it is right See Jer. 17. 9. Who can know it Many Men are apt to perswade themselves that their heart is right when it is not Jehu when he was upon the spur and his zeal on fire would have been angry if any one had then told him that he would at last prove an Idolater Doubtless these Israelites when they made such promises and protestations as we find they did were very confident of their own integrity and yet the next hour of temptation discovered their falsness There is therefore great need to be very wary of our hearts 2. There is no hope that they should long hold out and keep true to their Covenants that do not engage in them with their whole hearts What Men are driven to do upon fear or force hath no truth in it Let but that fear be removed or constraint taken off them and you shall quickly see them returning ageâ— to their old wonts and forgetting every Promise which they engaged themselves in unto God A notable instance we have for this in those Jews Jer. 34. 8. c. Their hearts were not to the Law and Covenant of God Hence though in a hurry and distress they made vows and began to put them in execution yet the present danger was no sooner over but they tasted sweetness in their old Sins and impudently returned to them agen Yea this is the very Reason rendred in our Text why they so often revolted after so many returnes A thing that moves by the force of weights will move but till they are down It must be a living thing that holds on its motion to the end Hypocrisy and formality will tyre by the way and give in It is only Grace in the heart that will carry a Man through his Work 3. God hath made it our Duty to look to our hearts Pro. 4. 23. Heb. 3. 12. And although we can neither make nor keep them right by our own strength yet our Duty is to go to Him and wait upon Him to do it for us and in our place to take pains and use uttermost diligence about it For if we fail the fault will not be laid upon Him but the sin will be our own And indeed not to look to the integrity of our hearts in our Covenanting is in it self truly and properly a breaking of Covenant in the very act of renewing it And that brings in the next III. From the Covenant it self in which we do actually and declaratively engage our whole Man to God's Service which cannot be the whole except the heart be in it The Covenant precept binds us to love God with all our heart and all our soul c. It is a spiritual Covenant not only objectively as the object we Covenant with God is a Spirit but subjectivly too viz. As we who enter into Covenant do engage all spiritual Service and Obedience unto God He that promiseth to reform and doth not begin at the heart is a vile dissembler And he that doth not first secure the Quarters of his Soul for the service of God all the pains he takes in and about reformation will be but to give his lust a safe retirement to hide it self and ly lurking in his heart till it hath a further â—airer opportunity to walk abroad agen in this life VSE In the application of this Doctrine I shall wave all other improvement which might have been made of it that so I may have the more room and opportunity to press this Vse of Exhortation viz. That as it concernes all the People of God in what things soever they have to deal about with Him so it especially calls upon us who are this day engaging our selves to God in the matter of the Covenant to take special heed to our selves that in all this Procedure our hearts be right with God I might here urge many things by way of Motive but let these two or three suffice viz. I. Consider whom you have now to do and transact withal I know you have to do one with another but this is not your main business that is with God and if it be God you are now engaging with let it then be thought upon 1 Whether He do not deserve your hearts if not He Who Hath He not made them Doth He not uphold and preserve them Cannot He make them â—appy or miserable All that He hath done for you all that He hath revealed in the Promise which He is ready to perform in your behalfe if you truly seek it of Him challengeth your hearts to be devoted unto Him yea you do here engage your selves to be His and can you be so and yet keep back your heart which is the main and principal thing from Him 2. Whether you can rationally hope that he will accept of your Covenanting except your hearts be in it To believe it is to make him a lyar Did he not of all the Sacrifices challenge the inwards as the principal Part for himself And what doth that signify to us but that the heart must be his in every service of ours Did he accept of the plausible but heartless service of the Jews Ezek 33. 31 see vers ult Did he accept of their fasts Isa 58 No and why not Only because they were hypocritical and heartless 3. Whether you can impose upon him and cheat him with an heartless Covenant Can you kiss your hands and mean while hide hypocrisy in your hearts and God not know it And can he know it and not bear witness against it Had you only Man to do withal you might with many fair words and deceitful shews invite him to credit and confide in your false and deceitful promises for Man judgeth according to appearance but he who searcheth the darkest corner of the Soul and sees our inside will not be so imposed upon 4. Whether this be not the way to be accepted notwithstanding all your weakness and infirmities It is a sincere Souls happiness as it is an hypocrites misery that he hath God to deal withall in the Covenant When you have done your utmost and taken most pains to prepare your selves for this business you will still unavoidably bring many and great infirmities with you but God loves and will accept of truth in the inward part and whatsoever frailties are with you yet this is pleadable in the greatest extremityes Isa 38. 3. I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect Heart David had great Sins yet God casts him not off because his heart was perfect Saul did many specious things but God rejects him his heart was not true to God Be but sincere and your Covenanting shall not be in vain 2. Consider what is your present design What is the thing which we intend in renewing our Covenant with God Is it a meer Ceremony and shew or is it a business of importance If it be a meer Ceremony it will come under the just censure of a vain oblation But if it have some
