God and peremptorly press Him for removing these nay readily He is faithful and true in removing of them 1. Several times He will remove the curse and sting of the Cross all the Elect meet with that The covenant has promised and rather threatens the Cross but withal it 's added it shall come like a Bee it may come bumming and making a noise but it wants the sting and one needs not be afraid of a Bee that wants a sting the covenant has promised that in reference to the Cross the curse and sting are both removed 2ly The covenant has promised the proportioning of the Cross to our shoulders it 's indeed a special promise to that purpose He will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able to bear He knows that which would be balast to one Vessel would drown another therefore He calls a Christian to suffer according as they have gotten Grace every one is not for the service that others are for readily if He give Effectual Calling Pardon Communion with Himself and Peace one to ten thousand if that person go to the grave without some signal Cross so the Covenant secures these two it secures against the Curse and Sting of the Cross and against a disproportioned Cross to our strength 3ly The Covenant secures of help under the Cross it bears them up it 's a wonder to see how that part of the Covenant has been accomplished when I come to the ordering of the Covenant I will have occasion to speak of it these that have sometime in their life been sinking under fears so that the least noise of leafes on the Tree in the night time and even their own shadow on the wall would have feared them in the time of Persecution have chearfully suffered themselves to be cast to the lions and in the fire The great reason is the Covenant engaged for strength under the Cross and the Lord has promised if he call David to go against a Goliah He shall deal with him as Saul did with David he shall get on the King's Armour to fight with 4ly He has secured this by the Covenant that the Cross shall be the way to the Crown I deny not but there may be some in Glory but certainly they will be rare who have not come through Afflictions and Tribulations and if they be in Glory they shall be among the least of the Kingdom of God the Captain came through Afflictions and why not the Soldiers The Scripture speaks generally These are they that have come through great tribulation it 's the Testimony given to the generality of them in some period of their life or other they have had some signal Tribulation and the Scripture tells us If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him So the covenant secures against all these against the Curse and Sting of the Cross against a disproportioned Cross to our strength and strength under it and the way to the Crown Secondly Consider that sometimes the Cross is as necessary as a manifestation may be however indeed we would be ay at carving out our own cordials and like children would have our handfull and our sense and our eye filled yet the Cross may be as necessary as the great priviledges of the Covenant therefore ye find sometimes the Cross made a Promise as Hosea 2.6 I will hedge up my way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her paths And ver 7. And she shall follow after her lovers and shall not overtake them and she shall seek them and shall not find them and the result is then shall ye say I will go and return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now Many a time David sung this Song in the Psalms especially Psal 119. It is good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn thy statutes Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word Therefore it is not inconsistent with the Grace of the Covenant that there be imperfect Sanctification and the Cross in it Quest 5. The last Difficulty that I would remove is that it 's a Covenant of pure and perfect Grace Might it not remove our fears though it keep us under imperfect holiness and the Cross However the Covenant had not carried us up above affliction would it not have been a Covenant of perfect Grace if it had done this alms deed to secure the Elect against their fears especially since they are not only fears of sin but fears of Hell and servile and despondent fears Answ for answer to this I will offer you these three things 1. The Covenant hath done as much against fears as was necessary to it for the Covenant hath declared servile fear to be sin and hath expresly forbidden them it 's spoken of the reprobat they shall be in fear where no fear is The Covenant often quarrels for them Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith So the Covenant condemns these servile fears and quarrels for them as a plague inflicted on the reprobat 2. Take notice that a multitude of these fears they ordinarly come on Believers when they are furthest out of sight of the Covenant they forget the Covenant the great ground of these fears is from their reading the Covenant of Works when they should read the Covenant of Grace it 's not from the Covenant of Grace that they have these fears for the answer of these fears is from the Covenant the great ground why Believers are swallowed up with these fears is because they understand not the Doctrine of the Covenant or if they understand it they forget it 3. To say no more ye shall know that the Covenant holds