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to our Covenant unless we will say our own turns now are served by it and that it is to be looked upon as an Almanack out of date which if we should generally so think to me argues that such entered into Covenant not in a religious but only civil and politick respect which if I have any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
captivity to Edom and remembred not the brotherly Covenant or the Covenant of brethren But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus which shall devour the pallaces thereof Amos 1.9 10. I would conclude this reason by remembring you of that notable and famous instance of latter times mentioned by so many yet minded by a few only in that famous battel of Varna fought Novemb. 10.1444 between Amurath the sixth and Vladislaus King of Hungary who having made a League or Covenant of peace with the Emperor of the Turks was afterwards perswaded by Iulian the Popes Legat to violate the League and to make war upon the Turk who fared accordingly in the end When Amurath was almost put to the worst he plucks out of his bosom the writing which contained the late League and holding it aloft in his hand his eyes lift up to heaven he utters these words Behold thou crucified Christ this is the League thy people in thy name made with me and now have violated without a cause If thou be a God as they say thou art shew thy power and pour out thy wrath upon this perjured people Hereupon though this Turk in thus speaking blasphemed the name of Christ yet Christ to vindicate his own honor will do a Turk right and justice the battel turns the perfidious Christian King and many of his chief Commanders slain the whole Army routed great part of that Country lost Lo the fruit of the violation of Faith and Covenant for politick advantage c. and lo how zealous Christ is of his name that it be not blasphemed by the Heathen or any other The third and last Reason 3 Thereby moe bonds are broken is because the breach or not observing the Covenant of our God is a sin against moe bonds not only against the bond of nature of Gods mercies and benefits and of preservation and redemption both temporal and spiritual which tye and bind more naturally by a natural kind of obligation but against a more voluntary and deliberate Act of a mans own doing and yeilding to so that though God seem to pass by other sins for a long while And therfore though he pass by other sinns yet he wil not pass by this yet he wil not pass by this Thus God did bear with many provocations and murmurings of his people coming out of Aegypt five at least or six But when once they but so much as yeilded to the terms of the Covenant they were then A large instance and ever after sensibly punished till at length when in all they had provoked him ten times their judgement became irrevocable so that he sware in his wrath they should never enter into his rest Exod. 14.11 12 13. Numb 14.21 22 23. They murmured 1. At the red sea yet not a word of reproof only Moses comforted them saying fear not stand stil see the salvation of the Lord c. 2. At Marah 15.24 25 26. where the waters were bitter but so was not God The Lord shewed Moses a tree which cast in made the waters sweet 3. At Sin where they wanted bread c. would God we had dyed in Aegypt c. But the Lord said I will rain bread from heaven for you 16.2 3 4 5 c. 4. They tempted God twice about Manna 1. In reserving it till the morning contrary to Gods command vers 19 20 only Moses was wroth with them 2. In seeking it on the Sabbath v. 26 27 28 29. when God told them there should be none where they escaped only with a gentle chiding from the Lord. 6. At Rephidim for want of water where as they chide Moses Moses also chides them Exod. 17.1 2 3 c. But when once the Law was propounded to them and they had yeelded to the terms of the Covenant saying Exod. 19. 5.8 All that the Lord hath spoken we wil do though alas they wanted power an heart so to do and when once at the Mount they in Moses absence who was to bring them the Covenant in writing had made the golden calf the Lord takes special notice of it owns them not for his people saying to Moses Thy people have corrupted themselves they so uncovenanted themselves Exod. 32.7 8 10 11 14. v. 27 28 35 and God takes notice how quickly they had turned aside out of the way which he commanded Hereupon threatens to consume them And though seemed to spare them a while at Moses request yet Moses at Gods command causeth the idolaters about three thousand men to be slain and the Lord plagued the people This was their seventh provocation This and their after sins brought all their former provocations into remembrance being looked on as breaches also of Covenant so that eighthly when at Taberah they complained upon weariness Numb 11.1 The Lords anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt among them in the uttermost parts of the camp v. 4 5 6 33. and when ninthly they fell a lusting for flesh and loathed Manna at Kibroth-hattaavah Psa 1â—6 15. quails were given them in wrath leanness was sent into their souls and while the flesh was yet between their teeth ere it was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people Psa 78.30 31 and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague Lastly when in Pharan they murmured upon the news of the spies and beleeved not God but rebelled and would needs return to Aegypt distrusting both his power and promise which made the tenth provocation and was an high breach of their Covenant with God being disobedience contrary to their promise and distrust Deut. 1 26-32 for in that thing they did not beleeve their God The Lord came to a peremptory resolution even to swear that because they had now tempted him these ten times surely saith he they shall not see the Land neither shall any of them that provoked me see it save Caleb and Joshua Numb 14.1 2 c 21 23. Where we see that when men in special Covenant with God persist to provoke him every new sin is thence aggravated and old sins called to remembrance Vse fourfold 1. To justifie God in his judgments Psa 145 17. Lev. 26 25. Aâ—pâ—â—câ—tion to us of this Nation and so at length sooner or later certain and irrevocable sentence passeth Vse 1. This may serve to justifie God in all that hath befaln us or which may or shall befal us hereafter teaching us to say The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Seeing he doth but thus avenge the quarrel of his Covenant broken by all sorts 1. Our general Covenant made with God in Baptism requires of us all true faith and the obedience of faith repentance mortification a forsaking of the devil and all his works the world in the pomp and glory and covetous desires of it
