So insatiable is she that like the horse-leeches daughter she never saith it is enough Therefore when God gives any deliverance from thence there is more than ordinary cause to close with the Lord in a more solemne and extraordinary manner giving him the praise and glory of so great a mercy But then more especially when God works out the full deliverance of his Church by the totall and finall ruine of Babylon Oh then then is the time when all the people in heaven must sing Hallelujah ascribing salvation and honour and power unto the Lord our God Revel. 19. 1. And againe Hallelujah vers. 3. as if they could never sufficiently expresse themselves to God for such a deliverance such a mercy such a vengeance 2. Againe When God delivereth from Babylon there is more than ordinary cause of entring into solemne Covenant with him because the very subjecting of the Godly under that iron yoke argues more than ordinary breach of Covenant with the Lord in time past which stirred him up to deale so sharply with them as to put them under the power of Babylon The Provocation was exceeding great too much to be endured even by infinite Patience it selfe else the People of God had never been cast into such a furnace It was for such a fault as dissolved the very marriage knot between God and his people it was for going a whoring from him For this it was that God first put away Israel giving her a Bill of divorce Ier. 3. 8. And for this it was that he afterwards cast Iudah also out of his sight 2 King 17. 19 20. And as it was in former times so in later Ages of the world What was the reason that so many millions of soules have been exposed to the butchery of Antichrist in Mysticall Babylon and to be so hood-winckt and blinded by strong delusions as to beleeve nothing but lyes even that Great Great soul-killing Lye that they might be damned Saint Paul tells us it was this They received not the love of the trueth that they might be saved but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse 2 Thess. 2. What unrighteousnesse Is it meant of every unrighteousnesse that is in the nature of it damnable which is to be found in the world Surely no but signanter of that unrighteousnesse whereby men turned the truth of God into a lye Rom. 1. that is by corrupting the true worship of the true God and afterwards falling off to down-right Idolatry even within the pales of the Church it self Most of you are well seene in the History of the Church and can soone point with your finger to the times wherein Babylon began to besiege Hierusalem and Antichrist began to pull of his vizzard in the Churches of Christ even then when Pictures and Images began first to be set up in Churches for remembrance then for ornament then for instruction too and at last for adoration and worship Then God suffered her to be over-run and over-spred by Babylon as by an hideous opacum or thick darknesse and to be exposed and prostituted to all manner of whoredomes and filthinesse so as the slavery of the Jewish Church in old Babylon was scarce a flea-biting in comparison of the miseries of the Church Christian under the New which makes havock and merchandise not of the bodies only but even of the soules of men Revel. 18. 13. Now then when God pleaseth to deliver a people from such bondage and to awaken them effectually to look up and to reflect even with astonishment upon those great and gastly sins of theirs which had cut asunder the cords of the Covenant between God and their Soules and provoked God to subject them to so much bondage and that they must either renew Covenant or be obnoxious to more wrath and be laid open to more and greater temptations and sins this cannot but exceedingly work upon their souls causing their hearts to melt and their very bowels to yearne after the Lord to enter into a new an everlasting Covenant that shall never be forgotten This is that which God by his servant Ezekiel spake touching the deportment of the remnant of Israel which should escape the sword among the nations and countries whither they had been carryed captives Ezek. 6. 9. They should upon such a deliverance remember God not only with griefe but resolution also to joyne themselves to him more firmely in a perpetuall Covenant For of them he saith there they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations because I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from me and with their eyes which goe a whoring after their idols and they shall loth themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations And of the same people he saith afterwards * that upon their returne home They shall take away all the detestable things and all the abominations thereof from thence And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh and give them an heart of flesh that they they may walke in my Statutes and keep mine ordinances and doe them and they shall be my people and I will be their God So that here is a full Covenant striken and that upon this ground viz. the Consideration of those great sinnes they formerly committed whereby they had broken their first Covenant and departed from their God So farre the Reasons and Grounds of the point I shall now as breifly as I can endeavour to bring home and set on all by some Application which I shall reduce to 3. heads namely to matter of Reproofe Information and Exhortation For if When God vouchsafeth any deliverance to his people especially from Babylon it be most seasonable and necessary to close with him by a more solemne firme and inviolable Covenant to be onely his forever Then 1. How may this reprove and condemne of great ingratitude and folly many sorts of men among us that are farre from making any such use of the deliverances which God hath wrought for them O beloved Should I but give you a Catalogue of the many great stupendious and even miraculous deliverances which God hath given us the personall deliverances he hath often given to each of us apart the publique eminent glorious deliverances he hath given to us together with the whole State that in 88. and that of 1605. I meane from the horrid hellish Gun-powder-Treason but especially and above all the rest our happy deliverance out of Babylon by the blessed Reformation of Religion begun amongst us some good number of yeeres by past the time would faile me But alas What use have we made of them Hath this use ever been so much as thought of by us Nay verily For 1. Some thinke it bootlesse thus to close in with God after an evill is over When Gods hand is heavy upon them sense of smart compels them to thinke it
