betwixt Christ and Believers it 's in effect the Contract and contains all the Articles of the Marriage 2. I will shew you on what grounds it comes to pass that this excellent Covenant establisheth this Marriage First That this Covenant drives at a Marriage it 's not a Covenant of Peace and War only or a Covenant of Traffique such as betwixt Kings and Subjects but it 's a Marriage-covenant The clearing of this will appear if ye notice two things that use to Constitute a Marriage and the Covenant established them both with Christ 1. There is an Union a Marriage Union 2. There is a Communion that flows from that Marriage Union these are the two things that effentially constitute a Marriage and by the Covenant both the two come to be established betwixt Christ and Believers First There is an Union I mean not an Union of Friendship or that is founded in the relation betwixt King and Subject or Master and Servant but it 's a Marriage Union there are two properties accompanying a Marriage Union First It 's the nearest Union Secondly It 's the strongest Union 1. The Union betwixt Christ and Believers is the nearest Union it 's remarkable it 's compared in Scripture to the Union betwix the root and the Branches the Head and the Body the Husband and the Wise they are so Unite that of all Unions it 's the nearest Christ speaking of these that were unite to him hath a strange word Mark 3. and alst verses For who ever shall do the will of my Father the same is my brother and sister and mother How can these consist together to be his brother hsi sister and mother But the meaning is they have the nearest tyes to him the nearest Union he is as near to me as if he were my brother my sister and mother 2. As it 's the nearest Union so it is the strongest the Marriage Union is of all Unions the strongest but this Union with Jesus Christ established by the Covenant it has something stronger than the ordinary Marriage Union For 1. An ordinary Marriage Union may be loosed by Adultery It 's not so in this Covenant Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet return tome back-ssiding children for I ma married to you 2. An ordinary Marriage Union may be dissolved by death Rom. 7.2 The woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband as long as he liveth but if her husband be dead she is loosed from the Law of her husband but neither Adultery nor Death can loose this Marriage Union so the Covenant establishes an Union with Jesus not meerly of Friendship Traffique and Commerce but it establishes a Conjugal and Marriage Union 2. This Covenant as it establishes a Marriage Union so it establishes a Marriage Fellowship the Fellowship and COmmunion grounded on this Union makes it a Marriage Fellowship Take a view of three or four things holden out in the Covenant in reference to the Fellowship and ye will find as there is the nearest Union and the strongest and so a Marriage union so there is a Marriage Fellowship 1. Take a view of the Converse that passes betwixt Christ and Bederers 2 Cor. 6.10 Ye are the temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in the and I will be their God and they shall be my people Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me Lay these expressions together I will be their God I will dwell in them I will walk with them and sup with them they look very like a Marriage Converse 2. No only doeth that converse prove this Marriage Fellowship but the Covenant holds out betwixt Christ and Believers a mutual Communication of Secrets not only will he walk in them dwell in them sup with them but he tells them all his Secrets Joh. 15.15 Henceforth I call you not servant for the srevant knoweth not what his Lord doeth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you On the other hand they put on him all their secrets All my complaints is before him and my groaning is not hid from him said David It 's remarkable there are many things we grcan for that we dare hardly tell any body what it is at the root of it All my complaint is before thee It wasa notable word Hannah had to Eli when she was mourning in the Temple and he supposed her to be drunk Put away from the thy wine says he My Lord saith she I am not drunk wiht wine but am a woman of a sorrowful spirit and I have poured out my complaint before the Lord. It 's a Metaphor taken from a Bottle that a man is pouring out until it be all poured our from the bottom and this is like a Marriage Fellowship indeed He is their God and they are his he walks in them and dwells in them and sups with them and he tells them all that he has heard of his Father and they pour out their complaint and their very groaning is not hid from him But 3. If ye take notice how the Covenant holds out their standing and falling together like married persons as the Woman marries the Man for good and ill the alteration of the Husbands lot from being strong to be sickly from being rich to become poor from being honourable to become despised it looses not the Marriage Union the Union is still bound The fellowship betwixt Christ and Believers is of this nature it 's like the Marriage of Married persons that if ever they be tender it 's when they are Married then their affections boyls most it 's so with Christ like a kindly Husband he is most tender of his married Wife It 's