man then must give up all his Writs and Lands to another and his Right to them will be as legal as if they were made over by Disposition O how refreshing will this be then that God shal be theirs and glory theirs 2 Death as it dissolves all unions and relations made for life-time it takes away a mans Right to his Inheritance the Woman is no more bound by the Marriage covenant to her Husband death hath loosed the Contract so death comes as a curse it was inflicted in the beginning as a curse when God cursed the Man and the Serpent now a title to this Covenant makes the thing that was a curse a blessing it 's now Blessed are they that die in the Lord and all things are yours and ye are Christs 3 Consider death as it 's the March-stone betwixt time and eternity we stand as it were on the March-stone when we are going to die we are going from the one in to the other now a Title to the everlasting Covenant when we stand on the top of the stone and bids adieu to Sun and Moon Husband and Wife to Children to Lands and Possessions to bid them all adieu and claim to an interest in the Covenant and to all the priviledges if it what a special encouragement is this when a man is making his Testament he puts in nothing to himself his Lands and Possessions must go to others or to his friends and he has nothing to himself it 's remarkable Jacob when he was a dying he calls all his Children and gives them all Legacies when he was making his Testament but he puts in something for himself in one little verse in Gen. 49. Lord I have waited for thy salvation so that if ye will take a view of the Covenant as it contains the great concernments of time and eternity and what a priviledge it is to have an interest in it he that made us out of nothing might have commanded us all duties that he has commanded and annexed no more but if ye do not these duties I will eternally damn you and cast you in hell and ye shal drink of the Lake of Fire and Brimstone so long as I am God but so condescending has grace been that God hath been content to transact thus Covenant-ways and among the rest ye have this if any keep my Commandments he shal have my peace my pardon nay more he shal have my self nay more he shal have my Son and my self for all eternity now to have a Title to this everlasting Covenant when we are giving up with all our Lands and Possessions and death is loosing all Relations and when we are meeting with that which is a curse in it self then to be able to say yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant c. SERMON II. 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house he not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my Salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow THese are the last words of David the son of Jesse the sweet singer of Israel many excellent Psalms hath he penned and many sweet songs had he sung but like the nightingal that they say sings sweetliest before his death he reserves this song to be sung among his last words Although my House be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant c. I proposed this general Observation from the scope of the words That the great encouragement at death and when we come to speak our last words is an interest in the everlasting Covenant I confirmed this from the tenor of the Covenant the advantages of an interest in it and from the trysting of these two together with the time of death I will only clear one Question and so apply this point Quest It may be Questioned Is not Christ the great encouragement of the Soul when we come to speak our last words and why do we ascribe this to the Covenant I thought it necessary to clear this in the entry of this noble Theme which I will do with these two considerations Answ 1. It were a very great injury to take from Christ and give to the Covenant what is his due all the lustre of the Covenant is like the Moon that borroweth its light from the Sun the Moon would be but a dark Planet except it had light derived from the Sun so all the lustre and excellency of the Covenant flows from Christ And I will open here a four-fold reference that Christ hath to the Covenant 1. He was the Purchaser of it for as much grace as there is in the Covenant there is not a promise in it but it is bought and bought at the full value how free soever it be to us they were not so to our Cautioner but all the promises of Peace of Pardon of Sanctification they stood him the price of his blood and so he is the Purchaser of the Covenant 2. He was the Mediator of the Covenant he treated it and in effect drew the Articles of it the Father when the Covenant was in treating he knew he had to do with fools that could not nor had no skill of their own writ drawing the Son was the fit person concerned in both parties therefore he has a liberty from the Father to draw the Articles of the Covenant as he pleased which he did in one of the strangest ways he satisfies the Father and abundantly satisfies us and it was difficult to satisfie both Parties but he took the difficulty on him therefore he is called Heb 12. Among the many honourable names he gets in the Bible he gets this Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant 3. He is the surety of the Covenant Heb. 7. In so much as he was the surety of a better Tastement he is the Surety the Cautioner of a better Covenant Therefore I will offer two things in reference to this 1. He is the Cautioner for our part of the Covenant 2. For the Fathers part of the Covenant it is well Observed by one he had to do with a party that had three desects when he made the Covenant First that were Dyvors and not responsable and therefore behoved to have a Cautioner Secondly they were witless and had no skill to draw their own Writs and therefore left it to the Son to draw the Covenant Thirdly they were unbelievers and readily would not take him at his word therefore he wrote the Covenant in the blood of his Son and gave him to be Executor of all the things contained in the Covenant and that he had promised and is in a manner Surety for him therefore ye have Christ often telling his Disciples that they needed not doubt of his Fathers part of the Covenant for he had given him all power in Heaven and Earth for performing and accomplishing the Covenant so he is Surety for us Quest Ye will ask
his Justice which of all his Artributes doeth most terrifie a sinner under accusations of guilt it will make it refreshing He who is Just is my God and his Justice requires not a double ransom being satisfied in my Cautioner Christ Jesus 1 John 1.9 If we confess our Sins He is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness I shall close with an excellent Sentence of Reverend Mr. Dods to this purpose and it is this a person who can satisfactorily answer two Questions needs never be discomposed in what ever exigency and the Questions are Quest. 1. Whose art thou I am Gods by a Covenant-Relation Quest 2. Where art thou I am about my Duty These two were refreshing to Paul when near to be shipwracked Acts 27.23 The Angel of the Lord whose I am There his Covenant-Relation and whom I serve there he is at his duty That He who alone carrieth that title The God of all Consolation may make these Sermons refreshing to thee is the prayer of Thy well-wisher more willing than able to promove thy Comfort W. T. SERMON I. 2 Samuel 23. verse 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow I Purposed this Summer if the Lord give time to have handled some of Chr'ists select Names but have now resolved before I come at them to handle the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal 25. I shal in the entry of it beg of God that he may be with us in going thorow the handling of it and I obtest you as ye would not have his Covenant a Witness against you seriously to ponder and to feed by what ye shal hear spoken about it I could not find one verse in all the Bible wherein the nature properties and effects of the Covenant were more briefly summed up than in this verse Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure c. For understanding the meaning of the words the first verse of the Chapter tells us that they were the last words of David the Son of Jesse imitating Jacob Gen. 49. and Moses Deut. 32. making their Testaments and shewing what were their greatest encouragements when they were dying he remembers some old experience of God toward him that he was the man whom God had anointed and lifted up and made the sweet singer of Israel and v. 2. The spirit of the Lord spake by me he likewise encourages himself in Christ whom he describes in the fourth v. I confess there are some Interpreters apply the words in the fourth v. to Rulers because of a word in the third v. but the current of Interpreters understand them of Christ And he shall be as the light of the morning when the Sun riseth even a morning without clouds as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain a notable similitude expressing the sweetness brightness and fruitfulness of Christ so that after he has mentioned these two great encouragements in the verses that we have read he pitches on that which secures all his other encouragements David had a very sinful house there was murthers in it and incest in it of Amnon and Tamar there was adultery in it and lying and a number of evils and when he was a dying he reflects on what had been in his house and the result is my house has not been so with God Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant c. Which words though some refer them to Christ who yet was not sprung out of the root of Jesse but was to be exhibit in the fulness of time yet I rather take them as relating to David's personal case as ye shal hear when I come at it This being briefly the scope of the words I will not be able in the work of this day to enter on them or to take them up in particulars I will only take one general Observation from the scope of the words and I look on it as a notable Porch and Introduction to all the Sermons that are to follow on the Covenant and of the order and sureness of it and all the rest of the ingredients mentioned in the Text. The Observation is this That one of the greatest of encouragements at death and when a man is about his last words is to have an interest in the everlasting Covenant These are the last words of the Son of Jesse and there is his greatest encouragement My house is not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant c. Whether we understand by house the house of his Body or of his Family or of his Kingdom as some do or whether we take it in all the Three he had grounds of fear from them all but the great encouragement when he is speaking his last words is taken from his Interest in the everlasting Covenant This Observation is the very scope of the words when all things are bidding us adieu and when we are quiting all our Charters and Lands and leaving them to others to possess an interest in the everlasting Covenant is a great encouragement then it 's remarkable Heb. 11. and two last verses of the chapter All these having obtained a good report through faith received not the promises God having provided some better thing for us Mark here now what was the encouragement of all these Cloud of Witnesses when they came to die it was their Faith in the Covenant they died in Faith and obtained a good report through Faith not ha-obtained the Promises but believing it For clearing of this I will Premise two things to make way to the confirming of it 1. An interest in the everlasting Covenant is of absolute necessity through the whole course of our Life there are four or five things will evince this 1. The Covenant is the Light and guide of a Believers Life Isai 42.6 and 7. v. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thy hand and keep thee and will give thee for a Covenant to the people for a light to the Gentiles to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house Mark how the two go together he is given for a Covenant and a Light for if it were not upon the account of the Covenant we would not know how to set down one step in our way to God 2. The Covenant and an interest in it is the door by which we come to know that we are translated out of nature into a state of grace therefore Isaiah 56. Every one that
keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer and their burnt-offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted on mine Altar And Ps 50.5 Gather my Saints together to me that have made a Covenant with me by sacrifice In effect the closing with the Covenant is our effectual calling 3. The Covenant is the Foundation of all the Relations and Consequences of all the familiarity grounded on these Relations betwixt God and his People The ground why we call him my God and my hope my rock my husband my Lord the ground of all these Relations and Familiarity founded on them is the Covenant 4. The Answer of all Challenges nay of all Temptations comes also from the Covenant Ordinarily Challenges proceed from the Law and the Threatnings and Curses of the Law The best answer to them is we are not under the Law but under Grace which is in effect to say we are under a Covenant of Grace Lastly 〈…〉 great help to perform Duty is the Covenant if we be commanded to repent to pray to believe to suffer we must always run to some Promise of the Covenant for strength and it is remarkable there is no Command in all the Law but in the Covenant there is some Promise relating to that Duty and strength for performing of it is holden out in the Promise for in effect if we look after Light or clearing in our effectual calling or if we would lay a sure Foundation of either an interest in or familiarity with God or hold off Temptations or Challenges or have strength to perform Duties it 's necessary in the whole course of our Life that we know our interest in the Covenant but this is especially necessary at death which before I yet confirm I will add one Caution which is this That it may fall out that a person with whom God hath made an everlasting Covenant ye◠they may be unclear about their interest in the Covenant when they come to die they cannot say among their last words the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant among many things there may be these Three that may have influence in the darkning of ones interest in the Covenant at Death and when they are about their last words 1. When one has been given much to doubting in the whole course of their Life readily God may give them though not a Hell for it yet he may give them a flood of it at their Death he loves to write their sin on the chastisement therefore often as Adonibezek said when they caused to cut off his Thumbs and his great Toes threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and great Toes cut off gathered their meat under my Table as I have done says he so hath the Lord required me Judges 1.7 Frequently the sin of folks Life he loves to write it on their end so he does with Pharaoh when he desired to be honoured by him he hath this sin among many he would have all the Males of the Children of Israel drowned and Moses also was laid out to be drowned until Pharaoh's daughter found him and what is his end he is drowned in the red-sea the great predominant sin of his Life is written on his end when the life is full of doubtings readily like Pharaoh he loves to write their sin on their chaslisement 2. One may be darkned about their interest in the Covenant at death because of some un-repented guilt and however that guilt shake their interest in the Covenant it may shake their clearing about it often at death it comes to be as it was with Joseph's Brethren when he is giving order to bind them and they looked for nothing but death all that is come on us us say they because we heard not the cry of our Brother It 's observed that we never read a word since the day that he was let down into the pit that any of them was challenged for it and when they are in Egypt they cannot discern Joseph to be their Brother nor can they have any hope from him the reason is they had not repented for letting him down into the Pit readily un-repented guilt has great influence on the doubting of ones interest in the Covenant at death however David was guilty of Murther and Adultery yet he penned the 51 Psalm and had his bones broken for it therefore at death he can say the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant c. 3. One comes to be darkned in their interest in the Covenant when either by Gods providence or their apprehension there seems to be an inconsistency with the Promises of the Covenant take for instance Josiah there is a special Promise made to him by Huldah the Prophetess when he sends to her after the reading of the Law thou shalt go to thy grave in peace before the captivity come on who would have thought that Josiah would die in Battel and be killed by Pharaoh-Necho in the valley of Megiddo after he had such a Promise Take again for instance the fifth Command Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee And yet many are taken away in the strength and vigour of their youth they can hardly reconcile the Providence and the Promise or then it is so in their apprehension our discouraged Spirits at Death are like these that look through black spectacles we misconstrue Providence every thing appears black through these Spectacles while it 's white Now readily one of these three either some un-repented guilt or some Providence at Death that seems not to agree with the Promise or the absolute Soveraignity of God may produce a great cloud about ones interest in the Covenant when they are at their last words yet notwithstanding of both these Cautions the point holds firm that it 's a great encouragement at death especially to be able to assert an interest in the everlasting Covenant To confirm this in general I will speak a word to these three 1. I desire ye may take notice of the Tenor of the Covenant 2. Take a view of the knowledge of an interest in this Covenant and 3. I shal consider both the Covenant and an interest in it as trysting with death and a Believers last words and these three will discover what a priviledge an interest in that Covenant is when it 's discerned at death First Take a view briefly of the Tenor of the Covenant 1. The Covenant is a Transaction betwixt God and man about mans greatest concernments it concerns his Soul and that is the choicest part of him it concerns his Eternity nay the Covenant as ye will hear it concerns two Worlds this present World and that which is to come for godliness has the promise of this Life and that which is to come the Covenant concerns the Soul and the greatest interests
of the Soul it is only these Covenanted that can reach the Souls interest he was indeed a fool that thought he could tell his Soul good news on the account he had his Barns full Soul take thee rest for thou hast enough laid up for many years It was good news to his Ox or his Ass but to tell it to his Soul he was a fool and the Scripture terms him so for it 's only these covenanted things that concern the Soul 2. Take notice that infinit wisdom has contrived the Covenant to be the only way of Convoyance of interests the great interest of the Soul the justification of it the Adoption of it the Sanctification of it the fellowship of it with Jesus the glorifying of it eternally they come in to the Soul no other way but by the Covenant they that talk of meriting for it or working for it or buying of it they do not understand what they say the Covenant holds out the greatest interests and the only way of attaining them and coming by them is in the Covenant way 3. Not only does this Covenant hold out the greatest interest God cannot make greater promises than he hath made to the Soul he cannot promise greater things than Himself and there is no other way for attaining them than by the Covenant So in the third place The Covenant gives sufficient security for them to speak with reverence God becomes a Debitor by vertue of his Covenant I confess there are many Divines that say they like not the word that God should be debitor to Man they think it below his Glory and Majesty yet they cannot deny but he is a Debitor in a two-fold sense 1. He is Debitor to his own faithfulness If we believe not yet he abides faithful he cannot deny himself it is not said if we believe not he cannot deny us but if we believe not he cannot deny himself he is Debitor to himself 2. It 's not denyed but he is Debitor to Christ for all the Promises of the Covenant are first made to Christ and through Christ they come to be ours as ye saw a man that makes over his inheritance to his Son and the Son marrying a woman it comes to be the womans through the Son she has right to it because of marrying the man the Father is principally if not properly Debitor to Christ for all the promises of the Covenant and he becomes Debitor to us and our right to them is like the Womans Right though the Father did not make over the Right first and principally to her but to the Son yet she has a Right to them because of marrying the Son some may scruple at that he is a Debitor to us but he is both a Debitor to his faithfulness and to his Son so that our Right to the Promises comes to be unquestionable and as fully secure as if God were a Debitor to us and if he after the promises he must both deny himself and his Son and O! what a mercy is it in such a strait as death is to have the Promises in so great assurance Now taking up the Covenant in these three respects O! what special encouragement must it be at death when all things are bidding us adieu to have our great interest by such a way of conveyance so secured as the Father must both deny himself and his Son before our Right to them be contradicted Secondly Our priviledge to have an interest in the Covenant at death will appear if ye take notice what the knowledge of an interest in the Covenant is I deny not but there may be an interest in the Covenant God may have made a Covenant with us and we know not of it yet consider what a priviledge the knowledge of an interest in the Covenant is and I will open this in three things 1. The knowledge of our interest in the Covenant in that which renders it useful for us in all the comanded Duties of the Law take for instance if ye be called to believe or love God which is the sum of the Law the ready way a Believer hath to perform this Duty is to search out some Promise and to lay it before God but unless they know their interest in the Covenant with what cheerfulness and confidence can they go to the promises I will not say as I find a certain Divine say I thought it a hard word that a person to love Christ that is not in Covenant with him is like a woman lying with another womans husband it 's a kind of adultery to love the person ye are not in Covenant with but yet the great encouragement to improve the Promise in order to performing duties is to know the Covenant to be ours otherwise with what confidence and hope can we plead the promise of help in Prayer 2. The knowledge of our interest in the Covenant is exceeding useful to bear off all temptations the great answer to challenges and fears is we are not under the Law but under Grace