no fruit; yea, then to believe and expect answerable
fruit, is a direct taking of God's name in vain, and a mock to Jesus
Christ. And if we mock Christ by calling Him to a covenant, which we
ourselves slight, as a thing we expect little or nothing from: "He will
laugh at our calamity," and "mock when our fear cometh." Wherefore to
close, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established," no,
not by this sure covenant. But, "believe in the Lord your God, in
covenant, so shall you be established; believe His prophets, so shall
you prosper."

4. Walk cheerfully. So it becomes those that have God so near them.
Such, even in their sorrows, should be like Paul, "As sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing." The (as) notes not a counterfeiting of sorrow, but
the overcoming of sorrow. On this ground David resolves against the fear
of evil, tho' he should see nothing but evil; "Tho' I walk in the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me." In a
covenant, God and man meet; He is with us who is more than all that are
against us: and when He is with us, who can be against us? For then all
things, and all persons, even while (to the utmost of their skill and
power) they set themselves against us, work for us; and should not we
rejoice? If we knew that every loss were our gain, every wound our
healing, every disappointment our success, every defeat our victory,
would we not rejoice? Do but know what it is to be in covenant with God;
and be sad, be hopeless, if you can. It is to have the strength and
counsels of heaven engaged for you; it is to have Him for you, "Whose
foolishness is wiser than men, and whose weakness is stronger than men."
It is to have Him with you, "who doeth according to His will in the army
of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His
hand, or say unto Him, what doest thou?" It is to have Him with you,
"who frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh the diviners mad,
who turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish." It
is to have Him with you, before whom "the nations are as the drop of a
bucket, and as the dust of the balance, who taketh up the isles as a
very little thing." In a word, it is to have Him with you, "who fainteth
not, neither is weary; there is no searching of His understanding. He
giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, He increaseth
strength." This God is our God, our God in covenant; "This is o