evasions and limitations and reservations such a Jesuiticall spirit is got in among us by which means it comes to passe that by that time men have pared off and left one and put what interpretations they frame to themselves there is little left worth the name of a Covenant 3. In the third place How many prophane this Ordinance by setting up base and earthly and carnall ends and aymes to themselves How many come to this Ordinance with Shechemitish spirits Shall not their Cattle and their substance and every Beast of theirs be ours If I take it not saith the Malignant Citizen I shall have my Wares plundered If I take it not faith the Malignant Gentleman I shall have my Estate seized If I take it not saith the Malignant Parson I shall have my Living sequestred and my person it may be cast into Limbo Patrum c. To such base and dunghill respects do men of vile spirits prostitute this pure and heavenly Ordinance 4. But lastly Have we not all conspired together as it were Unsaithfulnesse in keeping Covenant from the highest to the lowest from the greatest to the least to break the Covenant of our God How may God and his Ministers renew all those complaints over England that were formerly poured out over Israâ—l Psal 78.10 They have forsaken thy Covenant Vers 37. They kept not the Covenant of their God they were not steafast in his Covenant Vers 57. They turned back and dealt unfaithfully they were turned aside like a deceitfull bow Alas what have we done with all the Covenants we have made with God Our Baptismall Vows renewed perhaps Monâ—thly at the Lords Table our sick Beds engagements Parliament Pretistations and Covenants with those often Monethly Wâ—ckly almost daily repititions of Covenants in the dayes of Humiliations and Thankesgivings what is become of them all Have we not dealt with them in some such like manner as Moses dealt with the two Tables who went up into the Mountain to receive them from God but as soon as he came down to the bottome threw them out of his hands and brake them So have we done for all the world we have gone up into the Mountain of the House of the Lord so is the place of publike worship called to make and renew our solemn Vows and Covenants Isai 2.3 which we have Sealed under an Oath and a Curse before and with the most high God but no sooner all most have we come down into the Valley of our ordinary walking and conversation but we have thrown them out of our hands and broken them all to peeces Vow Reformation to day and within a few dayes be drunk again and swear again and be unclean again and worldly and wantoâ— and seâ—ure again as toose vain unsavoury and unsensible of pul like sin and misery as ever Swear our Estates to day and perhaps deny at wentieth part of them to morrow Worth thousands and deny to lend an hundred a sâ—orâ— c. Swear to live and dye with the Parliament and the Caus to day and spâ—ak against both to morrow Swear to assist thâ—m to day against all Opposers and Malignants and it may be within a few dayes after assist Opposers and Malignants against them Help them off with their Taxations though never so indifferent and easie Couâ—â—y conc â—â—l their Goods and Treasurâ— though never so justly forfeited to the State Get their Mon yes Arms Horses Provisions restored though never so lawfully seized by sufficient Warrant and the industry and piety of faithfull Officers who venture their Estates their lives their All in the service Swear and unswear do and undo protest for Christ to day and accomodate for Antichrist to morrow and when told of it either they forgot or which I tremble to think of and blush to mention some and these no small ones put in minde upon such occasions of their Protestations and their Covenant have not feared to reply Alas That was broken long since As if breach of our Covenant did dissolve our engagements and because we have broke once with God we were never bound afterward to keep our word our Oaths Surely That were an easie way of getting loose But this God hath seen and heard among us and me thinks I heat that angry question sounding in mine ears Ezek. 17.15 Shall he prosper Shall he escape that doth such things Or shall he break the Covenant and be delivered And if the quarrell were so high and God so angry for the breach of the Covenant that was but between man and man yea between a people in externall Covenant with himself and a professed enemy a Tyrant an Vsurper what may such a People for whom God hath done and is doing such great things expect upon Covenants so religiously and solemnly made and sworn not onely before but with so holy God and so ofter and so treacherously yea so desperately abused and trampled under feet I may say unto you therefore as sometime good Josiah did to his Servants 2 Chro. 34.21 Go enquire of the Lord for us Humiliation for this sin and for the remnant that are left in Israel and in Judah for great is the wrath of the Lord that is powred out upon us because we have not kept the word and Oath which we have uttered to the Lord our God It is without all question the Quarrell of the Covenant which