now in any deliverance bestowed it would be doubled if upon the deliverance received we would thus be ioyned to him Nor is this a notion or conceit onely but a reall trueth For marke what He saith to his people Hos 2. vers 19 20. I will marry thee unto me for ever I will betroath the unto me in righteousnesse and in Iudgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will even marry thee unto me in faithfullnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. He that enters into Covenant with God is betroathed yea even married to him And how married even to the partaking of all his goods of all he hath yea of himselfe and of all that he is As the wife may say Gen. 31.43 Vbi tu Caius ego Caia and as Laban sometimes of Iacobs wives children and cattell These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and these cattell are my cattell and all that thou seest are mine So a man once married to the Lord by Covenant may without arrogancy say this righteousnesse is my righteousnesse this iudgement is my judgement this loving kindnesse these mercies this faithfullnesse which I see in thee and all that thou hast is mine for my comfort supply support direction salvation and what not And take notice of that phrase Thou shalt know the Lord. Did they not know him before Yes but never in such a manner with such a Knowledge at least in such a measure They shall now know him in such neere familiar sweet and ineffable expressions of his deerest deepest choycest conjugal love as they never tasted nor could taste of before We know how it is with a wife married to a loving husband They loved one another before marriage and many expressions of a speciall love passed betweene them but they never enjoyed one another fully till the marriage was solemnized Then there is not only a more intimate manifestation of fervent intire loyall chaste love but a further enlarging and stretching out of mutuall affections to each other than they could possibly have beleeved they should ever have reached unto till now experience assure them of it And even thus it is between us and God Is he good in deliverances have we tasted of his love already Oh how great would his goodnesse be how full of grace mercy bountie and how would he communicate even whole rivers of all these to that Soule that would once come up to him and close with him in an everlasting Covenant All the wayes of the Lord are mercy and trueth unto such as make and keep Covenant with him Psal 25.19 3. Consider that what ever worke God calls You to 3. No buckling to the worke God calls us unto without a Covenant Yee will never buckle thoroughly to it till you have entered into Covenant with him An apprentise boy when he goes to a Master upon tryall onely his minde is now on then off againe sometimes he could like the trade by and by his minde hangs after his Mother at home or after some other course of life and he never sets close to his businesse till he be bound When once the Indentures be sealed and he enrolled he knowes there is now no more time to deliberate but he must fall to his businesse or else take what happens for his idlenesse and negligence So is it with a wife if she be but onely promised or betroathed to a man she may come to his house and cast an eye up and downe but it is rather to observe than to act she may perhaps cast out a word now and then somewhat freely also but she never sets her selfe to guide the house or to doe any thing to purpose till she be married then she careth for the things of the world that is with all possible diligence looking to 1 Cor. 7.34 and managing of the businesse of the family committed to her how she may please her husband all her thoughts care diligence run this way she makes it her busines that she must sticke unto and daily manage as a part of the marriage Covenant And thus also it will be with you You have much worke under your hands and are like to have more and I hope you desire to doe all in truth of heart for God and not for ends of your owne but let me tell you this will never be done througly till once you be marryed to him by solemne Covenant Then will you care indeed for the things of the Lord how you may please the Lord in every cause in every Answer to any Petition and in every Vote of any Bill or sentence You would then thinke when you come to manage debate vote any Question I am the Lords not mine own not my friends will this I doe stand with my Covenant will it please God will it be profitable for the State is it agreeable to Iustice and equitie Then on with it no man shall divert or take me off But till then one will intreate for his friend another for his one will make you one way another will draw you another way and they both are your friends and you know not how to deny either and thus are you even torne in peeces betweene them in so much as you sometimes resolve to be absent or to sit still and say nothing or to gratifie him that hath most power with You be the cause what it will But when once the Covenant is sealed all this will be at an end You will quickly stop your eares against all perswasions that may hinder Iustice and Reformation and when this is knowne men will soone forbeare also to trouble You with such solicitations 4. Wicked men Covenant with Hell Isay 28. Againe fourthly Wicked men sticke not at a Covenant with death and hell it selfe so they may but satisfie their Lusts though they know the end thereof will be damnation Oh then shall not we much more make a Covenant with our God to doe his will which will be beneficiall and comfortable both here and hereafter and procure a full torrent of his mercies bountie grace and eternall life to flow in upon us 5. Consider that the Devell himselfe will have a Covenant from all his vassals 5. The Devill himselfe will do no great matters for his vassals without a Covenant that expect any extraordinary matters from him else he will not be engaged to be at their Command There is not a Witch that hath the Devill at her beck but she must seale a Covenant to him sometimes with her bloud sometimes by other rites and devices and perhaps he must sucke her too as in those hellish bargaines you know they use and then he is for her during the time agreed upon And shall we think God will be so cheape as to be with reverence be it spoken at our Command to help direct assist deliver and save us who will not doe so much for him as Witches and Sorcerers will doe for the Devill