of Judah of Idolatry and Idols of high places Images and groves yet now he goes on to a more thorough reformation and put away the remainder of abominable Idols out of all the Land of Iudah and Benjamin and out of the Cities which he had taken from Mount Ephraim and renewed the Altar of the Lord for ever where Idols goe up Gods Altars goe downe therefore he pulleth downe the one and setteth up the other And not this alone but he offered unto the Lord a great sacrifice and both himselfe and his people entred into a Covenant to seeke the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soule that whosoever would is not seeke the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great whether man or woman and they sware unto the Lord with a loud voyce and with shouting and with trumpets and with Cornets And all this immediately upon the deliverance and victory which he had obtained for in vers. 11. it is said expressely that they offered unto the Lord the same time or in that very day of the spoile which they had brought 700. Oxen and 7000. Sheepe meaning of those which they had carryed away from the Ethiopians that came out to battaile against them So that now you see another solemne Covenant entred into not by Asa alone but by all the people of God a Covenant solemnized in publique by Sacrifice by Oath and under the highest penaltie of death it selfe to all that should not observe it In pursuit of which Covenant see what he presently did He spared not his owne Mother that regarded it not For when he perceived that notwithstanding this Covenant the Queene his Mother Maacha would needs retaine her puppet Gods still and amongst the rest one abominable Idol in a grove so obscene as it is not fit to be named Abulensis a observeth that it was Priapus and conjectureth thence that she was not only a grosse Idolatresse but an abominable strumpet b for ordinarily Idolatry and adultery spirituall and bodily fornication goe together c It is said that he removed her from being Queene because she had made an Idol in a grove and Asa cut down her Idol and stampt it and burnt it at the brooke Kidron vers. 16. Which passage is exprest with an emphasis in 1 King 15. 11. Also Maacha his Mother even Her he removed from being Queene Although a Queene although a Mother * yet even her he deposed from her dignitie This he did and this he must doe not only by reason of that voluntary Covenant into which he had entred but by vertue of the speciall Command of God himselfe in what ever relation she had stood unto him Yea in Deut. 13. 6. the Law was more strict for though she had been neerer than a Mother even the wife of his bosome yet if she were an Idolater and should entise him secretly saying Let us goe and serve other Gods she must have been put to death and his own hand must have been first upon her vers. 9. You now see the point proved in the generall that thus it is with Gods people upon any notable deliverance * they enter anew into solemne and strict Covenant with God 2. But more especially ought this to be the care of the Church when God gives her deliverance out of Babylon out of that servitude and bondage which of all other was most heavy and lay longest on her See this in some instances both on Gods part ayming at this in giving deliverance and on his peoples part performing this after deliverance from Babylon On Gods part first This was foreshewed under the similitude of the basket of good figs Jer. 24. 5. There it is said by the Lord the God of Israel Like these good figs so will I acknowledge them that are carryed away Captive of Iudah whom I have sent out of this place into the Land of the Chaldeans for their good for I will set mine eyes upon them for good and I will bring them againe to this Land c. And in the seventh verse it followeth I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and I will be their God for they shall returne unto me with their whole heart He will give them an heart to know him to returne and become his people which cannot be without a Covenant Againe That this is that which Gods heart is exceedingly set upon and full of namely that he never meant to bring his people backe from Babylon but upon this very condition albeit it was a great while ere it was done and therefore they thrived accordingly as we shall shew anon will yet further appeare by many other passages of the Prophecy of Ieremy to passe by sundry other Prophecies uttered by Isaiah Micah and others In Ier. 30. 18. we shall finde a Prophecy that this should be done and I shall shew by and by that it was afterwards performed Behold saith the Lord I will bring againe the captivitie of Iacobs tents and have mercy on his dwelling places c. and in vers 21. I will cause him to draw neere and he shall approach unto me and then as one assured of it and admiring at it he presently adds for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord That is both Governour and people all of them should binde and engage themselves not their outward man alone but even their very heart and soule also by solemne Covenant to be the Lords That this was the meaning is cleare by the next verse Ye shall be my people and I will be your God For it was such an engaging of their hearts as that one should say I am the Lords and another shall call himselfe by the name of Iacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himselfe by the name of Israel Isa. 44. 5. So againe in Ier. 31. the Lord having first promised to bring back the captivitie he subjoynes Behold the dayes come saith the â—ord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Iudah not according to the Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I tooke him out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people Here is a Covenant God begins the work but his people follow They imbrace the Covenant and joyne themselves by mutuall Covenant to him He puts his Law into their hearts for this very purpose Once more In Ier. 32. 37. there is a promise that God would gather his
