HERE is the second branch of the exhortation, which concerneth vivification; for expressly the apostle speaketh to them as those that are alive from the dead. This part of the exhortation is propounded negatively, 'yield not,' &c.; positively, 'but yield,' &c.
1. The negative is necessary. For further declaring the sense of which, he had said before, 'Let not sin reign in your mortal body.' The body is mentioned as the seat of sin for two reasons -
[1.] Because these lusts gratify the body and bodily life, and so pervert the soul; that is spoken to there.
[2.] Because they are executed by the body; this is spoken to here. If they gain the consent of your minds, yet 'yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin;' let them not be acted by your bodies.
2. Positively it is expressed, 'But yield yourselves unto God.' There observe the order set down. First, 'Yield yourselves unto God;' then, 'your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.' The general dedication is the ground of the particular. First, I am God's, then I bestow my time and strength for God; first, we give ourselves to him, not in part, but in whole, to serve him with all our heart and all our might and strength; then sometimes the outward or inward man, as the nature of the business calleth for.
3. In both take notice -
(4.) Of the two opposite masters, 'sin and God.'
(2.) The opposite employments are 'righteousness,' and 'unrighteousness.'
(3.) The instrument used by both, and that is 'the body,’ or 'the members of the body.'
[1.] The two masters, sin and God; the one is a usurper, the other is our rightful and most gracious Lord. God is our proper Lord, for he is our creator, and therefore our owner and governor; and he is our most gracious Lord jure beneficiario; he hath obliged us to him by many benefits; so that a Christian should say, as Paul did: Acts 27:23, 'His I am, and him I serve.'
[2.] The two employments, unrighteousness and righteousness. Unrighteousness is put for all evil works and actions; for all sin is unrighteousness, whether committed against God or man. By sin we deal unrighteously with God, whom we disobey and dishonour: Mal. 1:6, 'If I be a father, where is mine honour? If I be a master, where is my fear?' We deny God his due. We deal unrighteously with ourselves, whom we defile and destroy: 1 Cor. 6:18, 'He that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body;' and Prov. 8:36, ‘He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul.' And also in many sins we hurt our neighbour, either in soul, body, goods, or good name, as is evident. On the other side, holiness is righteousness, or giving God his due. Righteousness is sometimes taken strictly for that grace which inclineth us to perform our duty to man; as 1 Tim. 6:11, 'Follow after righteousness, godliness,’ &c.; Rom. 1:18, 'The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.’ Sometimes largely, for newness of life, for all those holy actions which are required of a Christian: 1 John 2:29, 'If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.'
[3.] The instrument used in both is the body, or the members of the body; for our body is of a middle nature, which may be used well or ill; and the members of the body are weapons with which the soul is armed to do well or ill; and it is notable that the word used by the apostle is not organa, instrumenta, as we render it in the text, but hopla, weapons or arms, as we translate it in the margin. The work on both sides is a kind of warfare.
(1.) They that serve sin or indulge bodily lusts, fight for sin and the devil against God and their own salvation: 1 Peter 2:11, 'Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;' Rom. 7:23, ‘I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind,’ While ye suffer the body to be thus employed, ye wage war against God, whether ye know it, or own it, yea or no.
(2.) The other work is also a warfare; our graces are called, 'Armour of light,’ Rom. 13:12. Though you fight for your duty, you must perform it.
Doct. That sincere Christians should not suffer themselves to be employed by sin, but offer up and present themselves to God to do his will.