yeeres determined when the Empire was first over-runne and subdued by Cyrus the Persian For he made Proclamation of libertie to returne 2 Chr. 36.22 in the first yeere of his Raigne And when they returned this was their deportment they went weeping and to seeke the Lord their God They goe not so much to repossesse their ancient patrimony and inheritance and to grow rich in the world as to seeke and finde the Lord their God and that with a resolution to enter into Covenant with Him and such a Covenant as should never bee forgotten but daily remembred and carefully performed You now see the Context Should I now divide the Text Actus I might shew you here First an Act expressed by their industry in setting upon a long and tedious journey to Zion They shall aske the way to Zion Secondly the manner how they manage this journey Modus it is 1. With all intention of spirit they aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward 2. With fervent charity towards and mutuall zeale for each other to quicken and inflame one another to the same work saying Come Thirdly the end of their journey which with so much intention of spirit and inflamed charity calling and crying to one another in such a manner FINIS they set upon all was for this Let us joyne our selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shal not be forgotten I might easily also cast out these generals of the Text into many lesser branches but it is not now a time to trifle or to play with a Text. Yea I shall not distinctly prosecute all the parts already laid out but as the duty of this day requireth insist rather upon that which is the maine and bring in the other as subordinate thereunto by occasion afterwards in explication of the principall point For we see troopes in the Text bound for Zion and so hasty thitherward that they salute not any man by the way nor so much as looke aside any way they goe with their faces thitherward all the stay they make is but to call others along with them and amongst these us saying Come And what is the businesse the end of all this hast Nothing but this Let us joyne our selves unto the Lord in an everlasting Covenant c. This how ever it were last in execution yet was it first in their intention in the undertaking of this journey and therefore now must be principally insisted upon You see here a people loosed from the Babylonish captivitie and returning to Zion and in their returne to have this in their hearts in their mouthes and in their endeavours namely upon the receipt of this mercy to make speed to their God to enter into a new Contract and solemne Covenant with him So that now the chiefe and only point of instruction which I shall recommend to and presse upon you and mine owne heart with you is plainly this that The maine Observation or Doctrine When God vouchsafes any deliverance to his Church especially from Babylon then is it most seasonable and most necessary to close with God by a more solemne strict and inviolable Covenant to bee his and only his for ever In prosecuting this point wherein I resolve to be plaine and in earnest I shall first shew you the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it that it is so Next the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you will how and in what manner this must be done Thirdly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grounds and reasons of it and so proceed to the Application i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod sit That it is so For the first the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so this will appeare 1. More generally upon receipt of any deliverance 2. More specially upon an deliverance from Babylon above all other 1. In generall 1. That it is so in the generall Proved 1. More generally that this use must be made of any deliverance appeares both by precept and example in holy Scripture We shall carry them along together In Deut. 29. you shall finde Moses requiring the people to enter into a speciall Covenant with God beside the solemne Covenant which he made with them and they with him in Horeb. Exod. 19.5 c. To induce them thereunto Moses refresheth their memory with the repetition or representation of the many deliverances God had given unto them out of Egypt The first solemne Covenant which they passed into was after their deliverance out of Egypt Vers 1. and in the wildernesse by the space of fortie yeeres together with the wonders and miracles which he daily wrought for them And in the seventh ver he tels them that when ye came into this place that is into the Land of Moab Sihon the King of Heshbon Og the King of Bashan came cut against us unto battell c. What then Here is deliverance upon deliverance and the inference is Keep therefore the words of this Covenant and do them verse 9. But that is the Covenant on Gods part you will say True A second Covenant about fortie yeeres after the first when they came neere to Canaan and shortly after were to enter into it but that is not all He therefore presseth them to an actuall personall Covenant on their parts and that upon consideration of so many deliverances This was his maine