the Sword is this day a venging upon England with so much wrath and fury powred out Woe unto us out God is grievously angry what shall we do When David saw the Angel of the Lord standing between the Heaven and Earth Chro. 21.16 having a sword drawn in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem Vers 16. It is said Then David and the Elders of Israel who were cloathed with Sackcloth fell upon their faces And David said even I it is that have sinned and done evill indeed but as for these sheep what have they done let thine band I pray thee Vers 18. and 26. Oh Lord my God be upon me and upon my Fathers house c. And by the direction of the Angel he built an Altar and offered Sacrifices upon it unto the Lord and the anger of the Lord was pacified towards his people Let us do so this day and in all our publike and private Humiliations The Angel hath his sword drawn stretched out over the whole Land Even the sword threatned in the Text to avenge the Quarrell of the Covenant Let us fall down upon our faces and lye in the dust draw water and poure it out before the Lord take up Jeremiahs wish and Lamentation Jere. 9.1 Oâ— that my head were waters and mine eyes a Fountain of Tears That I might weep day and night for the slain of the Daughâ—er of my People Yea That we might weep bitterly for the sin which hath â—â—ain so many precious sons of Sion even this sin Covenant-Violation And oh you that have stood out in refusing
2.28 Which in the immediate Verse 〈…〉 is a 〈◊〉 prâ—miâ—â— You shall abide in him Divers more such Instances I could give you and why thus Surely the 〈…〉 teacheth us our Dutie the Promise our weaknesse and 〈…〉 to perform that luty The Command finds us work the 〈◊〉 findes us streâ—â—th The command is to keep us from 〈…〉 the promiâ—â— to keep us from being discouraged c. Wâ—ll 〈…〉 God and as he couples a command and a 〈…〉 so let us couple a Resolution and a Petition As 〈…〉 seconds and backs his command with his promise so let us second and back our promises with our Prayers the onâ— in sence of our duty the other in sence of our weaknesse by the one to bring our hearts up to God by the other to bring God down to our hearts Resolve and Petition Promise and Prâ—â—y 〈…〉 And the Lord prepare your heart to pray and cause his â—â—r to 〈◊〉 Secondly Since God onely must uphold your desires Wâ—â—â— continually as in his presence Sâ—â—ilitie is onely to be found in the prefence of God So faire we live an unchangeable life as we walk and live in the presence of an unchangeable God The â—aints 〈◊〉 Heaven know no vicissitudes or changes in their holy franâ—e and temper of spirit because they are perfected in the 〈◊〉 holding of his face With whom is no variablenesse nor 〈…〉 And so farre as the Saints on Earth can 〈…〉 in their presence so farre the presence of God will keep them Isa 〈…〉 〈…〉 the Lord alwayes before me and because he is â—t my right hand therefore I shall not be moved sung David of â—â—mself liberally and in the person of Christ typically The priâ—â—ledge was made good to both so far as either made good the Dutie David according to his degree and proportion of grace 〈◊〉 God before him placed him on his right hand and so long as he could keep Gods presence the presence of God kept him it kept him from sin I have kept my self from my iniquitie Ps 18 13 how so Why I was upright before him in the former part of the same Verse So long as he walkt before God in Gods presence so long he walkt upright and kept himself from his iniquitie or rather Gods presence kept him And as it kept him from sin so it kept him from fear also Psa 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will not fear Mark what he saith Though he walk not step and walk through not step crosse and through not a dark Entry or a Church-yard in the night time but a Valley a large long vast place How many miles long I know not And this not a Valley of darknesse onely but of death where he should see nothing but visions of death and not bare death but the shadow of death the shadow is the dark part of the thing so that the shadow of death is the darkâ—st side of death Death in its most hideous and horrid representations and yet behold when he comes out at the farther end and a man would have thought to have found him all in a cold sweat his hair standing upright his eyes set in his head and the man beside himself c. Behold I say he doth not so much as change colour his hand shakes not his heart fails not as he went in he comes out and though he should go back again the same way he tells you I will not fear How comes this to passe how comes the man to be so undaunted Why he will tell you in the very same Verse speaking to God For thou art with me Gods presence kept him from fear in the midst of death and horror Thus it was I say with David while he could keep God in his presence he was unmoveable impregnable You might as soon have stirred a Rock as stirred him I shall not be moved Indeed so long as he was upon the Rock he was as unmoveable as the Rock it self But alas sometime he lost the sight of his God and then he was