the flesh in all the carnal desires of it Who keep not Covenant with him And men generally would needs be admitted Christians under the signal of the Cross binding themselves manfully to â—ight under Christs banner against all these Enemies and to continue Christs faithful soldiers and servants Fâ—ther General Now how we have kept this Covenant in this our nation generally whether better then those hypocritical and carnal worshippers who had made a Covenant with God by sacrifice against whom God himself became judg testifying against them for their hypocrisie in worship for their disobedience in practise and for prophaning his Covenant and casting his words behind them the whole world that knoweth how it hath been with us especially of latter years and our own consciences can easily witness and judg How light have we made of Christ the Lord who was given us by a Covenant of his faithful Ministers the messengers of his Covenant and of their mâ—ssage and ministry whom we silenced As doing contrary to the practise of the good 〈◊〉 of Israel 2 Chro. â— 4.2 3 5 chap. 15.8 16. molested banished what some godly Kings of Judah did by way of Reformation when in thankfulness for great mercies they renewed their Covenant with him and with one another we were such as did the quite contrary King Asa with his covenanting demolished Idolatry as formerly in Judah so also in Israel yea deposed his own mother because she had made an Idol We have sought to bring Idolatry and Popish superstition into the Land again and have given way too far to the practise of it by Papists and such as were Popishly affected King Asa restored Gods true worship in both Kingdoms Chap. 14.4 15.8 Israel and Judah renewing the altar of the Lord We sought to pull down and corrupt Gods true Worship in both Kingdoms England and Scotland and to rear and set up Idolatrous altars to a breaden God Ch. 15.3 with vers 8 9. He set up in Israel a teaching ministry as other good Kings and Governors did 2 Chron. 17.4 6 7 8 9. We have endeavored yea actually have pulled down and taken away many Lectures and afternoon Sermons and silenced or driven away such Ministers as were most faithful painful and constant in preaching yea even in that regard And was it not time for God by sending the sword to avenge the quarrel of his Covenant Not to speak of the prophaness of most mens lives contrary to their Covenant in Baptism as if indeed they had made a covenant with the devil to do all his works instead of forsaking them with the world to follow the vain pomp and glory and covetous desires of it and with the flesh to be led by the carnal desires of it And the sword being come how have men sided not only Papists but others in forsaking the banner of Christ and fighting for Antichrist and under colour of fighting for Queen Elizabeths Religion have fought for Queen Maries Religion and against the true orthodox and sound Religion and Worship Was this that which their Baptism under the sign of the Cross bound them too Oh! It s a dangerous thing either to forsake the Covenant of God Ier. 22.7 8 9. or to oppose it by fighting or being against it as was Antiochus Epiphanes Dan. 11 28-30 And howsoever our Parliament hath given us and doth stil give us good hopes of a Reformation according to Gods Word and a bringing us back to the Covenant of our God both in matter of doctrine discipline and a more holy life yet whilest this main work of God goeth so slowly forward whilest discipline is not yet settled or so bounded as it should be and whilest such connivence if not in effect a toleration is suffered for men to speak hold write and do what they list that men may make themselves vile and yet at least as yet by no law established or executed be restrained or frowned upon by such as should restrain them we have no cause to be secure but to fear the return of the sword out of some quarter of the world or other or from within our selves as formerly God will not be dallyed withal And if God so judg us as he did old Eli and his house 1 Sam. 3 13 14 and that our sins be not purged with sacrifice or offering and that our monethly Humiliations prove rather as they are kept provocations we have none to blame but our selves Gods ways and judgments will ever appear to be righteous 2. And if we look to particular Vows and Covenants dayly broken by all sorts must not all justifie God 2. Particular as holy and righteous in such evils as have befaln them or may yet befal them Oh what vows and promises do men make to God in time of their troubles fears and dangers and yet how soon broken and forgotten when these are over What protestations imprecations taking heaven and earth to witness our sincere intentions and yet how little conscience made of performance Are not men yet sensible of these things If God make such men yet to smart must he not be acknowledged just What cause even the better party in the Land have to be humbled and to fear sharper rods upon this ground of careless keeping our late Covenant and national League we shal enquire into and examine anon 2. In the mean time 2. To be excited and incouraged to keep Covenant with God 2 Châ—â— 13 9 10 11 12. it would be much to the abatement of our fears and to our incouragement and hopes of good success in all our undertakings especially when we have to deal with a Malignant party and these are such as we have most cause to fear if we could truly reason as King Abijah against King Ieroboam making War with him have not ye cast out the Priests of the Lord the sons of Aaron and the Levites and have made you Priests after the manner of the Nations of other Lands But as for us the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him and the Priests Which minister unto the Lord are the sons of Aaron neither Baals Priests nor Priests of their own making We keep the charge of the Lord our God but ye have forsaken him And behold God himself is with us for our Captain ver 17 18. â—ight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers for you shall not prosper Neither did they prosper there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men The blessings hereof c. and the children of Iudah prevailed because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers and kept the Covenant made with their fathers Howsoever God would be some way or other with us if we were with him 2 Chron. 15.2 At least whatsoever our case should be we might hence be comforted in our troubles and in like integrity say and appeal to God Psa 44 17 18 as the
