whether such a preservation deserve lesse at Your hands than to give Your selves to your Great Deliverer for so Great a Deliverance whereby three Nations destinated at once to Death received no lesse than a joyfull resurrection from the Dead and were again born at once Therefore let not this Great mercy seeme small in Your eyes And remember too that you may have as much need of God another time nay you know not what need you may have of him this present Parliament You cannot be ignorant of the many murmures and more than whisperings of some desperate and devilish conception suspected to be now in the womb of the Jesuiticall faction And how neere it may be to the birth or how prodigious it may prove being born I take not upon me to divine but this we are all sure of that what ever it be which they are big withall it shall not want the least graine of the utmost extremitie of malice and mischiefe that all the wit power and industry of Hell it self can contribute unto it and that they labour as a woman in travaile to be speedily delivered of it What dangers and what cause of feare there may be at the present I leave to your Wisdome to consider But this be confident of if Deliverances already received can prevaile with you for a Covenant that Covenant will be your securitie for it will certainly engage all the power and wisdome of the Great and only wise God of heaven and earth to be on your side for ever So that if God himself have power enough wisdome enough and care enough you cannot miscarry no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper no plot no gates of hell shall prevaile against you And if he have goodnesse enough mercy enough bowels enow in him he will then also raine down aboundance of trueth righteousnesse justice peace and plentie upon all Corners of the Land from whence and on whose errand You are now come together Therefore it becomes you above all others to be first in a Covenant 2. Consider that till we do this there cannot be such a full enjoying of God as otherwise there might be Indeed the perfect fruition of God is not to be expected till we come to heaven but yet we might have much more of God even in this life than now we have could we be perswaded to such a Covenant with him Whatsoever experience we have of him now in any deliverance bestowed it would be doubled if upon the deliverance received we would thus be joyned to him Nor is this a notion or conceit only but a reall trueth For marke what He saith to his people Hos. 2. vers. 19 20. I will marry thee unto me for ever I will betroath thee unto me in righteousnesse and in Iudgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will even marry thee unto me in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord He that enters into Covenant with God is betroathed yea even married to him And how married even to the partaking of all his goods of all he hath yea of himself and of all that he is As the wife may say Vbi tu Caius ego Caia and as Laban sometimes of Iacobs wives children and cattell These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and these cattell are my cattell and all that thou seest are mine So a man once married to the Lord by Covenant may without arrogancy say this righteousnesse is my righteousnesse this judgement is my judgement this loving kindnesse these mercies this faithfulnesse which I see in thee and all that thou hast is mine for my comfort supply support direction salvation and what not And take notice of that phrase Thou shalt know the Lord Did they not know him before Yes but never in such a manner with such a Knowledge at least in such a measure They shall now know him in such neere familiar sweet and ineffable expressions of his deerest deepest choycest conjugal love as they never tasted nor could taste of before We know how it is with a wife married to a loving husband They loved one another before marriage and many expressions of a speciall love passed betweene them but they never enjoyed one another fully till the marriage was solemnized Then there is not only a more intimate manifestation of fervent intire loyall chaste love but a further enlarging and stretching out of mutuall affections to each other than they could possibly have beleeved they should ever have reached unto till now experience assure them of it And even thus it is between us and God Is he Good in deliverances have we tasted of his love already Oh how great would his goodnesse be how full of grace mercy bountie and how would he communicate even whole rivers of all these to that Soule that would once come up to him and close with him in an everlasting Covenant All the wayes of the Lord are mercy and trueth unto such as make and keep Covenant with him Psal. 25. 10. 3. Consider that what ever worke God calls You to Yee will never buckle thoroughly to it till you have entred into Covenant with him An apprentise boy when he goes to a Master upon tryall onely his minde is now on then off againe sometimes he could like the trade by and by his minde hangs after his Mother at home or after some other course of life and he never sets close to his businesse till he be bound When once the Indentures be sealed and he enrolled he knowes there is now no more time to deliberate but he must fall to his busines or else take what happens for his idlenesse and negligence So is it with a wife if she be but onely promised or betroathed to a man she may come to his house and cast an eye up and downe but it is rather to observe than to act she may perhaps cast out a word now and then somewhat freely also but she never sets her selfe to guide the house or to doe any thing to purpose till she be married then she careth for the things of the world that is with all possible diligence looking to and managing of the businesse of the family committed to her how she may please her husband all her thoughts care diligence run this way she makes it her businesse that she must stick unto and daily manage as a part of the marriage Covenant And thus also it will be with you You have much worke under your hands and are likely to have more and I hope you desire to doe all in truth of heart for God and not for ends of your owne but let me tell you this will never be done throughly till once you be marryed to him by solemne Covenant Then will you care indeed for the things of the Lord how you may please the Lord in every cause in every Answer to any Petition and in every Vote of any Bill or sentence You would then think
