[4.] Renew thy consecration, and consent to surrender and give up thyself to the tuition and service of Christ ; for the more we mind our duty, the more ready is God to prepare our comfort for us. The covenant is nnitual indeed : Cant. vi. 3, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine ; ' though I cannot say he is mine, yet I am resolved to be his. You are to resign and consecrate yourselves to him by the sense of his great mercies, Rom. xii. 1. We first consent that we will be his before we can know that he is ours. Now if we cannot claim by one part of the covenant, it is some confidence when we can say, I am thine, wholly thine, only thine, everlastingly thine : Ps. cxix. 94, ' I am thine, save me.' David did not say, Thou art mine, but he could say, I am thine ; and thereupon he jjleads with God. Though we cannot say, I am thine by God's acceptance, that he hath taken us for his own ; yet I am thine by my own resignation, I have given up myself to thee, to serve and please thee. As the men of Campania, who came as neighbours and allies to Piome in great dis- tress, to seek for help from them against the Grecians, but when the Romans refused to help them, they went and gave up their whole country in vassalage to the Romans, and used this plea, Si nostra tueri non vultis, at vestra defendaiis ; quicquld passurisumus, dedititii vestri patieniur — If you will not help us as your allies, help us as your subjects, for we are resolved to be subjects to the Romans ; what we suffer, your tributaries shall suffer. It is some holdfast upon God when you liave chosen him for your God, and given up yourselves to his use and service. We must with a holy art fasten ourselves upon God : Lord ! if I perish, one that is resolved to be thine shall perish. When you thus devotedly and strongly give up yourselves to his use and service, though you cannot with such boldness and the joy of faith make out your own claim, yet you may rely upon him.
Secondly, What we are to do in the supper of the Lord. Oh, look that you excite and stir up faith ! It is not enough to have it, but it must be exercised ; ay, and that in a lively and vigorous manner : Cant. i. 12, ' When the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.' Here faith is to be acted and put forth. There is a twofold faith to be exercised ; a faith that respects the
VeR. 28.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 487
whole duty, and a faith that is more specially terminated on the person of Christ.
1. A faith that respects the whole duty and transaction, and that is nothing but an expectation of the blessings of God's ordinances, or the comforts annexed by promise to his institution. And certainly they act customarily that do not look to the end of the service, but like a horse and mule, go on in a track and course of duties and observances without considering why and wherefore : Mat. xi. 7, ' What went ye out into the wilderness for to see ? ' Man is to work for an end, to design somewhat in every serious business, but especially in the duties of worship, which are the most serious and important actions of our lives. Now God that hath appointed the work hath appointed the ends to be promoted by it. The work falls under the command of God, and the ends and benefits are put into the promise. The com- mand is the reason of the duty, and the promise is our great encour- agement. Now, you must use this ordinance as an ordinance under the blessing of an institution. Christ, when he instituted it, instituted it with prayer ; he prayed over it to bless it for our use, and therefore we must use it in faith, in the face of all discouragements, and continue waiting, though the success be not presently visible ; it is God's ordi- nance, and I will wait : Isa. xl. 3, ' For they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; ' and though, it may be, presently it doth not appear, yet I will use God's means : Isa. xlv. 24, ' Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.' Christ will be master of his own mercies, and keeps the dispensations of grace in his own hands, and gives them out when he pleaseth, not at our beck and command, as if it were a due debt. We are bound, but God is free ; not bound to our time, and to the measure that we expect, only this is the way, and it is good to be waiting m God's way.
2. There is a faith that is conversant about the person of Christ, The duty was ordained by Christ, and it is well observed when it leadeth you to Christ. Here Christ makes a new offer of himself, ' Take, eat, this is my body.' Now certainly we are to take and accept an offered Saviour, with his benefits. Christ makes here an offer of himself as our lord and saviour to bring us into grace and favour with God, and to wash us from our sins in his blood, and to dwell in us by his Spirit as a fountain of living waters, or of everlast- ing refreshing to us, and to call us from deserved wrath to undeserved mercy and happiness. Accordingly we are to take and eat, to eat his flesh, and drink his blood, ' to receive of his fulness, and that grace for grace,' John i. 16. We are to receive him into our hearts, to trust in his merits, to rejoice in his love, to give up ourselves in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten : Ps. 1. 5, ' Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.' So ought you to sue out your pardon, to renew your char- ter of grace, for the confirmation of your hopes. Look upon the blood of Christ as the price of reconciliation ; set open the doors of your hearts, that he may live in your heart, and by his Spirit keep up an everlast- ing refreshing day there.