Instructions for Renewing Our Covenants with God in Our Preparation for This Ordinance

It is the wonderful condescension of the God of heaven, that he hath been pleased to deal with man in the way of a covenant, that, on the one hand, we might receive strong consolations from the promises of the covenant, which are very sweet and precious; and, on the other hand, might lie under strong obligations from the conditions of the covenant, which, on this account, have greater cogency in them than mere precept, that we ourselves have occasioned to them, and that we have therein consulted our own interest and advantage.

The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, being a seal of the covenant, and the solemn exchanging of the ratifications of it, it is necessary we make the covenant before we pretend to seal it. In this order, therefore, we nmst proceed, first give the hand to the Lord, and then enter into the sanctuary; first in secret consent to the covenant, and then solemnly testify that consent: this is like a contract before marriage. They that “ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, must join themselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant.” The covenant is mutual, and in vain do we expect the blessings of the covenant, if we be not truly willing to come under the bonds of the covenant. We must “enter into covenant with the Lord our God, and into his oath;” else he doth not “establish us this day for a people unto himself” We are not owned and accepted as God’s people, though we “come before him as his people come,” and sit before him as his people sit, if we do not in sincerity “avouch the Lord for our God.” In our baptism this was done for us, in the Lord’s Supper we must do it for ourselves, else we do nothing.

Let us consider then, in what method, and after what manner, we must manage this great transaction.

First, In what method v.e must renew our covenant Vv’ith God in Christ, and by what steps we must proceed.

I. We must repent of our sins, by wliicli we have rca- (lered ourselves unworthy to be taken into covenant with God. Those that would be exalted to this honour, must first humble themselves. “God laye’Ji his beam in the waters.” The foundations of spiritual joy are laid in the waters of penitential tears, therefore this sealing ordinance sets that before us, which is proper to move our godly sorrow: in it we look on him whom we have pierced, and if we do not mourn, “Sand be not in bitterness for him, surely “our hearts are as hard as a stone, yea, harder than a piece of the nether milUtone.”’ Those that join themselves to the Lord, must go weeping to do it: so they did — “In thoeo days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Juduh together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, saying. Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” That comfort is likely to last, which takes rise from deep humiliation, and contrition of soul for sin. Those only that go forth weeping, bearing this precious seed, shall come again rejoicing in God as theirs, and bring the sheaves of covenant blessings and comforts with them. Let us therefore begin with this:

1. We have reason to bewail our natural estrangement from this covenant. When we come to be for God, we have reason to be affected with sorrow and shame, that ever we were for any other; that ever there should have been occasion for our reconciliation to God, which supposeth that there hath been a quarrel. Wretch that I am, ever to have been a stranger, an enemy to the God that made me, at war with my Creator, and in league with the rebels against his crown and dignity? O the folly, and wickedness, and misery of my natural estate! My fir’^t father an Amorite, and my mother a Ilittite, and myself a transgressor from the womb, alienated from the life of God, and cast out in my pollution. Nothing in me lovely, nothing amiable, but a great deal loathsome and abominable. Such as this was my nativity, my original.

2. We have reason to bewail our backwardness to come i;ito this covenant. Well may we be ashamed to think how long God called, and we refused; how oft he stretched forth his hand before we regarded; how many offers of mercy we shghted, and against how many kind invitations we stood out; how long Christ stood at the door and knocked before we opened to him; and how many frivolous excuses we made to put off this necessary work. What a fool was I to stand in my own light so long? How ungrateful to the God of love, who waited to be gracious? How justly might I have been for ever excluded from this covenant, who so long neglected that great salvation? Wherefore I abhor myself