people out of all countries whither he had cast them in his wrath and that he would bring them back to their own place and cause them to dwell safely He presently addes this as the product of that mercy they shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever c. I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to do them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Which words go no lesse than a solemn Covenant mutually made and strucken betweene God and his people Thus then you see many plaine and pregnant places of Scripture shew that the maine thing God on his part aymed at and expected from his people in delivering them from Babylon was the firme and solemne tying and engaging of themselves by a formall and effectuall Covenant to him and the remembring and keeping of it better than formerly they had done But secondly all these were but prophecies shewing what God foreshewed should be Will you therefore see the thing acted and all these promises fulfilled True it is indeed that the people did not on their parts performe this they entred not into such a solemne Covenant so soone as deliverance was by Cyrus proclaimed and they sped accordingly Zorobbabel went indeed before in the first yeere of Cyrus and laid the foundation of the Lords House but we read of no Covenant then made Therefore the work was stayed and the building not finished in an 100 yeeres after say the best Chronologers Then comes Ezra and makes some reformation of manners and not only so but some Covenant he and the people entred into Ezra 10. But that was but in a particular case and it would be thought a strange one to this age especially should it now be pressed there were many that had trespassed against their God by taking strange wives of the people of the Land that worshipped not the same God Such therefore as now were duely touched with the sense of this sinne desire Ezra that a solemne Covenant might now be made with God to put away all such wives and such as were borne of them Vers. 3. Now in the fifth verse we shall finde this executed For Ezra arose and made the chiefe Priests the Levites and all Israel to sweare that they should do according to this word and they sware This was somewhat but not enough a partiall Covenant and such as came short of that intended in my Text You shall see it more throughly performed afterwards in Nehemiahs time For after Ezra came Nehemiah and he makes a more thorough Reformation not of mens manners only but even of Religion also He set up the Ordinances of God in their puritie and tooke care in particular for the preaching of the Word After all this he and all the people entred into a solemne Covenant and that at the time of a publique Fast And this brings it home to the businesse we are now about For as they entred into Covenant upon receipt of such a deliverance so they did it at the time of a solemne Fast This will appeare throughout the whole ninth Chapter of Nehemiah where it is first said that the Children of Israel were assembled with fasting and with sack-cloath and with earth upon them they separated themselves from strangers they stood and confessed their sinnes and the iniquities of their fathers They justified God in all his proceedings against them and in all the evils he had brought upon them They acknowledged that neither they their Princes people or fathers had kept the Law they had not served God in that Kingdome he had bestowed upon them Behold say they vers. 36. We are servants this day and for the Land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eate the fruit thereof and the good thereof behold we are servants in it And it yeeldeth much encrease unto the Kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sinnes also they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattell at their pleasure and we are in great distresse And because of all this we make a sure Covenant in the last verse and write it and our Princes Levites and Priests seale unto it Now here is the full accomplishment of that you have in my Text What in the Text is set down by way of Prophecy you here see acted in the History In Nehemiahs time they come home unto it And if you look into the tenth Chapter you shall see who sealed this Covenant first the Princes the Officers the Magistrates of the Kingdome the Parliament men if you will so call them and then the rest of the people And what is the substance of their Covenant They entred into a curse and into an Oath to walke in Gods Law which was given by Moses the servant of God and to observe and do all the Commandements of the Lord their God and his Iudgements and Statutes vers. 29. Here then is their Covenant you see also with what solemnitie it was made and ratified by subscribing of hands and setting to of their Seales by an Oath and by a curse binding themselves by all the most solemne and strongest bonds that possibly they could and all this in Publique and at a Publique Fast So that now the point is cleare That it is so and that the practise of Gods people hath ever been upon any great deliverance especially from Babylon to enter into solemne Covenant with the Lord Come we to the second branch propounded which is the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} shewing in what manner this Covenant must be made and how men are to joyne themselves to the Lord in this action This I shall demonstrate out of the bowels of the Text it self for therein may you see somewhat required 1. By way of disposition or preparation to it 2. In respect of the substance of it 3. In regard of the properties belonging to it These being opened I shall give you a full view of this Text and performe my promise before made unto you The first thing to be unfolded is the disposition or preparation to the Covenant and this appeares in two things 1. In seeking seriously the face of God They shall aske the way to Zion 2. In the manner of their addresse unto him with their faces thitherward saying Come 1. The first thing requisite to dispose qualifie and prepare men to strike a Covenant with God is a serious and humble seeking of the face of God They shall aske the way to Zion And there first a word of the place toward which they were bound secondly of their contending and repaire to it under that expression of asking the way thither The place was Zion where first though it be but a Criticisme it is yet not unnecessary to be taken notice of because the word is