the truth is as a Divine observes the most part of our temptations and challenges they come from the Law the threatnings the curses the commands of the Law but the Tempter brings not our Bond against us he chargeâ— a Believer with a Bond that he is not lyable to and the great Answer we have to them all is we are not under the Law but under Grace that is the way to bear off challenges when he presses with such a Debt thou hast broken all the precepts of the Law and thou art lyable to all the curseâ— thereof we may Answer thou hast taken the wrong Bond for we are not under the Law but under Grace 3. The knowledge of our interest in the Covenant lets us see ouâ— duty there are a number of Duties that we are called to do that ordinarly we lay quite by because of the want of the knowledge of our interest in the Covenant such as rejoycing in God delighting in God and they are the duties that are likest Glory and yet for all the commands given about them because of the want of the knowledge of our interest in the Covenant we neither can rejoyce nor delight in Him Thirdly That at all times and in all cases the knowledge of our interest in the Covenant is most necessary at death when like David we come to speak our last words it 's true it 's necessary through the whole course of our life but never more necessar than at death especially if ye take death up under a two-fold formality 1 Death is the thing that parts us and all other things a man then quites his inheritance by death he loses his legal right to it so that if there were a possibility he could come back again he would find that death had taken away his propriety to it death has taken away the propriety from Lands it loses the relation to the Husband to the Wife to the Children it parts all a
house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow I Proposed in the second Branch of this verse three things to be considered First Who is the Author of the Covenant Of this I have spoken Secondly The parties considered personally and particularly and the special thing I insisted on the last day was That every particular Believer ought personally and particularly to find himself concerned in the Covenant and named five or six grounds to prove the warrantableness and necessity of personal covenanting with God And then opened that Question wherein personal covenanting consisted I also requited in this Question who were bound in this Duty of personal covenanting I told you that it was the duty of all the Members of the visible Church but especially the Elect. I shall now that I may the more fully open the Duty of our personal and particular covenanting or entering in a covenant of Grace with God open some properties of this Act of personal indenturing and covenanting with God and I shall name these five or six of them and from them ye will better understand the nature of it First This Act of personal covenanting with God it 's an absolutely necessary Act it 's indispensibly necessary that we should accept his offer in the covenant and bind our selves to the Terms of the covenant and that is the first character and property of it It 's observed by Divines there are some things God hath forbidden there are some things God hath left indifferent and hath neither commanded nor fordidden them there are some things God has commanded and they are necessar necessitate praecepti they are to be obeyed hic nunc as the Sacrament of the New Testament is and there are some things necessar necessitate medii as School-men speaks we cannot be saved without them Now this Act of personal covenanting with God is of this nature it 's of absolute and indispensible necessity which will appear from the consideration of these three or four things 1. Unless we particularly and personally and expresly accept of the covenant of Grace and indenture with God on the Terms of the covenant we cannot be stated in a Covenant-relation with God The Covenant made in Baptism by our Parents wherein we have but a virtual consent doth not state us in a real covenant with God until we really Indenture and with consent covenant with Him in the Covenant so until we consent we must be under the curse and covenant of Works in all the Clauses and Heads of it and cannot claim unto the Covenant of Grace in all the Clauses and Articles of it for there cannot be a Covenant-relation with God until we expresly particularly and personally Indenture in a personal Covenant with Him 2ly Until we thus particularly and personally Covenant we cannot have any benefit by Christ's Death whatever he hath purchased and he hath purchased great things yet until we accept and take hold of the Covenant and particularly and personally Indenture in it we can have no benefit by his Death the Covenant is as it were the Contract and there is no woman that has a right to the Contract but she that marries the man until we be unite to Christ we can have no benefit by the Covenant and until we enter in the Covenant we cannot be unite to him Ephes 2.12 At that time ye were aliens from the common wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise mark how these two go together without christ and strangers to the covenant of promise even so that until we come to Indenture personally and particularly in the Covenant we are without Christ and without a right to the benefits of his Death 3ly Until we come personally and particularly to indenture with God and accept of the Covenant of Grace we can have no comfortable views of Providence especially if they be dark and humbling Providences The Covenant is as it were a Key that opens all Providences it 's a remarkable word Psal 25.10 All his ways are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant mark here all his ways are mercy and truth And how come they to be known to be Mercy and Truth They come to be known by our interest in the Covenant and by the Covenant it self Let him do to us what he will let Him correct and let Him do it never so sharply yet by the Covenant and our Interst in it we see them to be Mercy and Truth 4ly Until we thus personally Indenture and Covenant with God we neither owne our Baptism nor can we rightly Communicat there is a Covenant indeed made with God by our Parents in Baptism in whom we virtually consent to the Covenant in all the Clauses and Articles of it but this not enough as a man suiting a woman he judges it not enough that he have her Parents consent it 's her self he must marry and he must have her own express consent before they marry so in Baptism our Parents gave their consent that we shall accept Christ on the Terms of the Covenant but we never owne our Baptism until we personally covenant with God neither go we rightly about the Sacrament of the Supper which is as Seal of the Covenant until we personally Indenture and Covenant with Him Lastly Until we personally Covenant and Indenture with God there can be no comfortable viewing of the Great Day the thoughts of Judgement and Eternity are terrible to them that have not an interest in the Covenant It 's a remarkable word Psal 50. The beginning whereof the current of Interpreters refer it to the Judgement of the Great day in the 5. and 6. verses Gather my Saints to me those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice the heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is judge himself mark here that Day will be a comfortable day to the Saints and who are they that are to be gathered to him that day It 's those that have made a Covenant by Sacrifice with Him and God himself is Judge now lay all these five together and ye will find that this particular Indenturing with Him is of absolute necessity But I come to a second property of this Covenant this Act of covenanting personally with God and accepting of the Covenant of Grace personally and particularly as it is an Act of absolute necessity it ought to be a Deliberat well pondered Act no Act ought more to be pondered many go about this rashly they are like that Scribe that came to Christ in Matth. 8.20 The Scribe saith Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest Christ tells him the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head but we read no more of that Scribe it 's as much as thou art not
Covenanting with God it 's this they are like a Woman that is already married marrying another Husband They have made a covenant with death and with hell are they at an agreemet as ye heard cited from Isaiah 28. It 's true That is making lies their refuge as it 's called in that same place yet they cannot break that Covenant they cannot break the Covenant they have made with their Lusts sometimes they are inclining to break it they are oftentimes like a sleepy Servant in a house the Master calls him he will cry coming and immediatly falls a sleep again several times they will break that Covenant with their Lusts but that is but like the morning Dew or an early Cloud like Ephraims goodness it soon goes away they cry coming and then falls a sleep Now the great impediment of the generality that hinders them from personal Covenanting there is a Covenant driven and roved and subscribed and Sealed with Death and Hell and Lusts and they cannot break this Covenant they cannot shake it off Lastly It impeds the greatest part the generality their entering in this personal Covenant with Christ fear of difficulties if they shall Indenture with him they must resolve with the Cross they know indeed there is much good gotten with him but there is evil also there are Reproaches and Crosses as some of the Heathens professed to the Primitive Christians that they could imbrace the Gospel but they could not burn for it but as we have said where there is a Question about the duty we are to leave the Events to him that hath commanded the Duty for he hath commanded no duty but he foresaw the Events and will regulat them and yet ordinarily we cannot trust him with Events These things makes among many that may be brought that the generality of natural men and the generality of them that are living in the visible Church they rest on the Covenant of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord but to take them to consider their misery they are under by continuing in their natural estate and what intanglements from the World lyes in their way and what a difficulty it is to break the Covenant with Death and Hell and that they should leave Events to the Lord they cannot look through them therefore they go on in the house of their pilgrimage from twenty years old to thirty and from thirty to sixty and like sheep they are laid in the Grave and Death hath Dominion over them these are the impediments that the generality have lying in the way of personal Covenanting with God In the second place There are some that go an higher length beyond these that I have spoken to it may be they come under some implicit Covenant with God that dare never venture on an express formal stated Covenant with him either to subscribe with his hand or to lift it up as some that make personal Covenants will do or to open the mouth by some solemn engagement to him they dare not come this length and there are three or four things use to ly in their way and I would gladly cast up the Gaâ—es and remove the stumbling blocks that ly in their way 1. Sometimes before we can trust God we would have surer pledges from him than his Word It 's a difficult thing to live the life of Faith and very often his People would have some sense and experience before they can personally Covenant with God like Thomas he would not believe until he saw the print of the nails and yet he came at length to do it