3. We have reason to bewail the inconsistency of our hearts and lives to the terms of this covenant, since first we professed our consent to it. In many instances we have dealt foolishly, it is well if we have not dealt falsely in the covenant. In our baptism we were given up to Christ to be his, but we have lived as if we were our own; we then put on the Christian livery, but we have done little of the Christian’s work; we were called by Christ’s name to take away our reproach, but how little have we been under the conduct and government of the Spirit of Christ? Since we became capable of acting for ourselves, perhaps we have oft renewed our covenant with God, at his table, and upon other occasions; but we have despised the oath, “in breaking the covenant, when lo we had given the hand.” Our performances have not answered the engagements we have solemnly laid ourselves under. Did we not say, and say it with the blood of Christ in our hands, that we would be the fiiithful servants of the God of heaven? We did; and yet instead of serving God, we have served divers lusts and pleasures, we have made ourselves slaves to the fesh, and drudges to the world’, and this “hath been our manner from our youth up.” Did we not say, “we would not transgress, we would not offend any more?” We did, and yet “our transgressions are multiplied, and in many things we offend daily.” Did we not say, we would walk more closely with God, more circumspectly in our conversation, we would be better in our closets, better in our families, better in our callings, every way better? We did, and yet we are still vain and careless, and unprofitable; all those good purposes have been to little purpose; this is a lamentation, and should be for a lamentation. Let our hearts be truly broken for our former breach of covenant with God, and then the renewing of our covenant will be the recovery of our peace, and that which was broken shall be bound up, and made to rejoice.

II. We must renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, and every thing that stands in opposition to, or competition with the God to whom we join ourselves by covenant. If we will indeed deal sincerely in our covenanting with God, and would be accepted of him therein, our ‘^ covenant with death must be disannulled, and our agreement with hell must not stand.’ All these foolish, sinful agreements, which were indeed null and void from the beginning, by which we had alienated ourselves from our rightful owner, and put ourselves in possession of the usurper, must be revoked and cancelled, and our consent to them drawn back with disdain and abhorrence. When we take an oath of allegiance to God and Christ as our rightful king and sovereign, we must herein adjure the tyranny of the rebellious and rival powers. “O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us,” while tsin hath reigned in our mortal bodies, in our immortal souls, and every lust hath been a Lord; but now we are weary of that heavy yoke, and through God’s grace it shall be so no longer; for, from henceforth, “by thee only will we make mention of thy name.”

The covenant into which we ire to enter is a marriage covenant, ‘* thy Maker is to be thv husband,” and thou art to be betrothed to him: and it is the ancient and fundamental law of that covenant, that all other lovers be renounced, all other beloved ones forsaken, and the same is the law of this covenant: “Thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee.” Quitting all others, we must cleave to the Lord only; lovers and crowned heads will not endure rivals; on these terms, and no other, we may covenant with God: “If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods, and Ashtaroth,” else it is not a return to God.

1. We must renounce all subjection to Satan’s rule and government. Satan’s seat must be overturned in our hearts, and the Redeemer’s throne set up there upon the ruins of it. We must disclaim the devil’s power over us, cast off that iron yoke, and resolve to be deceived by him no more, and led captive by him at his v;ill no more. We must quit the service of the citizen of that country, and feed his sv.ine no longer, feed upon his husks no more, that we may return to cur father’s house, where there is bread enough and to spare. We must renounce the treacherous conduct of the evil spirit, that we may put ourselves under the guidance of the holy and good Spirit. All that turn to God, must turn from the power of Satan; lor what communion hath Christ with Belial. Our covenant with God engageth us in a war with Satan; for the controversy between them is such as will by no means allow us to stand neutral.

2. We must renounce all compliance with the wills and interests of the flesh. The body, though near and dear to the soul, yet must not be allowed to have dominion over it. The liberty, sovereignty, and honour of the immortal spirit, by which we vere allied to the upper world; that world of spirits must be asserted, vindicated, and maintained against the usurpation and encroachments of the body, which is of the earth earthly, and by which we are allied to the breasts that perish. The elder too long hath served the younger, the nobler hath served the baser; it is time that the yoke should be broken from off its neck, and that that part of the man should rule under Christ, whose right it is. The servants on horseback must be dismounted, the lust of the flesh denied, and its will no longer admitted to give lav*’ to the man; and the princes who have walked like servants upon the earth, must be raised from the dunghill, and made to inherit the throne of glory; the dictates, T mean of right reason, guided by revelation, and consulting the true interest of the better part, must have the commanding sway and empire in us. We must never more make it our chief good to have the flesh pleased, and the desires of it gratified, nor ever make it our chief business to make provision for the flesh, that we may fulfil the lusts of it. Away with them, away with them; crucify them, crucify them; for, like Barabbas, they are robbers, they are murderers, they are enemies to our peace.

