in Improving the strength of Jesus Christ to prevent your turning again to folly do not undertake nor engage in your own strength but believingly lay all the weight and stresse on your Suretie Put his name in the band which ye give to God for the debt of duty Abide in me and I in you So ye shal bring forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing saith our Lord to his Disciples John 15. But how many fail and come short here While they go about duties and either quite misken or make but very litle use of Christ many know very litle or nothing at all what it is to make use of Christ in order to the making of their peace with God but O! how very few know what it is to make use of his strength to enable them for duty to go through the wilderness leaning on their beloved Seventhly Defer not to make your Resolutions and engagements practicable There are many alace who think Shame it should be said that a Sermon had so much weight with them as to make them alter and change their course at once It may be they will consent to be religious but they must be allowed to come to it by degrees to creep toward it piece-meal but beware of that lest it prove in the Issue to be a shift of thy deceitfull heart Ponder these words well Eccles 5. Defer not to pay what thou hast vowed for the Lord hath no Pleasure in fools And in the Holy Ghosts account he is a fool that deferreth and putteth off one moment O! delayes are in a speciall manner dangerous here and Sathan will not faill to knit one delay to another Eightly Reject all Temptations to sin and turning again to folly with abhorrency say with Ephraim What have I any more to do with Idols Never think on them but with indignation and Holy disdain for ye are undone if ye but once listen to them Ninthly Be often examining if ye be like and answerable to your Communicating and to your Promises and engagements many know not how it is with them because they Examine not Tenthly Walk humbly in the sense of your weakness trust not to your own heart for he that doth so is reputed to be a fool by the Holy Ghost Eleventhly Be helping one another forward in your way to Heaven Take heed saith the Apostle Heb. 3.12.13 That there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another dayly while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of Sin To be edifieing to others would through Gods blessing be edifieing to your selves and help you to be in good case to be praying with them would stir up your selves to more Seriousness in the exercise of that duty to be reproving sin in them would waken up more hatred of it in your selves and to be much Conversant in the duties of Mutual edification with them that are warm in their love to Christ to his interests and friends and diligent in the study of Holiness would readily through Grace stir you up to seek after more love and more Holiness as he insinuats in that exhortation to the Christian Hebrews Chap. 10.24 Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works Twelfthly And in a word endeavour to walk suitably to your light your own consciences will readily tell you that it 's best to walk so as ye may abstain from that which ye know to be sin and to be doing and delighting in that which ye know to be duty Theâ—e are very few if any duties of Religion but they are one time or another and many of them frequently laid before you and not a few shall I hope have cause of blessing God eternally that ever this Gospel-light was made to shine so clearly on them but for such of you As detain the truth of God in unrighteousness as the Apostle says some do Rom. 1 or make a prisoner of it by setting a guard of corrupt affections about it Whom God gave up to vile affections and to all sorts of most abominable filthiness because though they knew that such things ought not to have been done yet they not only did but took pleasure in them that did them I leave it with all the seriousness I can win to on you and take Instruments of witness in your consciences that ye have bad great offers and have made fair mints and come under at least seeming engagements if ye have not done so declare so much but since ye all professe that ye have engaged and some have really engaged not to turn again to folly walk suitably to your engagements as ye would not have your consciences condemning you and God who is greater then your Consciences to condemn you Many I fear have sleeping consciences and that will not now speak to them but the Conscience of every one will speak at length and not keep silence We shall now say no more but Pray that this word may be Blessed of God to you These five following Sermons were all Preached about the time of the Communion the first four within a very few dayes before it as it gradually approached the Fifth after it On Jeremiah 50. vers 4 5. In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Judah together going and weeping they shall go and see the Lord their God Vers 5. They shal ask the way to Zion with their faces thither-ward Saying come and let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not bâ— forgotten SERMON I. THe repairing and making up of a breach betwixt God and a People is a matter of greatest moment and Concern and when men are serious in it O how uptaking is it to them Which is holden out to the life in these words that lay forth before us very clearly the frame and carriage of a people which formerly have dealt loosly and deceitfully in the matter of their Covenant with God when they come through his Grace to be serious and in good earnest in the upmaking of it again As for the people spoken of here they are Israel and Judah the Loâ—ds own Covenanted People who had dealt falsly and foully in the Covenant and had thereby Procured sad strokes to themselves and had divided and separated themselves from God and one of them from another Which division and separation continued lamentably long They are both here represented as coming home together Seriously endeavouring to amend and make up the breach betwixt God and them and among themselves As for the time that this relates to In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord It looks literally and according to the Cohesion to Babylons Destruction and 〈◊〉 Lords bringing down that Babylonish Monarchy by the Persian King Cyrus In which time the People of God had some