vain shewes and false pretences he that trusts it is not Wise 3. Be sure rightly to understand and clearly to know what it is that you engage in That Christian is most like to stand firm to his Covenants that enters upon them with the most mature deliberation The want of this may bring a Man into a great snare and lay him open to grievous temptations Prov. 20. 26. It is a snare to a Man to devour that which is holy and after vows to make inquiry Without knowledge there can be no practice without consideration there can be no good resolution A Man's heart cannot be in that promise which he hath not weighed in his understanding He that Covenants to forsake that Sin which he hath a full purpose in his heart to keep and hug as his Darling how is he like to stand to it Remember then that you engage to be for God and for no other You give up your selves to be led by his Spirit directed by his Word to be at his dispose and not your own to make his Will your Rule and his Glory your end You promise that you will not run in the Current and Stream of the Times in the pursuit of vanity nor seek your own things but the things of Christ In a Word you promise sincere and universal Obedience Do you know or consider this Have you thought and do you approve of it in your hearts If not your hearts are false 4. Take up a firm resolution to stand to and perform your promises It is not Words but Performances that God hath a respect to God will not be mocked with flattering promises Purposes do nextly come from the heart and are elicite Acts of the Will and if these be wavering or unfixt the heart is not right A Covenant with God is a Bond firmly obliging the Soul and our engagements to him will never be performed without the greatest resolution You shall meet with great and many Temptations which will assault and batter you Evermore when a People have been engaging to God in a solemn manner they must expect some shaking Tyral And if then you would be strong and acquit your selves like Men your business now is to be fixt When Temptations come and assail you you must say with David The vows of God are upon me And as Psal 119. 106. I have sworn and I will perform If ever you repent of your engagement your heart was never firm in it If you find Satan or your own hearts laying bait before you to entise you you must say as Abraham I have lift up my hand to the God of Heaven c. Let therefore your purposes be hearty purposes free and not constrained 5. Beware of sinful Reserves Nothing more frequent nor more dangerous than Equivocation We make fair Covenants and plausible but we have our mental reservations which spoil all If your Covenant be not full and free and plain it is of no Worth Saul is sent to destroy Amalek and saith I have done it Only I reserved the best for a Sacrifice He had that reserve in his mind before Naaman hath his reserves In this thing pardon thy Servant It may be you think with your selves I can do all and I will do all but this or that one particular thing One hath his sinful and unlawful Calling by which he gets a Living another his oppression deceit another his excess in this or that lawfull liberty c. And this he intends to keep and thinks to say I never intended this Know it this is a dreadful heart-deceit and God will find it out and it will render your whole Covenant a vain oblation 6. Trust not in your selves or your own strength In the first Covenant Man was to look upon and exercise his created Grace though not without imploring Divine assistance and concurse In the New-Covenant Man is utterly to disclaim himself and deny all his own strength The consideration of our own frailty and plain impotency to spiritual things were discouragement enough to our renewal of Covenant If God expected or we promised performance in our own strength Though every Beleever must acknowledge with Paul that of himself he can do nothing yet is he neither to sit still and do nothing or yet to renounce the Covenant of God and engaging of himself to his service Only he must carefully beware that he do not turn it into a Covenant of Works by being his own undertaker lest whiles he pretends to renew he destroyes the Covenant of Grace It may seem a Paradox but is an Evangelical truth that a Christian must acknowledge that he can do nothing and yet resolve and bind himself to do all Therefore 7. In sense of your own utter insufficiency Be sure to get Christ your Vndertaker and Surety in the Covenant The heart is never right till it comes to this And this must be done not by a presumptuous casting all upon him whiles we indulge our careless neglect and say Let Christ answer for it But by a believing and humble dependance upon him as the head of the Covenant And that