The Communicant's Companion (continued)
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 up 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 gospel 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 covenanting with God.
1. We must come up to such a settled resolution as does 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 recall.
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