delights nor desires taken up with things earthly but he should be Mortified unto and weaned from all those things He should not be like unto those who on all occasions are tossed with their humors and with every wind of temptation but he should be so calme Composed and sober settled and fixed in a Heavenly temper of Spirit that words of reproach may not much trouble him nor crosses and afflictions much disquiet him he should have such composure and sedatness of spirit that he may be much above the levity and unstayedness that the men of the world are under the power of and he should endeavor to be defecat and purged from those impure mixtures of self-interests that are regnant in worldly men Secondly in respect of his work he should and may have his conversation in Heaven and that is when he is much in the exercise of those Graces and in the practise of those duties that he is to be taken up with in Heaven to be much in love to God taken up with delighting in him much in Communion with God Holily impatient to want him or to live without his company to be much in the study and searching out of his perfections to be studying to have the heart fixed as it were a pillar in his house and not to go out from him to be much in admiring and adorning the free grace and love of God and to be in a Holy manner ravished with the contemplation of those to be much in the work of Prayer and much in the work of Praise saying Worthy is the Lamb to receive Glory Honour Dominion c. Joining with the four beasts and four and twenty Elders saying Holy Holy Lord God Almighty to be much in prizing and valuing of God in setting out and commending him to be in all duties willing and cheerfull doing Gods will cheerfully and with alacriâ—y to be much in longing for the Sabbath to converse more closely with him longing ofâ—en for privacie and retirement to pour out the heart before him and to do all this with Holy coveting to do it better praying that his will may be done on earth as it is done in Heaven Thirdly A believer may be said to have his Conversation and you are called to have yours in Heaven in respect of a Heavenly walk and as having a heavenly impresse on all your Conversaâ—ion to be walking as it were in Heaven and as if Holiness to the Lord were written on your foreheads which being very comprehensive takes in these First to have the heart fixed in meditating on God and his law on Spirituall and Heavenly things to have a sublime and divine strain of mind not debasing it self to pursue vanities but kept in a close and constant pursuit after Communion with God and conformity to him to be in case to say with David Psal 139. When I awake I am still with thee Labouring to leave the heart and mind in Heaven when ye ly down and seeking to find it there when ye arise 2. To have your affections love desires and delights in Heaven or heavenly 3. To have your words savouring of Heaven Ministering Grace to the hearers endeavouring to have your words weighty and grave in the commendation of God and his Grace 4. To have your hearing of the word and your praying carrying much of a heavenly stamp and impression on them hearing as if God were speaking to you Immediatly from heaven and praying as if ye were even before his Throne 5. In your more common and ordinary Conversation as in your Eating and Drinking in your recreating and in following your lawful callings and employments even the very coursest and lowest of them to propose to your selves another end then the men of the world do making that your main end to Glorifie God and to have such a heavenly and Divine way of going about these as may be convincing edifieing and gaining of on-lookers not to be predominantly influenced by selfish humours designes or interests looking only or mainly to what may please or profit your selves but levelling all at the Glory of God and the edification and good of others as well as your own Fourthly We may be said to have our Conversation in Heaven when we have a Holy commerce and trading as it were with Heaven as a man is said to converse in France or Spain when he trades and trafliques there So to have converse in Heaven is Spiritually to traffique there to have Faith and Hope exercised in and about heaven to send many prayers and desires to heaven as so many empty vessels and to be in the lively and longing expectation of their return full and richly loaden to make many visits as I said before to heaven and to be in all those neither seldome nor transiently and at starts only but to be frequent and more continuing in them and though they should sometimes return either with seeming losse or with very litle gain yet to keep up the trade and traffique seeking to make up our losse by a new voyage thither for the trade is not alwayes to speak so alike quick Fifthly We may be said to converse in heaven by our abiding as it were in heaven and this is one of the