We will not have them to reign over us; no, no, we know them too well; we have no king but Jesus.

3. We must renounce all dependance upon this present world, and conformity to it. If we enter into a covenant which ensures us a happiness in the other world, on which we look with a holy concern, we must disclaim the expectations of happiness in this world, and therefore look upon this with a holy contempt. God and mammon, God and gain, these are contrary the one to the other. So that if we will be found loving God, and cleaving to him, we must despise the world, and sit loose to that. We must so far renounce the way of the world, as not to govern ourselves by that, and take our principles and measures from it; for we must not be “conformed to this word,” nor “walk according to the course of it.” We must so far renounce the men of the world, as not to incorporate ourselves with them, nor choose them for our people; because, though we are in the world, we are not of the world, nor have we received the spirit of the world, but Christ hath chosen and called us out of it. We must so far renounce the wealth of the world, as not to portion ourselves out of it, nor lay up our treasure in it; nor to take up with the things of this world, as our good things, as our consolation, as our reward, as the penny we agree for. For in God’s favour is our life, and not in the smiles of this world. The Lord make us cordial in thus renouncing these competitors, that we may be found sincere in covenanting with God in the Lord Jesus Christ!

in. We must receive the Lord Jesus Christ, as he is offered to us in the gospel. In renewing our covenants with God, it is not enough to enter our dissent from the world and the flesh, and to shake off Satan’s yoke, but we must enter our consent to Christ, and take upon us his yoke. In the everlasting gospel, both as it is written in the Scripture, and as it is sealed in this sacrament, salvation by Christ, that great salvation, is fairly tendered to us who need it and are undone for ever without it. te then come into covenant with God, when we accept of this salvation, with an entire complacency and confidence in those methods which infinite wisdom hath taken, of reconciling a gudty and obnoxious world to himself by the mediation of his own Son, and a cheerful compliance with those methods for ourselves and our own salvation. — Lord, I take thee at thy word: be it unto thy servant according to that word, which is so well ordered in all things, and so sure!

We must accept the salvation in Christ’s way, and upon his terms, else our acceptance is not accepted.

By a hearty consent to the grace of Christ, we must accept the salvation in his own way, in such a way as for ever excludes boasting, humbles man to the dust, and will admit no flesh to glory in his presence; such a way as, though it leaves the blood of them that perish upon their own heads, yet lays all the crowns of them that are saved at the feet of free grace. This method we must approve of, and love this salvation; not going about to establish our own righteousness, as if, by pleading not guilty, we could answer the demands of the covenant of innocency, and so be justified and saved by that, — but submitting “to the righteousness of God by faith.” All the concerns that lie between us and God, we must put into the hands of the Lord Jesus, as the great Mediator, the great manager; we must be content to be nothing, that the Lord alone may be exalted, and Christ may be all in all. God hath declared more than once by a voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” To consent to Christ’s grace, and accept of salvation in his way, is to echo back that solemn declaration, — This is my beloved Saviour in whom I am well pleased: the Lord will be pleased with me in him; for out of him I can expect no favour.

