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{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Renewing the Covenant
Direction: How to Renew Our Covenant}
First, remember your covenant. Read over and distinctly consider the terms of it. Diligently weigh the strictness and great solemnity of your having engaged to God in it. By these means, your hearts may be the more deeply affected.
Second, remember your faults. Read over and distinctly consider the sins you have fallen into since your engaging to the Lord. Consider also the various aggravations of them, and repent and be humbled under them (Isaiah 57:15).
Third, especially consider how your hearts have basically and generally stood in relation to the Lord. Consider the possibility that your falls have been such as to cause you to suspect that you were not upright in your first engagement with the Lord. Consider the life you have since led and the sins by which you have since been overcome—are they consistent with your having made your covenant in sincerity?
Fourth, resolve on more care, watchfulness, and faithfulness in the future. Verbal promises, although there appears to be some sincerity at the time, are likely to come to nothing if not joined with a resolution to take more care.
Fifth, pay particular care to engage to the Lord to deal with your special sins, failings, and neglects, things to which you have found yourselves more inclined or by which you have been more commonly overtaken. I will, through the help of God, watch against every sin, but especially against covetousness, lack of self-control, lying, or whatever. This is my sin; here I am apt to be remiss; here lies my hardest work. I will pay heed to every duty, but especially to temperance, patience, self-denial, or whatever; in these I have been most lacking.
Sixth, lay hold on the covenant, or promise of God, to renew His grace toward you and renew your strength by which you may be better enabled to perform your promises and pay your vows. It may be that your previous experience with your unfaithful heart has quite discouraged you. I have found this heart of mine so fickle, false, and feeble that I dare not trust it enough to engage any further for it. I have found my work so hard, my lusts so strong, my temptations so many, my strength so small, and my attempts to follow God so failure-prone, that I am afraid I will never reach success. I do not doubt that I will only mock God and bring more guilt on myself by venturing to promise anything for this sinful, infirm, and unfaithful heart. Why, although you dare not trust your heart, trust your God who said that He will put His fear into you (Jeremiah 32:38–40), that you will not depart from Him (John 10:28–29), that He will renew your strength (Isaiah 40:26–31), and that His grace is sufficient for you (2 Corinthians 12:9). Depend upon God to renew your strength, and then do not be afraid to renew your vows.312
Seventh, in this strength of the Lord, go into His presence. With sorrow in your heart and shame in your face, fall down before Him and humbly confess and acknowledge your falls and failings. Then, in the same solemn manner as you have been previously directed,313 engage yourself to the Lord again in the same covenant.
312Psalm 119:105–106 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.” Consider the fact that this is an inspired prayer. As such, it might be taken as an example for us that has the force of a command from God to do likewise in spite of our fears.
313Chapter: Confirm and Complete All by Solemn Covenant.
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