highest steps of a heavenly Conversation If ye shall ask How it is that a believer while on earth doth or can abide in Heaven I Answer these wayes or in these respects 1. By having his heart in heaven where his treasure is For as the Lord sayes Where a mans treasure is there is his heart the man as it were dwels there and if at any time he remove a litle he leaves there his great stock and his heart as a Factor so though the Christian be discoursing buying selling eating drinking c. Yet in all these his heart may and ought some way to be in heaven 2. To have his Faith in heaven and as it were never to come out of it 3. To have his love in heaven folding its two armes about the Lamb and him that sits on the Throne holily loth to have them loosed from those sweet Soul solacing and satisfieing embraces 4. To have his hope in heaven which is an Anchor cast within the vail and makes the soul safe and sure amidst the greatest tempests of outward trouble as a ship rideth safely when she hath cast Anchor on firme ground so that there is no fear she will drive In a word these Four The Heart Faith Hope and Love being in heaven we may say that the mans best half and Part is in heaven his â—edder stake is loosed and much of his Tabernacle taken down and he made in a good measure meet ready and ripe for his dissolution and for heaven Thus ye are called and oblidged to have your Conversation in heaven Sixthly A Believers conversation may be said to be and ought to be in heaven when his contentment delight and satisfaction are in heaven when all that he desires all that
liberty to return to their own land Yet considering the great scope of the Words and that this liberty of the Jews is in a great part fulfilled in Christ and that the union spoken of here is such as hath in it the gathering together of all the Tribes and withall that the Covenant which they enter into with the Lord Christ is such as shall never be forgotten We must extend the words to their Ingraffing again into their own Olive when all Israel shall be saved and they shall be graffed into their own root and Stock from off which they were broken As for the Scope it 's partly off encourage the Jews This being not only a Promise of their return but also and mainly of their Repentance and of their Friendship Reconciliation with God and with one another In those dayes they that had been far from him and busie vexing one another shall come and come together Their work and business in coming is to seek the Lord and the manner of it is going and weeping Praying and repenting and although the way be somewhat dark and not so discernible to them yet they go on asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward They ask how they may come to Him worship God again aright and perform the duties of a people inchurched to and in Covenant with him And as it were from one Post or Town to another they ask the way and get Direction from one day to another and from one duty to another And their designe in all is Come say they on the matter we were once in Covenant with God and with one another but we have been unfaithfull in both now let us amend and make up the breach in both Let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten Let us renew our Covenant with God and let it be done firmly and surely so as it may not be broken again this looks and hath respect to Jeremiah 31.31 c. and 32.49 40. Where the Lord Promiseth To make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and with the house of Judah Cited by the Apostle Heb. 8. And it 's called Chap. 32. An everlasting Covenant Which is not so much to be understood of meer externall Covenanting as of saving sharing in and partaking of Christs Righteousness for the Pardon of sin and of their engaging to God in his own strength to be forth-coming in the fruits of saving Grace and Holiness in their practice This is in Sum the way and course which they take and is a short directory for what should be a peoples carriage when they would make up the breach of a broken Covenant with God As for the Particular Scope of this place as it relateth to Israel and Judah their returning together we shall not insist in it yet from these words we may see First That There is good ground for us to expect the Lords bringing back his scattered People the Jews and their ingraffing again into their own Olive The same God that perswaded Japhet to dwel in the Tents of Shem can perswade Shem to dwell in the tents of Japhet As they minded us Gentiles as a litle Sister and were Holily Solicitous what they might do for us we ought in gratitude to mind them as the elder Sister that they may turn again to the Lord who hath given us his faithful Word for it which cannot fail but must be fulfilled Secondly We see that Heart-melting towards God and seriousness to make up the breach of a broken Covenant betwixt a People and him conduce natively to make the hearts of those that have been divided and set at variance from one another in much warmness of love to unite and sweetly to join together It 's from this that Israel and Judah become one Stick in the Lords hand Ezek. 37. This makes them as melted mettall to run close together as it were into one Lump though it was a long continued Schisme and had much bitterness attending it yet when their hearts are touched with a Sense of sin and of a broken Covenant their former differences and animosities evanish softness of heart in the sense of by gone sin would silence many things among us that all disputings writings and Printings will not be able to do Pray for this to the Land as the most effectuall mean and way of