Thou art my God and my Lord says he this was a great injury done to him but he had to do with one that could soon forgive injuries it was a great wrong not to believe the Resurrection of Christ he had been often told of it before and yet I will not believe untill I see the print of the nails and put my hand in the holes of his side and readily many of his People before they Indenture and Covenant with him they would have some sensible Proofs and Experience of his Covenant I will not believe while I see the print of the nails before I can say my Lord and my God this was a great injury but he hath magnified his Word above all his Name and yet oftentimes when we think of personal Covenanting we cannot credit the Word of him who cannot lie This several times keeps back his People from personal Covenanting they can tell O! such a Covenant such a sure one and such Promises as are in it and made by a God that cannot lie O say they I see not the print of the nails the hole in the side and therefore they refuse personally to Covenant until they get such a measure of Sense It 's just that they go mourning over the want of it 2. Sometimes his People refuse thus to Covenant personally with him because they mistake the Work of the Law and the Conviction of the Spirit accompanying the Law frequently if the Law like a Sword put in the Spirits hand begin to wound they presently think there is no more for them but to dwell on sorrow or like Jacob if they should live to gray hairs they should go down to the Grave with sorrow for ordinarily the Spirit and the Law wound together and it 's strange to see the thing that Christ intends to drive to personal Covenanting with him should be the thing that should hinder us from it The great end why the Spirit takes the Law and convinces and challenges it 's no to drive us from the Covenant the great end of the Law is to be a School-master to lead us to Christ it was evil Logick in Peter to say Depart from me for I am a sinful man it was far more suitable to have said come to me for I am a sinful man this readily hinders many from coming to Christ and personally to Covenant with him they think it suits best with them to cherish the Challenges of the Spirit and Convictions of the Law and to dwell on them if it were to go to the Grave with no other Religion than what that hath produced altogether mistaking the design of the Spirit which is in all these Convictions and Work of the Law to drive us to a personal Covenant with him But 3. A third impediment that lyes in the way of this personal Covenanting it 's this many a time these who would go about it they account the things in the Covenant so far above them that they cannot offer to claim at them what say they God to be their God and Glory to be theirs himself to be theirs and to be made Ruler over all that he hath oftentimes this keeps many of his People from personal Covenanting with him they are like some weak eye that is dasled with looking upon the Sun the Sun is so bright the things offered in the Covenant are so great that in a manner they
that has broken Covenant with Him and Indentured and art afraid to hazard again know this that burnt Bairns fire dreads the thing that occasioned the breach of Covenant eshew that I will offer you two or three things that uses ordinarly to bring Persons that uses to Covenant with God under a breach of Covenant 1. Ordinarly overly and careless performance of secret Duties thou goes to God and it's words without Life or Spirit that thou vents to God in prayer thou will soon break all they Vows if there grow a dryness betwixt the Root and the Branches the Branches will soon wither It 's remarkable that which Elihu said to Job he was mistaken in Job but the Word he spake was true had it not been applyed to Job's case he thought Job spoke unreverently of God and he took him for an Hypocrite and he thought all his Arguments reflected on God and when he had heard him out surely sayes he thou restrainest Prayer and castest off Fear his meaning is therefore thou may say any thing thou thinks overly performing of prayer will soon bring one to break all their Vows 2ly It 's given by some Divines as one of the Reasons of breaking Covenant with god unprofitable Converse among Christians every Christian meeting with another should be like a man going to light a Candle in another House where he knows there is fire when we use to Converse together there is nothing of God in it nothing of Christ's Death and Sufferings readily we may grow careless of our Covenants with God It 's a great fault among many I know whether it be Ingnorance or the want of matter within that occasions it if one should begin a spiritual Subject they will give it no kind of Intertainment but silence they will sit graver possibly at that time than at another and hear but they give it no kind of Answer thou art refusing to light thy Candle at thy neighbours fire and readily thou wilt break thy Covenant wiht God to be brief I exhort thee who has broken thy Covenant to take the Promises of Reviving Renewing Restoring and of healing that which is broken strengthning that which is Weak and lay them to sore with the Tear in thy Eye for nothing will make the Plaister stick so well as Tears mingled with a contrite heart The last sort of Persons to whom I will speak and therewith close with this Theam and it is to those that has Covenanted with Him they have made a Covenant with him by sacrifice and would gladly know some Advice how to keep it that they be not guilty of the sins abounding in their time of being breakers of Covenant with Him That I may not let thee go without some word of Advice who art serious how thou shall get it keeped I shall for present give thee these two words of Advice First if thou would keep this Covenant with God look well to thy Conscience 2ly Look well to thy Conversation First If thou would keep this Covenant with God look well to thy Conscience it 's Gods Deputie within thee and the immediat Judge of all thy actions and here I would shew you that a Man looks well to his Conscience when he looks to these three things in it 1. When he looks to have his Conscience well informed the Conscience is a blind Guid it 's the candle of the Word that must regulat it therefore ye will find a conscientions Christian he is always waiting on the Word waiting on Sermons and proposing Doubts and the great Reason of all is to get the Conscience well informed therefore if the Conscience be blind and decline to Errour as often it will do it will sometimes call the thing a Duty that God calls Sin and that Sin which God calls Duty therefore if thou would keep Covenant with God look well to thy Conscience that it be well informed and regulate by the word of truth that thou make not a Duty when there is none In this time I am afraid many are taken away from their Obligations to Him through an ill informed Conscience Conscience may err on the right hand there are many make more Duties than God hath made it may make that Duty which God has never made one It may Err in the lest hand by presuming on Dity and prostituting Duties to Lusts and if thou have not a well informed Conscience all thy running through the Wilderness is to no purpose I believe all Papists Turks and Quakers out-strip us there are no persons takes less pains to come to Heaven than protestants therefore if thou would keep thy Covenant with God in such a time when there are some saying Here is Christ and there is Christ and many falling into Errours both on the right hand and on the left hand labour to have thy Conscience well informed 2ly Look to thy Conscience in this that it be kept tender all the light in thy Conseience will not keep thy Vows and Covenants to God if it be not keeped tender It 's a singular Character of Josiah's sincerity that he weeped when he heard the Book of the Law read Huldah the Prophetess sent him word because thy heart was tender if thou would look well to thy conscience look well that it be well informed and then that it be tender there are some ye may drive Carts and Wains over their Consciences they will not crack and of all Plagues this is the greatest 3ly Hearken to the voice of thy Conscience do not sit it out when Conscience presses on thee Amesius in his cases of Conscience says He that resists his Conscience or what he takes to be the mind of God in the Conscience he resists God because it is the mind of God for he takes it up as the mind of God in such a time No man ought to follow another mans Light but to follow the Dictats of his own Conscience many are like the old Prophet and the young the young Prophet comes to Bethel and denounces woes against it the Lord said See thou turn not aside to the right hand or to the left hand to eat or drink The old Prophet comes to him and says turn in with me and eat Bread he follows the old Prophets Light and goes with him and there comes out a Lyon and tears him So labour first to have the Conscience well informed and then that it be tender that ye may not drive Carts and Wains over it And 3ly Hearken to the voice of the Conscience for it's Gods Deputy a man will never keep a personal Covenant with God that looks not to these three Secondly as ye would look to your Conscience so look to your Conversation there are many things that are necessar to be spoken to here our secret Walk oru family Walk our publick Walk comparing them with the Rules of the Gospel It would take a long time to go through them I will close all with these two words and shall say no
Covenant So that will not prove that he hath not made a Covenant with thee that since thou made it with him thou hast failed These two being laid aside they make the assurance the less difficult 3ly Very ordinarily this clearing of our assurance in the Covenant comes when there is diligence ordinarily when we ar ediligent the Spirit comes and lights his Candle and lets us see our assurance there are a number that complain they are not assured and cleared of their interest and all their Religion lies in doubting ye may justly suspect them that they are sloathful and sluggards they are not diligenct they go not often to duty were they diligent they would not want the Spirit 's concurrance readily if we want assurance we have quenched the Spirit 's motions or grieved the Spirit were we but more diligent we would have more Light all the marks in the world will never clear an Hypocrite nor give him assurance nor will all the condescending marks that God hath made clear the sluggard So if we were but a little more diligent we would be more assured and we would be the better able to say The Lord hath made with me a Covenant for the Spirit uses not to be wanting with Illumination to them for whom he gives Assistance for practical Duties 4ly That it is not so difficult will appear from this Truth that often the people of God ly in the way fo their own assurance they hinder their own clearing that God hath made a Covenant with them I will offer you four ways how frequently when clearing an assurance about our interest in the Covenant might be had that we use to hinder it 1. Serveral times we hinder it by disputing the Question at a wrong time we are never so ready to disput our interest as under desertion there are some times when our Spirits will be carried as a Ship under sall and all the design of the Soul will then be to do but at another time all the design of the Soul will be to doubt and disput our interest and we are never more ready to do this than under desertion now what a foolish things is it to go and debate with a man that is roving under a Fever and we are never deserted