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cause_n	great_a	king_n	parliament_n	4,582	5	6.6805	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78965	The great danger of covenant-refusing, and covenant-breaking. Presented in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable Thomas Adams Lord Mayor, and the Right Worshipfull the sheriffes, and the aldermen his brethren, and the rest of the Common-councell of the famous City of London, Jan. 14. 1645. Upon which day the solemne League and Covenant was renued by them and their officers with prayer and fasting at Michael Basinshaw, London. / By Edmund Calamy, B.D. and pastor of Aldermanbury London.; Great danger of covenant-breaking, &c.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1646 (1646)	Wing C254; Thomason E327_6; ESTC R200648	37,036	51

upon a willing Covenant-breaker The Lord fasten these meditations and soul-awaking considerations upon your hearts The Lord give you grace to keep close to the Covenant in keeping of it to keep God and a good conscience wth are both lost by covenant-breaking There are six things which I shall perswade you unto in pursuance of your Covenant 1. To be humbled for your own sins and for the sins of the Kingdome more especially Because we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us Gospel-sins are greater then legall-sins and will bring Gospel-curses which are greater then legall-curses And therefore let us be humbled according to our Covenant for all our Gospel-abominations 2. You must be ambitious to go before one another in an example of reall reformation You must swear vainly no more be drunk no more break the Sabbath no more c. You must remember what David saith Psal. 50. 16. But unto the wicked God saith What instruction and castest my words behinde thee To sin willingly after we have sworn not to sin is not only to sin against a Commandement as I have said but to sin against an Oath which is à double iniquity and will procure a double damnation And he that takes a Covenant to reform and yet continueth unreformed his Covenant will be unto him as the bitter water of jealousie was to the woman guilty of adultery which made her belly to swell and thigh to rot c. Numb. 5. 22. 3 You must be careful to reform your families according to your covenant and the example of Joshua and Jacob and the godly Kings forementioned 4. You must endeavour according to your places and callings to bring the churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction uniformity in religion c. O blessed Vnity how comes it to passe that thou art so much sleighted and contemned Was not unity one of the chief parts of Christs prayer unto his Father when he was here upon earth John 17. 11. Is not unity amongst Christians one of the strongest arguments to perswade the world to believe in Christ John 17. 21. Is it not the chiefe desire of the holy Apostles that we should all speak the same things and that there should be no divisions amongst us but that we be perfectly joyned together in the same mind in the same judgement 1 Cor. 1. 10. Phil. 2. 1 2 3 c. Is not unity the happinesse of heaven Is it not the happinesse of a City to be at unity within it self Is it not a good pleasant thing for brethren to dwell together in unity How comes it then to passe that this part of the Covenant is so much forgotten The Lord mind you of it this day And the Lord make this great famous City a City of holinesse and a City at unity within it self For if unity be destroyed purity will quickly also be destroyed The Church of God is una as well as sancta It is but one church as wel as is it a holy church And Jesus Christ gave some to be Apostles some Evangelists some Prophets some Pastors and Teachers c. till we all come to the unity of the faith Not only to the purity but to the unity of the faith The government of Christ is appointed for the keeping of his Church in unity as well as purity Those things which God hath joyned together let no man put asunder That government which doth not promote unity as well as purity is not the government of Christ Oh the misery of that kingdom where Church-divisions are nourished and fomented Would it not be a sad thing to see twelve in a family and one of them a Presbyterian another an Independent another a Brownist another an Antinomian another an Anabaptist another a Familist another for the Prelatical government another a Seeker another a Papist and the tenth it may be an Atheist the eleventh a Jew the twelfth a Turk The Lord in his due time heal our divisions make you his choice instruments according to your places that the Lord may be one his name one in the three kingdoms 5. You must endeavour in pursuance of your Covenant to extirpate Popery Prelacy Heresie Schisme Prophanenesse whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godlinesse c. That so this City may be a City of holinesse unity and a City of truth as is prophecied of Jerusalem Zach. 8. 