By a hearty consent to the government of Christ, we must accept the salvation on his Own terms. When we receive Christ, we must receive an entire Christ; for, “is Christ divided V A Christ to sanctify and rule us, as well as a Christ to justify and save us; for he is a priest upon his throne, and the council of peace is between them both. What God has joined together, let us not think to put asunder. He saves his people from their sins, not in their sins; and is the author of eternal redemption to those only that ol)ey him. That very “grace of God which bringeth salvation, teacheth us to deny ungodliness, and worldly and fleshly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this world.” Life and peace are to be had on these terms, and on no other; and are we willing to come up to these terms? Will we receive Christ and his law, as well as Christ and his love? Christ and his cross as well as Christ and his crown? Lord, I will, saith the believing: soul; Lord, I do. “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” to all the intents and purposes of the covenant.

IV. We must resign and give up ourselves to God in Christ.-r — God in our covenant makes over not only his gifts and favours, but himself to us: “I will be to them a God.” What he is in himself, he will be to us a God all-sufficient: so we in the covenant must offer up, not only our services, but ourselves; our own selves, body, soul, and spirit, to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, according to the obligations of our baptism, as those that are bound to be to him a people. This surrender is to be solemnly made at the Lord’s table, and sealed there; it must therefore be prepared and made ready before. Let us see to it, that it be carefully drawn up without exception or limitation, and the heart examined, whether a free and full consent be given to it. We must first give our own selves unto the Lord, and I know not how we can dispose of ourselves better. By the mercies of God, which are inviting, and very encouraging, we must be wrought upon to present our bodies and souls to God a living sacrifice of acknowledgment, not a dying sacrifice of atonement; which, if it be holy, shall be acceptable, and it is our reasonable service. Thus he that covenants with God, is directed to say, ‘’ I am the Lord’s, and for the greater solemnity of the transaction, to subscribe with his hand unto the Lord.” Not that we do, or can hereby transfer or convey to God any right to us which he had not before. He is our absolute Lord and owner, and hath an incontestible sovereignty over us and propriety in us, as he is our Creator, Preserver, Benefactor and Redeemer; but hereby we recognize and acknowledge his right to us. We are his already by obligation, more his than our own; but, that we may have the benefit and comfort of being so, we must be his by our own consent. More particularly,

1. To resign ourselves to God, is to “dedicate and devote ourselves to his praise.” It is not enough to call ourselves by his name, and associate ourselves with those that do so, to take away our reproach; but we must consecrate ourselves to his name, as living temples. It is a gift, a gift to God; all I am, all I have, all 1 can do is so; it is a dedicated thing, which it is sacrilege to alienate. All the powers and fliculties of our souls, all the parts and members of our bodies, we must, as those that are alive from the dead, freely yield unto God as instruments of righteousness, to be used and employed in his service for his glory. All our endowments, all our attainments, all those things we call accomplishments, must be accounted as talents, w hich we must trade with for his honour. All being of him and from him, all must be to him and for him. Our tongues must not be our own, but his in nothing to offend him, but to speak his praise, and plead his cause, as there is occasion. Our time not our own, but as a servant’s time, to be spent according to our Master’s directions, and some way or other to our Master’s glory, every day being in this sense our Lord’s day. Our estates not our own, to be spent or spared by the direction of our lusts, but to be used as God directs: “God must be honoured with our substance” — “And our merchandise and our hire must be holiness to the Lord.” Our interest not our own, with it to seek our own glory, but to be improved in seeking and serving God’s glory; that is, God’s glory must be fixed and aimed at as our highest and ultimate end, in all the care we take about our employments, and all the comforts we take in our enjoyments. “As good stewards of the manifold grace of God,” we must have this still in our eye, “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” By this pious attention common actions must be sanctified, and done “after a godly sort.” Our giving up ourselves to be to God a people, is thus explained: “To be to him for a name and for a praise, and for a glory.”