like other men Thou didst hide thy face from me Psa 30 7. and I was troubled When God hid his face from him or he hid his eyes from God 1 Sam. 29 1. then how easiâ—ly is he moved Fear breaks in I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul Sin breaks in yea one sin upon the heels of another the adulterous act upon the adulterous look and murder upon adultery as you know in that sad businesse of Vriah the Hittit once off from his Rock and he is as weak as dust not able to stand before the least temptation of sin or fear Psa 61 2. and therefore as soon as he comes to himself again he cryes Oh lead me to the Rock that is higher then I To my Rock Lord to my Rock But now The Lord Jesus the Antitype of David here in this Psalm because he made good this Dutie shall I call it For in him dwelt the fulnesse of the Godhead Gâ—l 2.9 bodilie to him therefore was this priviledge made good perfectly in the highest degree for though he had temptations that never man had and was to do that which never man did and to suffer that which never man suffered the contradiction of sinners the rage of Hell and the wrath of God Yet Because he set the Lord alwayes at his right hand yea indeed was alwayes at the right hand of God therefore he was not moved but overcame even by suffering Beloved you see where stabilitie in Covenant is to be had even in the presence of God labour I beseech you to walk in his presence and to set him alwayes at your right hand Behold it shall keep you so that you shall not be moved or if you be moved you shall not be removed if you stumble you shall not fall or if you fall you shall not fall away you shall rise again There is a double advantage in it First It will keep your hearts in awe He that sets God in his presence dares not sin in his presence God sees will make the heart say How shall I do this great evill and sin against God Secondly Ps 16.12 There is Joy in it In thy presence is fulnesse of joy it is true in its proportion of grace as well as of glory and joy will strengthen and stablish as I shewed you before The joy of the Lord is your strength Psal 91. â— 10 As long as the childe is in its fathers eye and the father in its eye it is secure Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge even the mâ—st high thy habitation there shall no evill befall thee c. It will hold as well in the evils of sin as in the evils of punishment Well the Lord make you know these precious truths in an experimentall manner I have hâ—ld you too long but the businesse requires it Remember I beseech you
the Covenant of God do not stand out in refusing to be humbled for your refusalls You that have been Rash and Rotten sleight and Carnall and hypocriticall in taking the Covenant be not so in your confessions of and humiliations for this great sin of yours whereby God is provoked labour to be deep and down right serious solid and substant all in your mournings and lamentations over your sin your selves and the Kingdom You that have broken the Covenant of your God over and over again Lach. 12.10 labor to get your hearts broken for this sin and to that end look upon him whom you have pierced whose skin and whose flesh and whose heart and whose soul you have broken by Covenant breaches Heb 6.6 not while he hung upon the Crosse onely but as the Apostle Have crucified him a fresh to your selves and put him to an open shame Oh look upon him his tears his wounds his blood c. Till vour eyes run down with tears your hearts be wounded and your souls even melt into blood within you And from thence even turn your eyes also to look upon them whom ye have pierced your slain wounded Bretheren Behold those many thousands that lye slain in the high places of the field Behold those many hundreds thatly sick and bleeding almost to the death of the wounds which your sins especially your treacherous dealing in the Covenant of God have made upon their bodies Oh cry with David I have sinned these poor sheep what have they done Let thine hand I pray thee Oh Lord my God be upon me and upon my fathers house Oh would it not melt any heart that were not harder then the Rock in the Wildernesse to see so many poor Creatures bleeding languishing dying slain under the guilt of our Covenant-prophanation I may say unto you as once Pharaohs servants said to him Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed Know you not yet that England is almost destroyed Oh it would break your hearts to hear the reports of the Western and many of the Northern parts of the Land How sad how black how desolate What a face of ruine and destruction there is to be seen upon them The Beasts of the field cut off The wayfaring man ceaseth The Inhabitants driven from their habitations and the little remnant stript naked bare seeking for Bread to relieve your souls with perill of their lives Lam. 5 9. under unspeakable miseries and afflictions doubtlesse to see what thousands feel it would make us weary of our lives while in a word those Countries and places which before the Destroyer were as a Garden of Eden behinde him are as a desolate Wildernesse