out Promises even against these fears thou may possibly have a plaister lying beside thee for a sore and if ye lay it not on it cannot cure There may be fears on thee and there lies in the Bible in the room thou lies in a plaister of the Covenant that would remeed and cure these fears but thou lays it not to therefore the pain continues several times it 's the not applying the Covenant and not the want of the Covenant that makes the pain continue Our Countrey-man Mr. Dickson hath written a Book Therapeutica the Title of it is The curing of all diseases by the application of the Covenant Vse For use of the Doctrine the consideration of the Covenant as a Covenant of Grace I confess it 's the greatest encouragement if we were going to ly down in the Grave that I could imagine therefore hearken a little to the improving of it and I would direct the improving of the Covenant of Grace to three sorts of persons 1. There are some Beginners that have never to this day known what a personal Covenant with God was and readily they may be at this O! I hear of so great things in the Covenant there is wine milk honey eye-salve gold fine linen spices
hath taken it away sometimes it 's not the Thief but the Moth that takes it away that is to say slothfulness it breaks not in so strongly as the Thief doth but slothfulness is like the Moth that piece and piece frets and eats away the piece as the Moth eats the Garment so one may be in Christ and in the Covenant and it 's clear that God hath made a Covenant with them one day and another day the Thief and the Moth may have taken it away But 2ly This Assurance comes to be so changeable that like the Moon it will have many different Forms the Assurance and clearing of an Interest will have many different Forms in one Moneth God orders it so for several ends there are some persons the want of an Interest in the Covenant will damn them but the wart of Assurance will not damn them and yet it may keep them fearing and doubting it 's very necessary that God take some to Glory in a lacking Vessel though it drown them not yet it may weit them and they may be all their day under fears and bondage and this may be necessary for them Having this opened these two things that this Assurance is necessary on all the six grounds that I have given that a Christian can never be a comfortable nor cheerful Christian except he be able to say The Lord hath made with me a Covenant and next that it is attainable the Lord would never have bidden us rejoyce if our Names were not written in the Book of Life â—he would never have bidden us rejoyce in the hope of Glory it it were not attainable So though this assurance be variable and often the Thief and Moth will take it from us yet it 's real and solid and is attainable SERMON XXII 2 Samuel 23. Verse 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow IT is a Doctrine very dishonourable to God and very prejudicial to the Saints comfort to deny that Believers may be assured that God hath made a Covenant with them our Divines in disputing with Papists and Arminians on the Heads of the certainty of Salvation they call that Doctrine a Doctrine of Devils they teach the thing indeed that the Devil hath ordinarily taught for he is often pressing doubting and hindring a Christian from saying The Lord hath made with me a Covenant Before I speak of the way how the Spirit brings the Elect to be assured I would yet premise somethings about it 1. We do not assert an assurance a priore as they speak the Papists say that we speak and preach to People as if we had read the Book of Gods Decrees and that we there saw who were Elected or reprobated no that is not the way we take we tell them that the good tree is known by his good fruit the corrupt tree is known by the corrupt fruit it 's not by searching into the root but by searching into the fruit that we tell Christians they may be assured of their Interest in the Covenant Next We say not that this Assurance comes in by Enthusiasms and Revelations they say we are Enthusiasticks no we are far from that we look on their way as deluding we deny not the Spirit a liberty of giving extraordinary things and the Candle may be holden over the Window when he is walking alongst the steps in a dark night 3ly When we bid folk be assured by effects and fruits we do not assert an assurance by effects that hath these three defects in it 1. We do not assert Marks as procuring causes of an Interest in the Covenant we do not preach be diligent and clear an Interest in the Covenant only we say be diligent and clear an Interest procured by Jesus Marks are not stones of which the Wall is built but they are excellent Mortar to make the stones stick together the Wall grows little by the Mortar but the stones stick together by it the clearning of an Interest and of what Christ hath done with our case agree well when suitable Marks are brought 2ly We do not assert Marks from Sanctification and Diligence to wrong the Spirits concurring the Antinomians follow us they say Marks are prejudicial to the Spirits working we confess our Marks are all written in small Print and we have but dark eyes and if the Sun be not up it 's ill to read them we deny not but many Christians are in the dark about their Interest and cannot affirm The Lord hath made with me a Covenant under desertion the person that