2. To resign ourselves to God, “is to subject and submit ourselves to his power;” to the sanctifying power of his Spirit, the commanding power of his law, and the disposing power of his providence. Such as this is the subjection to which we must consent, and it hath in it so much of privilege and advantage, as well as duty and service, that we have no reason to stumble at it.

lt, We must submit ourselves to the sanctifying power of God’s Spirit. — We must lay our souls as soft wax under this seal, to receive the impressions of it; as white paper under this pen, that it may write the law there. Whereas, we have resisted the Holy Ghost, quenched his motions, and striven against him when he hath been striving with us, we must now yield ourselves to be led and influenced by him, with full purpose of heart in every thing to follow his conduct, and comply with him. When Christ in his gospel breathes on us, saying, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” my heart must answer, “Lord I receive him,” I bid him welcome into my heart; though he come as a spirit of judgment, and a spirit of burning, as a refiner’s fire, and fuller’s soap, yet “blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Let him come and mortify my lusts and corruptions, I do not desire that any of them should be spared; let them die, let them die by the sword of the Spirit, Agag himself not excepted, though he comes delicately. Let every thought within me, even the inward thought, “be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Let the blessed Spirit do his whole work in me, and fulfil it with an almighty power.

2d, We must submit ourselves to the commanding power of God’s law. The law, as it is in the hand of the Mediator, is God’s instrument of government; if I yield myself to him as a subject, I must in every thing be observant of, and obedient to, that law; and now I covenant to be so, in all my way to walk according to that rule; all my thoughts and affections, all my words and actions, shall be under the direction of the divine law, and subject to its check and restraint. God’s judgments will I lay before me, and have respect to all his commandments; by them I -will always be ruled, over-ruled. “Let the word of the Lord come,” as a good man once said, “and if I had six hundred necks, I would bow them all to the authority of it.” Whatever appears to me to be my duty, by the grace of God I will do it, how much soever it interfere with my secular interest; whatever appears to me to be a sin, by the grace of God I will avoid it, and refrain from it, how strong soever my corrupt inclination may be to it: “All that the Lord shall say to me, I will do, and will be obedient.”

3d, We must submit ourselves to the disposing power of God’s providence. This must be the rule of our patience and passive obedience, as the former of our practice and active obedience. All my aifairs relating to this life, I cheerfully submit to the divine disposal; let them be directed and determined as infinite wisdom sees fit, and I will acquiesce. Let the Lord save my soul, and then as to every thing else, “let him do with me and mine as seemeth good unto him;” I will never find fault with any thing that God doth. “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” I know I have no wisdom of my own; I am a fool, if I lean to my own understanding; and therefore I will have no will of my own: “Father, thy will be done.” The health of my body, the success of my calling, the prosperity of my estate, the agreeableness of my family, the continuance of my comforts, and the issue of any particular concern, my hearts is open, I leave in the hands of my heavenly Father, who knows what is good for me, better than I do for myselfi If in any of these I be crossed, by the grace of God I will. submit without murmuring or disputing. All is well that God doth, and therefore welcome the will of God in every event; while he is mine and I am his, nothing shall come amiss to me.

V. We must resolve to abide by it as long as we live, and to live up to it. In our covenanting with God, there must be, not only a present consent, Lord, I do take thee for mine, I do give up myself to thee, to be thine, — but this must be ripened into a resolution for the future, “with purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord.” We must lay hold on wisdom, so as to retain it; and choose the way of truth, so as to stick to it. “The nail in the holy place must be well cleansed, that It may be a nail in a sure place.” Many a pang of good affections, and many a hopeful turn of good inclinations, comes to nothing, for want of resolution. It is said of Rehoboam, that he “did evil, because he prepared not, or he fixed not, his heart; so the word is in the margin, “to seek the Lord.” The heart that is unfixed, is unprepared. Joshua took pains with the people, to bring them

«p to that noble resolution, “Nay, but we will serve the Lord.” And we should not be content till we are also in like manner resolved, and firmly fixed, for God and duty, for Christ and heaven. This is the preparation of the o-ospel of peace, wherewith our feet must be shod.

Let us inquire what that resolution is, to which, in an entire dependence upon the grace of Christ, we should come up, in our everlasting covenanting with God.

