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FIVE
SACRAMENTAL SERMONS.
by John Willison
SERMON II.—A PREPARATION-SERMON BEFORE
THE LORD'S SUPPER—THE HAPPINESS OF BEING IN COVENANT WITH
GOD.
"Happy is that people whose God is the
Lord." — Psal. cxliv. 15.
THERE is nothing in
the world that is so much talked of, and less understood, than
the business of a happy life. All the world is in quest of
happiness, some expecting to find it in this, and some in the
other thing. The worldling looks for it in riches, the
philosopher in knowledge, the ambitious man in honours, and the
voluptuous man in pleasures. But how miserably are they
mistaken! they seek happiness from the wrong source; from
things that can never suit the wants, nor satisfy the vast
desires of the immortal soul. True Christians are the only wise
men in the world, for they seek happiness where indeed it is to
be found, viz. in the enjoyment of God, who is the centre of
bliss. And they who attain to this, must surely be the happy
men, for the Spirit of God declares them so in my text: "Happy
is that people whose God is the Lord."
In this psalm, the royal psalmist
doth bless and magnify the Lord for the signal favours and
mercies he had received from him; and from his former gracious
experiences, he is encouraged to address God for future
mercies, both to himself and his kingdom: particularly, he
prays for deliverance from public enemies, and the manifold
calamities of war; for the establishing of peace and
tranquillity, and for the prosperity of the nation; for the
flourishing of their families and children, and for the
increase of their flocks and cattle; and, in a word, that his
people might abound in peace and plenty. Then he pauses, and
makes a reflection upon the nation’s prosperous
circumstances, which he had prayed for: "Happy is the people
that is in such a case;" happy they, who have such temporal
prosperity and abundance, who have no want in their families,
nor complaining in their streets. This is the judgment of the
flesh, and the opinion of most men. But the psalmist presently
corrects himself and retracts his former judgment, and prefers
the judgment of faith to that of sense: yea, rather, "Happy is
that people whose God is the Lord." As if he said, "The former
estate is indeed very desirable for a nation or people; but
Israel or the people of God, their true happiness doth not
consist in these things that are common to others with them;
but only in this peculiar privilege, that the great Jehovah,
who is the Lord of heaven and earth, is their God by covenant
and special relation. That this God is their God, and they have
a special interest in his love and favour, according to the
tenor of the covenant of grace. Whatever portion such have in
the world’s good things, surely they are happy; and let
others have what they will if they want this covenant-relation,
they are certainly unhappy and miserable; which they can never
be that have it, want what they will; seeing they have an
interest in God as theirs, makes up the want of all other
things; for the blessedness and happiness is included here.
"Blessed and happy is that people whose God is the Lord."
Doctrine.
That it is the greatest happiness we can possibly attain
unto, to be in covenant with God, and to have God for our
God.
David was still of this opinion
through the whole course of his life, Psal. xvi. 5, 6;
xxiii. 1, 2. And he sees no cause to alter it at his death;
for, among his last words, he declares that this sweet
covenant-religion was "all his salvation, and all his desire,"
2 Sam. xxiii. 5.
The method I purpose for handling this subject shall be,
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I. To inquire when it
may be said that a person or people are in covenant with God,
and have a special interest in him as theirs.
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II. What is imported in
this great privilege, to have God for our God.
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III. How this privilege
appears to be the top of our happiness.
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IV. Make improvement of
the whole.
I begin with the first,
When it may be said that a person or people are in covenant
with God, &c.
And for clearing this point
the more, I shalt first, consider it negatively, and
show what it is not; and, secondly, positively, wherein
it really consists.
1. Negatively, To stand in a
covenant-relationship to God is not to be understood here,
(1.) Of our being under the bond
and engagement of the covenant of works. Though it is most
certain that all Adam’s posterity, by virtue hereof, are
engaged to God, to perform perfect obedience and fulfil
the whole law; yea, and by breaking it, are obliged to pay the
penalty thereof, bear God's curse, undergo death, and satisfy
God's infinite justice; and so all of us are naturally in
covenant with God in this respect. But O! we have no happiness,
no comfort, by being so; seeing we have broken the covenant of
works, and incurred the penalty thereof; for though we still
stand under engagements to God by it, yet he is loosed from all
obligations to us, to make us happy: yea, by our breaking it,
he is under engagement to destroy us. O! we cannot, by this
covenant, plead any interest in God as our God, or Father: no,
we can only look on him as our Lawgiver, our Judge, our
Punisher, and Enemy. That is all the relation that God stands
in now to us, by virtue of the covenant of works.
