In brief, these words imply renunciation and resignation. ' I am his,' that is, I have given up myself to him, therefore I renounce all others that stand not with his love and liking. I am not only his by way of ser-vice, which I owe him above all that call for it, but I am his by way of resigna- tion. If he will have me die, I will die. If he will have me Hve here, I will. I have not myself to dispose of any longer. I have altogether alien- ated myself from myself. I am his to serve him, his to be disposed of by him. I have renounced all other.
Therefore here we have another answer to Satan, if he come to us and solicit us to sin. Let the Christian's heart make this answer, I am not mine own. "What hath Satan and his instruments to do with me ? Is my body his to defile ? Is my tongue his to swear at his pleasure ? Shall I make the temple of God the member of an harlot ? As the apostle reasons, ' Shall I defile my vessel with sin ?' 1 Cor. vi. 15. "\\1iat saith converted Ephraim ? ' "WTiat have I any more to do with idols ? for I have seen and ob- served him ?' Hos. xiv. 8. We ought to have such resolutions ready in our hearts. Indeed, when a Christian is resolute, the world counts such to be lost. He is gone. We have lost him, say yom' dissolute, profone persons. It is true they have lost him indeed, for he is not his own, much less theirs, any longer. But he is found to God and himself and the church. Thus we see what springs fi'om this, that Christ is om's, and that we are Christ's back* again. Let us cany this with us even to death ; and if times should come that God should honour us by serving himself of us in our lives, if Christ will have us spend our blood, consider this, I am not mine own in life nor death, and it is my happiness that I am not my own. For if I were mine own, what should I do with myself? I should lose myself, as Adam did. It is therefore my happiness that I am not mine own, that I am not the world's, that I am not the de-sdl's, that none else hath to do with me, to claim any interest in me, but I am Christ's. If I do anything for others, it is for Christ's sake. Remember this for the time to come. If there be anything that we will not part with for Christ's sake, it will be our bane. We shaU lose Christ and it too. If we will not say with a perfect spirit, I am his, my hfe, my credit, my person i^ his, anything his ; look what we ^vill not give for him, at length we shall lose and part with it and him too.
182 BOWELS OPENED. [SeRMON XX.
THE TWENTIETH SEEMON.
I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine ; he feedeth among the lilies. —
Cant. VI. 3.
The churcli, you see here, though she stood out a while against all Christ's invitation and knocking, yet at length she is brought to yield herself up wholly unto Christ, and to renounce herself, which course God takes with most, yea, in a manner with all his people, ere they go out of this world, to lay all high things low, beat down every high thought and imagination which exalteth itself against him, 2 Cor, x. 5, that they may give them- selves and all they have to Christ, Luke xiv. 26, if he call for it. For he that doth not so is not worthy of Christ. If we do not this, at least in preparation of mind, let us not own the name of Christians, lest we own that which shall further increase and aggravate our condemnation, profess- ing rehgion one way, and yet alienating our minds to our lusts and plea- sures of the world another way. To have peculiar love-fits of our own, distinct from Christ, how stands this with ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine ' ? How stands it with the self-resignation that was spoken of before ?
Now this follows upon apprehension of Christ being ours. * I am my beloved's, because my beloved is mine first,' There are four reasons why Christ must be given to us before we can give om-selves to him by this self- resignation,
1, Because he is the chief spring of all good affections, which he must place in us ; loving us, ere we can love him, 1 John iv, 10, 19,
2, Because lore descends. Though it be of a fiery nature, yet in this it is contrary, for love descends, whereas fire ascends. The superior, first loves the inferior, Christ must descend in his love to us, ere we can ascend to him in our afiections,
3, Because our nature is srich that we cannot love but u-here we know our- selves to be loved first. Therefore God is indulgent to us herein ; and that we may love him, he manifests his love first to us,