1. We must come up to such a settled resolution as doth not reserve a power of revocation for ourselves. The covenant is in itself a perpetual covenant, and as such we must consent to it; not as servants hire themselves, for a year, or to be free at a quarter’s warning, not as apprentices bind themselves, for seven years, to be discharged at the expiring of that term; but it must be a covenant for life, a covenant for eternity, a covenant never to be forgotten; and in this even beyond the marriage-covenant, for that is made with this proviso, ‘* Till death us do part:” but death itself must not part us and Christ. Our covenant must be made like that servant’s, who loved his master, and would not go out free; our ears must be nailed to God’s door-post, and we must resolve to serve him for ever. A power of revocation reserved, is a disannulling of the covenant. It is no bargain, if it be not for a perpetuity, and if we consent not to put it past recal.

Let not those that are young, and under tutors and governors, think to discharge themselves of those obligations, when they come to be of age, and to put them off with their childish things; no, you must resolve to adhere to it, as Moses did, when you come to years. As children are not too little, so grown people are not too big, to be religious. You must resolve to live under the bonds of this covenant, when you come to live of yourselves, to be at your own disposal, and to launch out never so far into this world. Your greatest engagements in care and business, cannot disengage you from these. Whatever state of life you are called to, you must resolve to take your religion with you into it.

Let not those who are in the midst of their days think it possible or desirable to outlive the binding force of this covenant. If now we set out in the way we should go, it must be with a resolution; if we live to be old, how wise and honourable soever old age be, yet then we “will not depart from it,” as knowing that the hoary hairs are then only “a crown of glory, when they are found,” as having been long before fixed “in the way of righteousness.”

2. We must come up to such a strong resolution as will not yield to the power of temptation from the enemy. When we engage ourselves for God, we engage ourselves against Satan, and must expect his utmost efforts to oppose us in our way, and to draw us out of it. Against these designs we must therefore arm ourselves, resolving to stand in the evil day, and having done all in God’s name, to stand our ground, saying to all that which would either divert or deter us from prosecuting the choice we have made, as Ruth did to Naomi, when she was steadfastly resolved: — Entreat me not to leave Christ, or turn from following after him; for whither he goes, I will follow him, though it be to banishment; where he lodges, I will lodge with him, though it be in a prison; for death itself shall never part us.

We must resolve, by God’s grace, never to be so elevated or enamoured with the smiles of the world, as by them to be allured from the paths of serious godliness; for our religion will be both the safety and honour of a prosperous condition, and will sanctify and sveeten all the comforts of it to us.

And we must in like manner resolve never to be so discouraged and disheartened by the frowns of the world, as by the force of them to be robbed of our joy in God, or by the fear of them to be driven from our duty to God. We must come to Christ with a steady resolution to abide by him in all conditions: “f.ord, I will follow thee withersoever thou goest. Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. None of these things move me.”

VI. We must rely upon the righteousness and strength of our Lord Jesus Christ in all this. — Christ is the Mediator of this peace, and the guarantee of it, the surety of this better covenant, that blessed days-man, which hath laid his hand upon us both, who hath so undertaken for God, that “in him all God’s promises to us, are yea and amen;” and unless he undertakes for us too, how can our promises to God have any strength or stability in them? AVhen, therefore, we enter into covenant with God, our eye must be to Christ, the Alpha and Omega of that covenant. When (jfod had “sworn by himself, that unto him every knee should bow, and every tongue shall swear,” immediately it follows: “Surely shall one say,” every one that vows and swears to God, “in the Lord have I righteousness and strength;” in the Lord Jesus is all my sufficiency for the doing of this well. In making and renewing our covenant with God, we must take instructions from that of David: “I will go on in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.”

1. We must depend upon the strength of the Lord for assistance, and for the working of all our works in us and for us. In that strength we must go, go forth, and go on, as those that know we can do nothing that is good of ourselves; our own hands are not sufficient for us, but we can •’ do all things through Christ strengthening us.” Our work then goes on, and then only, when we are “strengthened with all might by his Spirit.” This way we must look for spiritual strength, as Nehemiah: “Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.” On this strength we must stay ourselves, in this strength we must engage ourselves, and put forth ourselves, and with it we must encourage ourselves.