(2.) There is more requisite to
make up this covenant-relation to God, than that blessed
covenant of redemption, which God entered into from eternity
with his Son, Jesus Christ, as our head and representative, for
saving the elect. That glorious transaction is indeed the
foundation and rise of our covenant-relation to God; but doth
not formally constitute and make it up. For an elect person
cannot be said to be in covenant with God from eternity, unless
by God’s appointment and designation: he is never formally
in until he believe, and thereby ratify and approve what Christ
did from eternity engage for him, and personally consent to
take God for his God, in and through Jesus Christ the Mediator.
So that you see the covenant of redemption will not save you,
nor instate you in covenant with God, if ye can say no more;
there must be something done in and by you, to entitle you to
that covenant of redemption, and to infeft and possess you of
the privileges and blessings therein promised to Christ our
Head; and this is only done by the subsequent ratification of
that covenant and treaty, made with the elect in time by the
preaching of the gospel, which is called the covenant of
grace.
(3.) There is more in this
covenant-relation to God which makes us happy than our being
visibly and externally in covenant with God by an outward
profession of Christianity, and subjection to
gospel-ordinances: for thus, every church that hath the word
and sacraments is in covenant with God. Hence the Lord says to
the church of the Jews, Ezek. xvi. 8. "I entered into covenant
with thee, and thou becamest mine. "They were visibly and
externally in covenant with God by their subjection to his
ordinances and institutions. They all partook of the seal of
his covenant, viz. circumcision: and hence, when a visible
church makes defection from God; he threatens to come and
"avenge the quarrel of his covenant," Lev. xxvi. 15. All the
members of a visible church are federally in covenant with God
by their profession of Christ, and being baptized in his name;
but such an external covenant-relation to God will not make us
happy: therefore, let us beware of resting on it; and let us
seek earnestly to be really and internally in covenant with
God.
(4.) There is more in it than
being nationally in covenant with God by virtue of a solemn
transaction entered into, and subscribed by, the rulers,
nobles, ministers, and representatives of a land; whereby they,
with consent of the whole nation, bind and engage themselves
and their posterity to the Lord. This did the nation of the
Jews, and so they were God’s covenanted people above all
other nations of the world; but yet this national covenant did
not entitle them to saving blessings, or give them an interest
in God as their God in a saving way: for many were in that
national covenant that never came to be in a gracious state,
though yet they received many special favours and deliverances
upon the account of it. Some in this land have the honour of
being nationally in covenant with God, which indeed is our
glory, and perhaps the ground of many national mercies and
deliverances; though it is not the spring of saving mercies,
nor that which entitles us to God as our God in a saving way.
Many may profess to own this national covenant, that never took
hold of the covenant of grace, and gave themselves to God
according to the tenor thereof.
(5.) There is more in this
than the drawing up the form of a personal covenant with God,
professing to consent thereto, and subscribing it with the
hand. For all this may be done in such a manner as will not
entitle us to God as our God in a saving way. This work, though
good in itself, and profitable to many; yet it may be formed by
some in such an hypocritical, formal, or legal manner, as makes
it an abomination to a holy God, that looks for truth in the
inward parts.
But, 2. Positively, we come to be
in covenant with God in a saving way, when we are taken within
the bond of the covenant of grace, consent sincerely to the
gracious terms of it; for it is only by virtue of our coming
into this covenant that we have ground to claim this happiness
of having God for our God. Now for us to come into the bond of
this covenant of grace, (it) is by faith to "take hold of
God’s covenant," as it is called, Isa. lvi. 4. And this we
do when we are thoroughly convinced of our sin, misery, and
undone state under a covenant of works, and hence betake
ourselves to the new covenant, or gracious method of salvation
proposed to us in the gospel, through Jesus Christ and his
righteousness; and cordially acquiesce in, and approve of,
this noble contrivance, and accept of Jesus Christ as
our only Mediator, Surety, and Peace-maker with God: and in him
sincerely make choice of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to
be our God and portion; and also give ourselves, soul and body,
to be the Lord’s, engaging, in the strength of our great
Surety, to abandon sin, live for God, and walk with him in
newness of life, as becomes his covenanted people. Now when our
souls are helped and determined by the Spirit of grace, to do
all this heartily and sincerely, then we enter among that
"happy people, whose God is the Lord."
II.
The second thing in the method is to inquire into the import of
this great privilege, to have God for our God. "I will be your
God," is the greatest promise and substance of the covenant of
grace, being the great thing stipulated on God’s
part therein, Jer. xxxi. 33, and indeed it is the sum and
compend of all his other promises. And imports these
things:
1. Reconciliation and friendship
with God. "I will be your God," that is, I will be no longer an
angry judge, but a gracious, reconciled God to you; my justice
is appeased, wrath pacified, fury is not in me; I have found a
ransom in Christ; he is the propitiation for your sins.
