th idols?" What have I to do with such and such base company?
What have I to do with such base filthy lusts? "I am my beloved's, and
my beloved is mine." Christ is mine, and I am His. The reason of it is,
because pardon begets love; "she loved much, because much was forgiven
her." And love begets strength: "for love is as strong as death": yea,
stronger than sin or death; "They loved not their lives to the death,"
and "I count not my life dear," says Paul, when once the man had tasted
of the free grace of God in the pardon of his sins, "who before was a
blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious." He could find in his
heart, not only to lay down a lust, but to lay down his life too for
Jesus Christ: "for whose sake, (saith he), I have suffered the loss of
all things; and I count not my life dear, so that I might finish my
course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord
Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

My beloved Christians, if you would be faithful in the covenant of God,
into which you are now entering, sue out your pardon for what is past;
yea, entreat the Lord, not only to give a pardon, but to speak a pardon,
and seal a pardon upon your hearts; and never give the Lord rest, till
the Lord have given rest to your souls. "The joy of the Lord is your
strength."

_Thirdly_, If you would make an unchangeable covenant, with an
unchangeable God, come furnished with and maintain upon your hearts, an
abundant measure of self-distrust; labour to be thoroughly convinced of
your own nothingness and disability. "By his own strength shall no man
prevail." Surely, thine own treachery may inform thee, and thine own
backslidings may convince thee, to confess with Jeremiah, "O Lord, I
know (I know it by sad experience) the way of man is not in himself: It
is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Staupitius confessed to
Luther, that he thought in his very conscience he had above a thousand
times renewed his covenant with God, and as many times broken it: a sad
confession, and yet how many among us may take up the like lamentation!
Be convinced of it, I beseech you, and maintain the sense of this
conviction upon your spirits. Say oft within yourself, I am nothing,
worse than nothing. This treacherous heart of mine will betray me into
the breach of my covenant, if the Lord leave me to myself, I shall one
day fall by the hand of my corruptions. He that walks tremblingly, walks
safely.

In