1. Let us explain the duty.
2. Show you the necessity of it.
First, In explaining the duty here enforced, let me observe to you -
1. That there are two masters which divide the world between them - sin and God. Every man doth serve one of these, but no man can serve both. Every man serveth one of these - sin or righteousness, God or Satan; for there is no neutral or middle state; either their time and strength is spent in the service of the flesh, or in the service of God: Rom. 8:5, 'They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; and they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit; Gal. 6:8, 'They that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but they that sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.' Now it concerneth us to consider what or who it is that employeth us. Our bodies are worn out, and the vigour of nature is daily spent; but in what? In pleasing the flesh in that which it craveth, or in serving, pleasing, and glorifying God? The prophet saith, Isa. 55:2, 'Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?' Every man is at the cost and expense of his time and labour, and bestoweth it on something or other; but in what? Do not think of compounding the matter; for as every man serveth one of these masters, so no man serveth both: Mat. 6:24, 'No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other; ye cannot serve God and mammon.' They both require our full strength, and both command contrary things; therefore, as a man cannot go two contrary ways at once, so he cannot obey these two masters. If sin reign in our souls, it draweth all things into obedience; the consent of your minds is not enough to satisfy it, but it will employ the body to fulfil its cravings, and especially those two adjuncts of the bodily life, time and strength. And grace doth the like; the faculties and powers of the soul and body must be employed one way or another;. they cannot lie idle in such an active, restless creature as man is.
[2.] Both these services are entered into by consent, mède paristanete, alla parastèsate. (1.) Some men pronely yield up themselves to do what sin would have to be done; therefore they are said 'to give themselves to work wickedness;' and where sin is vehement and obstinate, they are said 'to sell themselves to work wickedness,’ and in other phrases: Eccles. 8:11, 'The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil;' Eph. 4:19, 'They have given them selves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.’ When they have cast off all remorse of conscience and fear of God’s judgments, with full consent they abandon themselves to their brutish lusts and filthy desires, there is no check nor restraint can hold them. But this is when sin is grown to a height, exechuthèsan: Jude 11, ‘They have ran greedily,' &c., as water is poured out of a bucket. But generally in all sin there is a voluntariness, if not a wilfulness in it, as a stone runneth down hill because it is its own proper motion. (2.) To God we consecrate ourselves with a thorough consent of will: Rom. 12:1, 'I beseech you by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service;' and 2 Cor. 8:5, 'And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their ownselves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.' Parastèsate, the word either alludeth to servants, who stand before or in the presence of their lord and master, to show their readiness to be commanded or employed by him; so present yourselves to show your readiness to obey all the commands of God; or in allusion to the sacrifice, which was presented before the altar, in token that the party did design it, and with it himself, to God; so do we yield up ourselves to God; bodies and souls, all that we are and have, we resign it to him. There is this difference in both these resignations - the devil's servants do not what they do in love to him, but to their own flesh; but Christ's servants do what they do in love to him as well as to themselves; they know him, and love him; he is not a master to be ashamed of. The giving up ourselves to sin is a concealed act; we would not be seen in it; for there is somewhat in their own hearts to check it and condemn it, some conscience of good and evil, as also a fear of blame from God and the world; and so men do it covertly; but do we give up ourselves solemnly and professedly.
[3.] The service of sin should not be allowed by us. (1.) Partly because sin is a usurper, whereas God hath a full and clear right both to our bodies and our souls, for he made them both. Sinners, so far as they own a God and their obligations to him, cannot but look upon sin as a disorder, for it alienateth our subjection from him to whom it is due. All sinners are not atheists, and therefore can never get off this conviction that God is their owner, for he is their maker, and framed them for such a use and end, namely, to keep his laws; therefore, to lend or give their bodies to sin is disloyalty and rebellion against the great and just sovereign of the world: 1 John 3:4, 'Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law.' Men do not only say, but notionally know, that God is their owner; but if they did practically improve it, the reformation of the world would not be so desperate a cure as it is; but alas! 'professing to know God, in their works they deny him,' Titus 1:16. Their lives are quite contrary to their notional acknowledgment of God. What could they do more or worse if there were no God? Reason will tell us that it is impossible for us to be our own, for we neither made ourselves, nor can we subsist of ourselves for one moment. All wicked men are God's, whether they will or no; yea, the devils themselves not excepted; they are his against their wills, and therefore do not live as his. (2.) Sin is God's enemy, and ours too; it destroyeth us while it seemeth to gratify us: 'The end of these things is death,' Rom. 6:21. Now he is a traitor to his country that supplieth the enemy with arms: You wrong God, and wrong your own bodies and souls; therefore, 'yield not your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin.' It is a miserable thing to be traitors to God and ourselves: 'Thy destruction is of thyself,’ Hosea 13: 9; our misery is of our own procuring. God is not to be blamed, but our own perverse choice; we cherish a serpent in our bosoms, that will sting us to death.