2. A near relation between God
and you; yea, nearer than any relation among creatures. "I will
be your God," implies, I will be to you instead of all
relations.—I will be a Father in Christ to you, adopt you
for my children, take you into my family, I will pity and
provide for you, I will bequeath to you a rich inheritance, you
are heirs of God, and co-heirs with my eternal Son—I will
be a Husband to you, "your Maker is your husband," Isa. liv.
5. I will marry you to myself, I will love you,
clothe you, enrich you, and provide a noble dowry for
you.—I will be your King. I will take you for my subjects,
I will govern you, protect, and defend you from all your
enemies. Yea, I will be your physician, your shepherd, your
guide, and instead of all relations to you.
3. "I will be your God," imports
a right and title to God, and all that is in him; intimate
communion with him, and a communication of all good things from
him. Nay, there is still more in this expression than can be
unfolded by words; there is more in it than, I will be father,
friend, husband, benefactor, &c. to you: more in it than I
will give you heaven and everlasting life, or all the blessings
of heaven and earth, time and eternity: no, I will give you
more, I will give you myself, a Jehovah, a whole Deity, that
is, all that is in me, all I am, all I have, all I can do, is
thine. O the magnificent bounty of God! for when he had no
greater, no better thing to bestow on his people, he bestows
himself on them.
You may say, How can this be? An
infinite God, so great, so glorious, we are not capable of
receiving, comprehending, or enjoying him. Ans. So far
as you are capable to receive and enjoy him, he is yours; all
that is in him is given to you for your benefit.
1. All he is personally, that is,
the three persons of the glorious Trinity are yours, God the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.—God the Father is yours to
love you, to elect you, and contrive redemption for you, John
xvi. 27, "The Father himself loveth you." —God the Son is
yours to be a ransom for you, to satisfy justice for you; yours
to be born for you, to live, to die for you, to rise again for
you, to ascend into heaven for you, to sit at God’s right
hand for you, &c. All this is plain from Isa. ix. 6, "Unto
us a child is born, unto us a Son is given." And Cant. ii. 16,
"My beloved is mine. — The Holy Ghost is yours, to apply
this redemption to you, to change your hearts, to teach you,
sanctify you, work in you, dwell in you, to conduct and guide
you to glory, 1 Cor. iii. 16, "Know ye not that ye are the
temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." So you
see, O believer; whatever God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
is, and can do for your salvation and happiness, they are
yours, and made over to you in the covenant of grace.
2. All he is essentially, his
infinite essence is yours, that is, all his glorious attributes
and perfections.—My mercy is yours, O believer, to pardon
your sins and deliver you from guilt, to sympathize with, and
comfort you in all your trials and afflictions.—My wisdom
is yours to provide for you, to counsel and direct you, and to
turn all things about for your good.—My omnipotence is
yours, to guard and protect you from all your enemies, to
support and preserve you to salvation.—My goodness is
yours, to enrich you, bestow grace and glory, and all good
things on you.—My omniscience is your overseer, to watch
over and warn you against approaching dangers.—My holiness
is your fountain of grace, to sanctify and make you
holy.—My omnipresence is your companion, to attend and
solace you in all places and conditions.—My justice is
your rewarder, to bestow heaven on you; and also your avenger
to punish those that wrong you.—My all-sufficiency is your
inheritance, for giving you complete and perfect happiness. My
unchangeableness is the rock of your security. My faithfulness
your pledge and surety for the accomplishment of all my
promises to you: and my eternity is the date of your happiness.
So that, O believer, you see all God’s essential
perfections are made over to thee in the covenant of grace, and
therein thou hast an unsearchable treasure. In God’s
attributes there is a suitable remedy for all these maladies
and miseries which sin has brought on you: his wisdom cures
your ignorance, his grace your guilt, his power your weakness,
his mercy your misery, his goodness your evil, his faithfulness
your inconstancy, his holiness your impurity, his riches your
poverty, and his fulness your wants.
Lastly, "I will be your
God," imports that all that God hath shall be made over to
you,1 Cor. iii. 21, "All things are yours." All mine are thine.
As for instance,
(1.) All my promises are yours;
the promises both of this life, and that which is to come; my
promises of pardon, my promises of healing, my promises of
sanctification, my promises of quickening and strength, my
promises of through-bearing and comfort in trouble, my promises
of grace and glory; they are your inheritance.
(2.) My gifts and graces are
yours, faith, love, hope, fear, humility, patience, and all the
fulness that is in Christ is yours; all these graces are yours,
as armour to defend you, jewels to enrich you, and
cordials to refresh you while you sojourn in the
wilderness.
(3.) My. creatures are yours.