but we are roving assisting influences are so necessary then to go and disput to take the time when one is in the dark and their Candle put out and then coming to read their Evidence as I said before our marks are written in small print and we have but little Light and if the Candle be put out then to go and disput our case whether God hath made a Covenant with us in the wrong time yet readily we are never more ready to do it than at that time 2ly Sometime Believers hinder their own Assurance that God hath made a Covenant with them not only by chusing the wrong time but when they take wrong Marks they take not the Right Rule several times we go exceedingly wrong in our Marks the generality of prophane and natural men they take the Marks that the Pharisee did I thank God I am not like this man I am not a drunkard nor an extortioner and these are their Marks many a time Believers they take the contrair way they take too high Marks O! say they some could say God hath made a Covenant with me I can delight in him I can meditat on him I can be satisfied with him as with Marrow and with Fatness But they have the Complaint that the elder Brother of the Prodigal had thou never gave me a kid to make merry with I can never count on the day wherein the Call was killed to me and that I was cloathed with the best Rob and shoes put on my feet and a Ring on my finger therefore they conclude he hath not made an everlasting Covenant with them by taking too high Marks thou may imped thy Assurance I beleive it indeed which the greatest Divines affirm the Reason why so many at Death have peace that readily want it all their Lifetime as ye will find few of the godly but they will go to the Grave in peace one reason is at that pass and strait they are driven to take the lowest marks they can say All my desire is before him and my groaning is not hid from him they will take at that pass the lowest Marks for there they must either do or die they are content to do as Benhadad's servants did with Ahab is he alive he is my Brother they got that word my Brother they take hold of the least word that makes for them at that pass we are driven to take in our light at a score though it come not in at the window therefore they have more peace at Death than they had in they had in their Lifetime now when we go to take too high Marks it 's a great Impediment in the way of Assurance But I add 3ly to let you see that many a time Believers ly in the way of their own Assurance and hinder it several times there is an inclination in the Soul rather to intertain the challenges of the Spirit than the Comforts of the Spirit especially after our effectual calling the common comforts of the Spirit will be intertained in a Natural State far more easiy than the challenges of the Spirit If ye ask what is the Reason of this that after effectual calling guiltiness hath another smell then before effectual calling The Reason is a Believer finds the scent of his guiltiness so strong after effectual calling that the challenges of the Spirit are far more pronly intertained than the comforts of the Spirit the Spirit will sometime knock at the door Open to me my dove my undefiled but if he come with a knock and say thou hast procured all these things thou hast destroyed thy fels look back to thy way in the valley how will that easily be intertained after effectual calling Now on these accounts the taking too high Marks and reading Marks under a cloud and being so prone rather to intertain the challenges of the Spirit than the comforts of the Spirit makes that a Believer lyes in the way of his own Assurance and cannot come up to say The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant not because thou wants allowance and ground to do it but because thou disputs in the Dark and takes too high Marks To close all I will clear one Question which readily many of you will ask and it 's the third thing I proposed in the Doctrinal part of this Doctrine Quest What is the way apd method by which Christians come up and can be able to say The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant how brings the Spirit them to this Answ That I may make way to the Practical part of this Doctrine I will offer four steps by which the Spirit uses to bring the Elect to affirm it as confidently as David
sets it down a part of the Bible and when he was a Dying it was not time then to dissemble Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant How doth the Spirit bring the Elect to this ground of Assurance to be able to affirm that God hath made the Covenant with them I confess it 's great priviledge and they have a great Charter that can say it 's their priviledge they have the promises of this life and that which is to come they have no less in one Article in one line of the Bible He shall make them Ruler over all that be hath a little time will try this to be no fancy but it 's furer than the Covenant with the Sun and the Moon how brings the Spirit them up to this Assurance 1. Ordinarily before he brings them up to be Assured that the Lord hath made with me a Covenant he takes down the natural assurance like one that hath to build upon an old Foundation and he finds it rotten and thinks it best to take it down to the bottom before he build a new Foundation so that readily in the beginning of the Spirits working a person can give no account of the Spirits working neither what he hath done in the old Foundation nor the new ask you your case you can readily give no account yet dare not build on the old Foundation and ye dare not say ye have a new Work this is very frequenly in the way of the Spirits bringing the Soul to The Lord hath made with me a Covenant they can neither build on the old ground nor dare they say they have a new ground this hath ordinarily a tendency to the clearing of an interest wherever ye find a person like Rebecca having Twins strugling within her they know not what to say they are so confused the Spirit hath taken away the old ground and for any thing that is known the Spirit hath not laid the new Foundation That case looks like to be the beginning to come to that day in the week that thou wilt say The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant That is the first Part whereby the Spirit leads to the clearning an interest in a personal Covenant 2ly Where the Spirit is leading to the clearing an interest in a personal Covenant with God ordinarily the Spirit prompts to Duty and assists all diligence we are not to expect it with raptures of Joy and Consolation and delight in God many a time like the Syrian leper that was sent to the King of Israel I thought he would have come out and called on his God and laid his hand on the place We think except we get such elevation of peace and joy in prayer we can never have peace no we must not limit the Lord if he take that way it 's well but the ordinar way is he will help at prayer and excite to delight in him at another time he withdraws himself and makes the Desertion thy burden the complaint of his absence may be as sweet a mark as his presence the heart that will complain of his Absence may prove an interest as well as his Presence Now when he hath pulled down the old rotten Wall and not possibly brought the new above ground but he assists in Prayer in believing in Repentance in mortification of lusts then he is about to bring thee to say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant it 's near the break of the day it 's not far from the dawning he that hath helped thee to Diligence is not far from bringing thy Consolation even tho' it seem to be the darkest time of the night yet if the Spirit be helping at Duty and taking a lift of thy Case the day is near the breaking with thee But Thirdly the Spirit guides to this assurance by giving true Marks that God hath made a Covenant with him And here I shall enquire what are the sure Marks by which one may try if God hath made the Covenant particularly with them I have made the Covenant with him and have Vowed and Promised and Subscribed with my hand and have lifted up my hand but how shall I know if he hath made a Covenant with me The business is not so difficult to know if thou be diligent and be not an Hypocrite and playing the cheat in thy Religion but conforming thy heart to this Gospel and wrestling with all the Non-Conformities of thy heart I have searched the Judgement of many how to come to reciprocal Marks how to know if he hath made a Covenant with us Antinomians have disput the Question so exactly and Objected so strongly about our wanting these Marks that they put Divines to so many Restrictions and Limitations that it 's difficult to give a reciprocal Mark on which a Christian may rest if he hath made a Covenant with him I will offer you three things on which I lay the greatest weight my self 1. That Mark that Mr. Baxter hath often come over a habitual preferring of Christs Interests to the interests of the Flesh that is indeed a great Mark that God hath made a Covenant with thee when Christs Interests are habitually preferred to all the Interests of the flesh To clear this Mark ye would notice three things 1. When God enters in a Covenant with a person they take up Sin as an Enemy they hate it as an Enemy they have entered in a League with the contrary Party they take up Sin especially presumptuous sin as an Enemy and accordingly they deal with it they hate it they eschew the company that may bring Temptations to it for they have entered in a League with its greatest Enemy even with Christ shortly after Paul is a Convert he is at O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death He was angry at the very being of sin and could not suffer the smell of it what ever the Sin be not only presumptuous and gross Sins and neglects of Duty if thou has entered in a Covenant with God thou has broken the Covenant with death and hell and if thou has no kindness looking to that Art thou has great ground to say the Lord has made a Covenant with me they take up sin as an Enemy and deal with it so 2ly In reference to this the Soul goes unitedly against it as an Enemy the understanding is at I should leave such a Sin the Conscience is at I will leave such a Sin the Will and Affections are at Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity for I have keeped the Commandments of my God they turn it out of doors if there be a taking it up as an Enemy and dealing with it so and the Understanding Will Conscience and affections uniting against it as an Enemy thou may be sure to say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant the Bargain must be driven by both Parties but if thou be