would read his Marks under a cloud is like a man that would read his Charter when he hath neither Day-light nor Candle-light But not to insist on the Doctrine of Assurance against Papists and Arminians I would come to the thing that I left at in the Forenoon I was proving that the Assurance that David asserts that the Lord hath made with me a Covenant is a thing attainable and I gave you several grounds of it and I would add this that it 's not so difficult to be attained as many apprehend I confess it is difficult but not so difficult I would offer you for clearing this that even an Assurance that would exclude several Fears and Jealousies is not so difficult to be attained by offering these three or four things to be considered 1. There is nothing it our former life that can prove or evince that God hath not made a Covenant with us many a time Believers stich at this I was a persecutor and a blasphemer says Paul but I obtained mercy that in me he might shew a pattern to them that should come after me 1 Tim. 1.13.16 Thy former life will not prove that God hath not made a Covenant with thee he made a Covenant with Paul and he had as much to say against him as against thee 2ly The present mâ—xture of corruption with thy Grace will not prove that God hath not made a Covenant with thee yea it may be thou hast made a Covenant with him and doubts that he made it with thee Why Since thou made the Covenant with him thou went to him and wrot it down and spread it before him thou lift up thy hands and hast broken it that will not prove that he hath not made a Covenant with thee David had begun very early the man that wrot this verse in the Bible when he went out against Goliah he went out in the Name of the Lord his God his elder Brother was angry with him and Saul called him a Stripling his Father Jesse had imployed him to follow the Ewes the Lord takes him from following the Ewes and makes a Covenant with him and when he is a dying he hath it to say with assurance The Lord hath made a Covenant with me an everlasting
keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer and their burnt-offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted on mine Altar And Ps 50.5 Gather my Saints together to me that have made a Covenant with me by sacrifice In effect the closing with the Covenant is our effectual calling 3. The Covenant is the Foundation of all the Relations and Consequences of all the familiarity grounded on these Relations betwixt God and his People The ground why we call him my God and my hope my rock my husband my Lord the ground of all these Relations and Familiarity founded on them is the Covenant 4. The Answer of all Challenges nay of all Temptations comes also from the Covenant Ordinarily Challenges proceed from the Law and the Threatnings and Curses of the Law The best answer to them is we are not under the Law but under Grace which is in effect to say we are under a Covenant of Grace Lastly 〈…〉 great help to perform Duty is the Covenant if we be commanded to repent to pray to believe to suffer we must always run to some Promise of the Covenant for strength and it is remarkable there is no Command in all the Law but in the Covenant there is some Promise relating to that Duty and strength for performing of it is holden out in the Promise for in effect if we look after Light or clearing in our effectual calling or if we would lay a sure Foundation of either an interest in or familiarity with God or hold off Temptations or Challenges or have strength to perform Duties it 's necessary in the whole course of our Life that we know our interest in the Covenant but this is especially necessary at death which before I yet confirm I will add one Caution which is this That it may fall out that a person with whom God hath made an everlasting Covenant ye◠they may be unclear about their interest in the Covenant when they come to die they cannot say among their last words the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant among many things there may be these Three that may have influence in the darkning of ones interest in the Covenant at Death and when they are about their last words 1. When one has been given much to doubting in the whole course of their Life readily God may give them though not a Hell for it yet he may give them a flood of it at their Death he loves to write their sin on the chastisement therefore often as Adonibezek said when they caused to cut off his Thumbs and his great Toes threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and great Toes cut off gathered their meat under my Table as I have done says he so hath the Lord required me Judges 1.7 Frequently the sin of folks Life he loves to write it on their end so he does with Pharaoh when he desired to be honoured by him he hath this sin among many he would have all the Males of the Children of Israel drowned and Moses also was laid out to be drowned until Pharaoh's daughter found him and what is his end he is drowned in the red-sea the great predominant sin of his Life is written on his end when the life is full of doubtings readily like Pharaoh he loves to write their sin on their chaslisement 2. One may be darkned about their interest in the Covenant at death because of some un-repented guilt and however that guilt shake their interest in the Covenant it may shake their