We cannot keep this covenant when it is made, nor make it at all, but in the strength of Christ. Nature, corrupt nature, inclines to the world and the flesh, and cleaves to them; without the influences of special grace, we should never move towards God, much less resolve for him; we cannot do it well, but in Christ’s strength, and in a dependence upon that. If, like Peter, we venture on our own sufficiency, and use those forms of speech which import a reliance on the divine grace, only as words of course, and do not by faith trust to that grace, and derive from it, we forfeit the aids of it, our covenant is rejected as presumptuous, and shall not avail us. Promises made in our own strength betray us, and do not help us, like the house built on the sand. We cannot keep this covenant, when it is made, but in the strength of Christ; for we stand no longer than he by his grace upholds us: we go no further than he by his grace, not only leads us, but carries us.

His promises to us are our security, not ours to him; from his fulness, therefore, we must expect to receive grace for grace; for it is not in ourselves, nor is it to be had any where but in him.

We then that are principals in the bond, knowing ourselves insolvent, must put him in as surety for us. He is willing to stand, and without him our bond will not be taken. We are too well known to be trusted; for all men are liars, and the heart is deceitful above all things. Go to Christ, therefore, with that address: “Be surety for thy servant for good.” “I am oppressed, undertake for me.”

2. We must depend on the righteousness of Christ, making mention of that, even of that only, for acceptance with God in our covenanting with him; we have nothing in us to recommend us to God’s favour, no righteousness of our own wherein to appear before him; we have by sin not only forfeited all the blessings of the covenant, but incapacitated ourselves for admission into it. By sacrifice therefore, by a sacrifice of atonement, sufficient to expiate our guilt, and satisfy the demands of injured justice, we must make a covenant with God; and there is none such but that one offering by which Christ has “perfected for ever them which are sanctified;” that is, the blood of the covenant, which must be sprinkled upon our consciences, when we join ourselves to the Lord. That everlasting righteousness, which Messiah the prince hath brought in, must be the cover of our spiritual nakedness, our wedding garment to adorn our nuptials, and the foundation on which we must build all our hopes, to find favour in the sight of God.

I shall not here draw up a form of covenanting with God, both because such may be found drawn up by far better hands than mine, as Mr. Baxter, Mr. Alleine, and others, and because a judicious Christian may, out of the foregoing heads, easily draw up one for himself

Second, After what manner we must renew our covenant with God, that we may therein please God, and experience the good effect of it on our souls.

1. We must doit intelligently. — Blind promises will produce lame performances, and can never be acceptable to the seeing God: ignorance is not the mother of this devotion. Satan indeed puts out men’s eyes, and so brings them into bondage to him, and leads them blindfold; for he is a thief and a robber, that comes not in by the door, but climbeth up some other way; and therefore to him we must not open. But the grace of God takes the regular way of dealing with reasonable creatures; opening the understanding first, and then bowing the will; this is entering in by the door, as the shepherd of the sheep doth. In this method, therefore, we must see that the work be done. We must first acquaint ourselves with the tenor of the covenant, and then consent to the terms of it. Moses read the book of the covenant in the audience of the people, and then sprinkled upon them the blood of the covenant. And we must take the same method: first peruse the articles, and then sign them. That faith which is without knowledge, is not the faith of God’s elect.