curing out divisions and of uniting us in the Lord It Joins Judah and Israel together whose breach was much greater and of far longer continuance then ours Thirdly We see here that A peoples joining and running together in serious seeking of the Lord is very Commendable and lovely and a good token and evidence to them of their turning to God and of Gods accepting of them even as bitterness and division is exceeding displeasing to God and prejudiciall to themselves and to the Work of Grace in them This is an happy-like hopeful and promising day of Repentance and turning to God that bodeth much unspeakably much good to a land and People But we come to consider the words as they do direct unto and chalk out the way for a people returning to make up a broken Covenant with God which is the Scope And we may take it up in these Three First As it respects the frame of their hearts And O what a tender humble warm and mournfull frame are they represented to be in They shall come and go together exciting one another going and weeping with their faces towards Zion Secondly As it respects and holds forth the great designe they have and that is to renew and make sure the Covenant betwixt God them Though it was now broken and they want not challenges for it Yet they do not say we will never enter in it again Because we brake it the last time we made it But come say they let us make it the more firm and stable Thirdly As it respects and hold out their posture and the way which they take in pursuing this designe There is a going and weeping a praying to and seeking of the Lord in a word they seek and endeavour to renew their Covenant with God seriously diligently and humbly and thus they pursue their designe First then If we look to their frame we will find implyed in it 1. A guilty condition 2. A challenging and convinced condition 3. A repenting condition they are kindly affected with the wrongs done to God and desire and use means to have them righted We shall name Two or Three generall Doctrines from this First Consideration of the word though in effect it will fall in with the Last The First whereof is this That Gods Covenanted People may deal foully and falsly in his Covenant For their coming to renew the Covenant supposeth that they had broken it and it 's also implyed in their mourning and weeping and saying Come and let us join our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten This needs no further
are represenâ—ed to be in here they aâ—e going we are sitting still they are weeping our eyes are dry and our hearts hard the humble mournfull way of Religion Alace is much gone from amongst us again they are renewing the Covenant but Ah! what can we say as to the securing of things betwixt God and us Are not the most part as well satisfied with their state and Condition as if there were nothing wrong nor amisse in it Alace shall we slubber and scurf over Religion and vaâ—lour selves from our selves and from oâ—hers when in the mean time our hearts and Consciences might if awake tell us that we are not in Covenant with God I know many of you will be ready to say ye are friends with God but let me ask such did ye ever know and believe the enmity did ye ever apprehend your selves to be straâ—gers to God and without the Covenant Did ye ever experimentally know any good that his word did to you as to the bringing of you under the bond of the Covenant Hath any gracious Change followed upon it The truth is many of you think that ye may go to Heaven without the word and the saving effects of it on your hearts ye found them as ye fancy always inclined to love God ye suppose that ye were alwayes in friendship with him which though there were nothing else to prove it is a manifest evidence that ye were never really in friendship with him But let me ask yet further did ye ever know what it was to make use of Christs mediation in the making up of a Covenant betwixt God and you It 's like ye will say ye prayed but ye might have done that though Christ had never come into the World and though there had been no ground for your acceptance on his account but I say again what use made ye of his mediation and sufferings I fear ye know little or nothing at all of this but ye come to him because ye imagine that he bears a good-will to all sinners and is very easie to be dealt with and that God the Father is more inexorrable and a harder partie to deal with then he as if Jesus Christ the Son were not as Just as the Father Or as if God the Father were not as ready through a mediator to accept of sinners as the Son is I would ask you yet further do ye think or can ye with any Just reason think that your Covenant is sure when ye know neither what it is nor how ye have entered into it In the Covenant as there is an offer on Gods side so there must be a receiving on yours though I grant that oftentimeâ— this to serious Souls will be unclear and it will bâ— their burden that they have not strong enough desires tâ— have it thorough and clear such Poo Souls would puâ— their darkness unbelief and undexterousness in Christ hand to be helped But it 's a sad matter that when wâ— should be praying you to close with Christ in the Covenant I must be our work and the hardest peece of it to shake many of you out of your presumption It 's unpleasure to us God knoweth to preach you out of thâ— Covenant but your Presumption Layeth a necessitâ— on us to lance you to the quick and to search down tâ— the bottom of your sores because these must be diâ—covered and laid open before there can be any Juâ— ground for the application of consolation if once 〈◊〉 could get you brought under