businesse with them at the Lords own command Therefore in vers 10. he thus bespeaks them Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God your Captaines of your tribes your Elders and your Officers with all the men of Israel your little ones your wives and thy stranger that is in thy Campe from the hewer of thy wood to the drawer of thy water that thou shouldst enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God and into his Oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day And in vers 14. he addeth Neither with you onely do I make this Covenant and this oath but with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God and also with him that is not here with us this day Thus you see a Covenant required stricken and ratified by solemne Oath of God and his people mutually to one another they binde themselves by solemne Oath to him as he by oath had bound himself to them Thus then it was in the time of Moses No eminent deliverance went before but a solemne Covenant followed after * As Moses drew the people into a Covenant before their entrance into Canaan so did Ioshua also after they were possessed of it Iosh 24.25.26 So did Iehoiada upon the deliverance of Iudah from the tyranny of that bloudy monster Athaliah 2 King 11.17 And To sweare a Covenant is no new device no humane invention nor arbitrary Action I will give you but one instance more among many of this kinde and it is that of Asa that good and religious
in the case of any man joyning himselfe to the Lord by Covenant he must even bind himselfe to God as firmely as fully as the poore borrower who for his necessitie takes up money binds himselfe to the Vsurer If God lend him any mercy any blessing he binds himselfe to restore not only the principall the blessing it selfe when God shall call for it but even the interest too I meane all possible homage service and honour which becomes those who have received so great a benefit This is more than implyed in that parable of our Saviour touching the talents dispensed Matth. 25.27 for even to him who had received but one talent was it said Thou oughtest to have put my mony to the Exchangers that at my comming I might have received mine owne with usury God will have his returne some interest for every mercy and expects a Statute Staple that is a Covenant for his better security God will have him bound soule body estate life and all so as all he is and hath shall be forfeited if he do not keep touch and make payment according to the agreement and Covenant made betweene them This is the first use of the word Nilvu Secondly there is yet more in it For though it be true that the obligation of a borrower to the usurer be as strong as bonds and Statutes can make it yet there is not such an entire neere firme and lasting tye of the borrower to the Lender nor such a thorough interest in the whole estate of the Vsurer as there is of him that is in Covenant with God The Vsurer though he bind the poore borrower fast to him yet he keepes him at distance not giving him interest in or use of any other part of his estate but onely of the sum borrowed But now this joyning of our selves to the Lord is such as is made by marriage gives interest in all that the Lord is and hath and admits us to the participation of all the most intimate neerest choysest expressions of the deerest Love of God which is or can be found betweene the husband and the wife who are joyned together by the bond of marriage and made one flesh So the word is used Gen. 29.34 where Leah being delivered of her third son Levi thus saith to the women about her Now this time will my husband be joyned * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto me because I have borne him three sons That is now shall my husband be more arctly united to me in all love and in all demonstrations of it and that in the most free full and intimate way of expression that possibly can passe between those who are coupled together in so neere a relation So then lay both these together and you have a cleare view of this joyning of our selves to the Lord by Covenant He that enters into Covenant with God doth not only bind himselfe as the needy borrower to the Covetous Vsurer for a time but as the Wife to the Husband to be wholly his for ever without any reservation limitation or termination till death dissolve the bond As the wife hath interest in the goods estate and person of the husband and all that he hath is hers so by this joyning of our selves to the Lord He becomes ours as well as we become his and both are mutually conjoyned to each other by an indissoluble bond for ever All the power wisdome goodnesse mercy grace glory that the Great God hath to communicate to the creature is now assured and made over to every soule that thus engageth himselfe unto him And on the other side all the wit strength industry wealth honour friends life and all that this man hath he makes over and resignes up actually totally absolutely and for ever unto the Lord to serve and honour him withall and that with all his heart and with his whole desire to have nothing to doe nothing to be nothing but for the Lord though all the world be against him for it This I take to be the full latitude of the Covenant for the Matter of it 2. 