then a fit season to do somewhat to confesse their sins to humble themselves and to seek God In their affliction they will seek me early saith the Lord But so soone as he takes his hand off from them they cast all care away as if now according to that homely proverb the devill were dead and no further use of any feare or diligence were to be once thought upon till with Pharaoh they come under a worse plague than before and as if God had delivered them to no other end but to live as they list to cast more dung into his face and to dishonour and provoke him yet more than ever before I appeale to the consciences of many who heare me this day and I require them from the Lord to witnesse truly whether it be not even thus with them If the plague knock at their doore if death get in at the window and begin to shake them by the hand there is then some apprehension of wrath and judgement some humbling some hankering after God Then Oh what would not these men do what would not they promise on condition to be delivered from their present anguish and feares But once deliver them and God shall heare no more of them till they be in the same or worse case again They turne Covenanters Nay leave that to the Puritans For their parts they think more of a Covenant with death and hell for God is in not in all their thoughts Had there been upon the discovery of the Powder-Treason which this Honourable Assembly hath cause above all others to preserve eternally in fresh remembrance and to think more seriously what God looks for at all your hands upon such a deliverance had there been I say no possibilitie of escaping that Blow what would not men have then done Oh what prayers what fasting what humiliation should we have seene But when the snare was once broken what followed A Covenant with God Nothing lesse for so soone as ever the danger the feare the amazement at such an hellish project and the neere approach to the execution of it was a little over the Traitors themselves fell not deeper into the pit of destruction which themselves had digged than generally all sorts of men did into the gulfe of their old sins as if they owed more to Hell than to Heaven for so great a deliverance And is it better now Where is the Covenant such a Covenant with God that so wonderfull a deliverance deserveth and requireth These men may please themselves and feed sweetly upon a vain dreame that there is no harme in all this but the Apostle brings them in a sad reckoning after a sharp chiding for it Rom. 2. 4 5. What saith he Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance The end of all Gods goodnesse in forbearing advancing and giving thee prosperitie and of his long suffering in sparing thee when thou hast abused prosperitie and of all his mercy in delivering thee out of adversitie is to lead thee to repentance to draw thee neerer to Himself even in an everlasting Covenant And if it have not this effect on thee the Apostle hath said it and the God of Heaven will make it good that thou despisest the riches of his goodnesse c. Thou tramplest all mercies under thine impure feet when they do not raise and scrue thee up so neere to thy God as to enter a solemne Covenant with them And what then Thou wilt not stay there but fall into more sinne and under greater judgement and after thy hardnesse and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy selfe wrath that is more and more wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God This is the end of all who make not the Goodnesse of God a prevailing motive thus to joyne themselves to the Lord they fall into moe and greater sinnes and abominations and so adde daily to that great heape and to those Sea 's of divine wrath that hang over their heads to overwhelme and confound them for ever 2. Others if after some time of lying under the weight of many pressures of the Church and State they arrive at some hopes and opportunities of easing themselves of those burdens and of freeing the Land of the great Instruments of all their evils they conceit strongly that if this be done all is done If but some of the Nimrods who have invaded their Laws and Liberties be pulled down Which is an act of Justice how do the Many who do nothing towards any Reformation of themselves rejoyce and promise to themselves great matters Now think they there will be an end of all our miseries and we shall see golden dayes Iudgement shall run down like waters and righteousnesse like a mightie streame Oh Brethren deceive not your selves If this be all you look at if upon opening this doore of hope this be all you ayme at to make use of the time to secure your selves against oppressors and never thinke of closing with God or but thinke of it you may perhaps goe farre in pursuit of your owne designes in providing against the evils you sigh under and this Parliament may do great things this way But let me tell you from God that this will never do the deed till the Covenant we have been all this while speaking of be resolved on and solemnly entred into by all those that expect any blessing from that High Assembly Nor this nor all the Parliaments in the world shall ever be able to make us happy in such a degree at least as we expect till the Lord hath even glewed and marryed us all unto himself by mutuall Covenant It is not only the making of good Lawes to remove our present grievances no nor the cutting down of all the evil Instruments in our State or Church at one blow that can secure us against the like yea worse evils for the future but rather as one wave follows another so one mischiefe will still tread on the heeles of another and greater plagues will ever crowd in after the former till we close with God by such a solemne Covenant The people of Palestine or Philistia made themselves marvellous merry when any of the Governours or Kings of Israel or Iudah such as Sampson David Vzziah c. that had sorely yoked and hampered them were removed by death and others come in the roome that could do but little against them When such an one as Ahaz who never wonne battaile of them but still went by the worse swayed the Scepter oh how joyfull were the Philistines But marke what a damp God cast in among them in the midst of all their mirth Rejoyce not thou whole Palestina because the rod of him that smote thee is broken that Vzziah and other Potent and successefull Kings are taken away and weake unhappy Ahaz come in the roome for out