remarkable when Stephen was stoned he looked up and saw Jesus standing at the Fathers right hand the Father said to him Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool And Heb. 1.6 And when he brigeth in the first begotten into the world he saith let all the angels worship him but when any of them that he has Married is suffering he lets them see Jesus standing at his right hand and all the Angels of God stand and worship him Lastly If ye take a view of the delight they have of one another O the pleasure he had of converse with this peoply Pro. 8.30 Then I was by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight On the other hand what delight have they in him when they sit down under the shadow of the Apple-tree and goes with him into the Garden and into the Banouetinghouse and finds his fruit sweet to their taste So layall these together and ye will see the Covenant as it holds out a Trealy of Peace and War as it
of the Covenant of Grace and the first thing about it I resolved to notice was the names given it in Scripture it 's called a Testament Heb 7.22 He is Surety of a better Testament that is of a better Covenant I shewed you why it is called a Testament the Testator has left Legacies and he is dead and the Legacies are of great Importance I will insist no more on this only considering the Covenant as a Testament I will press these two things on you Vse First I would exhort you to get the Legacies that Christ had left in his Testament ye may readily ask how shall we come by these Legacies ye would hearken to a word of advice First understand what is left you I will tell you two things which the Testament bears it bears tokens and moveable things and it bears an inheritance his peace his joy his consolation are indeed moveable and very alterable things â—ut the Testament bears likewise an Heritage for the Law may be dispensed with in Christ the reason why Jurists will not admit of a dying person to dispose of inheritance at Death they suppose they will be roving and their sickness is distempering them but this cannot be supposed in Christ therefore his Testament bears first tokens and moveables and then an Inheritance now the way to know if the Testament bear you to the inheritance is First to know if the Testament bear you to the tokens and movables it bears you to his Pardon his Peace his Repentance and Grief for Sin they are moveables indeed But if ye be in the Testament for Such Moveables ye are likewise in the Testament for the Inheritance It 's Remarkable his Testament is not made up of Blessings only but also of Curses there are many curses contained in his Testament and some get no more in the Testament but like some deboisht Children when the Father has called them together to make his Testament he gives one his Blessing and a second his Blessing and a third is fallen in Adultery and he gives him his Curse Jacob has it so in his Testament Simeon and Levi brethren in evil cursed be c. 2ly I will give you another direction about the Covenant as a Testament to take hold of things ordinar in Testaments I like the observation one has writing on the Covenant he sayes that a Testament ordinarly a person cannot have benefit by it until it be Confirmed by Law â—ay but it is not so in Christs Testament ye must take heed that ye do not Confirm it by Law the reason of it is Christ hath Confirmed it himself for Christ to prevent this when he made the Testament said my peace I leave you But some will say he may leave his Peance to us but we will not get it until it be Confirmed by Law no my peace I give you when a thing is both left and given it needs no Confirmation there are many gets Legacies left them and they must have them Confirmed by Law but we need no Confirmation of the thing that is given so that any that gets a part of this Testament whether it be of the Moveables or a Title to the Inheritance if they question it until they get it Confirmed by Law they do not know the nature of this Testament for there needs no more since he both leaves and gives 3ly In reference to this Name of the Covenant as it 's called a Testament I would give you this direction that ye may have a part of his Testament consider to whom the Legacies in the Testament are left sometimes in the Testament they are spoken of as folks that were of kin to Christ they are called his brethren his sisters his friends sometimes in the Testament they are spoken of as folks that he loved to converse with I say unto you my friends fear them not that can kill the body and can do no more c. sometimes they are spoken of in the Testament as folk that the Father had given him they have many Names in the Testament there are some but babes some young men some fathers now I would have you take the Testament in the full latitude of it if ye would feed comfortably on it whether ye be in kin or whether ye be Brethren or Sisters or in any near Relation if ye cannot find your Names in the Testament under that Notion go enquire if there be any friendship betwixt you tho ye be not in Kin yet folk will leave Legacies to their friends if none of these will hold try if ye be babes or young men there uses not to be much Friendship betwixt wise men and babes yet babes may be in the Testament for the Testator may have Kindness to them on the account of some