[4.] Since sin cannot challenge any just title to us, it is unquestionably our duty to yield up ourselves to the Lord. Let us see in what manner it is to be done.
[1.] It must be done with hearty and full consent of will. In the covenant of grace God demandeth his right to be given him by your consent; it is indeed a due debt, but it is called a gift: 'My son, give me thy heart,' Prov. 23:20; because you become his people not by constraint, but by consent: Ps. 110:3, 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power;' and therefore it is resembled to marriage, than which nothing should be more free and voluntary: Cant, 2:16, 'I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.’ Thus freely and willingly should we resign ourselves to him.
[2.] It must be out of a deep sense of his love and mercy: Rom. 12:1, ‘I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,’ &c.; and especially his great love in Christ: 2 Cor. 5:14, 'For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge,’ &c. There must be thankfulness in the resolution to become the Lord's, for no bands will so strongly hold us to our duty as the bands of love; when the soul is filled with admirations of his grace, and the ravishing sense of the wonders of his love in Christ, we do most kindly, heartily, and thoroughly surrender ourselves to God.
[3.] It must be with grief and shame, that his right hath been so long detained from him, and that we have wasted so much of our time and strength in the service of sin: 1 Peter 4:1-3, 'Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.' Therefore we should the more earnestly make restitution. Oh! how sad a thing is it to grow old and greyheaded in the devil's service, and to spend the fresh and flower of our time so vainly and unprofitably! Alas! how hath our time, strength, and parts been wasted and unprofitably employed! Let us at length seek to do as much for God as ever we have done for sin.
[4.] This resolution must be full and entire, of all that you are and have. All your faculties: 1 Cor. 6:19, 20, 'Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your bodies and souls, which are God's.' All that the soul can do and the body can do, it is all due to God, and all to be devoted to him. In every state: Rom. 14:7,8, 'For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's.' Whatever you are and have, you must have that and be that to God; living, dying, sickness, health, in prosperity, in adversity, in every action: Zech. 14:20,21, 'In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses HOLINESS TO THE LORD, and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar, yea, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts.' There must be God's impress on all we do, our civil and sacred actions. All reserves are hypocritical. What one faculty you keep back from God, you do what you can to cut it off from his blessing. Would you be contented if God should take the soul to heaven and leave the body in hell, or the contrary? What estate is not given to God is not sanctified; what action is not ordered towards him as our last end is not rewarded, so that you give all, or none rightly.
[5.] The end why we give up ourselves to God is to be governed, disposed, and ordered by him, to be what he would have us to be, and to do what he will have us to do, to submit ourselves to his disposing will, and subject ourselves to his commanding will.
(1.) To submit ourselves to his disposing will, or the dominion of his providence. Let God carry you to heaven in what way soever he pleaseth; if by many afflictions, or sharp pains, and infirmities of body, you dare not prescribe to God. You must say, as Christ, Heb. 10: 5,6, ‘A body hast thou prepared for me; lo, I come to do thy will.' God is wise, and knoweth that if we had a more healthy body, we might be in danger of neglecting the soul; or if we had more of the world, we should neglect heaven. Therefore you must except nothing out of your resignation; better the body be pained than the soul lost; the thorn that sticketh in the flesh may occasion rich experiences of grace. It may be God will have you to glorify him by martyrdom: Phil. 1:20, 'Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death;' that is, either by living in the body to preach the gospel longer, or signing the truth with his blood, if he died. So see David's resignation: 2 Sam. 15:26, 'Let the Lord do unto me what seemeth good to him.' So we should humbly submit to the good-will of God: Dan. 3:18, 'But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast set up.' They yielded their bodies to be burned, that they might not serve any gods but the Lord.
