Use III. The great question to be decided, is, whether God be our covenant-God, and we his people?
heathens: but rightly to bound and manage them, would set you among the best of Christians.
I cannot imagine what ease or advantage holy,* Basil gained by such a particular and heart-piercing account as he gave of a like affliction with this; nor to what purpose it can be to you, to recal and recount those things which only incense and aggravate your troubles:
Doubtless, your better way were to turn your thoughts from such subjects as these; to your God in covenant, as David in the text did, and to recount the many great and inestimable mercies that are secured to you therein; which death shall never smite, or cut off from you, as it doth your other enjoyments.
Quest. But yet unless we can in some measure clear our covenantinterest, all these excellent cordials prepared, will signify no more to our relief, than water spilt upon the ground: Help us therefore to do that, or else all that hath been said is in vain? How may a person discern his covenant-right and interest.
Answ. This indeed is worthy of all consideration, and deserves a serious answer, forasmuch as it is fundamental to your comfort, and all actual refreshment in times of trouble; and will bring us to the next use, which is for trial of our covenant-interest.
USE III. The great question to be decided, is, whether God be our covenant-God, and we his people? A question of the most solemn nature, and such as requires awful attention.
We cannot expect satisfaction in this matter by such an extraordinary way as David had it, but we may know it by,
First, Our covenant-engagements.
Secondly, Our covenant impressions.
Thirdly, Our covenant-conversations.
First, By our covenant-engagements, or dedications of ourselves to God; sometimes called our joining ourselves to the Lord, Zech. 2:11. our yielding ourselves to him, Rom. 6:19. our giving ourselves to him, 2 Cor. 8:5. The soul that freely and deliberately consents to take or choose the Lord to be his God, may warrantably conclude the Lord hath taken or chosen him: for our choice of God is but the result of his choice of us, John 15:16. "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," i.e. you could never have chosen me, but in consequence to, and by virtue of my first choice of you.
Well then, let it be seriously considered, whether you have duly consented to take the Lord for your God, and Christ for your
Redeemer. This includes two things in it.
1. Your relinquishing of all things inconsistent with him.
2. Your acceptation of all that promotes the glory and enjoyment of him.
1. Your relinquishing of all things that are inconsistent with an interest in him. Except we let these go, God cannot be our God, nor Christ our Redeemer. The things to be relinquished for Christ are, in short, both our sinful, and our righteous self. Sinful-self must be disclaimed and renounced: For we cannot be the servants of sin, and the servants of Christ too, Rom. 6:14, 18. And righteous-self must be renounced also or we can have no part or interest in his righteousness, Rom. 10:3. These are two difficult points of selfdenial, to part with every beloved lust, and to give up our own
righteousness. Thousands choose rather to be damned for ever, than to do either of these.
2. Your acceptance and embracing of all things that promote his glory, and further the enjoyment of him. As all the painful ways of duty, hearing, praying, meditating, and all this with the intention of the inner-man, and offering up of the soul to God, in these duties; and the more painful ways of suffering for God, and enduring all losses, reproaches, torments, and death for him, if his glory requires it, and you may be thereunto called. All this is included in your choosing God to be your God. And upon our understanding and free consent, and sealing to these articles, we have right to call him our
God. Matth. 21:24. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." Now, have you considered the terms of the covenant, weighed and balanced all the conveniences and inconveniences of godliness, and then determined for Christ and holiness, let the cost be what it will; then you have chosen him aright for your God. Many think they have chosen God for their God, that never understood or deliberated these terms. But non consentit, qui non sentit: He that neither knows nor ponders them, is not capable of giving a due consent.
Secondly, We may discern our covenant-interest, in the covenantimpressions that are made upon our souls. All God's covenant-people have a double mark or impression made upon them, viz.
1. Upon their minds.
2. Upon their hearts.
1. Upon their minds, in a more spiritual and efficacious knowledge of God, Jer. 31:33. "They shall all know me, from the "greatest of them, even to the least of them." This knowledge is said to be given, not
acquired by mere strength of natural abilities and human aids; and given as in the face of Christ, not by the footsteps of the creatures only, as he speaks, 2 Cor. 4:6. It is the choice teaching of the anointing, 1 John 2:27. A knowledge springing from inward experience and spiritual sense; as we know the sweetness of honey by tasting, better than by all the descriptions and reports that can be made of it.
2. Upon their hearts, in that gracious tenderness and meltings of it for sin, or the discoveries of free-grace in the pardon of it. So you read in Ezek. 36:26. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
It is as easy to melt the obdurate rocks into sweet syrup, as it is to melt the natural heart into a penitential and tender melting for sin; but now there is a principle or habit of tenderness implanted in the soul, whereby it is disposed and inclined to relent and thaw ingenuously upon any just occasion.
Thirdly, Our covenant-interest may be evinced in and by our covenant-conversations. All the knowledge which is communicated to our minds, and all the tenderness given to our hearts, do respect and tend to this: Ezek. 36:27. "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." Habits and principles are for action and practice: Grace in the heart is for obedience and holiness of life.
It is true, that as our graces are imperfect, so is our obedience also.
Perfect working is not to be expected from imperfect creatures. God's own covenanted-people do often grieve him, and provoke him to bring them under the rod of affliction; but those their infirmities break not the bond of the covenant, Psal. 89:30, 31, 32. Care and