Church Psal 44 All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps or goings declined from thy way 3. Be we then exhorted 3 use Exhortation to renew Covenant with God as others have done upon like grounds if not to enter yet to keep or renew our Covenants made with God and with one another in the presence and sight of God We have as good cause thus to do as ever nation had and the same or like occasions What moved King Asa with Iudah and many of Israel solemnly to Covenant with God and one with another and that upon the forfeiture of life if any kept it not 1. Was it not a mercy and a great deliverance 2 Chron. 15. 2 Chron. 15.10 11 12. for which thus they would shew their thankfulness bind themselves to a through Reformation 1. By occasion of mercies and great deliverances Now comes England behind in mercies of this nature or doth it not go before all other Nations in remarkable deliverances Asa was delivered from a mighty Army of the Ethiopians and Israel from Aegypt for which he renews and they are called to enter into Covenant with the Lord and urged to keep it and that because of such deliverance and mercies as Exod. 19.1 2. c. 5. c. 20.2 Already received I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt Thou shalt have no other Gods before me c. The remembrance of which mercy is urged by Ioshuah to make them renew and firmly to keep Covenant with God Iosh 24.2 3 -6.7 c. 14 15.-25.26 Now our deliverances have been from spiritual enemies also as from spiritual Aegypt as from the tyranny of Antichrist that spiritual Pharaoh and from spiritual Babylon and from Popery by a child King Edward and a woman Queen Elizabeth which when Iudah was delivered temporally made them resolve saying Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant c. Isai 50.5 Since we have been miraculously delivered both from spiritual and bodily bondage as from the Popish Spanish Navy in 1588. from the Popish powder plot Anno 1605 and especially from late designs of the Popish and Malignant party and for the discovery and prevention of plots against Parliament and City tending to the utter subversion of Religion and of our Liberties which occasioned the National Covenant between England and Scotland and their joyning in Arms for the Vindication and Defence of their Religion Liberties and Laws against the Popish Prelatical and Malignant party as in their Declaration they have published Besides many no less then an hundred successes deliverances or victories obtained one after another without interruption till the power of the Adversary was wholly broken in remembrance whereof have we not as much cause as ever any had to make keep and renew Covenant with God and among our selves Especially if withall we consider other hoped mercies and the benefits of keeping our Covenant firm with God and with our neighbour-Kingdoms for thus we become strong yea invincible God and good men being in league with us we shal in the end at least be the more prevalent party such a cord is not easily broken Otherwise being divided from God by breach of Covenant made with him or in his name Other good redounding hence by unbelief and impenitency and among our selves by Faction Schisms c. we shall surely in the end fall Thus also the unsound are discovered and we know our enemies at least whom to suspect and to put no trust in Otherwise invisible enemies are most dangerous When once the Lord causeth us to pass under the Rod and brings us into the bond of the Covenant then saith he Ezâ—k 20 37 38. I will purge out from among you the Rebels them that transgress against me Yea the best come thus to be more purged at least to walk more closely with God in all good conscience of our duty whereas till we bind or take our selves bound fast to God by Covenant whether made directly with him as a party or with others in him as a witness or both we walk more loosly and carelesly ready to break with God and man upon small occasions As one being with a Master upon tryal and before he be bound to his Trade by Indenture is reâ—dy to break away without fear of any penalty I wish these our loose times made not this good we should not then play fast and loose as we do both with God and man 2. Another ground or cause of covenanting with God 2 Former corruptions to be covenanted against and of keeping it we find to be when a land or people hath been polluted with Idolatry and Superstition and hath been kept in ignorance of the true God his pure Worship his Laws and Word in a lawless liberty of sinning transgressing his Sabbaths c. For which see 2 Chron. 15 3.-8.-16 Nehem. 9.34 35 -38 with cap. 10.29 30 31. c. Ezra 10.2 3. c. 2 Chron. 23 3.-16 with 17. 29 5 6 -10. 34.21 -25 31. And have not we then like cause Have we not declined and been corrupted in doctrine worship and manners Gods Sabbath turned to play-day Masks and Plays instead of afternoon Sermons and that even at Court And were we not almost quite grown not only slavish but prophane Popish and Superstitious And was not this one ground at least of our covenanting namely to restore Religion to her purity Preface to the Covenant and to preserve her in it and keep it fromâ—â—tter ruin How can we else be thankful for our freedom from such corruptions but by keeping firmly our Covenant with God of a more pure and holy worship and walking with him Lastly Evils inflicted and evils feared or threatned 3 Evils 1. Felâ— have occasioned a new covenanting with God 1. Inflicted as we have seen Nehem. 9.36 37 with 38. So in King Hezekiah 2 Chron. 29.8 9 with 10. He exhorting the Levites and recounting the evils which for sin befel Judah and Ierusalem for Loe our Fathers have faln by the sword c Now saith he it is in mine heart to make a Covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his sierce wrath may turn away from us 2. So for feared wrath 2 Feared King Iosiah having read in the book of the Covenant what wrath was due to such sins as his people were guilty of and Huldah having Prophesied the Destruction of Jerusalem 2 Chron. 34 29 30 31. though respited in his days he gathered together all the Elders of Jerusalem and Judah Priests Levites and people and read in their ears all the words of that book and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments with all his heart c. This turned away wrath