in his days Now if either of these have been sufficient cause to renew Covenant with God have not we had and have we not still the same cause or like He must needs be either a child or of no observation that remembers not what the case and condition of these three Kingdoms was a few years ago and how we were under not only sensible wrath by plague and other outward evils but more insensible and not so visibly observed by all that is in a manner bought and sold and betrayed into the hands of Rome by such treacherous Trustees as who especially in our own Land had the chief power delegated to them upon the prevention of which by Gods mercy arms were taken up between the Kingdoms and after a short pacification renewed again which occasioned that bloody civil War among our selves that bloody Antichristian Inhumane Butchery and Massacre of the poor Protestants in Ireland intended to have been followed home to our doors also in Scotland and England by which means all three Kingdoms were in great hazard to have lost besides lives and goods our Religion Laws Liberties By the combination of enemies Now the combination of all sorts of Malignants Papists Athiests Prophane cold and luke-warm Protestants against the sincerer sort and against the Parliament was thought ground and cause sufficient to unite and enter into a most solemn League and Covenant according to God and as in the presence of the Almighty with hands lift up to him for Reformation and defence of Religion the honor and happiness of the King the Peace and safety of the three Kingdoms and to joyn with all their power in the defence of this cause against the common enemies c. After the example of divers godly Kings of Judah c. Yea for this our Nation to seek God by solemn monethly and other occasional humliations Our need of keeping our National Covenant by fasting and prayer And as this our Covenanting was then so occasioned is there not still the same cause to continue the union and inviolably and in conscience to keep close to our Covenant unless we will say our own turns now are served by it and that it is to be looked upon as an Almanack out of date which if we should generally so think to me argues that such entered into Covenant not in a religious but only civil and politick respect which if I have any sence or judgment in matters of that nature should be an horrible prophanation of the holy Name of God and a dallying with holy things to the just provocation of Gods displeasure who is a party in it against the violators of the same But is there indeed no further use of that our so solemn a Covenant Have we not still the same common Enemies Are not our dangers and causes of fear as great now as ever Is not Religion for the truth purity and power of it in as much danger as ever Do not such as are Enemies to both and all the Kingdoms hope if not seek to divide us Are not their hopes and our fears occasioned by the jealousies mistrusts and mâ—â—prisions we have one of another which if God be not merciful and chief counsellors on both sides wise for prevention may break out into a new and greater flame Howsoever we have less cause now then ever to be secure whether we look homeward or outward to other forraign Nations and more cause to maintain the union of the Kingdoms and to keep inviolably and stick close to God and our Covenant and to look upon our conscionable keeping of it as a strong â—edg to keep us under God safe from forraign and domestique Enemies and in the purity of our Religion and Worship against the licentious doctrines and practise of the times Lastly Then seeing our fears are not yet over 4 Use Examination but that though in the South and West of England storms are calmed and all in a manner done there and that for the present Clouds seem again to be gathering especially in the North What cause we have to fear the return of the sword from the Malignant and ill-effected party there howsoever the Return of the Sword from what coast soever not without just cause doubted and feared It will concern us wisely to consider and enquire into the true causes thereof for a timely prevention seeing prevention is ever better then medicine and Repentance is but the fruit of Improvidence I will enquire no further then my Text gives the occasion Our careless keeping of our solemn Covenant The Army of the King of Babylon was threatned to return and indeed did return to Jerusalem fought against it took it and burnt it with fire and made the Cities of Judah desolate But what is given as the special cause of it They were long and often threatned for many of their other sins but that here mentioned is That whereas they had made a Covenant before the Lord in the house which is called by his name they turned and polluted his name Verses 15 16 -18 22. transgressed his Covenant and not performed the words of the Covenant which they had made before him We then see and have seen what an heynous sin and how grievously punished is the sin of Breach of Covenant when made before God and according to his Will and when men perform not all the very words of it It was punished in Judah and Jerusalem with the taking and burning of the City and in Israel or Samaria as partly also in Iudah with the loss of their King or of their Kingly Government I will cause to cease the Kingdom of the house of Israel Hosea 1.4 10 3 4. And elsewhere now they shall say we have no King and why Because we feared not the Lord What then should a King do to us They have spoken words swearing falsly in making a Covenant These two together made their misery compleat and both of them the fruit of this sin Now for us of this our Nation we might doubtless be much more secure and in safer condition both in regard of our peace and also Government if our Covenant both with God as we are Christians and with our neighbour Nation as we are under one King were on all hands Application both entered into without such opposition made against it or more conscionably zealously and better kept by such as have entered into the same of both Nations First 1 To sâ—ch as sâ— mâ—dâ— rends to our naâ—onal Covenant For us who have so solemnly entered into this League as with God so one with another If as by a new act in this bloody Tragedy war come upâ—n our stage again or that old enmity between the Nations return that God send an evil Spirit or that a fire break out to the hazard and hurt of both Nations as once between Abimelech and the men of Shechem which God in mercy avert and turn from us