Bretheren we have almost broken the Nation in pieces there is yet a little life left Oh lift up your voices for the remnant that remains Labour to break your hearts into a thousand pieces A broken heart is the sacrifices of the Lord. Psal 52.17 So many pieces so many sacrifices Oh take these and upon the Altar which God hath set up The Lord Jesus Christ is our Altar upon this Altar let us offer these Sacrifices And the Lord poure out upon us the Spirit of Compassion and Compunction the Spirit of Grace and Supplication That this day as the rest may be a day of Attonement and Reconciliation wherein our God may be pacified towards us and reconciled unto us in the Lord Jesus A broken and a contrâ—â— heart O God thou wilt not despise The Second Sermon Preached at Milk-street upon Saturday Evening September 30. For the preparation to the COVENANT The second Vse Exhortation SInce Covenant-violation is a matter of so high a Quarrell as for the avenging whereof God sends a Sword upon a Church or Nation for which it is more then probable the Sword is upon us at this prefent A nos 7.4 it having almost devoured Ireland already and eaten up a great part of England also Let us engage our Counsell and all the Interest we have in Heaven and Earth for the taking up of this Controversie Let us consider what we have to do what way there is yet left us for the Reconciling of this Quarrell else we and our Families are all but the children of death and destruction This Sword that is drawn and devoured so much Christian Protestant flesh already will it is to be feared go quite through the Land and in the pursuite of this Quarrell cut off the remnant till our Land be desolate and our Cities waste and England be made as Sodome and Gomorrah in the day of the fierce anger of Jehovah Somewhat I have spoken already in the former Use to this purpose Jerem. 3.13 viz. To acknowledge our iniquites that we have transgressed against the Lord our God To get our hearts broken for breaking the Covenant to lay it so to heart that God may not lay it to our charge c. But this looks backward Somewhat must be done de futuro For time to come That may not onely compose the Quarrell but lay a sure foundation of an After Peace between God and the Kingdom And for that purpose a Means lies before us an Opportunity is held forth unto us by the hand of Divine Wisdom and goodnesse of known use and successe among the People of God in former times which is yet to me a gratious intimation and a farther argument of hope from Heaven that God hath not sworn against us in his wrath nor sealed us up a People devoted to destruction but hath yet a minde to enter into terms of peace and reconciliation with us to receive us into Grace and Favour to become our God and to own us for his People if yet we will go forth to meet him and accept of such honourable termes as shall be propounded to us And that is by renewing our Covenant with him yea by entring into a more full and firme Covenant then ever heretofore For as the Quarrell was raised about the Covenant so it must be a Covenant more solid and substantiall that must compose the Quarrell as I shall shew you hereafter and that is the service and the priviledge that lies before us the work of the next day So that me thinks I hear this Use of Exhortation which now I would commend unto you speaking unto us in that Language Jere. Jer. 50.5 50.5 Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not be forgotten It is the voyce of the Children of Israel and the Children of Judah returning out of Captivity Vers 4. The children of Israel shall come they and the children of Judah together Seeking the Lord whom they had lost and enquiring the way to Sion from whence their Idolatry and Adulteries had cast them out themselves become now like the Doves of the Valley mourning and weeping because they had perverted their way and forgotten the Lord their God Vers 4.5 Going and weeping they shall go and seek the
be an innocent and warrantable Spell to render the Witchery of the Flesh World and Divel fruitlesse and in effectuall upon our spirits while the soul may say with David Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praise unto thee Ps 56.12 But fifthly Consider often and seriously Fifth means Prayer 1 Pet 1.5 who it is that must uphold your Resolutions even he that upholds Heaven and Earth no lesse power will do it For you are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation It is God that first gives the resolution and then must uphold and bring it into act It is God that worketh in you Phi. 2.13 both to will and to do of his good pleasure and therefore labour I beseech you to do these two things First Put all your resolutions into the hands of prayer 1 1. Praâ— David was a man of an excellent spirit full of holy Resolves I will walk in mine integrity Psal 26.11 Psal 119.8 â—sal â—4 Psal 139.21 22. And I will keep thy Testimonies And again I have sworn and will performe it That I will keep thy righteous judgements And yet again Do I not hate them Lord that hate thee c. I hate them with a perfect