clearing about it often at death it comes to be as it was with Joseph's Brethren when he is giving order to bind them and they looked for nothing but death all that is come on us us say they because we heard not the cry of our Brother It 's observed that we never read a word since the day that he was let down into the pit that any of them was challenged for it and when they are in Egypt they cannot discern Joseph to be their Brother nor can they have any hope from him the reason is they had not repented for letting him down into the Pit readily un-repented guilt has great influence on the doubting of ones interest in the Covenant at death however David was guilty of Murther and Adultery yet he penned the 51 Psalm and had his bones broken for it therefore at death he can say the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant c. 3. One comes to be darkned in their interest in the Covenant when either by Gods providence or their apprehension there seems to be an inconsistency with the Promises of the Covenant take for instance Josiah there is a special Promise made to him by Huldah the Prophetess when he sends to her after the reading of the Law thou shalt go to thy grave in peace before the captivity come on who would have thought that Josiah would die in Battel and be killed by Pharaoh-Necho in the valley of Megiddo after he had such a Promise Take again for instance the fifth Command Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee And yet many are taken away in the strength and vigour of their youth they can hardly reconcile the Providence and the Promise or then it is so in their apprehension our discouraged Spirits at Death are like these that look through black spectacles we misconstrue Providence every thing appears black through these Spectacles while it 's white Now readily one of these three either some un-repented guilt or some Providence at Death that seems not to agree with the Promise or the absolute Soveraignity of God may produce a great cloud about ones interest in the Covenant when they are at their last words yet notwithstanding of both these Cautions the point holds firm that it 's a great encouragement at death especially to be able to assert an interest in the everlasting Covenant To confirm this in general I will speak a word to these three 1. I desire ye may take notice of the Tenor of the Covenant 2. Take a view of the knowledge of an interest in this Covenant and 3. I shal consider both the Covenant and an interest in it as trysting with death and a Believers last words and these three will discover what a priviledge an interest in that Covenant is when it 's discerned at death First Take a view briefly of the Tenor of the Covenant 1. The Covenant is a Transaction betwixt God and man about mans greatest concernments it concerns his Soul and that is the choicest part of him it concerns his Eternity nay the Covenant as ye will hear it concerns two Worlds this present World and that which is to come for godliness has the promise of this Life and that which is to come the Covenant concerns the Soul and the greatest interests
determine that Sanctification is necessary for our being but Consolation is only necessar for our well being we may go to Heaven and have very little of comfort but we cannot go to Heaven without Sanctification and he is rightly laying the Foundation to have the Covenant his encouragement when he comes to his last Words that is minding the commanding Part and duties in the Covenant as well as the promising Part nay that is rather bound to the commanding Part than the promising Part for we may go to Heaven without consolation but we may go to the Pit if we want Sanctification 3ly He uses the commanding Part of the Covenant for his encouragement that minds the whole Commands oâ— the Covenant and is not partial in the Commands of the Covenant he that is partial in the Commands of the Covenant doe as a man that goes into a Garden and he plucks a Flower here and another there and passes by the rest no we must have respect to all the Commands whether ye be Master or Servant Lands-lord or Tennent Buyer or Seller the Commands of the Covenant must regulat you in your Familles in the Mercats iâ— your change-houses in your work and in your Shopes and in all the things that ye go about and he that would have the Covenant his encouragement must roll the command the Promise together and must be as tender of the command as oâ— the Promise and must have a respect to all the commands anâ— he that can make use of the Covenant in all these respects whether he have sense or not such a one when he comes to hiâ— last words and must be quiting with all his Relations and aâ— his Lands and Chartors he will have a special ground to sinâ— Davids Nightingale song The Lord has made me an everlasting Covenant c. Vse 2. But there are other two Vses yet remaining the 1. 