3. Oh blessed truth how is it that thou art so lightly esteemed on Is not truth more precious then gold and more to be prized then Rubies Are we not to buy the truth and sell it not Did not Christ come into the world to bear Witnesse to the truth Did not grace and truth come by Iesus Christ Is not Christ the way the truth and the life How is it then that truth is fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter how is it that truth faileth and he that departeth from evill maketh himself a prey Esay 59. 14 15. How is it that men bend their tongues like bowes for lies but they are not valiant for the truth upon earth The Lord make you lovers of truth and peace 6. You must take heed of that cursed monster of Indifferency Neutrality Study these six texts of Scripture Judg. 5. 23. Judg. 8. 6 7. 16. Deut. 23 3 4. Jer. 48. 10. Mat. 12. 30. Mar. 8. 38. O that these Scriptures were written in your hearts with a pen of iron A Neuter in Gods cause is a lukewarm Christian whom God will spue out of his mouth he is a dead member of Christs body fit to be cut off Oh that the Lord would raise up your hearts this day Right Honourable Right Worshipfull and Well beloved to a high pitch of zeal for him and his cause God hath made you instruments to do wonderfull things for this kingdom you have been the Saviours of the kingdom you have vindicated the liberties of the Parliament and your own liberties and the Kings army by your means in a great measure is brought very low But yet as Christ said to the young man so do I to you There is one thing wanting and that one thing is the one thing necessary The Church is unsetled Discipline unerected Religion is tottering For Zions stir up your zeal and your strength Use your interest and your power in an orderly and regular and peaceable way according to your places And what can you not do You have ventured one arrow already shoot another and if that miscarry shoot another you will speed at last He that cuts down a tree though he cuts it not down at the first and second blow yet the first and second and third blow

lateritiam reliqui marmoream For the better bringing of this to passe you did lately renue your solemne League and Covenant at which time this ensuing Sermon was preached Since which time not only the Sermon but the Preacher of it hath undergone many harsh and bitter censures It is the wickednesse of these dayes to build their own designes upon the ruine of other mens good name But surely God will never prosper such bloody practises It is said of Antiochus a vilde person Dan. 11. 28. That his heart shall be against the holy Covenant We have many amongst us that in this are like unto Antiochus whose hearts tongues and hands are not only against our solemne League and Covenant but against all that preach for it or write in the defence of it There is indeed a Covenant that some do much contend for and make the very form of a particular Church without which a Church cannot be a true Church which is called a Church-covenant For my part I conceive that whosoever shall say that a Church-covenant I meane an oath expressed by formal words is an Ordinance of Christ and necessary to the very being of a visible Church doth not only un-church most of the Churches of Jesus Christ but doth also set up his own invention for an Ordinance of Christ In the New Testament we reade of no such Church-oath at the admission of Members And there is no place in the Old Testament for ought I could ever reade that speaks of a Church-oath to be taken at our admission into Church-fellowship Indeed we have mention made of a Nationall Covenant and of the Covenant of grace and of subscribing with our hands unto the Lord But what are these to a Church-oath without which no man is to be accounted a Church-member or to have right to the seales of the covenant of grace To urge this as an Ordinance of Christ is to set our posts by Gods posts and our threshold by Gods threshold Ezek. 43. 8. But if I should expatiate any further in this point I should exceed the limits of an Epistle and therefore I forbear My hearty desire is That this Covenant which you have now taken the second time may be carried about you in continuall remembrance And that it may serve in stead of a thousand Arguments to make you zealously serviceable to God to Church and State It is reported of Theseus that he was so taken with the wonderfull works of Hercules that he could not sleep for thinking of the wonders of Hercules and when he slept he dreamt of Hercules wonders and was never satisfied till he had imitated him in working wonderfull things also And it is also related of Themistocles that he had alwayes in his thoughts by night and by day the victories of Miltiades and this made him insatiable till he had imitated him Oh that you would thus deale with the Covenant That you would think of it in your bed in your closets in your walks and think of what particulars you have sworn unto and never leave thinking untill you have fully performed your Oath and Covenant And if you keep Covenant with God the great God will keep Covenant with you and all the blessings of the Covenant which are mentioned in the book of God which is the book of the Covenant shall be your portion for ever and ever Which is the prayer of Your much obliged Spirituall Servant EDM. CALAMY The great danger of Covenant-refusing and Covenant-breaking 2 TIM. 3. 