Relation lay all these Names together to whom the Legacies are left and if ye find ye have not been a Friend Try if ye be of Kin if none of these will hold Try if ye be Babes the Father had given him all power in Heaven and Earth and it must be a rich Testament he leaves and to have a Right to it we should labour to shufle our selves in among them that have a Right to this Testament many would shufle themselves out of this Testament ye should rather consider what a rich Heir he was that made the Testament and try all the Qualifications and Designations of the persons to whom the Legacies are left To be breif it 's a comfortable sense of the whole Covenant that it is a Testament for it stands ratified by the Death of the Testator and if the Father alter any thing of the Covenant he will alter the will of the Dead which looks not like Him This is the first name given to the Covenant it 's a Testament ratified by the Death of the Testator and they have a secure Legacie that has an Interest in the Testament we need not pay for it for they were not Legacies if we behoved to buy them we have our Right to them not by Price but by Testament The second Name I find the Covenant get in Scripture it 's called a Promise so we find in Ephes 2.12 That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common-walth of Isreal and strangers from the Covenants of Promise So we will find it Gal. 3 16. and 17. verses twice called a Promise and ye will find it frequently get this Name in Scripture this Name is a Promise added to a Testament is very considerable and there are two things that I will speak a little to here First Why the Covenant is called a Promise Secondly What encouragement a Believer may have from calling it a Promise Quest First Why is the Covenant called a Promise There are three or four Reasons why the Covenant is called a Promise one of them relates to God 2 2d to the Covenant and a third to Believers Answ First In reference to God a Promise it 's an Act
1. There must be consent to all the Articles by both parties And 2. There must be Obligations to secure the consent for the future otherways variable Creatures like us if there were not a penalty and a curse put into the Covenant what would our consent signifie Now both the two are necessar in Transacting of all these four sorts of Covenants in all the Head and Articles of it First There must be consent of parties to make up the Covenant Secondly An Obligation trom the hazard or curse in case that insent be past from and here I will speak a little of the Consent that is necessary to make up this Covenant I need not speak of the Consent on Gods part I will evidence to you the most hearty consent that ever waâ— given to a Contract on His part by these three things First He committed the drawing of the Govenant to the Mediator It 's true the Prophets were the Pen-men and Secretaries but the Mediator was the Inspirer of all the Articles now it was an evidence of His hearty consent that He committed the drawing of the Covenant to the Mediator and t is Glory is a thousand times more advanced by the Covenant of Grace than it was by the Covenant of Works all the payment He would have gotten from Adam was nothing to the payment he hath gotten from His Son if all the Angels if all the Sons of Adam had met together to do Him service they would not all make up such a piece of service as he got from His Son the Man that was His Fellow 2. His consenti's all along declared in the Scripture why has He penned this Bible and appointed his Ministers to Preach and press it on people if He were not serious in his designs Why makes he such protestations As I live I delight not in the death of sinners Why weeps he when his offers are refused as he did over Jerusalem if he had not given his consent in the Covenant 3. The Mediator that drew the Covenant and sealed it by a Testament with His Blood of all the persons that ever were received into Glory He received Him in the greatest Triumph when he welcomed His first-born Son to Glroy He set Him down on His right hand and bade all the angels worship him If He had not done Him the greatest Service would He have used Him so And would He had so great pleasure to have them singing Worthy worthy is the Lamb But all the matter in making up the Covenant is about our Consent to the Covenant now a Christian gives his consent to the Covenant and thereby in all the four Heads makes it to be a sure and fast Bargain First We give our consent to the Covenant in the second Adam as we gave an implicite consent to the Covenant of Works in the first Adam so we gave a consent to the Covenant of Grace in the second Adam Here you would take notice that though the Covenant of Grace be made with all Believers and every particular Believer may make use of it as if it were only intended for him yet the principal Parties Treating the Covenant are the Father and the Mediator the Covenant of Grace is especially made with the Mediator now when the Messiah giveth His consent and accepts of the Covenant as a Publick Person standing in the room and supplying the place of all the Elect we gave our consent in Him and the truth is there is never a Christian that comes to be backward to imbrace the Covenant or that after they had imbraced the Covenant breaks it but in a manner they