My creatures on earth are yours to serve and
sustain you; my angels in heaven are yours, to guard and
encamp about you. The earth is your walking and sojourning
place, the heaven your country and inheritance. In a word, O
believer! My ordinances and sacraments are yours, to strengthen
and feed you; my providence is yours, to make all things
work for your good; my rod is yours; my people is yours; my
kingdom is yours; nay, my eternal Son, Christ, is yours; all he
has done and suffered, even his whole purchase is yours: both
things present and to come, life and death, this world and
heaven, "all are yours," 1 Cor. iii. 22. Behold, when there was
a covenant made between Jehoshaphat and the king of Israel,
Jehoshaphat promised Ahab whatever he had or could do, 1 Kings
xxii. 4, "I am," says he, "as thou art, my people as thy
people, my horses as thy horses;" so in the covenant of grace,
whatever God hath or can do, is made over to you. But what do I
speak? For no created mind can conceive, nor the tongues of men
and angels show forth the full import of this word, "I will be
your God."
III.
The third thing proposed was, to show how this privilege of
having God for our God, in covenant, appears to be the top of
our happiness. And this doth evidently appear from these
things.
I. From the vastness of the
portion, which believers have in a covenanted God as above
described. There is more comprehended here "than eye hath seen,
ear hath heard, or the heart of man can conceive." In this
covenant of grace you have all that is good, all that is great,
and all that can make you happy. You have covenant presence,
covenant provision, covenant conduct, covenant protection,
covenant support, and strength for all duties, trials, and
performances in this world. And you have eternal glory
covenanted to you for the world to come. Now, can any thing be
so satisfying to the renewed mind, as to review this vast
portion? It is pleasant for a man to view his temporal
interests, to walk about his buildings, plantings, gardens,
flocks, fields, &c. But what are these to this portion of
the believer? It was a ravishing prospect that Moses got of
Canaan from mount Nebo. How pleasant was it to view the lovely
hills, the fruitful valleys, the winding rivers, the beautiful
gardens, and flourishing trees, in that incomparable land! But
all that was nothing to the believer’s covenanted
inheritance. View the covenant, and see who can number the
promises and blessings contained in it; time would fail to
mention them: read the scriptures from the beginning to the
end, and behold a dazzling and glorious sight! As the heavens
are with stars in a winter night, so is God's word and covenant
with shining promises. We may allude to that passage in God's
covenanting with Abraham, Gen. xv. 5. God
brought him forth abroad, and said, "Look now toward heaven,
and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: so shall
thy seed be." Look, O believer, to the firmament of the
covenant, and tell the stars of the promises, if thou be able
to number or weigh them; so shall also the blessings and
benefits be, which thou hast to inherit.
II. To be in covenant with God,
must be the top of our happiness, if we consider the
suitableness of the promises, and of his covenant to all our
wants and exigencies. All that we stand in need of, and all we
can desire, is fully provided for here. O believers, what want
ye? What fear ye? What are ye troubled with? Here it may be
suitably answered and remedied; Is sin and guilt your trouble?
In this covenant there is pardon and redemption. Are your sins
great? Here is the Redeemer’s "blood that cleanseth from
all sin." Are ye condemned by the law’s sentence? Here is
a sufficient righteousness for your justification and
acquittance. Are you poor? Here is fine gold. Are you
blind? Here is eye salve. Are you naked? Here is white
rainment. Are you starving? Here is the manna and the fatted
calf. Are you diseased? Here is the balm of Gilead. Are you
chained prisoners? Here is deliverance for the captives.
Are you drowned in debt? He is an all sufficient surety. Are
you dead? Here is the resurrection and the life. Is
pollution and filthiness your trouble? Here is a deep and open
fountain that runs continually. Art though weak unable for
duty? Here a covenanted grace and strength, which shall
be sufficient for thee. This covenant contains all necessary
and suitable supplies for thy wants; so that if God, according
to the tenor of the covenant of grace, your needs shall be
richly supplied, according to that promise, Phil. Iv. 19, "My
God shall supply all your needs, according to his riches in
glory by Christ Jesus."
III. This covenant-relation to
God is our greatest happiness, in regard it doth take
the terror out of everything that is terrible to the
believer.
1. This covenant-relation removes
all terror from our thoughts of God's holiness and justice. The
wicked cannot think of a just and holy God without horror, and
therefore, they banish the thoughts of God out of their minds;
hence it is said, Psal. x. 4., "God is not in all their
thoughts:" For as many thoughts as are in their hearts, God is
in none of them. But believers may have pleasant and delightful
thoughts of God as their reconciled Father in Christ: his
holiness is a fountain of grace to them, and his justice the
security of their happiness. The covenant-relation takes all
terror out of justice, though the most terrible attribute of
God unto a sinner, and makes it, that before was an enemy,
become a friend, and enter into a strict alliance with that
believer. Before it stood as a flaming sword at the door of
paradise to keep them out: but now it stands as an advocate
pleading for their entrance, 1 John i. 9, "He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins." O believer, thy happiness is
certain; for justice is come over to thy side, and pleads for
thy pardon, because the debt is paid, and for the crown of
glory, seeing the price is laid down.
