272 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. XXI.
to enjoy communion with the saints, though with great affliction and. reproach.
[2.] Whenever you are brought in to be one of that number, you must take an oath of allegiance to God, for so do all his people ; they take hold of the covenant of God. See Deut. xxvi. 17, 18, ' Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice ; and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldst keep all his commandments.' God will bind you fast when you come to par- take of this privilege ; it must be by solemn consecration, and by coven- ant to walk in all his Avays and in all his statutes. So Deut. xxix. 12, 13, ' That thou shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day : that he may establish thee to-day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.' There is a covenant by which God and the. church do own one another. If you expect protection and provision for this life and for a better, give God the hand and take hold of his covenant. Jesus Christ hath all manner of relations to the cluu-ch. All titles you know to a crown are either by purchase, conquest, or by covenant, or consent of nations, thus Christ will be king of the clmrch by covenant and by consent ; you must take an oath to him of allegiance to hira, to be faithful to him, to observe all his ways and statutes, that so you may become his people.
Secondly, The other bi'anch of exhortation is to God's i)eople, to walk as his peculiar ones, and to carry yourselves as becometh the people of God.
1. Praise him for enrolling you. in this company: Ps. cxxxv. 3, 4, 'Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good ; sing jiraises unto his name, for it is pleasant: for he hath chosen Jacob to himself, and Israel to be his peculiar treasure.' To quicken you, consider what you were ; you were not a people, God raised you up from the very dunghill to this preferment ; remember your past estate. Look, as old Jacob con- sidered what he had been when God preferred him, Gen. xxxii. 10, ' With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands ; ' so do you say, I am a worthless creature, it is God that hath taken me into grace, praised be the Lord that hath chosen me. Then consider how many are left to perish in the wide world. Some live out of the church's pale that never heard of Christ, and many others have only a loose general form of Christianity. Oh ! blessed be God that hath chosen me to be of the number of his'peculiar people. It is said, Zech. xiii. 8, ' And it shall come to pass in all the land, saith the Lord, that two parts shall be cut off and die^ but the third shall be left therein.' We pass through many bolters before we come to be God's peculiar people, as the corn is ground, bolted, searched before it comes to be fine flour. There are many nations have not the know- ledge of God, and others live in the chuich but are carnal ; and I to be one of his peculiar people, an invisible member of Christ's mystical body, oh ! what a privilege is this ! And then what moved him to all this ? Nothing but his own free grace. Thus Moses debates the
VeR. 14.] SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. 273
case with Israel : Dent, vii, 6-8, ' For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God : the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord hath not set his love upon you, or chose you, because ye were more in number than any people (for ye were the fewest of all people) ; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bond- men, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.' Therefore praise the Lord.
2. Improve it for confidence : Zech. xiii. 9, ' And I will bring a third part of them through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried : they shall call on my name, and I wall hear them : I will say, It is my people ; and they shall say. The Lord is my God.' In time of great affliction, then it is time to plead our peculiar interest in God, as the church doth, Isa. Ixiv. 9, ' Behold, see, we ])eseech thee, we are all thy people.' It is a ground of audience and confidence. Interest is the sweetest argument that we can use in prayer ; Ps. cxix. 94, ' I am thine, save me.' He is worse than an infidel that doth not provide for his own family. Now what ground of confidence is this, Lord, we are thine ; therefore cast yourselves upon God.