say that Christ consented to more than they will stand to for as the Father in Baptism binds the Son to the Covenant so the Mediator as a Publick Person standing in the room of all the Elect the Father had given His consent and the Mediator had given His consent to the Covenant in all our Names and has engaged to get our consent as a Husband may consent for the Wife or the Parent may consent for the Child that is a Minor so doeth Christ as a publick Person consent in our Name and who ever break the Covenant they as it were flee away from our consent of the Covenant Transacted betwixt the Father and the Mediator Secondly We give our consent to all the Articles of the Covenant in our Baptism A Christian before he can be engaged to other Lovers the Lord keeps him as it were from the Womb he will give him his Name the Seal of the Covenant it 's true the Parent binds for the Children as men may make Bonds binding their Heirs so they have a warrant to bind for their Children to God There are two consents we give and both of them are implicite our Parents binds us to be Christ Friends in Baptism to buy of him gold fine linen and to accept of him for our Lord to marry him and to have nearest Union with him and the sweetest Communion that may be enjoyed But there is a two-fold explicite consent that we give to the Covenant First It 's an explicite consent when we accept of the external Priviledges of the Church the Word and Sacraments when we accept of these and state our selves Members of the Church the very accepting of the Priviledges is a consent to all the Articles of the Covenant a person that is not resolved to be serious in taking the Covenant on all these four Heads had done better not to have accepted the Priviledge of the Church the very accepting of the priviledge to go to the Church to get your Children Baptized to come to the Table of the Lord is as much as to say I will stand to what the Mediator Treated and what my Parents did engage to when I was Baptized 2. We give this explicite consent either in the Sacrament of the Supper or at any time that a Christian comes under a personal Vow both of these are express consents so that though it may be as ye will hear the consent be not cordial for there are many kinds of consents to the Covenant though I say the consent be not cordial yet it 's enough to bring thee under the curses of the Covenant though it bring thee not under the blessings of the Covenant thou has neither a Covenant of Friendship nor a Covenant of Traffique the Mediator gave his consent and thy Parents gave their consent and in they accepting of the Priviledges of the Church and the Sacrament of the Supper thou gave thine and though they bring thee not to to be married to the Mediator yet they may bring thee under the Curse of the Covenant for when it may be thou replyes thou did not give thy consent to the Covenant but thy consent was given in thy accepting of the priviledges of the Church or when thou came to the Sacrament of the Supper or came under a personal Vow and in this consent either we accept and cordially imbrace the
it 's remarkable when he sent the Commission to his Disciples by Mary he sent on these Terms Go tell my Disciples I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God he is yours in all his Attributes when ye have to do with his Power his Holiness his Goodness if ye have made a personal Covenant with him all his Attributes are yours 2ly All the Relations in which he is holden forth in the Covenant are yours He is your Husband your Father your Hope your Glory it 's remarkable there are a number of Relations cannot agree to the Angels it 's true he may be called their Creator and Maker but he cannot be called their Husband nor their Father with a reference to the work of Redemption So if ye be in Covenant with him as God is your God so all his Attributes mentioned in the Covenant are yours ye may call him your Power your Rock your Husband your Strength your Strong Tower 3ly If he be yours all his Dispensations are yours Rom. 8.28 All things work together for good to them that love God all Providence every thing nay death it self 1 Cor. 3.22 All things are yours life oy deach things present or to come all are yours and Christ is Gods even death it self is yours when ever death comes if ye be in Covenant with him it comes like a servant to attend you and carry you home to the place of your rest if he be yours all his Attributes and Relations and Providences also are yours Lastly If he be yours there is something that ye have in having him that no Minister nor Angel can tell nor explain to you the truth is if he be yours the case is with you as if a countrey-man should find a Jewel and he should go through all the countrey and let this man and that man see it and ask what it is worth and there is none that can tell the value of it except one that is a Jeweler indeed Christ only can explain it Matth. 