a thorough conviction thâ— ye have been deluding your selves we might yet haâ— sweet lively comfortable and refreshfull sayes if 〈◊〉 were in this Posture Going and weeping for pervertiâ— your wayes with your faces towards Zion towards Gâ— through the Mediator ye might expect Gods blessiâ— on these Solemne Ordinances and that there should 〈◊〉 a Covenant made up with him never to be forgotten 〈◊〉 be Serious in the business and let not this opportuniâ— go by you unimproved to the best utmost advantagâ— and himself graciously help you hereunto Jeremiah 50. Vers 4.5 In those dayes and In that time saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Judah together going weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God Vers 5. They shal ask the way to Zion with their faces thither-ward Saying come and let us Joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not be forgotten SERMON II. COvenanting with God if it be real well grounded and sure is a business of incomparably greatest concern and advantage to sinners but when it is otherwise and only Imagined without any Solid ground it 's attended with the greatest disapointment and Prejudice imaginable a man in that case fancieth himself to be in a state of Friendship and favour with God while in the mean time he is an enemy to God and God an enemy to him and is there any disappointment or disadvantage in the world comparable to that It is one great end and designe of all Ordinances that strangers to God by nature may be engaged to him and made to become his Covenanted People It was for this end that Christ came into the world and laid down His life and shed his precious Blood even to bring Sinners into a Covenant of Reconciliation and friendship with God and therefore the Ordinance that is now approaching is called the new Covenant or New Testamâ—nt in his Blood The words have in them a short and sweet sum compend of the gracious frame of a People turning home to God to get a broken Covenant made up Israel and Judah having deeply declined from the blessed state and condition wherein God had once graciously put them Their return and Repentance is here both Prophesied of and promised and this is the great thing which they designe in their Returning Even to get the knot to say so of the Covenant betwixt God and them made fast and sure so as they may never any more be separated from him We shall at this time shortly name some generall Observations from the words The First whereof is this that There is nothinâ— that People who havâ— any Convictions of â—heir sin and of their distance from God should more singly aim at and Seriously seek after then to be firmly joined to the Lord in Covenant or to be in good terms with him according to his Covenant For these come to the same amount to be in good terms with God to be Reconciled to God and to be in Covenant with God by the one we come to the other this we say should be aimed at sought after by all that are naturally born enemies to God Aliens and Strangers to the Covenant of Promise without Hope and without God in the World Ephes 2.12 Compared with vers 1.2 3. where to be dead in sins and tâ—espâ—sses is expounded to be Without the Covenaâ—t But more especially those who are touched with the sense of their
sin should have this for their aim designe and endeavour as we see in these spoken of here who when they come to any sense of their sin this is clearly their great designe and work verie seriously and closely pursued by them To clear and Confirm it take these Three words Consider First What state and Condition man naturally is in Secondly What God is to man in reference to that estate And Thirdly What Covenanting with God is and we will find that there is nothing which he should more seriously designe and seek after First Man is naturally an enemy to God and in respect of his malicious desperat inclination given to thwart with God whereby God stands as an enemy to him he is liable to the curse of God and God is as an armed man against him as Job speaks and he like an unarmed Child runing on the bosses of his Buckler Secondly Consider that God is not only an enemy but stands stated as such with his Curse against sinners according to that word Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Law to do them and this Curse is like the flaming Sword in the hand of the Cherubims which with terrour separats betwixt God and the sinner So that there is no access for him to God and if he have any thoughts of God he is troubled with them and all the Creatures are armed against him So that he can expect nothing but enmity from every stone of the field Thirdâ— Consider that Covenanting with God is that wheâ— by a man who is naturally at enmity with God coâ—eth to be in friendship with him and hath the faâ— of every thing altered the meditation of God sweet to him the creatures are in league with hiâ— The Angels become Ministring Spirits to him a Gods dispensations become lovely and do work tâ—gether for his good even those that are in themselves most terrible Death and the Grave becomâ— servants to him and being in Covenant with Goâ— he can triumph over them and all troubles and peâ—secutions and say that he is More then Conqueror 〈◊〉 them all as it is Rom. 8. and saith the Apostle tâ— such 1 Cor. 3. All things are yours whether Pauâ— or Apollo or Cephas or Life or Death things presenâ— or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs Is it any wonder then that at Poor Soul toucheâ— with the sense of sin be desirous and Solicitous to bâ— in Covenant with God And therefore whetheâ— we look upon it as a dutie or as an evidence