my salvation c. Haying cleared the words to you I will take two Observations and shall be but briefon the first that I may come to the second Observ 1. That Believers have in their straits and especially at their death the hope of salvation for their encouragement Observe 2. That all the ground of their hope is that God hath inade with them an everlasting Covenant c. It 's founded on the Covenant of Greace and on their personal and proper interest in it these two ly natively in the words and hearken to them if ye would have some of the greatest things of greatest concernment cleared unto you Doct. For the first That believers have the hope of salvation as an encouragement in their greatest affliction but especially at death David is at his last words as the beginning of the Chapter tells us this many proofs ye have in Scripture of this as Gen. 49.18 Jacob is making his Testament and tells his Children what will befall them and what I Legacy he leaves them and in the midst of it he puts in something for himself Lord saith he I have waited for thy salvation he takes this portion to himself and encourages himself with it it were needless to prove this that blievers have in their straits and at death the hope of salvation to encourage them with the Martyrs have washen their hands in the flames and counted them Beds of Roses because of the hope of salvation some of the Martvrs have told their neighbours let us walk a while in the fire and in the twinkling of an eye we will be at our Fathers house When they were weeping over Master Ridley in his house do not weep for me saith he for I shall have a sharp Dinner but I shall have a good Supper Quest 1. Before I apply it I would inquire a little in the Doctrinal part how it is or when it is that the hope of salvation proves so great an encouragement in straits and at death to Believers Whence is it that it proves so supporting Answ For opening this to you a little ye would notice these four or five remarkable things First the back that bears affliction is patience now the hope of salvation strengthens patience 1 Thess 1.3 The Apostle joyns these three together Your work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father I deny not but there is in affliction a twofold patience there is as some call it a desperate patience men force themselves to be patient for many are at there is no hope for me in God we will walk after the imagination of our own hearts and there is a stupid and ignorant patience like the patience Nabal had in his drunkenness O so couragiously as he speaks to David's Messenger 1 Sam. 25.10 Who is David or who is the son of Jesse There be many Servants now a days that break from their Masters Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be And vers 37. when Abigail his Wife had told him after he had been drunk what was David's purpose his heart grew stupid or his heart died within him Many have such patience that wears off when the stupidity wears off but none of these are the pathence of hope so long as hope lasts patience lasts and it 's easie to go through affliction and hope put betwixt the Lord and it 2. It 's an encouragement in regard it not only helps its patience but it influences joy we rejoyce in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh experience and experience patience and patience hope and hope maketh not ashamed It 's observed by some Divines that there are two Graces that hath a special influence on a Believers joy Faith and Hope 1 Pet. 1.18 After ye believed ye rejoyced with joy unspeakable and full of glory The reason why these two Graces influences a Believers joy is Faith assures what Christ hath done and Hope assures what he will do now lay these two together the assurance of what Christ hath done and will do is it any wonder that there be a great deal of chearfulness in tribulation Faith hath anfluence on our joy and so upon our hope and he that goes through the valley of the shadow of death and the heart filled with chearfulness and joy is it any wonder that he be encouraged and be not damped with affliction 2. This hope of salvation is a great encouragement in regard it fills the heart with an earnest longing after salvation suppose it be in the case of death none longs more for Heaven than those that have assurance of it It 's a remarkable word ye have Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body for we are saved by hope Mark here they that have received the first fruits of the Spirit should be longing now we groan why groan we We long for glory the forecasts they have gotten of glory are appetizing and makes them long yea groan for it The persons that have no rational hope of glory are indifferent about it when the Lord trysts with affliction that threatens death he that hath the hope of glory knows he is near the thing that he hath been groaning for no wonder it prove a special encouragement in regard it 's an answer of the groaning that they that have had the first fruits of the Spirit have been groaning for 4. This hope of salvation cannot but be a special encouragement in affliction and at denth because this hope of salvation influences contempt of the world there is nothing will make the world more despicable in ones eyes than the lively hope of Heaven it 's rremarkable that is spoken of Abraham Heb. 11. 9. By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange land and what moved him to sojourn in this land v. 10. For he looked for a city that had foundations whose builder and maker was God Could not Abraham be content with Canaan it was a pleasant land a land that flowed with milk and honey But the thing that made him look upon this land as a thing not much to be prised he looked for a city that had foundations whose builder and maker was God the hope he had of Heaven made him think little of Canaan Ordinarily an earthly man hath nothing if ye take the world from him to counter-ballance the loss of it with but take Canaan from Abraham it will not much trouble him for he looked for a City c. And this is a great encouragement under any tribulation when we can get an heart to contemn the world for it is that Pitch that sticks to our fingers that makes either
afflictions or death so grievous but where a person hath gotten the hope of salvation he looks on the world as Abraham looked on Canaan he looked on it as a strange Land and looked for a City that had foundations c. 5. The hope of salvation proves a great encouragement in regard of Hope especially when the Soul comes to the full affurance of Hope it hath assurance of these three things 1. It assures the salva ion to be certain for hope grounding it self on Faith hath apprehended its object for Faith and Hope have the same object but diversly considered Hope brings in Assurance of the certainty of the object so where the Soul comes to a lively hope of salvation it 's sure 2. Hope brings Assurance that the object is transcendent that the salvation looked for will counter-ballance all the afflictions of time The light afflictions of this present world saith Paul are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed and what a special Cordial is this in affliction and at death 3. Hope discovers the subserviency of afficton to Glory through much affliction we must enter into Glory It may be said of every Christian as Christ said to the two Disciples going to Emmaus Ought not he to suffer these things Now when one comes to be lively in the hope of salvation it not only assures this is a rock a resting place but it assures that all our afflictions will be swallowed up in that Now lay all these together the influence that the hope of salvation hath on patience and joy and groaning after glory and contempt of the world and that it hath in it the assurance both of the glory to come and the transcendency of the glory and the subserviency of affliction to that glory I say lay them all together and I hope ye are convinced that the hope of salvation is a special Cordial though ye were under the greatest affliction and even at your last words Quest 2. The second Question I shall clear what is this hope of salvation that is so great a Cordial in affliction and at death It 's true we have no express definition of Hope in our Catechism many think it 's included in the description of Faith it being an act whereby we rely on God for the good promised and not yet accomplished differing only from Faith in that that the object of Faith is present and the object of Hope is future but that ye may know what this hope of salvation is I will describe it thus It 's a supernatural grace wrought by God in the heart of a believer whereby he expects and wairs for from God the good of the promise not yet accomplished It 's a supernatural grace grace cannot be the hope of salvation in a natural heart there cannot be a lively hope in a natural heart nay Heathens cannot have this lively hope they have had some hope of resemblance since the Fall their hope is like an old Tower that is all fallen and ruinous ye find some pieces of the Wall standing which tells there was once a stately House there but now there is nothing but a bit of an old Wall so the hope of the natural heart that remains since the Fall is but a bit of a decayed Tower it 's not an house wherein a man can shelter himself from challenges from rain storm and terrors it 's a supernatural grace and Heathens they can have no hope of salvation but some relicts of the old Wall that says once there was a House there Next it is a supernatural grace wrought by God all the Angels and Ministers could not work this grace of hope therefore if ye find a person tending to despair all the Ministers ye can bring to them cannot bring them to his hope of salvation till God work it 3. It 's a supernatural grace wrought in the heart of a Believer the person must be first a Believer before he can have the hope of salvation 4. The object of it is some good not yet accomplished for hope that is seen is no hope so if ye would see what this hope of salvation is that is so great encouragement in affliction and at death it 's a supernatural grace wrought by God in the heart of a believer Quest 3. There is only one practical Question to make way for the application that I shall clear and it 's this Have all believers this hope of salvation in their end to encourage them with David had it indeed but have all believers and all that are in Covenant with God have they this hope of salvation The rather this difficulty is to be noticed in regard 1. The Lord sometimes will bring some to their last words very despondent full of fears there are many their first assurance hath been the setting their foot on the Shore and many have gone in to glory and the tear in their eye with the fear of the pit have they all then this hope of salvation to be their encouragement at their last words Answ I will Answer this in these three or four particulars 1. All believers have grounds of the hope of Salvation they are all within the Covenant they have the purpose of God the promise of God and the purchase of Christ it 's true their Evidences may be out of sight and so dark that they cannot read them in the night and readily the tear may be in their eye and they cannot see to read their Evidences yet generally all the Elect and Believedrs they have as leamed men observe this hope of Salvation either in promisso in decreto or in semine they have a ground to hope for Salvation and ye must distinguish betwixt these two the actual hope and the ground of hope it 's true the very unbelievers and ungodly men have a possibility of hope which is a great mercy there is hope for a living man the Devils and Apostat Angels would buy this possibility of hope at a dear rate but they are excluded from a possibility of hope but the Elect they have a possibility of hope either in promisso in decreto or in semine they have the actual ground of hope though readily the exercise of their hope be slow 2. Though God deny to some the assurance of hope yet ordinarily he gives the full assurance of it then it 's a Question among Divinges what is the reason that many that have gone doubting all their days that when they have come to die have had more peace more joy more clearness than before They Answer that God who is the Steward of our peace and of our joy keeps it till then and then he letteth it out And 2. They whom God denyes the full assurance of hope they will be content of bare marks at death and under affliction they would not be content of it another time and the marks they rejected when they were well they are forced to take them then And 3.