〈◊〉 this To encourage Believers to learn to make use of the covenant make more use of the covenant than ye do I know it's thâ— ground of despondency and heartless worshipping of God either we believe not or we do not improve the Covenant and how many are there guilty of both when they come in straits and when there is a command from God or a Cross from Men they are ready to go like a Woman with her hands on her Loins they cannot sing that the Covenant is full and sure and free Question 1. I would excit thee O Christian with three Questions about it 1. I ask you is there any thing out of the covenant that ye would have in or is there any thing in that ye would have out No there is not one Syllable I like the Observation some has made of the Covenant if we had been altogether and had all our heads laid together there is not one Syllable out that should have been in and in that should have been out what is there what disease what condition of Life if thou were acquaint with the Covenant that thou would not find aboundantly satisfied within the Covenant So that we may say of it as that word Song 7.13 At our gates are all manner of pleasant things new and old which I have laid up for my well Beloved Some take that as relating to the Covenant are there not all maner of pleasant Fruits to be found in the Covenant but I ask thee what aileth thee is there any thing out of that thou would have in or in that thou would have out is there any case or difficulty but this Covenant will satisfie it why then is your countenance sad But 2ly Ye will say the Exception runs not against the fullness of the Covenant but against the freedom of it there are many conditions in the Covenant say ye but I tell you there is no condition in the Covenant but one even such as if a Man were going to marry a Woman and she should say I am poor and has no Tocher-good he will tell that shall not hinder the marriage but says she I am black but am fair says he and will make the fair through my comliness but sayes she I will not marry thee except thou be content to give me leave to be a whore the truth is the Covenant is so ordered in the point of freedom it 's not our blackness or poverty that hinders it they have no ground to except against the marriage but because the Bridegroom will not give them liberty to be a whore no he has drawn it in these terms that all bygones shall be bygones and fair play in times to come Thou hast played the whore with many lovers and see whom thou hast not layen with under every green tree on every high hill yet return unto me let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thought and he will aboundantly pardon But 3ly Ye will say your consolation is houghed without the sureness of the Covenant I will only say this God may indeed act contrair to the Covenant of nature and yet not be unfaithful he may make the iron to swim he may make the moon go back ten degrees and the Sun stand still he may make the Babylonish Fire not to burn the three Children that were cast into it but if he should alter one Article in the Covenant or not accomplish one Promise in the Covenant of Grace he behoved so deny Himself and his Son for he is become Surety in the Covenant and all power in Heaven and Earth is committed to him to execut the Articles of this Covenant for it 's a in a manner written with his Sons Blood and so why go ye with your hands on your Loins ye that have any Title or interest in the Covenant for it 's both Full Free and Sure SERMON III. 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure and this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow I Took from the scope of the Words the last day one Observation and handled it in two Sermons That the great Encouragement at Death was an Interest in well ordered and sure Covenant What was said of that I will not repeat now but I come particularly to make some entry on the Words and in the Work of this day I shall consider them in this mould and method and ye have in them these five things 1. Ye have the the nature of the thing which supports David when he was at his last Words it was a Covenant he is supported by a Covenant 2ly Ye have the Parties Transacting in this Covenant God and me God has made with me a Covenant 3ly Ye have the properties of this Covenant and they are Three it 's everlasting it 's ordered in all things and it 's sure Three remarkable Properties 4ly Ye have the Superstructure or that which Daâ—â—â— builds on this Covenant that has these Three
opens a Traffique as it 's a Transaction betwixt Lord and Servant so betwixt Flosband and Wife so it 's a Marriage Covenant and it establishes and Union and Communion Quest Before I leave this there is one question to be cleared one may ask How is it possible that there should be a Marriage Union betwixt Christ and his followers in this Convenant there may be a Treaty of Peance and War there may be a Traffique betwixt Kings and Subjects there may be a Covenant as betwixt Lord and Master but how can there be a Covenant as betwixt Husband and Wife The great reason of his difficulty is the inequality betwixt the parties he is the Potter and we are are the Clay and the Potter to Marry the Clay there is not only a physical difference but a Moral He is infinitly holy and we are exceedingly sinful and how then can it be a Marriage Covenant Answ For clearing of this I desire ye may take notice of three or four things 1. Our blood is honoured and made noble by the assumiing of our Nature into a Personal Union with the God-head this has in effect preferred our Nature to the Nature of Angels Man is now exalted above the Angels and they think it no disgrace to them they were our elder Brethren by Creation and they were more noble Creatures and we were made a little lower than the Angels but now they think it no disgrace