3. Truce-breakers or Covenant-breakers YOu are here met this day to humble your soules before the Lord and to renue your solemne League and Covenant I say to renue it and take it the second time It is no unusuall thing for the people of God to repeat and reiterate their Vows and Covenants The great and solemne vow which we made to God in Baptisme is renued every time we come to the Lords Supper And upon every Fast day wee binde our selves anew to God by Covenant The people of Israel entred into covenant Ezra 10. 3. And the same people as Chronologers observe did re-engage themselves in the same Covenant Neh. 10. The Scripture tels us that Almighty God did * six times make one and the same covenant with Abraham and sware the same covenant twice to Isaac Gen. 26. 4. 34. And therefore blessed be the great God who hath put it into your hearts to engage your selves a second time into a Nationall Covenant There are six reasons to justifie this dayes solemnity before God and all that require satisfaction about it 1. Because this Nationall Covenant hath been a long time as it were dead and buried and quite forgotten amongst most people And therefore it is high time to raise it out of the grave of forgetfulnesse and I hope this day will be to the Covenant as a Resurrection from the dead 2. Because of the great scorn and contempt that is cast upon it by divers sorts of people The Malignants call it a conspiracy others though not Malignants yet maligne the Covenant and call it a snare a trap a temptation and account it a signe of a tender conscience to boggle at it and of a loose conscience to swallow it without scruple And therefore to vindicate the honour and reputation of the Covenant and to wipe off the aspersions that are cast upon it you doe well to take it the second time 3. Because there are some that do openly professe their sorrow that ever they took it and would fain recant and retract what they have done And therefore to manifest that you are still of the same judgement and that you doe not repent of what you have done you doe well to take it the second time 4. Because of the pronenesse that is in all men even the best of men to break covenant with God A Covenant indeed is a golden Girdle to tye us fast to God it is a joyning and glewing our selves to the Lord The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth an Oath comes from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth a Hedge An Oath and Covenant is a strong hedge to keep us from breaking out into disobedience It is an entring into bond to become the Lords it is a binding our selves apprentice to God Voluntas saith Aquinas per votum immobiliter firmatur in bonum But yet notwithstanding the nature of the best man is very apt to break these bonds and to run away from his great Lord and Master to suffer this Hedge to decay and this golden girdle to loosen and untye and to disjoyne and unglew himself from God And therefore it is not only commendable but very necessary and for this cause you are met this day to enter into bond the second time to binde and inroll your selves again unto the Lord to make up this hedge to tye this golden girdle yet faster and to joyn and glew your selves once more

into the wildernesse it will be because of these sinnes And therefore if ever you would have blessed dayes you must make it your great businesse to remove these 19 mountains and to repent of these land-devouring and soul-destroying abominations At this time I shall pick out the first and the tenth sin to speak on The first is selfe-love which is placed in the fore-front as the cause of all the rest Selfe-love is not only a sin that makes the times perilous but it is the cause of all those sins that make the times perilous For because men are lovers of themselves therefore they are covetous proud unholy c. The tenth sinne is truce-breaking and for feare lest the time should prevent me I will begin with this sinne first The tenth sin then is truce-breakers or as Rom. 1. 33. Covenant-breakers The Greek word is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth three things First such as are foederis nescii as Beza renders it or as others infoederabiles that is such as refuse to enter into Covenant Or secondly such as are foedifragi qui pacta non servant as Estius hath it or sine fide as Ambrose that is such as break Faith and Covenant Or thirdly such as are implacabiles or as others sine pace that is such as are implacable and haters of peace According to this three-fold sense of the word I shall gather these three observations Doct. 1. That to be a Covenant-refuser is a sin that makes the times perilous Doct. 2. That to be a Covenant-breaker is a sin that makes the times perilous Doct. 3. That to be a peace-hater or a truce-hater is a sin that makes the times periloùs To begin with the first Doctrine the first That to be a Covenant-refuser is a sinne that makes the times perilous To be foederis nescius or infoedederabilis For the understanding of this you must know that there are two sorts of Covenants There are devillish and hellish Covenants and there are godly and religious Covenants First there are devillish Covenants such as Acts 23. 