thee to walk like thy hope in the strain and height of thy way why art thou not more spiritual in thy converse in the world O! how strange is it for me to profess I take communion with God for my chief happiness and hopes for an eternity of it and yet can be content with so little of him here if thou hope to have an eternal communion with him can thou be content to hear a Sermon without communion with him can thou go to a Corner and be content without communion with him when thou walks contrair to this thou walks not suitable to thy hope if thou have the hope of Salavation thy secret converse with God and when thou comes to have publick Ordinances they will all keep up a suitableness to thy hope otherwise thy hope is false 3. If thou would walk like thy hope manifest it in thy contempt of the world the hope of Glory ought to fill thy heart with contempt of the World I suppose any saw a man that had a great estate and had many Farms coming in and a great many fields of Corn if ye saw him gatering heads of Corn after the Reapers among the Beggers would ye not undervalue his Spirit and think he walked very unsuitable to what God had given him The truth is when Believers are vexed and intangled with the world constantly having their Joy and their Sorrow Ebbing and Flowing as the World Ebbs and Flows with them they walk not like their hope of Heaven I like the Observation of a great Man he says in all the Bible it 's never found that a truly godly man was covetous and is it not a strange thing that now it should be the notted sin-of Professors they were guilty of many gross sins but they were never guilty of that and they that have the hope of Salvation expecting to wear a Crown and to see him as he is and to carry Palms in their hands and does not manifest their contempt of the World they are like a man having a great Estate and yet found among the Beggers gathering after the Reapers 4. If ye would walk suitable to your hope then ye would manifest it in affliction and death thus David did here the last words of the Son of Jesse I have read it in the Turks History they say a Christian cannot be serions in believing that there is such Joys after Death as the Christians profess the reason is say they they are so unwilling to die great fears of death evidences small hopes of Heaven 5. If ye would walk suitable to your hope it would be manifested in your care to get these hopes Why do we press you to imbrace the Covenant and hearken unto the offers of Salvation but that ye may come to have that hope of Salvation ye look for I exhort you in the second place to labour to strengthen your hope Wherefore the rather brethren we exhort you to give all diligence to the full assurance of hope rest not upon a general of hope unless ye get the full assurance of it I will not say the want of assurance of Heaven is a sin but the want of diligence to get assurance is a sin God may delay assurance of Heaven for Tryal or for Chastisement Quest Ye may ask How shall we come by the strengthning of our hope Ans I will offer you three Rules to strengthen your hope and I beseech you to ponder them 1. Christian if thou would have strong hope of Heaven labour to get a strong love to Christ the thing that shakes our hope to Heaven is Fear and perfect Love casts out Fear 2. I exhort thee to be frequent in exercising thy hope of Heaven ordinarily any thing gathers a habit by oft acting it ought it not to be fear that should be putting a person to abstain from sin or to be comforted against the difficulties of the time If a Christian meet with Temptations to Sin if he be under fear of Hell for it I will go to Hell if I do this it is not the way to strengthen hope but when we are encouraged under difficulties from the hope of Glory that in a little we will be above difficulties it is the ready way to strengthen hope 3. If ye would have your hope of Heaven strengthned and made sure observe your experiences ye have of God Rom. 5.4 Patience worketh experience and experience hope and hope makes not ashamed it 's true the great ground of our hope ye will find it in the Covenant therefore observe well your experiences ye have of God and of his Word I would give to Christians three Rules in their observing experiences of God 1. Know that one may have experience of God and not know that they have it in the time they have it there may be a real experience of God a gracious experience and yet in the time a person hath it they may not know they have it let but any take the discourse betwixt Christ and the two Disciples going to Emmaus all the time that Christ is with them they know him not and they speak out much unbelief We thought this should have been he which should have redeemed Israel and on the matter they said they are beguiled and yet after he is away they said Did not our heart burn within us They observed not the burning of the heart in the time but after he is away their heart burns Many have sweet experiences of Christ that think not much of them in the time but after they are away they would give their hearts blood to have them again there may be a very real experience of God given and yet in the mean time not take it for a gracious experience 2. I would have the Christian know to keep up their hope by experiences of God that experiences will sometimes be altogether out of sight so that thou can neither see them in the time nor after they are gone I like the advice I have sometimes given a Christian in that case in keeping up his hope of Heaven is not to cast away hope when all experiences are out of sight but there are two things to keep up hope when experiences are cut of sight 1. Take up shelter under the absolute Promises ay when we are dung from our Evidences and Marks we should not sit down and despair but go to the absolute Promises such as I will take away the heart of stone I will sprinkle clean water upon them c. And there may be hope there 2. When experiences are away it 's a Christians duty to seek a new Extract of them again like a man that hath payed some Debt and he hath gotten a Discharge of it but he hath lost it and he is charged for the Sum again and he goes to the Register and takes out a new Extract So thou art not to cast away all hope but to go to him for a new Experience and readily that will be an Extract
nakedness so the Covenant of Grace running in this strain we must be altogether free from having any accession to it there is none of us but we may say although my house be not so with GOd when he enters in Covenant with us For further clearing of this it will appear in these three or four Particulars 1. Take a view of the persons he takes in Covenant with him when first he meets with them they are sometimes simpler than other and sometime baser than others it 's not many Wife not many Noble but God hath chosen the foolish things to confound the wife several times when he begins first to take them into Covenant they are in regard of outward priviledges inferior to others was not Esau Jacob's Brother and the elder Brother they had the same Father and the same Mother and any thing that might be a difference Esau had it yet Jacoh have I loved and Esau have I hated the persons he takes in Covenant evidence it to be a Covenant of Grace and free favour sometime they are the simplest sometime the lowest sometime among the grossest of sinners what was Paul what was Mary Magdalen 2. It evidences the Covenant to be of meer Grace in regard of us in that the Lord keeps different ways with them he takes in Covenant after he takes them in and yet he does them no wrong there are some he will call at the third hour some at the sixth hour some at the tenth some at the eleventh he will give as much to them he calls at the tenth Hour as to them he calls at the third he will give as much Glory and as much Honour and when he hath done that he can tell Friend I have done thee no wrong I may do with my own what I will there may be one called in at the gates of Death that may have as much nay a greater gale of sweetness than the old standing Christians ever had it 's remarkable the good Thief on the Cross never man exceeded him in a gale of sweetness yet he searce had it one hour he had it out of Christ's own mouth this night thou shalt be with me in Paradise scarce any exceeded him in a flush of love he tells the ill Thief we are justly here says he but this man what hath he done and yet he came in at the eleventh hour So it evidences it 's of Grace absolutely in regard he will call what person he will in and dispense to them as he pleases when they come in tho they come in at the eleventh hour yet he will give them possibly a Feast that they that come in at the third hour get not 3. It evidences it in regard of us to be of Grace in that the dispensations of the Covenant they are not only communicat to what person and in what measure he pleases but in the third place their Dispensations are limited by no Law either as to Time or Place or Duration or Continuance under the Covenant of grace we cannot telll when we will have communion with God nor how long we will keep it it will sometimes come before we be aware and it will go before we be aware the Design of it is to prove that the dispensations of the Covenant of grace depends on the Will and good Pleasure of him that gave them of take a Believer at his fullest the Covenant is the enjoyment of it is proven to be of Grace in regard the thing given we