(2.) To subject ourselves to his commanding will, or to do what he will have us to do. This is principally considered here; we give up ourselves to God, that our bodies may be employed as instruments of righteousness. All external duties, or fruits of our love to God in Christ, are acted by the body; therefore we resign up ourselves to him to obey him in these things. Surely it is meet that God should rule the creatures that he hath made; therefore we should be able to say, as the psalmist, Ps. 119:94, 'I am thine, save me, for I have sought thy precepts.' One that maketh conscience of his resignation to God will be careful both to know and do his will. Paul, as soon as he was smitten with conviction, cries out, Acts 9:6, 'Lord I what wilt thou have me to do?'
[6.] When you have thus dedicated yourselves to God, you must use yourselves for him; for the sincerity of our dedication is known by our use. Many give up themselves to God, but in the use of themselves there appeareth no such matter. They use their tongues as their own to talk what they please, their hearts as their own to think and desire what they please, their bodies, their wealth, their time, their strength, as if it were all their own, and the hand of consecration had never been upon them: Ps. 12:4, 'Our tongues are our own; who is lord over us?' This is the language not of their mouths, but of their lives; these reassume the possession of that which they had surrendered to the Lord. No; you have, as to disposal, lost all property in yourselves, and must look upon yourselves ever after not as your own, but God's; they are 'vessels set apart for the master's use,’ 2 Tim. 2:21; and accordingly we must 'live not to ourselves, but to God;' 2 Cor. 5:15, 'And that he died for all, that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again.' Nothing must be alienated from him, but used as he shall direct and appoint. All your powers and faculties are his, and to be employed for him.
Secondly. Let me show you the reasons of it. They are taken from the right God hath in you and to you. Justice requireth that we should give every one his own, to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, to God the things that are God's. We do but restore to God that which is his before when we give up ourselves to him. Now we are God's -
1. By his creating us out of nothing: 'It is he that hath made us, not we ourselves,’ Ps. 100:3. Surely God hath a propriety in all that we have; for we have all by his creating bounty, as the potter hath power over his own clay. So hath God in all the vessels which he hath formed, 'he formed them for himself.' If the husbandman may call the vine his own which he hath planted in his own ground and soil, God may much more call the creature his own, which he hath made. The husbandman cannot make the vine, but only set it and dress it: but we are wholly and solely of him and from him, and from nothing else, and therefore we should be wholly and solely for him, and nothing else.
2. By preservation. God is Lord of all, because he preserveth all: Neh. 9: 6, 'Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, and thou preservest them all, and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.' Preservation is the continuance of our being by his providential influence and supportation: Acts 17:28, 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being;' Heb. 11:3, 'Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.' If we could any moment exempt ourselves from the dominion and influence of his providence, we might be supposed to be exempted in that moment from his jurisdiction and government; but man wholly depending on God for being and preservation, we cannot lay claim to our time and strength, not for one minute or moment; for we can hold neither body nor soul, nor anything that we have, a minute longer than God pleaseth. If you will serve yourselves and please yourselves, live of yourselves if you can.
3. By redemption. That right is pleaded, 1 Cor. 6:20, 'Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your bodies and souls, which are God’s’ By creation and preservation we are God's; but redemption constituteth such a new right and title as doth not only strengthen the former, but also is comfortable to us. If a slave were not killed outright, but continued a day or two, though he died by the stripes given him by his master, there was no plea or accusation could be commenced against the master for the life of his slave, Exod. 21:21; he was his money, that is, purchased by his money. God hath bought us at a higher rate than money: 1 Peter 1:18, 'For ye are redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversations, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of the Son of God, as of a lamb without spot and blemish.' Therefore the redeemed are bound to serve him that ransomed them. All our time and strength belongeth to the Redeemer, who hath ransomed us from the worst slavery, the bondage of sin and Satan, and with the greatest price, his own blood. This was Christ's end: Rom. 14:9, 'For to this end Christ both died, and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.'