2. This covenant-relation takes
all terror out of afflictions; Why? It alters the very nature
of them to believers, and makes them become good and medicinal
to them, Psal. cxix. 71; Isa. xxvii. 9. Yea, they are changed
into covenanted mercies, Psal. lxxxix. 32; cxix. 75. Christ
hath shed his blood to purchase sanctified crosses to his
people. So believers, whatever trials you meet with, though
they be sharp and smarting, you may make such a reflection as
this, the Lord sees I want this, otherwise I should not be
exercised with it: my covenanted God knows that this, and no
less than this, is needful for me.
3. It takes the terror out of the
alarming judgments of God, that come on the wicked and ungodly.
When God rises to take vengeance on his enemies, and punish
sinful nations with his desolating plagues, you may say, These
are the mighty acts of my God and King: these things display my
Father’s power and glory: but, in the midst of all, his
children are safe.
4. It will take the terror out of
death: for though death strip you of other comforts, it cannot
dissolve your covenant-relation to God. You may sing that
swan-song, Psal. xlviii. 14, "For this God is our God for ever
and ever, and he will be our guide even unto death." It is this
that gives a believer peace in his latter end: it made David to
triumph in the view of approaching death, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5.
Death must surely be the king of terrors to an unbeliever. Why?
It is terrible to think, "I am going to appear before that God
I do not know, I have no interest in, nor acquaintance with.
How can I expect help from him now, whom I have never loved nor
sought unto before?" But a covenanted soul may say, "I will not
fear, for I know whither I am going, the place I know, and the
way I know, and the God of that land I know. Why should I be
unwilling to go to my covenanted God and friend, with whom I
have had sweet converse, whose presence I have earnestly longed
for? Is not death my Father’s servant, sent to bring me
home to my Father’s house, where I will be put in full
possession of all the blessings of the covenant? Surely then
the day of my death will be better to me than the day of my
birth."
5. This covenant-relation takes
the terror out of the great judgment day. Why? O believer, it
is the day of your covenanted Redeemer’s coming to take
you home to dwell eternally with him. Doth not a chaste wife
long for the return of her husband? And will not a believing
soul, betrothed to Christ, long for the glorious
bridegroom’s return to consummate the happy marriage? Let
others tremble at his coming, and cry to the "rocks to hide
them from the face of the Lamb;" but surely you have cause to
"lift up your head with joy, for the day of your redemption
draweth nigh."
IV.
This covenant-relation to God is our greatest happiness: for it
exceedingly sweetens every thing that is comfortable.
1. It sweetens the thoughts of
Christ to a believer. When the word brings the news of his
glory to your ears, or the sacrament sets him forth as
crucified before your eyes, your hearts may presently warm to
him, and cry with Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" and with Paul,
"It is the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me;"
and with the spouse, " My beloved is mine, and I am his." All
he did and suffered was for me; his bloody sweat, his painful
wounds, his dying groans were for me. He thought on me when he
was on the cross: my name is this day on his breast-plate: he
still thinks on me and pleads for me as his covenanted spouse.
"I know my Redeemer liveth; and because he lives, I shall live
also." Good ground have ye to say with the
psalmist, Psal. civ. 34. "My meditation of him shall be sweet;
I will be glad in the Lord."
2. It will make gospel ordinances
very sweet: As for instance, (1.) Prayer may be
sweet to a covenanted soul. Is it not sweet to come into
God’s presence and call him our Father, and speak to him
as such? "Father, grant me this, and the other good thing which
I want." An uncovenanted soul comes before God as his judge:
but O! it is comfortable to draw nigh to him as our reconciled
God and Father in Christ, and with a holy confidence spread our
wants before him. (2.) It will make the word sweet; a
covenanted soul may read, and hear it as a love-letter come
from his friend and husband, and may sweetly apply the promise
of it to himself, and say, This is mine; this was God's
gracious unchangeable purpose to me in Christ: and O, but that
would make the word as a lovely song in our ears! (3.) It will
make the Lord's supper sweet. O covenanted souls, you can come
to this holy table as to a precious feast provided for you; you
can come as God's friends and invited guests, and expect a
kindly welcome from him: It is to you he saith, "Eat, O
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved," Cant. v. 1.
This is your Father's table covered for you; many presume
thither who have no right; but you have no ground to question
your right, nor doubt your welcome: a communion day may be a
pleasant day to you, and you may rejoice at the intimation and
approach of it, and lock on it as a fortaste of heaven, and a
pledge of your eternal communion with God.