2. In regard of the forme Touching the forme of this Act of joyning our selves to the Lord it is expressed in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Covenant A Covenant is nothing else but an agreement or bargaine betweene two or moe persons and ratified ordinarily by some externall solemnity or rites that may testifie and declare the agreement whereby it becomes unalterable Therefore it is that among the variety of ratifications of Covenants mentioned in Scripture still there is somewhat of outward solemnity reported to have beene used at the making of them to strike the bargaine thorough Sometimes they were made by Sacrifice Psalme 50.5 sometimes by Oath Deut. 29. sometimes by an Oath and a curse Neh. 10.29 sometimes by subscription of their hands Isa 44.5 Neh. 9. ult sometimes by sealing it with their seales also Sometimes by all these and by what ever else might most firmely and inviolably knit men unto God And as it was then so must it be still To strike a Covenant is not in a private or publike prayer only to goe to God and say Lord I will bee thine I here enter into a Covenant with thee be thou a witnesse of it c. but it is to stand and make it publiquely before the Lord by some speciall solemnity that may witnes it to all the world as Iosiah * 2 Cor. 34.31 Asa and all the godly ever did even as in entring into bonds or as in solemnizing of matrimony men use to doe Whether by the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by fasting or by ought else whereby they may becom so firmely and arctly joyned to the Lord that they may not only be no longer sui juris to depart away from the living God but not so much as to sit loose from God or to stand in any termes of indifferency which might leave them at liberty to serve or not to serve God in any dutie how difficult or dangerous soever And thus have you the Substance of the Covenant opened 3. Take we now a short view of the properties of this Covenant and they are two 3. The Properties of the Covenant which are two perpetuitie and heedfulnesse 1. It must be an everlasting Covenant in regard of continuance 1. It must be everlasting for continuance In the Originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Covenant of Ages And the 72. Interpreters render it to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is such a Covenant as no time shall terminate till they who make it cease to be Some understand this of engaging themselves to sticke close to him in the due celebration of his Legall worship so long as hee should continue it in his Church which was till Shiloh came without those mixtures wherein formerly they had been too bold and for which God had spewed them out of his Church and hurled them
as farre as Babylon Others conceive it to be meant of the Covenant of Grace that God had sealed to them in the bloud of his Sonne But neither of these are full For it is clearely meant of an Act of theirs towards God whereby they bind themselves to him and that not for a definite time only but for ever It is such a binding as that of the borrower to the Vsur r whom nothing can satisfie but full payment Or rather such a closing with God as is that of the wife to the husband called in particular reference to the nuptiall knot the Covenant of her God Prov. 2.17 She must be his for ever that is so long as she liveth Rom. 7. So that for men to bind themselves by an everlasting Covenant to the Lord is to bind themselves never to step out from him to Idols to their base lusts to any creature in any strait upon any occasion or tentation whatsoever nor with the dogge to returne any more to their vomit of any kind They are in Covenant as the wife to the husband for they are marryed unto the Lord for ever Hos 2. 2. It must be heeded and minded 2 It must be heeded and not forgotten else it will be to small purpose to be so lasting It must be a Covenant that shall not be forgotten A Covenant quod non tradetur oblivioni as Tremellius well that is that shall not be cast behind their backs It is but a plaine mockery for men so to enter Covenant with God as young Gallants enter into bonds to the Vsurer never thinking more of them till the day of payment be past and the Sergeant ready to attach them Vnto the wicked saith God what hast thou to doe to take my Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou castest my words behind thee Psalme 50. Only they rightly performe this dutie who so joyne themselves to the Lord as to remember and minde the obligation they have sealed As a poore man that meanes honestly if he be necessitated to take up money upon his bond he can hardly eate walke sleep doe any thing be in any company but that still his minde runs upon the obligation and day of payment he complaines he is in debt he hath given bond for 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 knowes 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 Pro. 2.17 that if she be solicited to unfaithfulnesse to uncleannesse c. she ever hath this in her thoughts that she hath given her selfe wholly away to an husband and is bound to keep her only unto him during life and 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 Psal 78.10 What was it for which Judah 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 Eccles 5. Thus have I dispatcht the Second generall the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 and humbling the soule before hand it must be with al intention earnestnes with fervent Love and charity to draw others the same way Next in regard of the Covenant it selfe it must be an act and firm joyning and binding our selves to 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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ur fit the grounds why it is so these are of 2 sorts viz. 3. I proceed to the third and last branch the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 either in general or from Babylon in special 1. The reasons why this must be done upon any deliverance in generall 1. Why for any deliverance in generall are these 1. Because God at no time so much as when he bestowes upon his people some notable deliverance 1 God at such times gives clearest evidence of his readinesse to enter covenant with us 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 a peculiar treasure unto me above all people Exod. 19.1 and verse 4.5 God himselfe you see was now