to worship One that is Man and to follow Him where ever He goes How low soever we be by Creation yet our Blood is Nobilitat in that it 's unite to the Person of the God-head in the Person of the Mediator 2. Take notice of this That Christ has a way of purifying these that He marries the case is as it was with Ahasuerus and Esther she is pitched on to marry Ahasuerus but there must be thirty days wherein her Maids were to perfume her before she was married this was Typical and shews that though there be an inequality betwixt parties yet Christ has a way of purifying and making them that have an ill smell'd breath to give a sweet smell He has persumes that can make them sweet and odoriserous 3. Though there be a great inequality betwixt the parties yet the Covenant may drive this Marriage in regard how low soever we be by Creation we are the Father Gife in Election to the Son the Father gave Believers to the Son in Election All that the Father giveth me shall come unâ—â— me Now how inconsiderable soever we be by Creation and how despicable a Gift yet he respects the Gift for the Given sake Lastly Christ is exceeding condesceading for as great and as noble and as eminent as Christ is yet he is oâ—â— all the most condescending he took well with that not tâ— to have a hole to lay his head in and to be cruciesid betwixt tâ—â—â— thieves and no wonder he take well with it to marry a blace Bride especially since she was the Fathers Gift and he knows how to perfume her and nobilitat her blood by unting it to the God-head So that ye see the Marriage is very forcible on all these four accounts Now if ye would rightly take up this Covenant of Grace and understand what yet are doing when ye make a Covenant with Carist ye must take up the Covenant in all these four respects it 's a Covenant of Peace and War that Christ and ye shall have common Friends and common Enemies it 's a Covenant of Traffique where ye may buy and sell ye may buy fine Linen Gold Eye-salve without money and without price It a Covenant betwixt Lord and Master and Subject and Servants that ye shall serve him and in the manner prescribed in the Covenant and he shall give the greatest Reward as the Term and an Arles until it come and withal it 's a Marriage Covenant take youto the Covenant under all these formalities and ye will take it up right And that ye may be put to it take up the Covenant as a Marriage Covenant I will but give you these three Qualifications that are necessary in ones carrying a Marriage Covenant First I exhort you to pearken to Christ's wooing motions all the Sermons and Scriptures that are the grounds of this Marriage they are indeed Christ's wooing motions he would not only be at peace with them and have a Traffique with them but he would have a Marriage It 's true there are many of you ye may say as Abigail said she was married to Nabal and David se et to take her to him to wife I am not worthy to wash the Feet of the servants of my Lord yet she arose and went to meer the Messengers to go with him indeed we are not worthy to go to his Marriage-bed and to be priviledged with the priviledges of the Covenant yet entertain his wooing motions Secondly I would desire you to consider what the priviledge of such a Marriage is O such a joynture as he prepares though he get no Tocher as a wonderful joynture he gives It 's remarkable Ahasuerus had married Esther a poor maid Mordeci's Neice yet he loves her so that he says to her at the Feast of the Banquet of Wine what is thy petition Queen Esther and it shall be granted to thee even to the half of my Kingdom But these are not the Terms that he makes to his Bride they are strange offers in the Covenant concerning my Sons and my Daughters command ye me Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name he shall give it thee Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee according to the desire of thy soul Thirdly That ye may enter this Marriage Covenant remember the Terms on which ye must enter as a Woman in Marriage does when she marries Husband she marries him for good and ill readily ye may see your Husbands interests very low but let not that dissolve the Marriage as guiltiness will not dissolve the Marriage on his part so the Cross attendig him should not loose it on our part Now they that understand the Covenant rightly and know what they are doing when they are personally Covenanting with him they do all the four they accept of him as a Friend to be at peace with him and to have common Friends and common Enemies and they accept of a Covenant of Traffique that they will buy gold and fine linen and they accept him as a Lord but especially they take him for a Husband the Covenant is a Marriage Covenant These four will sum up the great Heads of the Covenant But to go further The third thing I would open is how this Covenant is made up on all these four Heads I will not here speak of the Mediators part I pitched on that else and shewed you what the Mediator did in reference to the Covenant But for the making up of all these four sorts of Covenant there are two things necessary to make it up
