1. Produce evidence
1. Produce evidence
We are to produce some evidence, that solemn covenanting is often nothing but solemn trifling, and not heart-work. It is of importance that you may be stirred up to take heed to the deceits which we may discover in this weighty business. With this view, we observe,
1.1. That apostasy and defection from the good ways of the Lord, persons returning again openly to the same courses which they pursued before. This is an evidence, 2 Peter 2:19–22; Matthew 12:45, "Then the evil spirit goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation." They who have no root soon wither away, Matthew 13:6. There are many who, since the revolution, have solemnly covenanted with the Lord at sacraments, and many who have done it, when they dared not so well avow it as now, who have given a sad account of themselves since that time, having returned to their former courses of wickedness and profanity. Fallen stars were stars never but in appearance. To lose both life and leaf is a dreadful symptom; John 15:6, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and east them into the fire, and they are burned." Another evidence is,
1.2. When some lusts are maintained in Christ's room, as when an adulterous woman takes another man instead of her husband. There are some lusts from which the heart is never loosed, right eyes they cannot part with; this is secret apostasy from the Lord: Hebrews 3:12, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." When the Lord offers himself to sinners, he says, if you will take me, let these go their way. Some enter into a marriage-covenant with the Lord, but they give their hearts to other lovers, Psalm 14:4, (quoted before). This is hypocritical dealing with God, which is a disease in the vitals of religion, Psalm 78:37, (quoted above). Another evidence is,
1.3. Persons making their covenant with the Lord, a cover to their sloth, and a pander to their lusts. It is sad work which persons make of covenanting, when it serves only to conjure their consciences, who hence can sleep more securely in their sins. Many are never more light, vain, and frothy, than after such a work; a most shrewd sign of a whorish disposition: Proverbs 7:14, "I have peace-offerings with me. This day have I paid my vows. Therefore, came I forth to meet you, diligently to seek your face." The covenant of God is a covenant of peace and war, which inclines the sinner to be at peace with the Lord's friends, and at war with his enemies. It makes the soul to say to former lusts, I have learned from the gospel, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world," Titus 2:12. Hence, Christ no sooner enters the heart, but he comes as Captain of the Lord's host; and the person's heart thus becomes the seat of war: Galatians 5:17, "For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these two are contrary the one to the other." And these lusts which were formerly gold chains, are now turned into heavy iron fetters: Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"—Another evidence is,
1.4. The barrenness of the lives of professors, nothing of the fruits of holiness appearing in their lives. We are, Rachel-like, barren, having no more but the leaves of a profession, the performance of external duties, to give us the name of Christians. Alas! fire from Heaven seems to have blasted many of us, and the curse of the Lord is as a worm at our root. Married to the Lord, and yet barren, is a contradiction, Romans 7:4. For the very end of this marriage it, that we may bring forth fruit unto God. Where the soul is joined to the Lord, it is made the habitation of the Spirit: and this is that which produces the fruits of holiness, Ephesians 5:9, "For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth."
Here some may say, Alas! this speaks death to me, for do what I will, the weeds in the cursed soil of my heart suffers no fruit to appear there. To such I answer. — There is no fruit which grows in the heart of a believer in the world, but it has a weed of corruption by the side of it; their faith is marked with unbelief, their hope with diffidence, their very sincerity with hypocrisy. But are you at pains to pluck up these? If you should look into a garden, and saw nothing but weeds in it, yet if you saw the gardener weeding it, you would conclude there must be something else there; so in this ease. Will you see if there be any thriving of undergrowth in your hearts, if you be growing downwards in humility, self-loathing, self-denial, depending and clearing more from a sense of need to the Lord? Ephesians 4:15, 16. Barren trees use not to have their branches hanging down to salute the ground, unless they be broken off by a violent wind. — Another evidence is,
1.5. The having no communication of the life of grace from Christ to the soul: John 14:19, "Because I live, you shall live also." Food and clothing are what every soul married to the Lord get from him. If the soul be truly united to Christ, it will partake of the root and sap of the vine: John 6:57, "He who eats me, says Jesus, even he shall live by me." True faith opens a way for a stream of blood to run through the heart, by which the soul is purged and quickened. The blood of Jesus "purges the conscience from dead works, to serve the living God," Hebrews 9:14. But, alas! the faith of many is like a pipe laid short of the fountain, and so brings none of the water of life into the soul. Many covenant with the Lord as the seven women, Isaiah 4:1, who take hold of one man, as it is there said, they will be called by his name; for so is Christ's spouse, in token of her marriage-relation, she loses her name, and takes her husband's, Isaiah 44:5, "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob." This will take away their reproach before the world, and it will do much to silence the blustering tongue of an ill-natured conscience. Yes, but after all this, they will eat their own bread, Isaiah 4:1. They will live upon their own stock of natural and acquired abilities, for they are not, as in Matthew 3:5, "poor in spirit." They come not, as true believers, with a weak soul to a strong God, an empty vessel to a full fountain. Thus does the true believer, who says, Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." But the other will live on their lusts; Christ gives rest to their consciences, and their lusts give rest to their hearts; he shall bear up their hopes, and their lasts shall satisfy their desires. — They will wear their own apparel. Romans 10:3, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Their duties make a great figure in their own eyes, and therefore are ciphers in God's account. Hence the more they do and the better they do, the more they are in conceit with themselves, and the further from Christ It is quite contrary with true covenanters; Philippians 3:3, "They rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh:" Revelation 2:14, "They wash their robes, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb." — We shall only add as an evidence,
Lastly, having no contentment in Christ alone. Where the soul heartily closes with Christ, he is to the soul a covering to the eyes: Psalm 73:25, "Whom have I in Heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you." Hence the triumph of faith, even when all external things fail; Habakkuk 3:17, "I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation." But, alas! how many of as have no comfort, but when the cisterns of creature-comforts are running full! how few arrive at the height of rejoicing in the Lord, when these cisterns are dried up! Matthew 13:45, 46. Every person's house stands upon two props, Christ and the creature, but the weight lies only upon one of them. Take away the world from the believer, he stands firm on the rock Christ; take away the world from the hypocrite, and all falls down together. A person may bear to have some branch of his comforts cut off; but when God strikes at the root of creature-comforts, then may the hypocrite say, you have taken away my gods, and what have I more? Some can endure anything but poverty, for covetousness reigns in them; others anything but disrespect, for pride is their idol.
Here again some may say, If this be an evidence, we know not who will make sure work, for many time gracious persons are as much, if not more, cast down with the loss of creature-comforts, than others; To this I answer, No doubt gracious souls will sometimes be more joyful on the receipt of a temporal mercy, and more east down on the loss of them, than others: for the chief thing which affects him is the face of God appearing in it, either as favorable or frowning; so that they will be ready to say on such an occasion, as in Genesis 33:10, "For therefore I have seen your face, as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me." And this will make a mole-hill mercy or cross appear like a mountain. The godly in this case fetch their comfort from the Lord, others fetch theirs from something else in the world; when one stream runs dry, they go to another, like the prodigal before he came home. The drying up of the streams sends the gracious soul to the fountain.