from vers 9 to verse 17 yet he will never perfect the deliverance till this be done The people which returned from Babylon found God to keepe touch with them to a day So soone as the 70. yeares determined their captivity was dissolved and somewhat was done the foundation of the Lords house was laid but the building went slowly up the reformation of Church and State went heavily on and they were never in a thriving condition till Nehemiah 3. Why it is so by the good hand of God lighted upon this course Some Fasts they had kept before yea very many but they never thrived till he added to their publique and solemne Fasting the fastening of them to God by a solemne Covenant Then the worke of Reformation and establishment went on merrily then they prospered Thus farre the Reasons concluding for a Covenant upon receit of deliverances in generall 2. The Reasons inducing us thereunto upon deliverance from Babylon 2 why for deliverance from Babylon in speciall in particular are these 1. Because Babylon 1. Babylon hath ever bin the sorest enemy after once the Church was put under her power had alwaies been the most insolent heavy bitter bloody enemy that ever the Church felt The violence of Babylon was unsupportable her insolency intolerable her bloud-thirstinesse insatiable Hence the Church is bold to challenge all the world to match her misery under the yoke of Babylon Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me that is by the heavie hand of Babylon in the day of his fierce wrath Lam. 1.12 This was so sore that it hath been by some Fathers and others conceived to be the fullest and most lively typical expression of that matchlesse agony and extremity which our Lord himselfe hanging upon the Crosse sustained when he bare all our sins and the wrath of God due to us for them so farre as to make a full satisfaction to the Iustice of his Father in behalfe of all his people And as it was with old Babylon so it is now and ever wil be with the new I meane mysticall Babylon to the end of the world might she so long continue Even she also delights in no other drink but the bloud of the Saints as you shall finde in Rev. 17.5 where the very name written upon her forehead sufficiently sets out her nature Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth And what of her I saw saith St Iohn the woman drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus and when I saw her I wondred with great admiration v. 6. And well he might A woman and drunke And if drunke would no liquor suffice but bloud no bloud but that of Saints and Martyrs She is never in her element but when she is swimming in bloud So insatiable is she that like the horse-leeches daughter she never saith it is enough Therefore when God gives any deliverance from thence 3. Why it is so in speciall there is more than ordinary cause to close with the Lord in a more solemn 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 Halleluiah ascribing salvation and honour and power unto the Lord our God Revel 19.1 And againe Halleluiah verse 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 2. Such a deliverance implyes more than ordinary breach of Covenant on our parts for which God formerly put us under such a yoke 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 This 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 hee afterwards cast Iudah also out of his sight 2 King 17.19.29 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 bee 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 S. Paul tels us it was this They received not the love of the truth 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 selfe 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 off 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 bee over-run and over-spread by Babylon as by an hideous opacum or thick darknesse and to bee exposed and prostituted to all manner of whoredomes and filthinesse so as the slavery of the Iewish 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 onely 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 betweene God and their Soules and provoked God to subject them to so much bondage and that they must either renew Covenant or bee obnoxious to more wrath and be laid open to more and greater temptations and sinnes this cannot but exceedingly work upon their soules causing their hearts to melt and
his Soule to take hold of God to be glued and united to him in all faithfulnesse sincerity care and diligence to be onely his for ever This if we doe we need not care much for other Covenants God will provide for that and make a league for us even with the beasts of the field and with the stones of the street he will make our Exactors peace and our Officers righteousnesse Isa 60.17 18. violence shall no more be heard in the Land nor wasting nor destruction within our borders our very walls shall be salvation and our Gates praise He will be a God of Covenants and take care for our estates Lawes liberties lives children and all that belong to us when once this is done Therefore I beseech you yea I require you in the name of the God of heaven whose you are whom you serve before whom you stand from whom you expect salvation in the midst of the Earth as well as in Heaven that you forthwith enter into this bond Expect no assistance no successe in any of your Consultations in any Lawes that you agree upon till you have fully brought your hearts to this point to follow the Lord fully to be no more for your selves than you would have the dearest wife of your bosome to bee for any other man in the world but to be wholly for the Lord to imploy improve all your wit abilities industry counsels actions estate honor Gen. 17.10 and lives to promote his service honour what ever become