22. I am the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob he only can prove the resurrection from the dead from that which no Minister nor Angel could do there is no Minister nor Angel can tell what is imported in this to have God for our God for all the excellencies of the Creatures are imported in it Psal 84.11 The Lord is a Sun and a Shield He is a Sun for prosperity and a Shield for adversity he is both for Prosperity and Adversity the man can never fall wrong that is in Covenant with God under no Cross will he be broken under no Prosperity will he be blown up so ye that enter in a personal Covenant with him ye will have God to be your God and if he be your God all his Attributes all his Relations are yours all his Providences will make for you and when ye have counted on all the three ye have somewhat in this my God that no Minister nor Angel can explain and that is the first Advantage I offer by personal Covenanting with him God will be yours Secondly By personal Covenanting and Indenturing with him all Christs purchase will be yours great things hath he purchased and readily he hath purchased no more than he hath payed for he hath aboundantly payed for all that he hath gotten nay to say the truth he hath payed above the value to give his Blood for the like of us and for the Glory that he hath now in Heaven he had as much before though not properly as Mediator yet as God Essential and Con-substantial with the Father now all that he hath purchased is yours For clearing this I will offer you two things to be considered 1. The Covenant of Grace on Christ's part is no more but the execution of his three Offices as he is King Priest and Prophet of his Church all the Promises of the Covenant may be reduced to these three all the promises of Pardon are the execution of his Priestly Office all the promises of guiding and Ruling are the execution of his Kingly Office all the promises of teaching are the execution of his Prophetical Office the truth is the whole Covenant is nothing but the Execution of his Three Offices for he is left only Executor in the new Testament He was both the Testator and he is Executor and must fulfil the Legacies left in the Covenant Now he that hath made a personal Covenant with him he hath a right and Title to all his Offices and consequently to all that he hath purchased they may not only count on God as their God but on the Mediators purchase as their purchase 2ly Another thing will evidence the truth of this in regard all things that Christ hath purchased they are all Secured and Ratified by the Covenant ye have often heard that God cannot give a greater Security to men than the Security he makes by way of Covenant now they that have made a personal Covenant with God they have Security in the Covenant for all Christs purchase now these are advantages aboundantly sufficient to bind you to this personal Covenanting But to follow this more particularly I would have you to take up the Covenant under a Four-fold Formality and the taking it up under this Fourfold Formality will let you see more of the advantage of personal Covenanting with God First Consider the Covenant as the Conduit I say not the Fountain but as the Conduit and Channel of all Sinctifying Grace through which runs from the Fountain of Grace all Sanctifying Grace 2ly Consider the Covenant as it 's an Answer to all Challenges and Objections 3ly Consider the Covenant as it 's a Charter and Security for the Church of God in general Lastly Consider the Covenant as the Charter of our inheritance for all eternity and under these Four Formalities ye may see the advantages that a person hath who enters in a personal Covenant and takes this everlasting Covenant and applyes it to himself First Consider the Covenant as the Conduit through which all Graces runs to us from Christ all Graces runs through the Channel of a Covenant it 's true Christ is the Fountain of Grace and of his fulness we receive and Grace for Grace but all the Graces that comes from Christ comes to us from the Promise it 's remarkable there is no Grace whether it be the first Grace I will take away the heart of stone and I will put my fear in their heart or whether it be the Grace that is built on these first Graces they are holden out to us in the Covenant the Grace of effectual calling the Grace of Sanctification Adoption and pardoning Grace the Conduit that convoyes them all is the Covenant the truth is we can lippen for nothing for as excellent as Christ is and O! but he be excellent and good we can lippen for nothing but Covenanted things from him Faith can go no higher than the Covenant there is indeed
not to be my Husband and he hath put me out of Doors and he will give me no allurement but he calls me a Whore So that under all these variety of Dispensations this property of the everlastingness of the Covenant may be well improven I am guilty if thou take that as putting thee out off the Covenant thou may put out that word everlasting Covenant out of the Bible some are crossed and deserted but the perpetuity and everlastingness of the Covenant runs like the Sun and keeps its course in a direct line in Winter as well as in Summer 4ly Some are troubled with this what ever my case be I think I will not persevers but thou art mistaken thou knows not the Tenor of the Covenant it 's everlasting all thy Experiences and all the Elevations of Spirit thou hast had and all the things thou hast had that thou thinks looks like blinks with Jesus there is no wedding but thou may be an Aduterer or an Idolater but the Covenant secures all it 's true the fundamental priviledgs secures thee as to them but it secures thee not from very gross sins but that