_Grand Direct._ V. Remember that God is your Lord or Owner: and see that you make an absolute resignation of yourselves, and all that you have, to him as his own; and use yourselves and all accordingly; trust him with his own; and rest in his disposals.
Of this I have already spoken in my "Sermon of Christ's Dominion," and in my "Directions for a sound Conversion;" and therefore must but touch it here. It is easy, notionally, to know and say that God is our Owner, and we are not our own; but if the habitual, practical knowledge of it were as easy, or as common, the happy effects of it would be the sanctification and reformation of the world. I shall first tell you what this duty is, and how it is to be performed; and then, what fruits and benefits it will produce, and what should move us to it.
I. The duty lieth in these acts: 1. That you consider the ground of God's propriety in you; (1.) In making you of nothing, and preserving you. (2.) In redeeming you by purchase. (3.) In regenerating you, and renewing you for himself.[94] The first is the ground of his common natural propriety in you and all things. The second is the ground of his common gracious propriety in you and all men, as purchased by Christ, Rom. xiv. 9; John xiii. 3. The third is the ground of his special gracious propriety in you, and all his sanctified, peculiar people. Understand and acknowledge what a plenary dominion God hath over you, and how absolutely and wholly you are his. 2. Let it exceedingly please you, to think that you are wholly his: it being much better for you, as to your safety, honour, and happiness, than to be your own, or any's else. 3. As God requireth it in his covenant of grace, that he have his right, by your consent, and not by constraint; so you must thankfully accept the motion, and with hearty and full consent of will, resign yourselves to him, as his own, even as his creatures, his ransomed ones, and his regenerate children, by a covenant never to be violated. 4. You must carefully watch against the claim and reserves of carnal selfishness; lest while you confess you are God's, and not your own, you should secretly still keep possession of yourselves against him, or re-assume the possession which you surrendered. 5. You must use yourselves ever after as God's, and not your own.
II. In this using yourselves as wholly God's, consisteth both your further duty, and your benefits. 1. When God's propriety is discerned and consented to, it will make you sensible how you are obliged to employ all your powers of soul and body to his service; and to perceive that nothing should be alienated from him, no creature having any co-ordinate title to a thought of your hearts, or a glance of your affection, or a word of your mouths, or a minute of your time. The sense of God's propriety must cause you to keep constant accounts between God and you; and to call yourselves to a frequent reckoning, whether God have his own, and you do not defraud him; whether it be his work that you are doing, and for him that you think, and speak, and live? And all that you have, will be used as his, as well as yourselves; for no man can have any good thing that is more his own, than he is his own himself.
2. Propriety discerned, doth endear us in affection to our owner. As we love our own children, so they love their own fathers. Our very dogs love their own master better than another. When we can say with Thomas, "My Lord, and my God," it will certainly be the voice of love. God's common propriety in us, as his created and ransomed ones, obligeth us to love him with all our heart; but the knowledge of his peculiar propriety, by regeneration, will more effectually command our love.