can have no hand in it and it goes and readily he is no finful cause of it so these are clear evidences that the Covenant is of meer Grace This be the first ground on which I go to prove the Covenant to be of Grace The second is that on Gods part all he does proves it to be of Grace might he not have said that which is filthy let it be filty still that which is dying let it die after Man had fallen but he took another way The Grounds on which the-Covenant stands and the foundations Divines make are three and all the three are to be found in him the first is his Love the second is his Christ the third his Mercy these three are the foundations on which the Covenant stands and they all prove it to be of free Grace 1. There is his Love it 's so much the sweether that love is at the bottom of it if the Father give a Jewel to his Son but if he give it with a frown or a token of anger it would not be so much as if he had given him a Farthing with all the Testimonies of his Heart-love but here we have a Jewed and we have it with no frown it 's remarkable Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because ye were moe in number than any people verse 8. But because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers Now heard ye ever such a because as this I have loved you because I have loved you What Logick would this appear to Aristotle would they not call it an Identick but this holds well in the point of the Covenant I have loved you because I have loved you so that there is the first rise of the Covenant it 's love and if ye say what was the rise of the Love was it Beauty was it Service Merit or Price no it was Love I have loved you because I loved you 2. The great foundation of the Covenant is his Christ therefore the Covenant is called the sure mercies of David now David was dead long before Isaiah's time It shall come to pass says he in the latter days that David my servant shal be their King David was dead but there were two Davids and like the second Temple the glory of the latter Temple was greater than the first now the sure mercies of David are the sure mercies of the Covenant which are called so because they are sounded on Christ whose Type David was and he a Branch sprung out of the root of Jesse 3. The Covenant is founded on his Mercy that ye may distinguish from his love Mercy supposes misery the proper object of Mercy is misery we may rather call the ground of the Covenant Pity I had pity on them for my own names sake it 's not love that inclines some to be favourable to them that are in misery but pity the same was at the root of the Covenant he saw many to be created and born and knew they would eternally ruine and out of pity he entered into this Covenant For further clearing and confirming of this point that the Covenant is absolutely of Grace and free Favour I would have you take a view of the Blessings of the Covenant the conditions of the Conenant and thirdly of the end and design of the Covenant and all these three will evidence it to be a Covenant of Grace 1. Take a view of
least failing nor the least idle word but we might sit down and conclude it will eternally cast me in hell for I am under a Covenant that binds me to damnation for the least tailing but the nature of the Covenant is altered and if ye would take up the Covenant of Grace aright labour to understand the difference betwixt the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works that thou may not go ay judging thy case as if the nature of the Covenant were not changed but as if thou were under thet Covenant which is impossible for thee to obey 2ly Not only understand the differences betwixt these two Covenants but exaine these four things that I have often mentioned the principle from which it flows and that is Love and Grace the prive that was given for it that is the Blood of his Son the great contents of it ye have often heard that it 's impossible for him to speak with reverence to promise greater things than he hath done in the Covenant he hath promised Himself and his Son and 4ly consider the end of it and that is for the Glory of his Grace the end of it is that ye may exalt his Grace and so if ye would take up the Covenant a right do not only state it in competition with the Covenant of Works but consider it in these four that are last mentioned In the second place I exhort thee to improve it as the Covenant of Grace I shall first shew you who are they that do not improve And 2ly Give some directions how to improve it as a Covenant of Grace There are three or four sorts of persons that do not improve it as a Covenant of Grace I. However we hold in disput on this head preparatory Works to be in Gods ordinary way antecedent and introductory to conversion yet we determine not the degrees of preparatory humiliation no there is some times the Lord opens the heart of a Lydia and we read nothing of his Low Work before some may reason my work is not of effectual calling why I had never the legal humiliation that some hath but what if he let out thy Byll with a Prin and take a Sword to others What if he carry on thy work of humiliation with thee in the progress of Sanctification What if thy Legal Terrours be before thee that some have had in the beginning of their work He is an absolute Lord that hath the oversight of this thou that will sit and question all thy foundation marks O! I was not humbled the preparatory works was not with me as with others however we maintain preparatory works against Antinomians that deny them utterly they say to what purpose are they We maintain a necessity of them in so far as the Lord bring the work of conversion after them as necessarily as the Threed must follow the Needle But 2ly They do not rightly improve this Covenant hat would make up a hatchpotch betwixt the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace readily there are some they would lay some stress on Mercy and Grace providing they had some works to mingle in with their Grace I formerly hinted at it it 's impossible to be under both Covenants and thou that would make up a hatchpoton of these Covenants in order to thy Justification thou art taking a way to mingle both together and they will never wall well 3ly They rightly improve not this Covenant of Grace that ordinarily reject the offers as either being too far above them or too far below them several Believers when they are called by the Gospel to come in to the Banqueting-house they would be at some merit or price of their own before they can treat with Jesus about their pardon and their peace these take not up the Covenant as a Covenant of Grace and are not improving it as such Therefore I will offer four Directions especially relating to four practical cases wherein Believers ought to improve the Covenant as a Covenant of Grace 1. When under the sense of unworthiness O! such a silly heart as I have and what can I do with it Shall I go to God with it Wilt thou take up the Covenant as a Covenant of Grace I have several times advised you to do with Christ as the Father did with him the Father in the Covenant of Redemption forgave him not one farthing he payed it to the utmost for he knew he was abundantly able therefore he took pleasure to bruise him therefore he required all that he had promised and on the terms promised so if he hath bidden thee come and get the change of an unworthy heart and told thee that unworthiness is an argument of pity do not sit down in the Lond of Famine as Jacob's Children were ready to do in the Land of Canaan even when Joseph hath the Command of all the Store in Egypt and if thou should go down with money in thy hand to buy victuals he will send thee home and the money in thy sacks mouth 2ly It 's an ordinary case when we come under challenges to say there is no hope for me in God what will ye say of Pardon hath he not promised Pardon But say they will he pardon the like of me Will he not pardon the like of thee He hath pardoned as great sinners What made him pardon David Abraham Manasseh Paul but Grace And that same Sun that shined in their days shines now in our days and that same Grace that was then is to the fore yet 3ly Improve it when thou goes to God with any Petition though it be some great thing may be thy heart is broken under the Desolations of the Church of God the grace of the Covenant may be a great encouragement to thee in that case though thou think O! such an undeserving thing as I am and what can Grace do but cast me off But thou may go considently to him if it be for thy self if for thy friend in distress if for the Church of God and though thou have no other argument thou may press the Grace of the Covenant Lastly improve this Grace in the judging of Fundamental Priviledges and in the building of thy hopes of eternal ones First Thy Adoption comes to be a Question what An I adopted to be a Son of God A poor thing But what could that hinder the Grace of the Covenant if Grace thought fit to call thee to that Priviledge These that are ready to think on such great things what is in my walk Shall I enjoy God for all eternity How can it be expected that I shall enjoy him But Grace is the great ground of all our hopes to be brief learn to take up this Covenant as a Covenant of Grace and to deal with himself according to it there are none of you but in a little while ye will be at the gates of death and this will be the great ground of your encouragement Vse 4. The last Use