not only as a political head standing responsible for the carriages of all his Members but also as the head of influences from whom by Faith we are to derive Grace and strength to do and perform that duty which shall through him be accepted by God and reckoned to us as Covenant-keeping And now having him thus related and engaged to us we may with an holy confidence devote our selves to God and his Service From him we shall derive Wisdom to instruct and guide us in all the Covenant-Duties we are concerned in From him we shall fetch down Grace to animate quicken strengthen our Souls to Duty From Him we shall have encouragement and support against all faintings of spirit and despondencyes under our Work In him we shall have all our weakness pityed and pardoned Through him we shall trample upon Temptation and tread down opposition If Christ be with us we shall not fail though we may fall for he will lift us up And if your hearts do truely and sincerely trust in him and wait upon him he will not leave you wholly to swerve or utterly to violate your holy Covenant But when hypocritical and heartless Professours stumble and fall and by the righteous judgement of God receive the due reward of their dissimulation and falshood you shall be kept preserved established unto the day of the appearauce of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And in that Day when the secrets of Mens hearts shall be made manifest and perfidious and formal Professours shall be put to open shame then shall your Truth and Sincerity be openly acknowledged before Angels and Men and the Glorious Blessing of an everlasting Covenant shall be your Portion for evermore FINIS
their Sins Judah had the Temple and Ordinances with them when the Ten Tribes by their Rebellion from the house of David and carnal policy of their own Kings were obstructed in and much hindred from enjoyment of these liberties God takes notice of it and sets a signal Caution upon it Hos 4. 15. Though Israel play the harlot let not Judah offend The summe is the more liberal God hath been to a People the greater accounts they have to make up with Him 4. Nothing sooner or more provokes God then the abusing or not well improving of visible Covenant-priviledges We shall find how God expostulates with Israel in these very terms Amos 3. 2. Thee only have 〈◊〉 known c. The greater the kindness is that is abused the greater a provocation it must needs be Now Covenant-priviledges are the best and most exeelent Priviledges which a People can enjoy It was the Jews advantage taken notice of by the Apostle with a Note of specialty put upon it Rom. 3. 1 2. Chiefly that to them were committed the Oracles of God And when David had enumerated the sundry favours which God had bestowed upon His People Israel He sets the peculiar emphasis upon this Psal 147. ult He hath not dealt so with any Nation It is not so great a Sin to abuse the Common goodness of God and yet this is to treasure up Wrath Rom. 2. 3. 4. These are little and low favours compared with the Gospel and Covenant in which eternal Life is exhibited and therefore whatsoever abuse God bears withall this He cannot away with If it once comes to a despising and undervaluing and not improving of such Mercies then God cannot hold His Peace but must declare His displeasure Deut. 32. 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord 5. When God purposeth to bestow His everlasting Mercies upon a People He shews it by enabling of them to keep His Covenant This is the plainest and clearest manifestation of God's intentions If He withhold this Grace the most excellent Priviledges of a People are to them Judicial It was a sad complaint which Moses made and it carried in it a very bad Omen to that so highly priviledged People of Israel Deut. 29. 4. God hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day And very observable is that expression of the Prophet Jer. 31. 31-35 The New-Covenant there mentioned was not another Covenant for the substance or matter propounded It was a Covenant of Reconciliation which was given to Israel when they came out of Egypt But it was to them only propounded and outwardly made with them but they brake it and thereby provoked God to swear against them in His Wrath that they should never enter into His Rest Psalm 95. ult But here was an inward and spiritual application of the Covenant a working of the Conditions of it in their hearts and an establishment of their Souls upon it by vertue of which they were enabled to observe His Commandments and to do them and thus they were made assured Owners of and Partakers in those everlasting Mercies therein exhibited God's treating with Men only in a visible or outward way will vindicate His Justice and leave them wholly inexcusable when found Despisers but it in only His gracious application of the Covenant to their Souls by the operation of His Holy Spirit working in them all that which is well-pleasing in His sight that brings saving good with it to His People This is Grace indeed 6. Hence a true grounded and permanent Hope must be established by an inward and Self-search Many are ready to boast of the Promises and comfort themselves with the Promises They hence Carve out for themselves large Consolations But who are they that so do There are some to whom God will say Hands off you have nothing to do with these things The Promise indeed is full everlasting Mercies are Soul-saving Mercies But what is all this to you You will say they are free Mercies and why may not I embrace them as well as another True but if God should ask you that question Psal 50. 