of your selves and yours for doing of it Say not as some Ieerers of whom it is hard to judge whether their malice or ignorance bee the greater doe Psal 50.5 that there needs no more Covenants than what wee made in Baptisme and that all other Covenants savour strongly of faction and the Puritan Leaven For so Gods people of old made a Covenant by Circumcision and after by Sacrifice that is in every sacrifice which they offered they did renew their Covenant begun in Circumcision Neverthelesse God thought it necessary often to call them out to strike another solemne Covenant with him besides the former Exod. 19. You have already heard that so soone as the Israelites were gone out of Egypt and entred a little way in the wildernesse hee put them upon a Covenant Deut. 29. When he brought them neer to Canaan he required another solemne Covenant of them And when Ioshuah had brought them into Canaan and divided to each of them the lot of his inheritance hee drew them into another solemne Covenant Iosh 24. So that here was Covenant upon Covenant and yet can no man without blasphemy charge it with any Puritan humour faction or any thing superfluous or uncomely for the Greatest on earth to submit unto That I may a little more enforce this duty and quicken you to the imbracing of it give mee leave to present you with some Motives further to presse you to it and with some few Directions to guide you in it 1. For Motives Motives to a Covenant 1. Our many Deliverances Consider 1. how many great admirable and even miraculous deliverances God hath given us What great things hee hath done for us No Nation under heaven can say more to his praise in this kinde than we have cause to do Our Great deliverances out of Babylon from the Spanish Invasion from the Gun-powder Treason and from many other evils and feares do all call upon you for a Covenant Yea even the present Mercy and Opportunity of opening that Ancient Regular and Approved Way of cure of those publique evils that threaten confusion and desolation to all 3. Vse Exhortation Motives pleades hard for the same duty But among all these I desire You of that Great and honourable Body of the Parliament to reflect sadly upon that Stupendious Deliverance from the Gun-powder Treason which more especially and immediately was bent against You. For albeit the ruine of the whole Kingdome was in their Eye who were the Cursed Instruments of Antichrist and of the Devill his Father in that hellish Designe yet no blow could have come at us but through Your sides And albeit some of You that have the honour to be members of this present Parliament were then unborne yet had that Plot taken effect scarce any of You had been this day in being to have sate there now but had long since been covered and buried under the ashes of confusion Think now whether such a preservation deserve lesse at Your hands than to give Your selves to your Great Deliverer for so Great a Deliverance whereby three Nations destinated at once to Death received no lesse than a joyfull resurrection from the Dead and were againe borne at once Therefore let not this Great mercy seeme small in Your eyes And remember too that you may have as much need of God another time nay you know not what need You may have of him this present Parliament You cannot be ignorant of the many murmures and more than whisperings of some desperate and devillish conception suspected to bee now in the wombe of the Iesuiticall faction And how neere it may bee to the birth or how prodigious it may prove being borne I take not upon me to divine but this we are all sure of that what ever it be which they are big withall it shall not want the least graine of the utmost extremity of malice and mischiefe that all the wit power and industry of Hell it selfe can contribute unto it and that they labour as a woman in travaile to be speedily delivered of it What dangers and what cause of feare there may bee at the present I leave to your Wisedome to consider But this bee confident of if Deliverances already received can prevaile with you for a Covenant that Covenant will be your security for it will certainly engage all the power and wisdome of the Great and only wise God of heaven and earth to be on your side for ever So that if God himselfe have power enough wisdome enough and care enough you cannot miscarry no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper no plot no gates of hell shall prevaile against you And if he have goodnes enough mercy enough bowells enow in him he will then also raine downe aboundance of truth righteousnesse justice peace and plentie upon all Corners of the Land from whence and on whose errand You are now come together Therefore it becomes you above all others to be first in a Covenant 2. Consider that till we do this there cannot be such a full enjoying of God 2. There can be no full enjoying of God without a Covenant as otherwise there might be Indeed the perfect fruition of God is not to be expected till we come to heaven but yet we might have much more of God even in this life than now we have could we be perswaded to such a Covenant with him Whatsoever experience we have of him