2. We must do it considerately. We need not take time to consider whether we should do it or not, the matter is too plain to bear that debate; we must seriously consider what we do, when we go about it. Let it be done with a solemn pause, such as Moses put Israel upon, when he said, “Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God, that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into his oath.” Consider how weighty the transaction is, that it may be managed with due seriousness; and of what consequence is it that it be done well, for it is to be hoped, if it be once well done, it is done for ever. We must sit down and count the cost, consider the restraints this covenant will put upon the flesh, the loss and expense we may sustain by our adherence to it, the hazards we run, and the difficulties we must reckon upon, if we will be faithful unto death, — and in the view of this consent to the covenant, that hereafter, when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, we may not say. This was what we did not think of Do it deliberately therefore, and then it will not be easily undone. The rule in vowing is, “Be not rash with thy mouth, neither let thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God.” It is the character of a virtuous woman, that “she considers a field and buys it.” And it hath been thought a dictate of prudence, rliough it seem a paradox, — “Take time, and you will have done the sooner.” Many that, without consideration, hath put on a profession, when the wind hath turned, hath in like manner, without consideration, thrown it otF again. Light come, light go. Those, therefore, that herein would prove themselves honest, must prove themselves wise.

We must do it humbly. — When we come to covenant with God, we must remember what we are, and who he is with whom we have to do, that the familiarity to which we are graciously admitted, may not beget a contempt of God, or a conceit of ourselves; but rather, the more God is pleased to exalt us, and condescend to us, the more we must honour him, and abase ourselves: ‘’Abraham fell on his face,” in a deep sense of his own unworthiness, when God said, “I will make my covenant between me and thee,” and began to talk with him concerning it. And afterwards, when he was admitted into an intimate communion with God, pursuant to that covenant, he drew near as one that new his distance, expressing himself with wonder at the favour done him: “Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.” When the covenant of royalty was confirmed to David, and “God regardeth him according to the estate of a man of high degree,” he sits down as one astonished at the honour conferred upon him, and humbly expresseth himself thus —” Who am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? Thus must we cast ourselves down at the footstool of God’s throne, if we would be taken up into the embraces of his love. He that humbles himself, shall be exalted.

We must do it cheerfully; for here, in a special manner, God loves a cheerful giver, and is pleased with that which is done, not of constraint, but willingly. Li our covenanting with God we must not be actuated by a spirit of fear, but by a spirit of adoption, a spirit of power and love, and a sound mind. We must join ourselves to the Lord, not only because it is our duty, and that which we are bound to, but because it is our interest, and that by which we shall be unspeakable gainers, — not with reluctance and regret, and with a half consent extorted from us, but with an entire satisfaction, and the full consent of a free spirit. Let it be a pleasure to us to think of our interest in God as ours, and our engagement to him as his; a pleasure to us to think of the bonds of the covenant, as weil as of the blessings of the covenant. Much of our communion v.ith God (which is so much the delight of all that are sanctified) is kept up by the frcqient recognition of our covenant with him, which we should make as those that like their choice too well to change; and as the men of Judah did, when “they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting and with trumpets, and all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire.” Christ’s soldiers must be volunteers, not pressed men; and we must repeat our consent to him with such joy and triumph as appears in that of the spouse, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend.”

We must do it in sincerity. — This is the chief thing required in every thing wherein we have to do with God: “Behold, he desires truth in the inward parts.” When God took Abraham into covenant with himself, this was the charge he gave him, “Walk before me and be thou perfect,” that is, upright; for uprightness is our gospel perfection. Writing the covenant, and subscribing it, signing and sealing it, may be proper expressions of seriousness and resolution in the transaction, and of use to us in the review; but, if herein we “He unto God with our mouth, and flatter him with our tongue,” as Israel did, though we may put a cheat upon ourselves and others, yet we cannot impose upon him: “be not deceived. God is not mocked.” If we only give the hand unto the Lord, and do not give our hearts to him, whatever our pretensions, professions, and present pangs of devotion may be, we are but as sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal. What will it avail us to say, we covenant with God, if we still keep our league with the world ancf the flesh, and have a secret antipathy to serious godliness? Dissembled piety is no disguise before God, but is hated as double iniquity. It is certain thou hast no part nor lot in the matter, whatever thou mayst claim, if thy heart be not right in the sight of God. I know no religion but sincerity; our vows to God are nothing, if they be not bonds upon the soul.