16 17 What hast thou to do to take My Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed What answer can you make to it It is a very great piecs of folly for a Man to boast of a favour without considering of the way of a Conveyance God saith if you keep His Covenant He hath endless Mercies for you and they shall be yours Oh yes say you Give me everlasting Mercies I need them I accept of them Yes no doubt But do you accept of the Covenant Will you freely close with Jesus Christ by a true and living Faith Will you depart from Iniquity and cast off your Vanities Will the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts What do you wince and boggle here Are these hard sayings which you cannot bare Let me say then What have you to do with Mercies Be not deceived God is not mocked If the filthy will be filthy still if the Proud Vain Profane Leud c. will be so still and hold on those courses let them not glory in Covenant-Priviledges and dream of golden Mountains of Mercies But the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will shew them His Covenant Collect. 3. It may instruct us in the Nature and quality of the relation wherein Children stand related to the Covenant This Enquiry and Consideration both our Doctrine and Text lead us to For though I mentioned not Children particularly in the Doctrine yet they are included in the general expression of it and distinctly mentioned in the Text and God bears a respect to them in the outward dispensation of the Covenant of Reconciliation There are some that wholly exclude their children from the Covenant others there are who place too much carnal confidence in their relation to it And many Children too that Cheat themselves upon this account It is good therefore that they should know both their Priviledge and their Danger The Text puts Parents and Childrens Children 〈◊〉 the same relation and under the same Conditions I shall endeavour to clear up this Collection by opening three propositions Prop. 1. That the Children of Beleevers are equally interested in the visible Covenant with their Fathers By Beleevers I do not only intend those that are such by a true and living Faith but such also as are so by an open and acknowledged profession of their Faith for these also in the judgement of Charity are to be acknowledged for true Beleevers And it was to such and in such a notion that the Apostles wrote all their Epistles to the Churches as hath been before hinted and proved By Children also I do not mean only the immediate seed of such as firstly acknowledged and professed this Faith nor doth the Scripture so intend but their posterity in all Generations a a a Till for
To the end that we may awaken our drowzy and quicken our slow hearts to a diligence in performing that duty which by a natural propensity and too many insinuating Temptations we are very prone to neglect As also that we may enjoy the gracious favorable presence of God with us pardoning owning and accepting of us That it is a laudable and often a necessary practice as being established by precept and confirmed by the example of the People of God from ancient Times is not my present Work to insist upon it being else-where and by the labours of another now made publick sufficiently cleared The great thing is that we may so do it as to obtain and not miss of our end That we may not instead of obtaining a blessing incense Divine displeasure and pull down a Curse upon our own heads My designe therefore is to enter Caution and propound counsel to that purpose as God shall help and that by an improvement of these Words to make way unto which let us only in general take notice of the occasion and intendment of them The Psalmist in this Psalm after solemn attention required and indeed nothing is of more moment to be diligently pondered then this recounts the ancient transactions which had past between God and His Covenant Peopleâ— in which His main business is to informe us both of the Mercy and severity of God to teach us to serve Him with fear and joy as also in the frailty and pronitude of a professing People to backslide and deal â—alsely with God to move us to the greater care and watchfulness in all that we have to do with God in In this Historical Narrative he first gives a general account of the ground of God's controversie and the procuring cause of the mischiefs and miseryes which befel that People vers 9 10 11. From whence he proceeds to an enumeration of sundry choise and singular acts of Providence wrought in favour of them In Egypt and in the Wilderness These are scattered through the whole Psalm To which he adjoynes and by which he illustrates the greatness of their provocation in sining and rebelling against Him And indeed for a People under the special and eminent conduct of God's favour to revolt and degenerate is a deep dy'd transgression No wonder then if we find him enterweaving the story of God's wrath and the mischiefs which wasted and brought them low the particulars whereof are recorded in Moses's History And that which most of all deserves remark is the moderation of Divine severity and God's remembrance of mercy in the midst of Judgement so far that He spared that People and brought them to a settlement and establishment in the Land of Canaan notwithstanding they had so grievously incensed His displeasure against them One most observable and indeed admirable Circumstance whereof we may observe in the Text with some Verses of the Context