In the 45. of Isay vers 11. there is a strong expression this way Thus saith the Lard the Holy One of Israel and his Maker aske of mee things to come concerning my sonnes and concerning the work of my hands Command yee mee It is not to be thought that God complementeth with his people but is free and hearty in the expression of what they shall really find him But mark it concernes his Sonnes that is those that are truely in Covenant with him This priviledge is for none else So that the way to have God at Command with humility be it used is to bee his sonnes and daughters by Covenant For to whom it is said I will be their God and they shall bee my people to them is it spoken I will bee a father unto you and yee shall bee my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 6.18 And to them he saith also Command ye me 6. Consider that it is the proper and chiefe businesse of a Fast 6. This is the proper worke of a Religious Fast Nehem. 9. to enter into Covenant with God You see it to bee the practise of the Church in Nehemiahs time And where this hath been omitted the Fast hath been lost God never accounted any of those foure annuall solemne Fasts before mentioned that were so long in use among the Iewes to be fasts unto him but calls them fasts to themselves Zach. 7.5 6. Why but because they looked no further in their Fasts but to afflict their soules for a day Isay 58. to bow downe their heads as a bullrush and to spread sack-cloth and ashes under them and there an end But they lost all their labour getting nothing from God but a chiding and contempt And in truth when will wee thus ioyne our selves to the Lord if not at a Fast Then are our hearts in more than ordinary tune for such a work when wee are brought to set our sinnes before us and humbly to confesse bewaile and renounce them when wee have taken some paines with our Soules to soften and melt them before the Lord especially if then they be in any measure raised up towards Him with any apprehension of his love in the pardon of so many and great sinnes even when the Soule is most cast downe for them Then I say strike through the Covenant or it will never be If you let slip this opportunity you may perhaps never obtaine the like while you live but either your selves may bee cut off or your hearts shut up in desperate hardnesse like unto Pharaoh whom every deliverance and new experience of Gods favour in taking off new evils hardened more and made worse 7. In the last place and let it not have the least force of perswasion remember and consider that this day even this very day the 17. of November 82. yeares sithence began a new resurrection of this Kingdome from the dead our second happy reformation of Religion by the auspitious entrance of our late Royall Deborah worthy of eternall remembrance and honour into her blessed and glorious Reigne 7. This very Day began the second Reformation of Religion and that from thenceforth Religion thrived and prospered under her Governement with admirable successe against a whole world of oppositions from Popish factors at home and abroad So as the very Gates of hell were never able to extinguish that Light which God by her meanes hath set up amongst us Consider I beseech you that it is not without a speciall Providence that this your meeting was cast upon this very day for I presume little did you think of the 17. of November when you first fixed on this day for your Fast that even from thence one hammer might bee borrowed to drive home this nayle of Exhortation that the very memory of so blessed a work begun on this very day might throughly inflame you with desire to enter into a Covenant and so to go forward to perfect that happy Reformation which yet in many parts lies unpolished and unperfect Oh suffer not that doore of hope by Her set open this day to bee againe shut for want of a Covenant If you would indeed honour Her precious memory yea honour God and your selves and not onely continue the possession of what she as a most glorious Conduit pipe hath transmitted to us but perfect the work set upon this duty of ioyning your selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten And so have you the Motives Meanes how to enter into Covenant 2. I shall now shut up all with some few Directions to help us in it And here passing by what hath been already spoken touching the preparatives to it the Substance of it and the properties required in it I shall onely give you these sixe subsequent Directions 1. Give a Bill of divorce to all your Lusts 1. Give a Bill of Divorce to all your Lusts or kill them out right This Covenant is a marriage Covenant and there is no marrying with God so long as your former husband your base corruptions your swearing riot drunkennesse uncleannesse pride oppression and what ever else your soules know to bee the plague of your owne hearts remaine alive and undivorced For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband so long as hee liveth but if he be once dead she is free from that Law Rom. 7. Therefore send these packing in the first place 3. Vse Exhortation Meanes A wise man will never marry a strumpet nor with any woman that hath another husband his wife that shall bee onely his owne none else shall have interest in her Much lesse then will the Holy and Iealous God admit of any Spouse that is wedded to any lust and so continueth Say then what wilt thou now doe wilt thou still keepe thy darling lust Hast thou been a swearer and so thou wilt be a drunkard and an uncleane person an oppressour a prophane Esau and wilt be so still Know that God will none of thee but abhorres all such as thou art He will admit none into Covenant but such as touch not the uncleane thing but separate from it To them onely it is that hee promiseth 2 Cor. 6. I will bee their God and they shall be my people 2. More especially purge out and cast away as a Menstruous cloth all Idols and Idolatry 2. More especially cast out all Idols and Idolatry Psal 5.4 in particular All our Lusts are lothsome to his stomach but nothing is so abominable to his Soule as Idolatry This is that spirituall whoredome which meritoriously dissolves the marriage bond where it is already knit and lies as a barre in the way to a Covenant with God where yet it is not made Jer. 44.4 2 King 17. This was it for which the Lord proceeded so severely first against the ten Tribes and then against the residue as you all know For this the Land