which secures all is founded on the Decrees of God and the Covenant of Redemption it 's impossible for him to lie and to be unfaithful and to deny himself therefore the Covenant stands sirm if thou be at I know not what to do if Tryal or Popery come I will deny him but if thou be in Covenant the Covenant is everlasting and not only the Devil and his Angels cannot cast thee out of Covenant but to speak it with reverence God hath made it everlasting and unalterable for Himself 5. There is a fifth Difficulty that many ly under some may say I am near Death I find my self hanging over the Grave I find these Legs and this Back and this Head things that will not long subsist I must go to the place where there is no mention of the Covenant no speaking of his loving kindness but thou art mistaken it 's not like the Covenant betwixt Husband and Wife if the one of them die they may take another the case not so if the Worms should destroy this Body and the Birds should fly away with a bit of thy Body that is left above the Ground the Covenant is with that bit it 's the Fathers pleasure that I should lose nothing that I should not lose a Nail of a Toe for the Covenant remains with thy dust for it is an everlasting Covenant I think our ignorance of the Covenant is the great ground of the most part of our trouble if we understood it and the Properties of it we might have a more hopeful and cheerful life in our walking with Jesus than we have I would here clear two or three Questions and but name them 1. Readily some may say this day is very sweet to hear that Christ hath rooved the nail so as it cannot be drawn again if once we be in Covenant we will never be out of it again and the Father hath bound up his own hands as it were that it 's impossible for him to do otherwise therefore some may obejct Question 1. Can this Covenant be everlasting for of all the changeable Providences that ever we saw persons that are in Covenant meets with they are crossed challenged deserted and rejoycing one day and in the dust the next day ye will scarcely find them in one Frame Answer I like the Observation well that a certain Divine hath on the eighty ninth Psalm If his Children forsake my Law then I will visit their sins with rods but my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him my Covenant will I not break I have sworn that I will not lie unto David his seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before me it shall be established as the Moon for ever why are these two put in the Sun and the Moon Ye shall never observe a change of the Sun it 's any alike great but the Moon Astronomers write of it will have fourteen or fifteen several Forms in one Month it hath every night almost a new Form and they give names to every several Form but the meaning is this it 's as much as the Covenant that I sware to David shall be as unchangeable a thing as the Sun and yet shall be as changeable at the Moon that returns ay when it 's full Moon it shall be changeable and unchangeable these that come in Covenant with him may say as to all Fundamental Priviledges it is as the Sun and as to the things built on these Foundations it 's as the Moon as to the variety of cases it will be as the Moon that will have twelve several Forms in one Month and yet be unchangeable as the Sun and ye must not conclude that ye are not in Covenant and that it 's no everlasting your peace joy liberty in Duties and Covenant clearing may be as the Moon and your Covenant case may be as the Sun 2ly All the changes that falls out in thy Lot in time that are like the Moon they at length terminat in these Fundamental Priviledges it 's remarkable that for all the changes that the Moon hath once in a Month it 's full Moon it 's true it will not bide long at that they that are in Covenant all their changes long at length terminat in their Fundamental Priviledges which is a remarkable thing their peace their joy is not Fundamental yet it shall be as the Moon all the Alterations in the Covenant they are at length Terminat in the Foundation Question Secondly it may be Objected against this everlastingess of the Covenant is not this a Doctrine tending to security and prophanity to say one is in Covenant and never out of it doth not this lay a God to Secruity do we not sing folks asleep that readily comes to produce old experiences and are now taken and carried away with Scotlands back-slidings and to tell them it 's an everlasting Covenant and it 's impossible to alter lays not this a God to Security Answer I will close all this comfortable Truth by telling you these three things 1. The Secure and Prophane it 's almost and more nor suspicious they are not in Covenant if one be Secure and Prophane they may do as I have sometimes told you in preaching like a man coming by an Apple-tree and he claughts a Branch of the Apple-tree and lays it up in his Coffer and thinks that he will have Apples of it but it wants the Root and it will neither have Leaves nor Apples some say that they have gotten a Promise I am afraid that they have but a riven Branch from the Root if ye be fallen Secure prophane and negligent and yet are telling your neighbours I have gotten a Promise long since ye have gotten a Branch and that ye have claught off the Root and it 's without the Root and will neither bear