and I have heard that God cannot make greater Promises and to speak with reverence It 's impossible for him to make greater and shall the like of me a poor ignorant polluted thing make a Covenant with him I confess thou had reasoned well if thou had been under a Covenant of Works but since thou art under a Covenant of Grace I will say but these three things to thee 1. If thou will go home this night and give him thy hand and Indenture with him to be true and faithful to him though thou hast no money all these things shall be given thee without money and without price 2. I will say more to thee though thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet return again to me Nay 3. I will say yet more to thee whatever thy guiltiness hath been and though thou has been a transgressor from the womb yet if thou wilt yet go and seriously indenture with him and enter in a personal Covenant for the time to come all former by-gones shall be by-gones and thy want of money and want of price to give for all these things shall be no hinderance to thee and the great reason I give for this it is a Covenant of Grace therefore go and indenture with him and take the tide 〈◊〉 it it may be the Master rise and close the door on you and if ye be found without and go down to the Grave on◠of these days ye may meet with Depart from me I know you not therefore take the tide so long as the Mercat last◠and go and engage in this Covenant of Grace A second sort it speaks to if it be a Covenant of Grace it speaks a word of reproof to you that do not notice and take it up as a Covenant of Grace and there are three sorts that take it not up so 1. There are some that would take up the Covenant of Grace for a Covenant of Liberty and Licentiousness indeed it 's a Covenant of Grace but not of Liberty and thou that wilt go and neglect Prayer and be a stranger to all the acts of fellowship with God and of Grace and will go follow thy Lusts and will talk of a Covenant of Grace thou calls it a Covenant of Liberty and of all Creatures he will be angry with and be avenged of it will be thou 2. It reproves these that never will deal with God by way of a Covenant of Grace but by way of a Covenant of Works ay when they come to him they would ay have money in their hand to give for the wine milk and honey proud man cannot endure to hold of free Grace of all the Doctrines of the World it hath been most opposed in the Church Papists Socinians Arminians Lutherians they become generally enemies to it 3. It reproves these that though they acknowledge it to be a Covenant of Grace and without merit and alluring motive yet they would have it a Covenant of a mixed nature they would have some mixtures of some things of their own in with the Grace of God therefore they go constantly trembling alas I have such a heart and such a way I have no love to God nor delight in him therefore they will cast away hope as if the Covenant were a Covenant partly of Grace and partly of Works no it 's a Covenant of pure and unmixed Grace it 's a Covenant of perfect and full Grace it 's a Covenant of persevering and continuing Grace now go not to turn it into a Covenant of another nature But since the Father hath resolved to exalt Christ and his Grace subscribe to the Tenor of the Covenant Thirdly It serves to press Believers to make use of it as a Covenant of Grace I will tell you three or four things wherein I will especially press you to make use of it as a Covenant of Grace 1. If ye have any great thing to seek from God may be some have a Temporal thing to seek from him they have a strait to come thorow may be some have a Spiritual thing to seek they have committed a sin and would have pardon for it and they can scarcely expect that God will hear them take up this Covenant as a Covenant of Grace it is the nature of this Covenant to give Pardon freely without money and without price and if ye go to him and say Lord bring me out of such a strait Lord forgive me such a sin and ye think ye will not be heard why I have no money to give for it but let the Papists give their Pardons it 's not so in this Covenant 2. Make use of it in answering all challenges I will have occasion when I come to that Although my house be not so with God To let you see how the Covenant answers challenges I believe it 's the thing that makes many Christians spend the most part of their Religion in complaints they are either ignorant or forgetful of the Covenant 3. Improve it in all external difficulties In a word there is no case no incident case no challenge no difficulty no petition we carry to God but the consideration of the Covenant and of all the Promises of it as an Act of free favour and Grace may be eminently useful to them Learn all of you to take it up as a Covenant of Grace and take heed when God hath given you a Covenant of Grace and the Mediator hath purchased it that ye deal not ordinarly with your self as if ye were under a Covenant of Works SERMON IX 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow I Proposed in this Verse five particulars to be handled First The nature of David's security it 's a Covenant I have spoken to this in some preceeding Sermons and I purposed to dwell no more on it Therefore I come to the second Branch of the Words The Parties among whom this Covenant is Transacted The Lord hath made with me a Covenant That I may the better reach what is comprehended in this Branch of the Verse I desire may take notice of four particulars in it 1. Ye have the Author and efficient cause of this Covenant The Lord hath made He doeth not say I have made with the Lord but the Lord hath made with me a Covenant 2. Ye have the Parties concerned in this Covenant the Lord and me 3. I shall take notice of the particulars and personal way of Covenanting or expressing these Parties he says not the Lord and Christ and the Lord and all the Elect have made a Covenant but the Lord hath made with me personally Lastly I shall take notice of the Assurance which his confident asserting of it imports he can affirm it with a deal of confidence as a thing he is perswaded of The Lord hath made with
