Joshua 23:8,9

Cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day.

The necessity of every one’s cleaving to God who wishes well to the support of his country

I. Sin has naturally in itself a tendency to the ruin of any nation. We may easily see that when a people grow regardless of the laws of God they want the greatest obligations of obedience to the laws of men.

II. Sin makes god an enemy. God presides with a peculiar providence over societies and communities of men. We may learn from the history of all past ages and the frequent smart of our own that the government of God is ever administered according to the nature of men’s actions; that He dispenses His favour to a people, or withdraws it from them, as virtue or vice, religion or impiety, respectively prevail among them. But perhaps it may be said by some who are ready to impute all successes to themselves, “What need we to call in Providence in all difficulties?” Now this, give me leave to prove more particularly, by considering those three main props on which the weight of states and empires may seem to them, who look not far into things and their causes, wholly to rely; that is, worldly providence, or policy in contriving; courage and force in executing great designs; and a wise improvement of both these, by firm and well-grounded confederacies. But alas! in these, barely considered, there can be no safety, because no human foresight can reach those many accidents, the least of which may alter the best-laid counsels; nor any human courage, though never so well seconded, be sure to execute them, since the very execution of them is attended with so many circumstances as may produce effects quite different from what they proposed.

III. The obligation, which lies on everybody who loves his country to do his duty to god, from which such universal virtue and piety will result, as will most certainly engage god on our sloe.

1. That all national favours flow purely from God, I will presume has been sufficiently proved, as being beyond the single or united force of human policy, courage, or the firmest alliances: if so, what is it more than our bounden duty, and justice, to acknowledge unfeignedly the gift to God, who desires no more for the giving it? He is not bettered by our thanksgivings, yet is pleased with the gratitude.

2. We ought to break off the course of those sins which will estrange God from us, and deprive us hereafter of all such extraordinary successes. (Bp. Trelawney.)

Religious stability enforced

I. THE duty the text recommends. Cleaving unto the Lord evidently implies--

1. Previous union with Him.

2. Faithful adherence to Him. Our religion must be uniform and constant; we must not only come to the Lord as humble penitents, but also adhere to Him as His indefatigable servants.

(1) We should cleave to His name; as the fountain of all goodness, from whom we receive every blessing; and therefore should continue to love, obey, hope, and trust in Him, as the God of our salvation (Isaiah 12:2; Habakkuk 3:18).

(2) We should cleave to His Word; by faithfully reading its contents, imbibing its doctrines, obeying its precepts, and by making it the perpetual subject of our meditation and prayers, and the infallible rule of our faith and conduct (Psalms 119:18; Psalms 119:148; John 5:39; 2 Timothy 3:16).

(3) We should cleave to His ways; by diligently discharging all personal and relative duties, constantly attending all the means of grace, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, and by “walking in all the commandments and ordinances blameless.”

(4) We should cleave to Him at all times: in prosperity and adversity, in tribulation and distress, in health and affliction, in life and death; implicitly trusting “in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

II. The importance the text involves. This evidently appears, both from the solemnity of the occasion on which it was delivered, and the fervency of the manner in which it was urged on the tribes of Israel.

1. This duty is reasonable (John 6:67; Romans 12:1).

2. This duty is honourable. Instability in religion is peculiarly disgraceful (2 Peter 2:20). It is extremely weak and childish, and should be carefully avoided, as displeasing to God, and dishonourable to our holy profession (Ephesians 4:14).

3. This duty is profitable. It is only by cleaving unto the Lord that we can maintain personal piety, overcome our enemies, encounter difficulties, rejoice evermore, triumph over death, and “lay hold on eternal life” (Deuteronomy 4:3; Psalms 57:7; 2 Timothy 4:7).

4. This duty is indispensable. Final perseverance is necessary to final salvation. He only that “endures to the end shall be saved” (1 Corinthians 15:2; Romans 2:7; 2 Peter 1:10).

III. The motives to this duty. (Sketches Four Hundred Sermons.)