viz. Their grievous dissimulation in their Repentance and renewals of Covenant This you may view from vers 34. The summe of it is thus much when God's Hand lay heavy upon them in sore and vexing Calamities they fly to their Confessions Reformations and Covenants And indeed it is no new but a frequent thing for a professing People under the rod of God's anger to do thus Judgments especially such as are distressing do awaken the Conscience which before was infected with a Lethargy and this being affrighted with the Terrors of the Almighty drives at least to use outward means to pacify an offended Majesty and come upon terms of agreement with God But here lay the misery of all that in this they betrayed their horrible wickedness and did but dissemble flatter and lie And what could have been expected to befal them for this but more heavy wrath Yet in vers 38 39. God's pitty prevailed and when He might righteously have destroyed He spared This 37. vers is an illustration or discovery of the deep dissimulation of this People in the very act of their renewing Covenant with God when they professed Repentance and promised reformation and it is taken from the two proper Heads of a Demonstrative Syllogisme viz. The cause of it Text. And the effect by which they discovered it in their after carriage Neither were they stedfast in His Covenant The former is our present business to consider of The Words discover the moral reason of all false hypocritical and treacherous dealing with God by a professing and Covenanted People The ground also and reason of all after Apostacy and want of stedfastness in standing to Covenant engagements viz. The want of an upright heart They made a great deal of do in Covenants and Reformations but all came to nothing and issued at length in doing worse than they had done before And whence was it Why their heart was not right with Him And it is worthy our observation that the Holy Ghost here finds not fault with their returning to God but only with that want of sincerity what they did had been well if their hearts had been right in it it was the want of that which spoiled all Their defect is our admonition and teacheth us this Doct. If ever a People would do any thing to purpose in a Covenant of Reformation they must above all see that their Hearts be right with God in it It is not enough for Men to return by an outward profession to make vowes and enter into Promises and engagements There may be a great deal of formality and a shew of much solemnity in such things but if the heart be not true in it all is in vain In the Explication Consider 1. What we are to understand by the Heart 2. When the Heart may be said to be right with God 3. The reason of the Doctrine First What we are to understand by the Heart Answ The Word is variously used in Scripture Sometimes properly for that member in a living Creature which is the Principal seat of Life and first spring of Life actions Sometimes Metaphorically for the in-side and most hidden part of a thing So Jonah 2. 3. Agen by a Metonimy of the Subject it is used for those things that have their Seat in and Original from the Heart Sometimes for the understanding Prov. 10. 8. Sometimes for the Will Jer. 3. 15. Sometimes for the affections Pro. 14. 13. In a Word the Soul with all its faculties is often intended by the word Heart And so we are here to understand it and principally of the Will which is Regent of all the faculties and according to the frame whereof God Judgeth of all the actions of the Children of Men. 2. When the Heart may be said to be right with God Answ The Word in our Text is variously interpreted it signifies to make fit or sutable to a thing so some read that Pro. 3. 19. By understanding He hath fitted the Heavens i. e. Suted them to their end and use It signifies also to prepare or make a thing
ready for the use it is to be imployed about so it is translated Psal 37. 23. The steps of a good Man are ordered or prepared by the Lord It also signifies to be stable firm and constant So it used 1 Sam. 7. 16. Thy kingdome shall be established A Heart then that is right with God as it relates to these Covenant-Transactions IS I. A Heart that is made fit to deal with God in such a way and that is in brief an Heart that is inwardly principled with saving Grace A Heart that hath truly made choise of God in Jesus Christ for the object of his Faith and Love An Heart which as the Needle in the Compass which is truely toucht what-ever shakeings it may have yet never rests till it comes to point directly to its Pole-Star Though by the force of many temptations he may turn aside from God yet hath a true inclination of Soul towards him though often hurried by Satan and his own corruption yet hath the Root of the Matter in him Such an heart had David though sometimes overtaken and born down with great Sins and this God had respect to when He was under greatest provocations 2. An Heart that is duly prepared to the Work of Reformation As there needs a sutable Principle so there is requisite a fit preparation to so solemn a Transaction The want of this is rendred as a Reason of Rehoboam's Apostasy 2 Chron. 12. 14. He did evil because he prepare not his Heart to seek the Lord The contrary to which is Jehoshaphat's commendation Chap. 19. 3. Hast prepared thy heart to seek thy God But he could not go through with Reformation for want of this in the People Chap 20. 