4. Christians have owned this right by their covenant-consent. Our bodies and souls were consecrated to Christ when we gave up our names to him in baptism: 'Thou enteredst into covenant with me, and becamest mine,’ Ezek. 16:8; then were we enrolled in God's cense-book: Isa. 44:5, 'One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with the hand to the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.’ By voluntary contract and resignation we gave up ourselves and all that is ours to God. Baptism is our sacramentum militare, our military oath; we were then listed in his warfare and service. When Christ was baptized he was consecrated as the captain of our salvation, and then presently after his baptism he entered into the lists with Satan. We are entered as private soldiers; now it is treachery and breach of covenant if, after we have owned and acknowledged God's right in us, we shall alienate ourselves from him, and use ourselves for ourselves at our own list and pleasure.
5. By regeneration, whereby we are actually taken into Christ's possession, and fitted for his use. This right is pleaded in the text, 'As those that are alive from the dead, yield up yourselves to God.' There is a double argument in it.
[1.] As it puts an obligation upon us. It is by the tender mercies of the Lord that you are recovered out of the death of sin to the life of grace: Eph. 4:4,5, 'God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he hath loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.' We that were once wretched and miserable, liable to death, utterly disabled for the service of our creator, that he of his grace hath called us and quickened us, and made us alive, who were formerly dead, we have this spiritual life from him and for him; this should be an everlasting obligation upon us, while we have a day to live, to remember God hath renewed you for himself.
[2.] As it puts an inclination into us. Men that are raised to a new life are fitted to do him service; they are delivered from the power and death of sin, have received grace to serve him acceptably; the new creature is fitted for the operations that belong to it: Eph. 2:10, 'For we are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus to good works, that we might walk therein.’ The withered branch is planted into the good vine-stock, that it may live again, and bring forth fruit unto God; so that if we have been made partakers of this mercy, we are bound, and we are inclined; this shows God's propriety in us, that he expecteth to be honoured by us.
Use 1. Information.
1. It shows how vain the plea was of those libertines in Calvin's time (against whom he is justly severe) and their adherents, who thought they might serve sin with their bodies, as long as they did dislike and disallow it with their souls, they were safe enough. They were wont to say, Non ego sed asinus meus - it was their drudge the body that sinned, not they. No; the apostle saith, 'Give not up your members as weapons of unrighteousness,' &c., and elsewhere, 'Glorify God in your bodies and souls, which are God's.' And the apostle pleadeth the dignity of the body, and how it is defiled by fornication and other inordinances, 1 Cor. 6, per totum.
2. That it is not enough to abstain from evil, but we must do good; for the apostle saith, 'yield not,' and then 'yield.' So the apostle saith, 2 Tim. 2:21, 'If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel of honour, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.' So 2 Cor. 5:15, 'And that he died for all, that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.' They are sinners that hide their talent in a napkin, though they live not in apparent gross sins; all that time and strength that is bestowed on sin is used against God; but what is idly and impertinently lost is not used for him. Both deprive God of his right; the one alienate their time and strength, the other misspend it. Some do not run into gluttony, drunkenness, oppression, adultery (these apparently use their bodies as weapons of unrighteousness), but they do not live to God, and so are defective in the other part.
3. It showeth what care we should take how we employ our bodies; for the members of the body are instruments of the soul, to execute that which it willeth and desireth, and sin without the body is unfurnished with arms. But chiefly two things should we take care of in the body, the senses by which we let in sin, and the tongue by which we let out sin, for it is the interpreter of the heart.
