d the charge preferred
against some who, either by neglecting the duty of vowing to God, or by
disregarding their solemn obligations, voluntarily accepted, had sinned
so as to have it said of them, "Their heart was not right with him,
neither were they steadfast in his covenant."[249] The Apostle does not
mean less than that there should not merely be an acknowledgment of
incumbent obligations to serve God, but, by the exercise of Covenanting,
a strengthening of engagements to duties specified, when he says,
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour
is not in vain in the Lord."[250] And the Covenant engagements of those
faithful servants who, having improved the talents committed to them by
their Lord, were commended of him, are a pattern for all. Being
servants, they were engaged by Covenant to obey him. That they should
occupy till he would come, they had therefore solemnly promised. Others,
who are denominated citizens, hated him, and sent a message after him,
saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. These had either
refused to Covenant to obey him, or had promised to him deceitfully.
Their end was destruction. It was not merely because that the faithful
servants performed the service laid upon them, but because that they had
engaged to do it, and while others declared their resolution to rebel,
kept their promise of fidelity, that they were ultimately approved. As
their obedience without their engagement would have been deficient, so
the use of every talent committed to man is insufficient without the
exercise of vowing that use; and equally with the one is the other
required.[251]

All such vows are widely different from those restraints which have no
higher recommendation than human authority. "Popish monastic vows of
perpetual single life, professed poverty, and regular obedience, are so
far from being degrees of higher perfection, that they are superstitious
and sinful snares, in which no Christian may entangle himself."[252] The
latter are countenanced by no class of vows lawfully made, either in Old
Testament times or in a later period. The vows of the Nazarite were
dutiful under the former dispensation. There is no good ground for the
statement made in reference to that class of vows, that "they are merely
arbitrary, prior to the making of them." Had not Providence, by the
light of the word, with a pr