by converting and turning us both to him whom can we for our parts blame or what may probably be thought the cause thereof unless it be that we have not performed the words much less the matter of the Covenant which we made before the Lord. Did we not all and each one of us for himself Main articles of 〈◊〉 not observed by us with hands lifted up to the most high God swear and Covenant to endeavour as the preservation of the reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common enemies So the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches How is it that the very words in this last clause and some others being otherwise plain enough will not be understood much less performed as if some Monster were hid in them Why is not the Reformation in seven years perfected or Discipline established made free and authorized though often ordered and ordained And have we not in like manner covenanted to endeavour without respect of persons the extirpation as of Popery Prelacy Superstition so of Heresie Schism Prophaness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness c. But to consider how Heresie Schism and Licentiousness both of doctrine and lâ—fe grow and increase almost beyond number being also many of them so abominable blasphemous dishonorable to God The increase of Schiâ—m Heresies c. pernicious to mens souls and that even since we would seem humbled in solemn manner for the increase and growth of Errors to see how these and how looseness of life also are connived at in some and unpunished in all or most For my part I must profess it amazeth me and strikes astonishment in my heart wondring at the patience of God as not able almost to conceive any reason why God doth not from heaven visibly and remarkably shew his vengeance not only on the Hereticks Schismaticks and prophane Libertines themselves but on such as have more power given them of God to restrain at least such evils then they use or then they will use Not restrained whereby at least a secret and implicite if not open toleration is allowed to all sorts to think hold spread and practise what every one pleaseth and that without any visible or real endeavours to restrain them The theam is too large unpleasant to dilate on Only I wil say referring to what * Mr Newcâ—men and Mâ— Case in their Sermons others have said in this kind and charged home upon the Parliament in their Applications to them more fully that all my wit and charity cannot extend so far as to conceive there can be any true zeal of Godsglory hearty love to the truth of God or to the true establishment thereof or yet any true Christian charity to mens souls if such a general toleration be permitted as is feared Neither shall I ever wonder or complain if God bring upon the Nation as great judgments as any he hath brought upon others in like case or unheard of and new plagues for such reviving of old Heresies and broaching of new being especially so winked at to say no more Secondly 2 To such as stand out against it For such as yet are professed enemies to this national Covenant who commonly are such as are loose enough in their Covenant with God as Christians I wonder what peace they can expect from God whilest either they joyn not in so needful a contract as the times are and side not with God and his cause and people against sin the world flesh and devil as yet by Baptism they seemed to covenant with him and against Antichristian doctrine discipline and devotion and also practises or that they oppose and fight against those that have so covenanted They may remember how Irelands Parliament declaring themselves against the covenanters in Scotland had the sword at their heels presently in the breaking out of that hellish barbarous popish Rebellion and Missacre there and what hath befaln that party in England which seconded them to their power by taking up Arms against the contents of that Covenant or what those may yet expect who persist in that enmity still or otherwise retract or would make themselves free of that their Obligation and Vow For us all of both parties I say only this I wish 3 To all of both parties that as we have still cause to expect greater evils so the true cause were not specially found in our breach of Covenant with God and man 〈◊〉 have heard how with other evils it threatens change of Government The Kingdom threatned 〈◊〉 cease and brought upon Israel and then upon Iudah a ceasing of the Kingdom when they shall say We have no King Now when should they say this and why I take it is not so much meant of Zedekiah 2 Kings 24.15 16 1â— and 15 〈◊〉 when he was carryed away captive into Babylon as of the King of Israel namely King Hoshea the last King of the ten tribâ—s And why because he kept not Covenant with him 2 King 17.1 2 3 4 c. after whom was no appearance of any royal Government as partly was in Iudah presently after the captivity and in the times long after till Christ their spiritual King came but if we refer it to Manasseh the last Kinâ— of Iudah then the words may relate to that his Covenant in this 34 of â—eremy which he turned from and that caused the return of the Babylonish army as we have heard I make no application only the Lord give grace and wisdom to all of this our Nation of all sorts that our averseness to or looseness in our keeping our Vows with God and man bring not like evils upon us Amen FINIS