[1.] For the senses, a Christian should not be guided by his senses, but by his reason and conscience as sanctified by grace. Our Lord would teach us that it were better to want senses than gratify them with an offence and wrong to God, against them that cannot deny the pleasures of senses: Mat 5:29, 30, 'If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And it thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.’ Better be blind than by wanton gazing run the hazard of damnation; not that we should maim ourselves, but, of the two, count it the less evil. Therefore, to want the sinful pleasure should not be so grievous, when we should be content to want the sense itself. The far greatest part of the world are merely guided by their senses, because the far greatest part of the world are unconverted and unsanctified, and the world is full of allurements to the flesh, and the more we enjoy the good things thereof, the more is corruption strengthened within us: and as the heart stands affected, sensitive objects make a deeper or slighter impression on us. Some temptations, which are nothing to another, may be great matters to some, who cannot deny themselves without great difficulty. Therefore when such temptations as suit with our fancies and appetites assault us with more than ordinary potency, we must remember sense is not to be the ruling power in our souls, but grace. Sometimes sin is brought to our hands, and the bait is played to our mouths; as Josh. 7:21, Achan saw, coveted, and purloined the wedge of gold; Prov. 6:25, 'Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids;' 2 Sam. 11:2, David saw Bathsheba, and so his heart was fired. In short, sense is an ill and dangerous guide; it was never given for a judge or counsellor to determine or direct, but an informer to represent the outward forms of things; partly natural, to inform us of things profitable or hurtful to the outward man; partly spiritual, to transmit the objects of God's wisdom, power, and goodness to our minds, or to be the ordinary passage by which the daily effects of God's love and mercy are conveyed to our hearts. God instituted them for helps, but we make them snares. Well, then, better want senses than gratify them with the displeasure of God: to lose an eye is a far less evil than to lose a soul.
[2.] For the tongue. The apostle saith it produceth a world of evil. It hath a great use in religion, to vent the conceptions of our minds to the praise and glory of God: James 3:9, 'Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.’ In the general, think of this; every member must be an instrument of righteousness: is my tongue now employed for God or for Satan? when you are apt to run into censuring, detraction, vain and frivolous talk.
Use 2. To press you to this solemn dedication of yourselves to God, entirely, unreservedly, irrevocably.
1. God giveth himself to you in covenant, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all their infinite goodness, wisdom, power, &c.; and will not you give yourselves wholly to God?
2. You are already absolutely, wholly his, and will not you consent that he shall be your God, and you his people? That is all that is wanting: Jer. 24:7, 'And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.' This God worketh by his renewing grace.
3. You are never so much your own as when you are God's, not as to disposal, but as to enjoyment: 1 Cor. 3:23, 'All are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' There lieth your safety, glory, and happiness; it is the foundation of all obedience, and of all comfort (1.) Of obedience, you will not easily yield to temptations; a Christian hath this answer ready, I am dedicated to God: 1 Cor. 6:15, 'Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid!' Nor will you stick at interest: 2 Cor. 8:6, ‘They first gave their ownselves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.' (2.) Then for comfort: John 14:1, 'Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me;' 1 Tim. 6:8, 'Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content;' 1 Peter 5:7, ‘Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.' This easeth you of all your cares and fears, You are God's; nay, it secureth you against eternal miseries: John 12:20, 'Where I am, there shall my servant be.'
Use 3. To put us upon self-reflection. Is your dedication to God sincere? If so -
1. In the whole course of your conversation you will prefer his interest before your own, and when any interest of your own riseth up against the interest of God, you will set light by it, as if it were nothing worth, and then no self-respects will tempt you to disobey God, though never so powerful; no hire draw you to the smallest sin, nor danger fright you from your duty: Dan.3:17,18, 'Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship thy golden image that thou hast set up;' Acts 20:24, 'But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.' If we can but forget ourselves and remember God, he will remember us better than if we had remembered ourselves. We secure whatever we put into God's hands, and venture in his service.
2. You will make conscience how you spend your time and strength; God keepeth account: Luke 19:23, 'Wherefore gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?' So you will keep a faithful reckoning, how you lay out yourselves for God, what share he hath in all things we have and do. God observeth, so must we, whether God have his own, and we do not defraud him. Whose work are you a-doing?
3. You will have a liberal heart; You will think no service too much, or loss too great for God: Phil. 1:21, 'For me to live is Christ;' all other things come from God. Certainly you must not put him off with what the flesh will spare.
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