33. Men may make much a-do about outward preparation but without the preparation of the Heart all will end in meer formality Now to the due preparation of the Heart it is requisite 1. That they do solemnly consider and well weigh what they do Hasty and precipitate actions are heartless actions things done rashly without due deliberation are not like to be permanent Christ therefore would have men in great Matters to sit down and consider Luk. 14. 28 c. 2. That they be inwardly and throughly perswaded of the Necessity and Excellency of what they are about to do Necessity I say and that not meerly a compulsive necessity such as Men are driven to by external Motives as Judgments c. But the necessary dependance of their spiritual good hope in such a way And hence I add the Excellency Men must See a Beauty in the Covenant that it is a Glorious thing to have God engaged to us and our Hearts engaged to Him David therefore accounts the Covenant all his Salvation 2 Sam. 23. 5. 3. That they be strengthened with Holy Purposes and Resolutions to do as they shall Promise and Engage God regards not bare empty Promises But He looks for Performance and Men must purpose if ever they intend to do Every Holy action hath its rise in the Heart devoting it self to God and resolving to serve Him To promise and never intend to perform is meer mockery it is not what we pretend but what we intend That God regards They in Jer. 44. begin Promised the Prophet fair they spake like honest and wel-meaning Men let God but direct and they would do But this was the furthest thing from their thoughts they were preocupied and forestalled with resolutions of their own and if these should be crost they were resolved and they shew it vers 16. The Prophet did not speak to their mindes If he had What obedient Men had they been III. An Heart that is stable and firm to its purposes and promises Men many times think to do something for God but a deceitfull heart deludes them Jehu thought to have made a great Reformation and begins with a notable Zeal but it tyred before it had gone through all its Stages And what was the Reason but because his Heart was not firm It was a good frame David was in when he said My Heart is fixed Psal 57. 7. An irresolute inconstant Heart is not fit to have to do with an unchangeable God It is God's complaint against them Hos 6. 4. Your goodness is as the Morning Cloud and as the Early Dew it goeth away And it is often spoken to Israel's disgrace That they soon forgot Thirdly For the Reasons of the Doctrine or why such Care should be used in this Matter of Covenanting they are taken I. From God with whom we are to transact in the Covenant in Two or Three respects 1. God requires our Hearts in all that we have to do with Him in The Heart was a main and essential part of the Sacrifice that was to be offered up under the Law To signifie to us that no Services of ours are acceptable but such as are hearty hence that upbraiding reproof Hos 7. 11. Ephraim is a silly Dove without an Heart God calls for every ones Heart to be devoted to Him Pro. 23. 26. My Son give me thy Heart That is the emphasis of many precepts Seek the Lord with all thy Heart Deut. 4. 29 -6 5. c. The most specious and most exactly attended Services without this are despised by Him Hence that complaint Ezek. 33. 31. 2. God searcheth and tryeth and throughly knoweth all Hearts and there is no putting Him off with out-side Services and varnished hypocritical pretences Men may be deceived but God cannot and all these who think to impose upon Him do but cheat their own Souls Gal. 6 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked God knowes all the secret thoughts and purposes of Mens hearts and they cannot hide their counsels from Him though they mint them in the darkest corners of their Souls Psal 139. 12. Heb. 4. 12. And more especially doth He look with a curious and critical eye upon those that transact with Him in the Covenant for He expects to be glorified by all such as draw so near unto Him 3. God will not accept of but severely punish all heartless and hypocritical Covenanters with him It must needs add to Sin and not mitigate it to think to cover it over with a falsifying Covenant God may to make known his patience and compassion bear with such long and often thus he did with these as the Context shews But yet he doth remember and will recompense all the deceitful and false dealings of a Covenant-People Men may say and promise and vow as fairly as they will but if their hearts be not right God will not hear them but fall upon them in his wrath See Isa 58. begin Ezek. 14. begin 2. From our selves Covenanting with God FOR 1. Our hearts are naturally hypocritical and dangerously deceitful and hence if they be not Cautelously looked after will lead us into cheats and self delusions There is nothing more subtile sly slippery than the heart of Man and it is very hard for us to know when
