CHAPTER V.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR RENEWING OUR COVENANT WITH GOD IN OUR PREPARATION FOR THIS ORDINANCE.

I. In what method we must renew our covenant with God. (1.) We must repent of our sins, by which we have rendered ourselves unworthy to be taken into covenant: three things to be lamented. (11.) We must renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh: opened in three things. (III.) We must receive Christ as offered to us, consenting to his grace, and to his government. (IV.) We must Lesign, and give up ourselves to God in Christ; devote ourselves to his praise, and submit ourselves to his power: in three things. (v.) We must resolve to abide in it: opened in two things. (VI.) We must rely on the righteousness and strength of Christ herein: opened in two things. II. After what manner we must renew our covenant; intelligently, considerately, humbly, cheerfully, and in sincerity.

It is the wonderful condescension of the God of heaven, that he has 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 consented 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 must 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.

I. In what method we must renew our covenant with God in Christ, and by what steps we must proceed.

(1.) We must repent of our sins, by which we have rendered ourselves unworthy to be taken into covenant with God. Those that would be exalted to this honour, must first humble themselves. "God layeth his beams 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 and be not in bitterness for him, surely "our hearts are as hard as a stone, yea, harder than a piece of the nether millstone." Those that join themselves to the Lord, must go weeping to do it: so they did— "In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah 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

bringing 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 supposes that there has 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 first father an Amorite, and my mother a Hittite, 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 into 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 slighted, 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 with 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 faithful 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 flesh, 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.

(11.) 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 in Christ as our rightful king and sovereign, we must herein abjure the tyranny of the rebellious and rival powers. "O Lord our God, other lords

besides thee have had dominion over us," while sin has reigned in our mortal bodies, in our immortal souls, and every lust has been 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 are to enter is a marriage covenant, "thy Maker is to be thy 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 will no more. We must quit the service of the citizen of that country, and feed his swine no longer, feed upon his husks no more, that we may return to our 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: for what communion has Christ