of 〈◊〉 person truly humbled for sin it is very desirable anâ— should be seriously sought after The Use Serves to show That the great Scope which ye should now have before you is to have a broken Covenant made up with God It should be your main designe to put this grand business to a point that there may be no war but a standing League betwixt God and you And therefore whâ— ever they be that satisfie themselves with going about the Ordinances misken this they certainly mistake the mark The great matter is not to come to the Communion neither is it to win at somewhat of heart softness or to a little sense which are good but it 's really to be in Covenant with God to be able to say on good ground The Lord is my God My beloved 〈◊〉 mine and I am his And when he saith Return backsliding Children to be in case to answer with the heart â—ehold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God â—his is indeed a desirable thing and he is an unhappie man that doth not that will not heartily desire and seek after it Secondly From their very great Seriousness in going and weeping in going to seek the Lord asking the way to Zion and from their encouraging one another to Join in Covenant with the Lord Observe that where there is any Sincerity or begun work of Grace it shews 〈◊〉 self in nothing sooner then in an impulse to be at Covenanting with God and to have some clearness therein For only to be in Covenant and not to have the knowledge of it cannot give that peace and comfort which a present sad exercise calleth for therefore say they while they are going and weeping Come and let us join our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shal not be forgotten So then we say that a sincere and gracious work of God appears in nothing sooner then in this impulse to have the Covenant of God fixed and put out of doubt to have this at a Point is their great designe here and they are very serious in it So Isaiah 44. where vers 3. There is a Promise of the work of the Spirit in Sanctifieng and how is this work of the Spirit proved or wherein doth it appear Even thus vers 5. One shal say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sur-name himself by the name of Israel the work of Gods Spirit whâ— he comes to Sanctifie and save is such as makes a maâ— run and devote himself to God with hand heart aâ— mouth ye never saw people more quickly and wiâ— better will come to the Church at the most Solemâ— occasion then when this work is begun or there any kindly exercise about it serious Souls will 〈◊〉 ready to run with their heart to Subscribe to Gods Câ—venant when the Terms of it are laid out before theâ— Only advert to these Two things in this Observatioâ— First When I speak of entering in Covenant with Goâ— I mean of the hearts closing with him by Fai h according as he offers himself in this Gospel when he saitâ— quit and renounce your own righteousness and taâ— mine quit and abandon your lusts and Idols and giâ—â— your selves to me and I will be your God and be fortâ— coming to you in all things that concern your happineâ— here and hereafter the heart yeelds and says conteâ— Lord the offer is good and I accept of it and 〈◊〉 wives were wont as it is yet the custom to surnaâ— themselves by their husbands so doth the Soul upâ— the matter in this Covenant Subscribe I am Godâ— This is called a yeelding to God or the giving of tâ— hand to him 2 Chron. 30.8 and Rom. 10.3 It 〈◊〉 called A submitting to the righteousness of God Seconâ—ly When we speak of this impulse towards or desiâ— of Covenanting with God It 's noâ— to be understood 〈◊〉 every raw wish such as Balaam bad to be in Heaven but it is a seriously urging impulse an earnest hungâ— and thirst and an ardent longing to have this at a point It 's such a thirsting desire as all the world beside wâ— not be able to quench It makes the Soul eager in tâ— pursuit of the thing even to meet and close with Goâ— in the Covenant It 's in effect that which Matth. 5.6 is called
Covenant Secondly they might have thought that it was a very long Journey and that they would never be able to go thorow to the end of it besides that they were under the dominion of strange Kings who were Heathens So it may be said on the matter and is often said to serious Souls that would fain believe can ye believe It will not be with you are ye not under the feet of many Tyrannous lusts And how will ye win free from them yet they resolve and must yea dare not but resolve to go forward and the reason is because they resolve to take with their guilt and to make use of the Covenant for answering and silencing of challenges and they resolve also if the Journey be long to make use of the Covenant for strength to make them hold on and hold out in it The weak Believer when such doubts are started should make use of the Promises of the Covenant such as these Faithfull is he who hath called you who also will do it 1 Thess 5.24 Return back sliding Children and I will heal your back-slidings saith the Lord and then follows Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Jer. 3.22 They yeeld themselves to the Lord. A Third Difficultie is their ignorance they might have said we know not the way and how can we think to come where we desire and designe to be as some will be ready to say we can tell some words of the Catechisme but Alace We know not what it is to believe yet they sit not still for all this but as one Remedy of their ignorance they ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward And if ye Ask here how can their faces be thitherward when they are a king the way And at whom do they ask the way The Gentiles