The Communicant's Companion
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.
(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