so much money and all his care is how to pay his debts or to get longer time so it is with a Godly man that hath entred Covenant with the Lord he hath sealed a bond and he knows it must be satisfied or it will be put in suit Therefore he beares it in minde he is alwayes casting about how he may performe and keep touch with God I will never forget thy precepts saith David I have inclined mine heart to performe thy Statutes alwayes even unto the end Psal. 119. 112. This is one expression Againe It is a Covenant to be remembred as that of the wife whereby she stands bound to her husband she must ever remember it It is the note of an harlot to forget the Covenant of her God The chaste wife will so remember the marriage bond that if she be solicited to unfaithfulnesse to uncleannesse c. she ever hath this in her thoughts that she hath given herself wholly away to an husband and is bound to keep her only unto him during life this makes her to be even an impregnable wall against all assaults that might otherwise draw her to folly So must it be in the case in hand The Covenant must still be in the heart and in the memory In every action of a mans life in every passage and turning of his estate and condition in every designe or engagement this must not be forgotten viz. I have entred into Covenant with God as a wife with her husband will that I am now doing or going about stand with my Covenant Is this to performe Covenant with God c. If he be solicited to uncleannesse to fraud oppression any evill whatsoever this still runs in his minde There is a Covenant between me and the Lord I am bound from such courses by the strongest bonds How then can I commit this great wickednesse and sinne against God What was it for which Iudah and Israel became Captives but the breach of the Covenant They kept not the Covenant of God saith the Psalmist And how so Because they did not remember it As they soone forgot his workes so it was not long ere they forgot God their Saviour himselfe too and then no marvaile if at the next bout they forgot his Covenant also Psal. 106. He then that would not breake Covenant must not forget it but mind and performe it Otherwise it is like vowing unto God and not paying which is worse than not to vow at all Thus have I dispatcht the Second generall the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and shewed you how and in what manner this Covenant must be striken first in regard of the disposition and preparation of the Soule unto it it must be with serious seeking the face of God humbling the soule before hand it must be with all intention earnestnes with fervent Love and charity to draw others the same way Next in regard of the Covenant it self it must be an act firm joyning and binding our selves the Lord as of the borrower to the Lender of the wife to the husband and that by some solemne Act which may testifie it to all the world and be a witnesse against us if we keep it not And all this thirdly for properties must be of everlasting continuance and had in continuall remembrance so as it may be continually performed of all that make it 3. I proceed to the third and last branch the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Grounds and reasons why upon receit of any deliverance but more especially from Babylon people should enter into such a covenant with God And these respect deliverances eitherin generall or from Babylon in speciall 1. The reasons why this must be done upon any deliverance in generall are these 1. Because God at no time so much as when he bestowes upon his people some notable deliverance gives such cleere hints and demonstrations of his willingnesse to strike an everlasting Covenant with them No sooner had the Lord delivered Israel out of Egypt but within 3. Moneths after he commanded Moses to tell the people from him Ye have seene what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bare you on Eagles wings and brought you out unto my selfe Now therefore if ye will obey my voyce and keep my Covenant then yee shall be apeculiar treasure unto me above all people Exod. 19. 1. and verse 4 5. God himselfe you see was now earnest for a Covenant It is the nature of God where he bestowes one benefit to adde moe and still to rise in his blessings Where he once opens his hand to take a people into his protection he opens his heart to take them into his bosome Where he puts forth his power to rescue a people he puts out his heart to make them his owne if then they have eyes to discerne the opportunity See this most excellently demonstrated Ier. 32. from ver. 37. to the 42. His gathering them from their Captivity first warmes then melts and after inflames his heart towards them making it even then to glow as it were upon them to become restlesse till he have bestowed himselfe wholly on them by solemne Covenant to be their God for ever Now then shall God at such a time be so willing and desirous to enter Covenant with men and shall they think it too much for them to be in Covenant with him Shall he be fast bound to them and they left free to sit loose from him Indeed this is that which our corrupt nature would willingly have People would faine be their owne men which yet in truth is to be the greatest slaves Necessary therefore it is for men upon receit of any deliverance to renew Covenant with God who is pleased to honour them so farre as to be in Covenant with them For these two are relatives and ever goe together I will be their God and they shall be my people God is not the God of any people but of his owne Covenant-Servants The rest he stiles Lo-ammi Hos. 1. 9. for yee are not my people saith he and I will not be your God They will not enter into Covenant with me and I will make no Covenant with them That is the first reason 2. As God is pleased to enter into Covenant with his people so is he first in the Covenant God requires no man to bind himself by Covenant to Him till the Lord first strike a Covenant with his Soule As we love him because he loved us first so we enter into Covenant with him because he first entreth into Covenant with us I will be their God he is first bound and seales first and then and not till then it followes they shall be my people This is the constant tenor of the Covenant And shall he begin and we think much to follow Can there be a marriage consummated where onely the man is first married to the woman and