amongst whom they live know it not and they have no other to ask at I answer they are hanging on God and taking their Marks and meaths of the way as he gives them from his word and there is a most sweet word for such Isaiah 35.8 where the Lord speaking of this way and calling it the way of Holiness he saith The way faring man though a fool shall not erre therein It 's the heartsomest way that can be O! but it be safe for the way-faring sinner for the seriously seeking Soul to have the face toward God for making up of Peace with him upon the one hand the Lord hedges up such persons their way with thorns that they shal not find their lovers and upon the other he constrains them to go right forward He leads the blind in a way they know not and makes darkness light before them are there not severals of you brought far thorow this day and ye know not well how He brought you to Faith very insensibly and trained you on peece and peece and yet ye cannot tell well how but ye know certainly that it was He that did it and in this Case O! but it be good singly to be given up to Gods leading and guiding who leads his flock like a shepherd who gathers his Lambs with his arm and carries them in his bosom and gentlie leads them that are with young as it is Isaiah 40.11 The Lambs would run wild and ruine themselves if left on the Hills but they are under the good Shepherds oversight and tutorie to speak so who brings home the lost sheep on his Shoulders as it was even now said gathers the Lambs with his Arm and gently leads them that are with Young which not only saith that he drives not hard lest they cast the young but that as the Nurse leads the litle Child otherwise then Ladies use to be led by a gentle touch of their hand or arm by the arm holes or by the tugs when the Child knows not how to go and cannot stand on its own feet even so leadeth he such I taught saith the Lord Hosea 11. Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms when a poor Body hath Christ a forming in the heart he will gently lead such an one and deal wonderfully tenderly with the person ye who come honestly to him may confidently yeeld and give up your selves to be his and guided by him though ye be both weak and know not the way well if ye can but cast a look to him to speak so or be sweetly silent before him allowing him to be doing and to take his oâ— way with you if you lay your selves humbly in 〈◊〉 dust and wait what he will do to you he will accoâ— that Believing The Lord is good to them that wait him to the soul that seeks him saith Jeremiah Lamâ— 25. To wait on Gods leasure is a saying much abuâ— but it is very good and commendable here It is gâ— that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Sâ—â—vation of the Lord. Be not afraid sincere and exercâ— Souls I say be not afraid when he is as it weâ— pouring you from vessel to vessel and putting youâ— his own holy and wise ends in some confusion so ye know not well what to do or to what hand to you he is wondrous tender of you in that Case will have a speciall care that ye Mis-carry not Thâ— a very sweet Subject if we could speak suitably 〈◊〉 Himself bless it to you Jeremiah 50. Vers 4.5 Going and weeping they shall go seek the Lord their God Vers 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with faces thither-ward saying Come and let us our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covâ—nant shall not be forgotten SERMON III. IT is like that at the first reading of these Words will approve both the designe that this People haâ—â— engaging themselves to God in Covenant and 〈◊〉 endeavour to have their engagement so solid and sure as it may not be broken any more but may hold for ever we take it for granted also that ye will Judge that the disposition and frame of Soul wherein they are while about this great Business is very becoming and â—uitable for such as have dealt unfaithfully and foully in â—he Covenant of God and are from the Conviction â—ereof stirred and put upon Resolutions to engage with â—â—m of new and to enter again into a Covenant with â—â—m we Heartily wish that it were a peece of our Exercise this night before our approaching the Table of the Lord the next day to compare the frame and Sett of our hearts with what these words hold forth this Peoples frame and disposition to be We need not now speak to the Scope of the words it being so clear and having been touched at before There is here a People Prophesied of who are to be brought to Repentance and Covenanting with God in the Latter dayes whose Spiritually good and desirable frame is described They shall go weeping and seeking the Lord each of them stirring up another having this for their designe and the Language of their hearts Come and
let us Join our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten That which we would now speak a litle to is Two Generals very much becoming a people who designe â—â—end to Covenant firmly with God and seeing it is â—t this time in a more especial manner our professed designe to close the bargain with him and in evidence â—hereof are if the Lord will to partake of the Signe and Seal of the Covenant as supposing it to be indeed a closed bargain or at least that it is seriously desired â—â—y us that it may be so they will not be unsuitable for â—ou to hear and make use of them The First Generall then is this that Covenanting witâ— God when People are in earnest in it will be a very up taking exercising and weighty business This is cleaâ— here if ye consider how these People go about thâ— work they aâ—e in very good earnest and there aâ—â— several evidences of it they are weeping and going theâ— are seeking the Lord asking the way to Zion with theâ— faces thitherward and every one of them Sâ—irring uâ— another to renew the Covenant and to cast the knot 〈◊〉 firmly that it may be A perpetual Covenant never 〈◊〉 be forgotten and such as may never loose or be brokeâ— again whence the generall is clear viz. that wheâ— People mind in earnest the making up of a breach betwixt God and them which is done by Covenantinâ— with him it will be an exercising and uptaking buâ—ness to them Ye may consider some Scriptures foâ— confirmation of this which will also hold out what it is and namely Matth. