duties, one of
which is the performance of that exercise. If men vow to serve God, but
do it not, they greatly sin; being chargeable with an omission of duty,
in one case at least, they have rebelled. If they do not vow to serve
God, whatever may be the nature of their obedience, that, by being
deficient as to Covenanting, is imperfect. To hope to be more safe from
condemnation by not vowing than by vowing, is to cherish a love to sin,
and to betray the workings of a heart which regards not how God may be
dishonoured, provided the sinner can escape with impunity. They who vow
and swear falsely, or who perform not their oath, are exposed to an
appalling curse; but dreadful also is the condemnation that hangs over
those who vow not, because they do not desire to pay. All who love the
Lord, desire to show to the utmost that they delight to honour him. In
order to direct and encourage them to do so, he has vouchsafed the
institutions of his house; and among them, the exercise of Covenanting,
as enjoined on all by his high authority, and engaging the observance of
his people, stands acknowledged an Ordinance of God.

FOOTNOTES:

[171] Ps. cxi. 9.

[172] Ps. xcv. 3, 6, 7.

[173] Deut. x. 14, 17, 20.

[174] Ps. xiv. 10, 11.

[175] Mat. x. 32, 33. See also v. 25.

[176] Rom. iv. 9, 10, 11.

[177] 1 Chron. xvi. 13.

[178] 2 Cor. viii. 5.

[179] 1 Thess. i. 9.

[180] Ps. cxvi. 16.

[181] Rev. xvii. 14.

[182] Isa. lv. 3, 4.

[183] Ps. v. 2.

[184] 1 Chron. xxix. 24. Literally, _gave the hand under_.

[185] Jer. vii. 23.

[186] Ps. xxxi. 14.

[187] Exod. iii. 12.

[188] 2 Chron. xxx. 8.

[189] Rom, xii. 1.

[190] Rev. xv. 3.

[191] Col. i. 18.

[192] Mat. xiii. 8-10.

[193] Ezek. xxxvii. 22.

[194] Ezek. xxxvii. 25.

[195] Jos. xxiv. 14-23.

[196] 1 Cor. x. 31.

[197] Ps. xxii. 23-25.

[198] Jer. ii. 31.

[199] Exod. xxiii. 33.

[200] 2 Cor. vi. 14-18.

[201] Deut. xxiii. 22.

[202] Eccles. v. 5.

[203] Deut. vi. 13.

[204] Deut. x. 20.

[205] Jer.