saith the Lord have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them If God be as a wayfaring man sometimes with a people more often gone from them sometimes blessing sometimes crossing them and suffering them to fall under heavy pressures and never keeps an even and setled station or course of proceeding with them it is but that he hath learnt from themselves as I may so speake they will be their own men they will not be tyed to him so strictly they will have some libertie for their lusts for the world for the devill for any thing and loe here is the fruit of it God will not be bound to nor walke with them he will not draw out that strength that goodnesse that compassion which might deliver them from the evils they howle under He will neither heare them nor any body else for them not Ieremy himself vers. 11. not Noah Daniel and Iob Ezek. 14. Nothing therefore but a more solemne and strict Covenant with God will put us into a posture and condition capable of perfect redresse of our grievances how faire so ever either now or hereafter we may seeme to be for it This is the second use Thirdly suffer I beseech you a few words of Exhortation The returning Iewes you see call upon all their Nation to enter into Covenant Give me leave then to call upon You the Representative Body of this whole Kingdome who stand here before the Lord this day to humble your soules and let me also prevaile with you all to joyne your selves even this day to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten Make this day a day in deed a day of Covenanting with God and God shall Covenant with you and make it the beginning of more happines than ever you yet enjoyed Beloved mistake me not my meaning extends not to engage you in any Civill Covenant and Bond for defence of your Municipall Lawes and Liberties No doubt you will be able to find meanes enow by the blessing of God to setle those things in a legall way especially if you be carefull to Covenant with God Much lesse is it my purpose to draw you into that late Ecclesiasticall Oath and Covenant enjoyned by the late Canon which in my apprehension is little lesse than a Combination and Conspiracy against both King and State My businesse is meerly to perswade you into a Religious Covenant with God as himselfe hath prescribed and commanded and his people in the best times of Reformation have readily admitted namely every man to stirre up himself to lift up his Soule to take hold of God to be glued and united to him in all faithfulnesse sincerity care and diligence to be onely his for ever This if we doe we need not care much for other Covenants God will provide for that and make a league for us even with the beasts of the field and with the stones of the street he will make our Exactors peace and our Officers righteousnesse violence shall no more be heard in the Land nor wasting nor destruction within our borders our very walls shall be salvation and our Gates praise He will be a God of Covenants and take care for our estates Lawes liberties lives children and all that belong to us when once this is done Therfore I beseech you yea I require you in the name of the God of heaven whose you are whom you serve before whom you stand and from whom you expect salvation in the midst of the Earth as well as in heaven that you forthwith enter into this bond Expect no assistance no successe in any of your Consultations in any Lawes that you agree upon till you have fully brought your hearts to this point to follow the Lord fully to be no more for your selves than you would have the dearest wife of your bosome to be for any other man in the world but to be wholly for the Lord to imploy and improve all your wit abilities industry Counsells actions estate honour and lives to promote his service and honour what ever become of your selves and yours for doing of it Say not as some Jeerers of whom it is hard to judge whether their malice or ignorance be the greater doe that there needes no more Covenants than what we made in Baptisme and that all other Covenants savour strongly of faction and the Puritan Leaven For so Gods people of old made a Covenant by Circumcision and after by Sacrifice that is in every sacrifice which they offered they did renew their Covenant begun in Circumcision Neverthelesse God thought it necessary often to call them out to strike another solemn Covenant with him besides the former You have already heard that so soone as the Israelites were gone out of Egypt entred a little way in the wildernesse he put them upon a Covenant When he brought them neer to Canaan he required another solemne Covenant of them And when Ioshuah had brought them into Canaan and divided to each of them the lot of his inheritance he drew them into another solemne Covenant Iosh. 24. So that here was Covenant upon Covenant and yet can no man without blasphemy charge it with any Puritan humour faction or any thing superfluous or uncomely for the Greatest on earth to submit unto That I may a little more enforce this duty and quicken you to the imbracing of it give me leave to present you with some Motives further to presse you to it and with some few Directions to guide you in it 1. For Motives Consider 1. how many great admirable and even miraculous deliverances God hath given us What great things he hath done for us No Nation under heaven can say more to his praise in this kind than we have cause to do Our Great deliverances out of Babylon from the Spanish Invasion from the Gun-powder Treason and from many other evils and feares do all call upon you for a Covenant Yea even the present Mercy and Opportunitie of opening that Ancient Regular and Approved Way of cure of those publique evils that threaten confusion and desolation to all pleades hard for the same dutie But among all these I desire You of that Great and honourable Body of the Parliament to reflect sadly upon that Stupendious Deliverance from the Gun-powder Treason which more especially and immediately was bent against You. For albeit the ruine of the whole Kingdome was in their Eye who were the Cursed instruments of Antichrist and of the Devill his Father in that hellish Designe yet no blow could have come at us but through Your sides And albeit some of You that have the honour to be members of this present Parliament were then unborn yet had that Plot taken effect scarce any of You had been this day in being to have sate there now but had long since been covered and buryed under the ashes of confusion Thinke now