3. This covenant-relation will
sweeten your thoughts of God's works, both of creation and
providence. When you walk through the fields, you may say, I
walk on my Father's footstool, which he hath given me to
sojourn upon while I am here below. When you view the structure
of the heavens, you may say, Behold my Father’s palace,
where he dwells, and where I will dwell with him ere long. If
the floor and pavement of it be so glorious, what must its
roof, walls, gates, and furniture be? Yet it is my home and
dwelling place, prepared by Christ my forerunner. When you
consider the dispensations of providence, and God’s
various dealings towards you, you may say, how great pains is
he at with me to promote my welfare, and prepare me for heaven?
Though dispensations be sometimes mysterious now, yet how wise
and beautiful will the whole scheme of providence concerning me
appear in the issue?
4. It will sweeten all your
outward mercies: why? you may receive them as love-tokens from
heaven, and pledges of God’s fatherly good will to you in
Christ. Art thou raised from a sick bed, or delivered from any
trouble? you may say of it as Hezekiah did, Isa. xxxviii. 17,
"Thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of
corruption." Again, every meal of meat, or morsel of bread thou
eatest, may be doubly sweet to you for it is the fruit of
Christ's purchase; it is dipt in his blood, and comes through
the covenant channel to thy hand; thou mayest spy covenant-love
in every common mercy; thou enjoyest it not as a creature, but
as an heir: thy Father sends it from his own table to thee, as
an earnest of greater and better things laid up for thee
hereafter. That word belongs to thee, which we have in Eccl.
ix. 7, "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine
with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works."
Lastly, This
covenant-relation to God is our greatest happiness in regard of
the sure and indissoluble nature of it, Isa. liv. 10. Mutable
creatures alter their purposes, and break their leagues and
covenants which they made; but God will never break his
covenant of grace with his people. A covenant with a nation may
be dissolved, as with the people of the Jews, because it
is not built on the eternal purpose of God, to put his fear in
their hearts; but it hath a respect to their obedience. But his
covenant with the elect is indissoluble, seeing it depends on
God’s eternal purpose, to make them persevere in his ways.
The covenant of grace doth not run thus, "I will be their God,
if they will be my people;" but "I will be their God, and they
shall be my people." He puts a condition indeed in his covenant
of grace; but he has resolved and decreed from eternity, to
work that condition in their hearts, Jer. xxxii. 40, "I will
make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn
away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from me." There we see that
God is on both sides in this covenant; he engages not only for
his own part, but for ours, that we shall fear him, and shall
not depart from him. How happy then are believers who are in
covenant with God! They are a happy people; and nothing can
deprive them of their happiness. Adultery may dissolve the
marriage-covenant among men, but not so here; for God saith to
his covenanted people, "Thou hast played the harlot with many
lovers, yet return again unto me: Turn, ye backsliding
children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you," Jer. iii.
1, 14. Again, death cannot dissolve this covenant-relation, as
it doth among men; but brings us the nearer to our covenanted
God; so that a covenanted soul, when he finds death begin to
assault his clay-tabernacle, he may even rejoice and sing with
the Psalmist, Psal. lxxiii. 26, "My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."
What though my eye and heart-strings be ready to break, and the
lamp of my life be like a candle burned to the socket, and near
the going out; yet still God is my God, and portion for ever.
Thus Olevian, a dying saint, comforted himself, "My hearing is
gone, my smelling is gone, and my sight is going: my speech and
feeling are almost gone; but the loving-kindness of God is
still the same, and will never depart from me."
APPLICATION
Use I. Of Information.
We may hence see,
1. How far mistaken the world is
about a believer’s lot; they many times reckon them poor
and despicable, and the off-scouring of all things; but
certainly they are, of all persons in the world, the wisest;
for they make the wisest choice, and the best bargain: nay,
they are the richest too, for all things are theirs; though
they oft seem to the world to have nothing, 2 Cor. vi. 10.
2. We may hence infer, that
believers have no ground to envy the worldling of his portion,
but rather to pity him; for he hath no more than what is seen
by all, and that but for a short time, Psal. xvii. 14; Luke vi.
24. A carnal man may say, This house, this estate, this money
is mine; but a Christian can say, This God is mine. And a
covenanted God is more than ten thousand kingdoms.
Use II. Of Terror, to
those that are out of the bond of this covenant; for if the
people be so happy whose God is the Lord, how unhappy and
miserable must they be, whose God is not the Lord: nay, your
case is unspeakably sad and dismal; and O! that God would send
a wakening word to all such, and sound an alarm in your ears
this day.
1. You have neither art nor part
in the God of Israel, Eph. ii. 12. He stands in no relation to
you but that of Creator, and so stands he to the devils: but
what comfort can they draw from that? for "he that made them,
will not have mercy on them; and he that formed them, will show
them no favour."
