The Covenant
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."
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."
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