-- Grand Direct. V. Of Self-Resignation to God as our Owner. Motives, Marks, Means
praising him, loving him, and being beloved of him, through Jesus Christ; and in the hopes of the perfecting of all these, in our everlasting fruition of him in heavenly glory.
All these are the acts of piety towards God; which I lay together for your easier observation and memory: but some of them must be more fully opened, and insisted on.
Grand Direct. V.
'Remember that God is your Lord, or Owner: and see that you make an absolute resignation of yourselves, and all that you have, to him as his own; and use yourselves and all accordingly: trust him with his own, and rest in his disposals.'
Of this, I have already spoken in my "Sermon of Christ's Dominion," and in my "Directions for a sound Conversion:" and therefore must but touch it here. It is easy, notionally to know and say that God is our Owner, and we are not our own: but if the habitual, practical knowledge of it, were as easy, or as common, the happy effects of it would be the sanctification and reformation of the world. I shall first tell you, what this duty is, and how it is to be performed; and then, what fruits and benefits it will produce, and what should move us to it.
I. The duty lieth in these acts: 1. That you consider the ground of God's propriety in you; (1.) In making you of nothing, and preserving you. (2.) In redeeming you by purchase. (3.) In regenerating you, and renewing you for himself. The first is the ground of his common natural propriety, in you and all things. The second is the ground of his common, gracious propriety in you and all men, as purchased by Christ, Rom. 14:9. John 13:3. The third is the ground of his special, gracious propriety in you, and all his sanctified, peculiar people.
Understand and acknowledge what a plenary dominion God hath over you, and how absolutely and wholly you are his. 2. Let it exceedingly please you, to think that you are wholly his: it being much better for you, as to your safety, honour, and happiness, than to be your own, or any's else. 3. As God requireth it in his covenant of grace, that he have his right, by your consent, and not by constraint; so you must thankfully accept the motion, and with hearty and full consent of will, resign yourselves to him, as his own, even as his creatures, his ransomed ones, and his regenerate children, by a covenant never to be violated. 4. You must carefully watch against the claim and reserves of carnal selfishness; lest while you confess you are God's, and not your own, you should secretly still, keep possession of yourselves against him, or re-assume the possession which you surrendered. 5. You must use yourselves ever after, as God's, and not your own.
II. In this using yourselves as wholly God's, consisteth both your further duty, and your benefits. 1. When God's propriety is discerned and consented to, it will make you sensible how you are obliged to employ all your powers of soul and body to his service; and to perceive that nothing should be alienated from him, no creature having any co-ordinate title to a thought of your hearts, or a glance of your affection, or a word of your mouths, or a minute of your time.
The sense of God's propriety, must cause you to keep constant accounts between God and you; and to call yourselves to a frequent reckoning, whether God have his own, and you do not defraud him; whether it be his work that you are doing; and for him that you think, and speak, and live? And all that you have, will be used as his, as well as yourselves: for no man can have any good thing, that is more his own, than he is his own himself.
2. Propriety discerned, doth endear us in affection to our owner. As we love our own children, so they love their own fathers. Our very dogs love their own master's better than another. When we can say with Thomas, "My Lord, and my God," it will certainly be the voice of love. God's common propriety in us, as his created and ransomed ones, obligeth us to love him with all our heart; but the knowledge of his peculiar propriety, by regeneration, will more effectually command our love.
3. God's propriety perceived, will help to satisfy us of his love and care of us: and will help us to trust him in every danger; and so take off our inordinate fear, and anxieties, and caring for ourselves. The apostle proveth Christ's love to his church, from his propriety, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh." God is not regardless of his own.
As we take care of our cattle, to preserve them, and provide for them, more than they do for themselves, for they are more ours than their own; so God is more concerned in the welfare of his children, than they are themselves, they being more his than their own. Why are we afraid of the wrath and cruelty of man? Will God be mindless and negligent of his own? Why are we over-careful and distrustful of his providence? Will he not take care of his own, and make provision for them? "God, even our own God shall bless usn." God's interest in his church, and cause, and servants, is an argument which we may plead with him in prayer, and with which we may greatly encourage our confidence. "For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory to another." "But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O
Israel; Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be
with thee, &c.p." If God should neglect our interest, he will not neglect his own.
God's propriety in us discerned, doth so much aggravate our sin against him, that it should greatly restrain us; and further, our humiliation and recovery when we are fallen: "Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." "I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine, saith the Lordr," when he is aggravating Jerusalem's sin. "Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods." Justice requireth, that every one have his own.
5. It should silence all murmurings and repinings against the providence of God, to consider that we are his own. Doth he afflict you? and are you not his own? Doth he kill you? are you not his own?
As a ruler, he will shew you reason enough for it in your sins: but as your absolute Lord and owner, he need not give you any other reason, than that he may do with his own as he list. It is not possible that he can do any wrong to that, which is absolutely his own. If he deny you health, or wealth, or friends, or take them from you; he denieth you, or taketh from you nothing but his own. Indeed, as a governor and a father, he hath secured the faithful of eternal life: otherwise, as their owner, he could not have wronged them, if he had made the most innocent, as miserable as he is capable to be. Do you labour, and beat, and kill your cattle, because they are your own (by an imperfect propriety)? and dare you grudge at God for afflicting his own, when their consciences tell them, that they have deserved it, and much more?
And that you may not think that you have resigned yourselves to God entirely, when you do but hypocritically profess it, observe: 1. That man is not thus resigned to God, that thinketh any service too much for God that he can do. 2. Nor he that thinketh any cost too great for God, that he is called to undergo. 3. Nor he that thinketh that all is won, of his time, or wealth, or pleasure, or any thing which he can save or steal from God: for all is lost that God hath not. 4. Nor he that must needs be the disposer of himself, and his condition and affairs, and God must humour him, and accommodate his providence to his carnal interest and will, or else he cannot bear it, or think well of it.
5. Remember that all that is bestowed in sin upon God's enemies is used against him, and not as his own. 6. And that he that hideth his talent, or useth it not at all, cannot be said to use it for God. Both idleness, and alienating the gifts of God, are a robbing him of his own.
III. To help you in this work of self-resignation, often consider: 1.
That if you were your own, you were most miserable. You could not support, preserve, or provide for yourselves: who should save you in the hour of temptation or distress? Alas! if you are humbled
Christians, you know so much of your own insufficiency, and feel yourselves such a daily burden to yourselves, that you have sure, enough of yourselves ere now. And beg of God, above all your enemies, to save you from yourselves; and of all judgments, to save you from being forsaken of God, and given up to yourselves. 2.
Remember that none in the world hath sufficient power, wisdom, and goodness, to take the full care and charge of you but God: none else can save you, or sanctify you, or keep you alive one hour: and therefore it is your happiness and honour that you are his. 3. His right is absolute, and none hath right to you but he. None else did create you, redeem you, or regenerate you. 4. He will use you only in safe and honourable services, and to no worse an end, than your