2. You are under a covenant of
works, and under its fearful curse and sentence for the breach
thereof. It is terrible to be under sentence of death by an
earthly judge, and to be looking every hour to be taken forth
to the scaffold; but your case is far worse; you are doomed to
eternal death, and you may be looking every moment to be led
forth to execution. When you awake in the morning, you may say,
Shall this be the day of my execution? Shall I be taken to the
scaffold of divine vengeance before night? Every headache or
sick heart, every pain or stitch in back or breast, may put you
to say, Is this the messenger that the Judge is to send to
bring me forth? Sad is your case, O uncovenanted soul, you may
sleep and wake in continual fear: for you are still tottering
on the brink of hell and ridge of destruction. O! tremble then
to lie down another night in this condition. In the name of
God, I beseech you to awake from sleep, and find no rest for
the sole of your foot till, like Noah’s dove, ye come into
the ark of the covenant.
Use III. Of Examination.
O communicants, try if ye be within this covenant;
remember, if you be not you have no right to the seals of it;
no right to sit down at the Lord’s table. "Let a man
examine himself and so let him eat." And examine yourselves by
these marks.
1. Know you any thing of a change
of your state? Can you say, "Once I was a bond-slave to Satan,
and an enemy to God: once I loved sin, and hated holiness: but
now God hath opened my eyes, and humbled my heart for sin, and
made me cast down the weapons of my rebellion at his feet: once
I was at peace without Christ the Mediator; but now I see
nothing but fire and wrath out of him: once I thought little of
sin; but now I see it to be the most black and bloody thing in
the world." Then this is a good sign.
2. If you be in covenant with
God, you will certainly love God with your hearts, and love the
Mediator, who brought you into the covenant. Can you say then
with Peter, "Lord, thou that knowest all things, knowest that I
love thee?" Lord, though I cannot hear, pray, praise, or
communicate as I ought, yet thou knowest I love thee; yea, I
love thee above all things. And though all the riches, honours,
and pleasures of the world were in my offer or possession, and
Christ would say, you must either part with these, or part with
me; my heart would answer, Lord, abide thou with me, and let
them all be gone.
3. Those that are in covenant
with God, have certainly made choice of God, as their God and
portion. Can you say you have done this, O doubting
communicant? Though you cannot say that God hath chosen you,
yet doth your heart truly choose him? And are you resolved
never to be satisfied without him? And whatever offers be made
to you, yet you will be put off with nothing besides God. Then
this may give you comfort.
4. Can you say you have made a
resignation of yourselves, and of all you have to God, and you
resolve to renew it again this night in secret, and to-morrow
before men and angels? Then it is a token for good. It may be,
doubting soul, thou art afraid to say, Lord, thou art my God;
but canst thou venture to say, "Lord, I am thine, I resolve to
be thine, and thine only; I will not be mine own, I will not be
the devil’s, I will not be the world’s, I will not be
my lust’s; Lord, I am resolved to be no one’s but
thine." Well, let this comfort you when other marks cannot. For
if once you come the length to say, "Lord, I am thine," you may
say in the next place, "Lord, thou art mine;" for the relation
is always reciprocal: and this is the reasoning of the spouse,
Cant. vi. 3, "I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is
mine."
5. Are you mightily pleased with
the contrivement and design of this covenant, which is to
debase self; and exalt free grace? And would you desire heaven,
though it were for no more than to stand eternal monuments of
free grace, and join your note with the redeemed, eternally to
cry, "Not unto us, not unto us, but to thee be the
glory?"
And, Lastly, Are you
inclined to perform covenanted-duties conscientiously, and that
in a covenant-way, relying on covenant strength, and from a
principle of love and gratitude to your covenanted God, and
with an eye to glorify his name: then fear not to come forward
to take the seal of the covenant, for you belong to it.
Use IV. Of Exhortation.
And this I shall direct to all that hear the gospel,
especially communicants. O come take hold of God’s
covenant and enter yourselves within the bond of it; and then
come and take God’s seal to the bargain. I here, in my
great Lord and Master’s name, make offer of God’s
covenant to all of you, be what you will, gospel-slighters,
rebels against God, graceless and profane sinners, carnal and
earthly-minded souls, hypocrites, formalists, backsliders,
weary and heavy laden sinners, doubting and discouraged souls;
I exhort and beseech you all to come and take hold of
God’s covenant, make choice of God for your God and
portion, and Jesus Christ for your Mediator and Peace-maker
with God, and resign yourselves freely to God in Christ. O
sinners, the covenant is free, the call is pressing, the offer
is great, the bargain excellent.
This is the most honourable and
advantageous bargain that ever you made; the design of my whole
sermon has been to recommend it, and I persuade you to close
with it: God knows how your hearts stand inclined. But I would
have you all to remember, that our time is short, and the hour
is coming, when we that are ministers must leave this work of
beseeching, pressing, and arguing with you, and go to him that
sent us, with a faithful account of the issue of our message.