real and material purpose in it carefully enquire and see what that is And whether the want of a firm and fixt heart in it will not evert and disappoint it The design then of this work if any is this viz. To promote and forward a true and through reformation or at least to confirm and settle our selves in a serious and stable Profession and practice of the fear and service of God to put a strongly and obligation upon our selves to keep close to God and his wayes Now if the heart be not right in this matter all will come to nought and be to no purpose It is not the least breach of Charity to say that either no reformation or to be sure no durable reformation will follow a verbal and out-side Profession If the heart do not vow to God as well as the lips we shall never stand to such vowes The bond of a meer Oral Covenant let it carry never so fair promises in it styed of a slip-knot and a false heart will easily unty 〈◊〉 And what then is to be expected as the fruit of such a Covenant It is possible it may bear a little aw upon us for a few dayes but it will quickly wear off that which here followes in my Text will be the same which will be consequent upon our engagements Neither were they stedfast in His Covenant 3 Consider how hard a thing it is for you to get your â—earts right in so solemn a Service I can assure you that except God afford his special help and Grace all the power of Man cannot effect it It is a hard thing Man to know when his heart is right It will solemnly protest that it is so when it is indeed most false if he be so foolish as to believe it at its word he shall be easily cheated Did not Israel when they were at mount Sinai under the amazing terrors of God's dreadful presence think their hearts right when they made that profession to Moses Deut. 5. 27. Speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it But let us see what God saith vers 28 29. They have well said all that they have spoken Oh! that there were such an Heart in them c. Did not Jehu think his heart was right when he invites Jonadab as a Spectator Come and see my zeal for the Lord The understanding may be convinced and the affections may be raised and the Man may be forward and yet a false heart in all this And if it be thus hard to know the hearts falseness much more hard and difficult is it when it is discovered to be wrong to get it right Before the heart can be right in the Covenant it must part from that enmity which it bears against God it must lose its self-soveraignty and be brought into true subjection unto His Holy Will it must renounce it self it s own guidance its carnal delights and be truely and willingly devoted or consecrato God and His Service It must make a free full and everlasting choise of God and His Wayes it must take delight to be bound and engaged to him and account that its Covenant-engagement unto God is its greatest liberty It must take up strong purposes and inviolable resolutions to do whatsover God commands To avoid what He prohibits with greatest care and vigilancy to be for Him and no other How contrary and unpleasing these things are to flesh and blood he cannot but in some measure understand who was ever truly acquainted with His own heart 4. Consider what it is that you desire may follow upon this dayes work I dare presume that there is never an one of you but propounds to himself some good effect to ensue upon so solemn an affair as this is and so indeed their will if it be not our own fault But yet on the other hand take this also for an undoubted truth that if your hearts do here dissemble and deal falsly not good but evil is to be expected to follow You would have God's anger turned away which hath broken in upon us laid wast many of our pleasant things you would enjoy Him as a reconciled God you would have Him to own us signally by some tokens of His favour whatever your desires be the want of a right heart in the duty wil frustrate all It is with you now to procure Life or Death God's Favour or more of His Anger Alas God is not delighted in a pompous shew and a great appearance of seeming solemnity as we poor Men are apt to be God's heart is no wayes engaged to us by such things an humble an holy and a contrite heart is that which reacheth His heart and will procure His Love and Favour Let but your hearts be right with the Lord And I dare promise you that His shall be so with you and He shall so witness it as not only you but others also shall see and observe it Eminent for this was that hearty Covenant of Asa's of which we have that memorable note 2 Chro. 15. 15. All Judah rejoyced at the Oath for they had sworn with all their Heart and sought Him with their whole desire and He was found of them And the Lord gave them rest round about If you be not great Gainers you will be great losers If you think to deceive God He will certainly deceive you And whiles you are vainly gaping after and promising your selves Mercy and deliverance you shall find Plagues and Miseries encrease But be faithfull and you shall prosper God even your own God shall bless you For Direction that your hearts may be right in this Service 1. Dread hypocrisie in this Work Be awfully afraid to come before God with a false heart There is nothing more dangerous than carnal confidence Prepare your selves to the work by thinking seriously in your own Souls how dreadful a thing will it be for me now to come and dissemble with the holy One of Israel You had much better to impose upon all the World than so much as think to do so upon God Say thus to thy self If I should now come and plight Promises make vowes enter a Covenant and my heart not be in it I shall pull down curses upon my own Soul Shall I call the God of heaven of earth to witness to a lye Shall I invite His solemn presence to a mockery And shal I not in so doing draw down and hasten vengeance upon mine own head 2. Be very jealous of your own hearts Ever suspect and be afraid lest they should be deceitful Blessed is the Man that feareth alwayes Pro. 28. 26. Peter trusted to his heart and it deceived him and so may it be with me It is the wisdome of a Christian to watch his Soul diligently looking upon it as a slippery thing and very ready to steal away from every holy and solemn work and to deceive him with