hâ—treâ— c. A thousand such sweet resolutions doth that precious servâ—nt of God breath out all along the Psalms and yet so jealous 〈…〉 man is of himself That he never trusts himself with 〈…〉 resolutions and therefore shall you finde him alwayes clâ—ppâ—ng a Petition upon a resolution as in the quoted places I will walk in mine integrity Redeem me and be mercifull unto me I will keep thy Testimoniâ—s Oh forsake me not utterly q. d. Thou 〈…〉 me fall fearfully suffer me not to fall finally And so when he had said I have sworn and will not repent c. Ver. 107. He presently adds within a word or two Quicken me O Lord 〈…〉 to thy word And again Accept I beseech thee of the 〈…〉 rings of my mouth Ver. 108. O Lord and teach me thy judgements God must teach him as to makâ— so to make good the 〈◊〉 will offerings of his mouth i. e. His promises and â—owâ— And so when he had made that appeal to God Do I not hate them that hate thâ—e Lord c. Vt sup He presently betakes himself to his Prayers Search me O God and know my heart try mâ— Psal 129 23 24 and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in 〈◊〉 and lead me in the way everlasting Mark I pray Search me try me know my heart know my thoughts see whether thâ—re be any wicked way lead mâ— c. He will neither trust himself for what heâ—ts nor for what he shall be Try me he dares not trust his own tryall Lead me he dares not trust his own Resolutions Sâ—ch a sweet holy jealousie of himself 〈◊〉 he creath forth with all his heavenly purposes and resâ—lations Oh 〈…〉 you that would make an Everlasting Covenant with 〈…〉 holy David upon every holy Resolution clap an 〈…〉 say I will reform my life Oh redeem me and 〈…〉 I will set up Christ in my heart I will labour 〈…〉 him in my life Oh forsake mâ— not utterly Lord 〈…〉 and am utterly purposed in all 〈…〉 to amend my life and to go before 〈…〉 c. O Lord teach me 〈…〉 O Lord according to thy Word 〈…〉 are upon me That I will according to my place and 〈…〉 to preserve Reformation in Scotland to procure 〈…〉 England That I will in like manner endeavour 〈…〉 Popery and Prelacy c. To preserve the Rights 〈…〉 Parliaments c. Discover Incendiaries En 〈…〉 between the two Kingdoms 〈…〉 that enter into this League and Covenant That I will never make defection to the contrary part or to give my self to a detestable indifferency or neutrality c. And this Covenant I have made in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as I shall answer at that great day c. But now adde with David Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any way of wickednesse in me and lead me in the way everlasting In a word put your Covenant into frequently renewed Resolutions Resolutions into Prayer and Prayer and all into the hands of God It is God that must gird thee with strength to perform all thy vows This the close of this blessed Covenant into which we enter this day doth teach us Humblie beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his spirit for this end and to blesse our desires and proceedings c. And the Covenant in the Text was surely inlaid with Prayer while they engage themselves to seek the Lord sc Not onely to shew them the way to Sion but to give them strength to walk in that way Let it be your wisedome and piety my Brethren to imitate both Oh pray and be much in Prayer and be often in prayer pray daily over the Covenant as you this day lift up your hands to swear to the most high God in this Covenant so lift up your hands every day to pray to that God for grace to keep this Covenant Let sence of self-insufficiency keep open the sluce of Prayer That that may let fresh streams of strength every day into your souls to make good your vows when you be carelesse to pray over the Covenant you will be carelesse to keep the Covenant when you cease to pray you will cease to pay If you will be watchfull in praying over your vows Prayer will make you watchfull in paying your vows If you will be faithfull in crying to God God will be faithfull in hearing and hâ—lping Psal 50.15 Pray therefore pray over every good purpose and resolution of heart towards the Covenant of God which conscience shall suggest or the Spirit of God shall breath into your bosoms at this present or any time hereafter as David once prayed over that good fram of Spirit which he observed in his people what time they off red so willingly and liberally to the preparing for the House of God 2 Chr 29 â—â— Oh God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob 〈◊〉 Fathers keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of my heart and prepare my heart unto thee To every command God is pleased to adde a promise so that what is a command in one place is a promise in another Ex. gr Circumâ—â—◠〈…〉 sores hinâ— your heart Deut. 10 1◠〈…〉 it is a command in Deut. 1â— 16 But in the 30. Chapter vers 6. There it is a promise 〈…〉 God will 〈…〉 thine heart and the heart of thy 〈…〉 Lord. Again makâ— you a new heart so saith the word of command A 〈…〉 will I give you so speaks the Word of Promise Ch. 36.26 Once more Little children abide in him thâ—â— is the command 1 Joh.