And O how sad and unpleasant will the account be that we must
give of those of you whom we leave unpersuaded to take hold of
God’s covenant. It will be a melancholy thing, and. matter
of grief, to accuse any of you to the Father; but we must do
it, if you will not prevent it by your hearkening and obeying.
If you do it not in time, as God is in heaven you will
eternally repent it: I do here warn you of your danger, and
call heaven and earth to record against you that I am free of
your blood. O young people! what say ye to it? Will ye take
hold of the covenant? Your baptism will not profit you, unless
now, when ye are of age, ye ratify your parents’ deed,
renew your baptismal engagements, and personally join
yourselves unto the Lord in a perpetual covenant. If ye
approach to the Lord’s table without doing it, you will be
unworthy communicants, you will be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord, you will but mock God and deceive your own soul. I
have not time to answer objections against covenanting with
God; I shalt only ask one question, and then conclude.
QUEST. But
you may say, What would you have us doing, in order to our
being brought into God’s covenant? We would gladly be
among the number of that happy people, whose God is the Lord,
and who are in covenant with him; but we know not how to get
into it.
ANS. Surely the soul is not wholly
passive in this transaction, but must be active in it.
Something is to be done on our part, when we enter into
covenant with God; and therefore we are called to "join
ourselves unto the Lord in a perpetual covenant" Jer. 1. 5. I
do not mean, that we can do any thing to enter ourselves into
covenant with God in our own strength; no, it is God by his
Spirit "that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good
pleasure." The duty is ours, but the work is the Spirit’s.
It is the Spirit that courts the heart, and prevails with the
soul to give its consent to this blessed bargain. But, in the
mean time, let us be aiming at our duty as we can, looking for
the Spirit’s concurrence. And there are four things to be
done by us, in order to our being in covenant with
God.—Renunciation. —Acceptation.—Dedication.
—Solemn engagement.
1. You must heartily renounce and
break league with all the Lord’s enemies and rivals, Hos.
xiv. 8, and particularly renounce,—Satan’s
government; though formerly you was led captive by him at his
will, yet now solemnly renounce all subjection to him, and
hearken no more to his suggestions and temptations, let God
alone have the throne—Renounce the world, be no more a
slave to it as you have been; set your heart no longer
on its profits and pleasures, as your portion and inheritance;
but make God your treasure.— Renounce the flesh; however
its lusts have been beloved by you, let them reign no more in
you; but condemn them to be crucified as the murderers
of Christ.—Renounce your own righteousness in point of
justification and acceptance with God, and solemnly disclaim
all trust and confidence in your own duties and
performances.
2. Acceptation. Heartily
aim to make choice, and accept of God in Christ, as your
soul’s portion and inheritance, Psal. lxxiii. 25. But
observe, how God is to be chosen, only in and through Christ
the Mediator; for "out of Christ he is a consuming fire;"
therefore accept of precious Christ as your guide and, way
to the Father, and of his satisfaction and merits,as the
ransom for delivering you from wrath. Accept of the Holy Ghost
as your sanctifier, quickener, and comforter; and heartily
acquiesce in the covenant of grace, and gospel-method of
salvation through Christ, as "well-ordered in all
things."
3. Dedication. As God
gives himself wholly to you, so do you dedicate and give up
yourselves, and all that you have, wholly and unreservedly to
God, 2 Chron. xxx. 8. Give up your souls, with all their
powers and faculties; your bodies, with all their senses and
members; and all your enjoyments, temporal and spiritual, to be
employed for God and his honour, and to be entirely disposed of
for his service and glory.
4. Solemn engagement. You
must resolve and engage, in the "strength of Christ our
Surety," to live wholly to your covenanted God, and walk with
him in newness of life, perform every duty he commands, suffer
patiently what he inflicts, watch against every sin he forbids,
and manfully fight against his enemies. Thus be aiming at your
duty, and lay yourselves in the Spirit’s way, and who
knows but God will pity and help you honestly to take hold of
his covenant, and also himself say Amen to the bargain.
The Lord bless his word. Amen.
Author
John Willison was born in the year 1680, in the neighborhood
of Stirling, Scotland. Not much is know about his personal and
private life, but soon after he competed his academic career,
he received a unanimous call to serve as pastor from a parish
in Brechin in 1703. About the year 1718 he was transferred to
Dundee where he remained for the remainder of his life, serving
a large congregation. He served as a faithful minister of the
gospel for 47 years until his death on the 3rd of May, 1756.
John Willison was a man of great piety and a staunch defender
of the faith. We are indeed fortunate to have extant copies of
his sermons and his polemical works, from which the above
sermon is derived.
This is the second of five from his "Five Sacramental
Sermons."
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