12. and Isaiah 28. 15. such as the holy league as it was unjustly called in France against the Hugonites and that of our Gun-powder Traitors in England such are our Oxford Covenants for the destruction of the Parliament and godly party Now to refuse to take such Covenants is not to make the times perilous but the taking of them makes the times perilous Secondly there are godly and religious Covenants such as Job 31. 1. I have made a Covenant with mine eyes why then should I thinke upon a maid Such as Psal. 119. I have sworne I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgements such as 2 Chron. 15. 14. And such as this is which you are met to take this day For you are to sweare to such things which you are bound to endeavour after though you did not swear Your swearing is not solum vinculum but novum vinculum is not the onely but onely a new and another bond to ty you to the obedience of the things you sweare unto which are so excellent and so glorious that if God give those that take it a heart to keep it it will make these three Kingdomes the glory of the world And as one of the Reverend Commissioners of Scotland said when it was first taken in a most solemn manner at Westminster by the Parliament and the Assembly That if the Pope should have this Covenant written upon a wall over against him sitting in his chair it would be unto him like the hand-writing to Belshazzar causing the joints of his loynes to loose and his knees to smite one against another And I may adde that if it be faithfully and fully kept it will make all the Devils in hell to tremble as fearing lest their Kingdome should not long stand Now then for a man to be an Anti-covenanter and to be such a Covenant-refuser it must needs be a sin that makes the times perilous And the reason is 1 Because you shall find in Scripture that when any nation did enter into a solemn religious Covenant God did exceedingly blesse and prosper that nation after that time As appeares 2 Chron. 15. 19. 2 Kings 11. 20. And we have a promise for it Deut. 29. 12 13. That thou shouldest enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God c. That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himselfe and that he may be unto thee a God c. And therefore to be a Covenant-refuser is to make our miseries perpetuall 2 Because as it is the highest act of Gods love to man to vouchsafe to engage himselfe by Oath and Covenant to be his God so it is the highest demonstration of mans love to God to bind himselfe by Oath and Covenant to be Gods There is nothing obligeth God more to us then to see us willing to ty and bind our selves fast unto his service And therefore they that in this sense are Anticovenanters are sons of Belial that refuse the yoake of the Lord that say as Psalm 2. 3. Let us breake his bands asunder and cast away his cords from us such as Oderunt vincula pietatis which is a soul-destroying and land-destroying sin 3 Because that the union of England Scotland and Ireland into one Covenant is the chief if not the onely preservative of them at this time You shall find in our English Chroniclers that England was never destroyed but when divided within it self Our civill divisions brought in the Romans the Saxons Danes and Normans But now the Anti-covenanter he divides the Parliament within it self and the City within it self and England against it self he is as a stone separated from the building which is of no use to it self and threatneth the ruine of the building Jesus Christ is called in Scripture the corner-stone which is a stone that unites two ends of a building together Jesus Christ is a stone of union and therefore they that sow division and study unjust separation have little of Jesus Christ in them When the ten tribes began to divide from the other two tribes they presently began to warre one against another and to ruine one another The Anticovenanter he divides and separates and disunites and therefore he makes the times perilous The use is 1 To reprove those that refuse to enter into Covenant with God and more particularly those that refuse to take this solemne League and Covenant These are of two sorts 1. Such as refuse it out of Malignity 2. Such as refuse it out of unnecessary scrupulosity that raise and foment doubts to hinder themselves and others from taking it As for the first I will not call your goodnesse and my charity so much in question as to spend time about them And for the second I conceive that those that scruple it are amongst the number of those that are absent and therefore I should but idle away