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heavâ—â— suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Thâ— Lord is speaking there of mens making Peace with Gâ— thorow himself the Mediator by which they are brougâ—â— to Heaven and he tells that it is a most serious buâ—â—ness that will abide them brangling to speak so aâ— using of violence Luke 13 25. strive to enter in at 〈◊〉 strait gate for many will seek and shall not be able is a narrow gate and there must be thronging and thrâ—ing to win in at it men will be put to a sort of Agoâ—â— as the word signifies consider also Pauls word 1 Câ—â— 9.24 So run as ye may obtain insinuating that the is a sort of running wherein men are not in earnest 〈◊〉 indifferent whether they get the Prize or not aâ— therefore he would have them making earnest of it as he Proposeth his own practise as an example and a Câ—pie to them I therefore run not as uncertainly so fighâ— not as one that beateth the Air but I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection lest that by any me nâ— when I have Preaâ—hed to others I my self sâ—oâ—ld be a cast away these are the expressions of a man who is in good earnest in this business and his seriousness therein is Proposed to you for a Pattern what way ye should run and fight the like word we have Philip. 3.13 This one thing I do it 's an up-taking work to me Forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forth to those things which are befo e I press towards the mark for the Prâ—ze of the high ca ling of God in Christ Jesus and vers 11. If by any means saith he I might attain unto the Resurrection of the dead every word hath it's own weight to make it out that it is so his one thing that he cares not what it cost him so be he may obtain it That which we would say further on this point shall be a word of Application in these Two or Three Uses The First whereof serves for Instruction would ye know what is required of you as a direction to dutie at this time And would ye know if things be right in your preparation for the Communion This maybe a Mark to discern and a direction on the matter even to be serious and to make it an uptaking business your One thing to be about it as such an occasion and work calls you to be And if ye shall ask wherein consists this Seriousness and uptaking exercise in Covenanting with God I shall Sum it up to you in these Four which comprehend it First The man is taken up in respect of exercise in his Conscience convictions become fresh Challenges are put home he is pricked less or more at the very heart there is something within him that gives him a Conscience-alarm that puts in his hand a Libell and assures him of an appearance before Gods Tribunal and indeed unless some thing of this be men will not be in earnest and it is clearly implied in the Text For there are here sharp Challenges that make this People weep and that extort tears from their eyes Secondly There is a seriousness in respect of the work that it hath on Peoples hearts and affections there will be a kindling of desires to have Covenanting with God at a point with a holy fear lest they miscarry in the doing of it and these put together do much take up the man and make him seek after thorow acquaintance with his own Spirit which he finds to be so fickle inconstant and back-sliding and thus apprehending the work to be great and difficult he is put in Holy fear and Jealousie over himself lest he marr the matter and make it worse with himself as it is said of Godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7.11 What carefulness what fear what indignation what vehement desire what zeal what revenge it wrought in them Now when these are tumbling to speak so thorow other in the man and he hath an inward wrestling to have the work secured and is afraid lest it miscarry Is it Possible but he will be serious and much taken up and this is also implied in the words Come say they And let us join to the Lord in a Perpetuall Covenant There is a desire to have the Covenant at a point and they fear it slip while they are casting the knot therefore they say let it be a Perpetuall Covenant never to be forgotten It 's good to fear in the very time Thirdly This seriousness is in respect of Peoples dutie It makes them pray that never prayed before to Purpose It makes them examine themselves Meditat Read and conferr that never knew before what it was to be taken up with those duties Therefore we find this People going and seeking the Lord and exciting one another they are put to their feet and to reaching forward so that they leave nothing undone whereby they may attain the end Fourthly This Seriousness appears in the manner of their going about duties there is another edge then was wont to be on their prayers Self-Judging and wrestling with God they are much like to Jacob they will not let the Lord go till he bless them they will still wrestle though it should be all the night they cannot find in their heart to part with him on any terms and