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{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Renewing the Covenant
All Our Breaches of the Covenant Weaken Our Bond to It}
All of our breaches of the covenant exceedingly weaken the bond and obligation of the covenant. The obligation of the covenant may be said to be weakened in a double sense.
The first sense in which the covenant may be said to be weakened is in reality. We may unilaterally relax and loosen our ties to the covenant so as to bind ourselves less strongly than before. However, no sin can actually weaken our covenant obligation. It never becomes less our duty to cling to God just because we have so often departed from Him. It never becomes less sinful to follow the world just because we have followed it for so long. Rather, our sins actually add to our obligation. By how much less we have paid our debt, by that amount we are the more behind. Likewise, our former neglects much more oblige us to greater care for the future.
The second sense in which the covenant may be said to be weakened is in our perception. When the bond of the covenant is being often broken, it is perceived to not be so solemn or sacred as before. The more it has been broken, by so much less do we perceive and sense its hold on us. It seems just a very light thing to people who have so often and ordinarily broken their faith with God to break it over and over again. It does not much affect or trouble those hearts that have been accustomed to transgress and revolt more and more.311 When sin can plead long custom, it grows bold. “If I were to begin again,” says the sinner, “I would take more care and look to my ways better. But now I have gone on shoe-deep, even boot-deep, in sin for so long that it will not be much worse if I go on a little longer.” Surely, this is dreadful, dangerous, and detestable.
311This phenomenon is directly related to lack of care for conscience.
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