me a Covenant These four ly all in the Text. The first particular holds out the Author of the Covenant the Lord is the Maker of it as he is the maker of Heaven and of Earth so it is he that made the Covenant the word is Emphatick in the Hebrew it 's true it 's not the proper word that signifies to creat yet some Criticks think it 's sometimes used for creation The Lord hath created with me a Covenant yet I take it as it 's rendred in our Translation and in this Sermon I will speak a little to this Doctrine Though the benefit of the Covenant redound to us yet we were not the makers of it but God made it it has the smell of his Hand in it and the making of it is frequently in Scripture ascribed to him Isai 55.3 Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David Jer. 31.31 It shall come to pass in these days saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their Fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt but this shall be the covenant after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people Constantly throughout the Scripture the making of the Covenant he takes it to himself as the Author of it and the efficient cause of it this Branch of the Verse is considerable for the truth is we had no hand in the making of the Covenant of Grace it was allanerly himself the Lord made it with me That I may clear this Branch a little to you I will dwell on these three things First I shall enquire into what respects the Covenant may be said to be made by the Lord. 2. I shall give you some Grounds to evince that in all these respects that it was made and only could be made by him And 3. shall apply it Quest First In what respects the Covenant may be said to be made by the Lord I shall desire that ye may notice these four or five particulars here Answ 1. The contrivement of the Covenant in all the Heads Clauses and Articles of it was allanerly from him it was he that contrived it in all the Clauses and Articles of it the truth is it contains a design very suitable to his Wisdom if ye will take a view of three mysteries into it ye will find it proceed from the depth of infinit Wisdom 1. If ye will take a view of the Truths in it O! such strange Truths one Person to be both God and Man How difficult was that to reconcile He was Maries Son yet Maries Maker that he was David's Son yet David's Lord What a strange Mystery is that in the Covenant that Christ should be altogether free of sin and yet justly suffer for sin The great Mysteries in the Covenant in reference to the Truths holden out in it evidence that the contrivement of it could only proceed from God 2. If ye will take a view not of the Truths only but of the Duties required in the Covenant What a number of strange Duties are contained in it that would never have entred into the heart of Man Numa Pompilius that gave Laws to the Romans Lycurgus that gave Laws to the Lacedemonians Solon that gave Laws to the Athenians their Laws never dreamed of Believing and being saved by anothers Righteousness such Duties as taking up of the Cross denying our selves walking by anothers strength and doing all that we do by a Spirit of Promise Would ever Natures Light have reached these Duties of the Covenant So take a view of these and ye will find that the contrivement of it could only come from God 3. Take a view of the Persons admitted to the Covenant if we had a secret to communicat readily we would chuse not the simple or the foolish or babes to communicat it to we would pitch on the Learned on the wise on the prudent but the Covenant is so contrived that the Truths of it are the greatest Mysteries one Person to be both God and Man and that Person to be both the Son and the Maker of his Mother that the Duties of it are strange one to Live by anothers Righteousness and that all these things should be revealed to babes and things that are not and that the learned and wise and prudent should be passed by such a contrivement had it proceeded from any man or angel it had justly been accounted the most ridiculous and strange fancy in the World as a famous Antient said of Christianity that if he were not perswaded it immediatly proceeded from God it would be the Religion of any that ever he heard that he would be furthest from Believing therefore the Covenant is from God for the contrivement of it in all the mystical Truths of it in all the Duties it requires and the persons to whom these Duties and Truths are communicat evidences it to be from God Secordly As the contrivement of the Covenant is from God so the Terms of the Covenant are made by him he not only hath made his own but our Terms before we were the Covenant was and in some respect it was from Eternity from Everlasting and before ever we were capable to give our consent he ordered both his own Terms and ours Quest Readily ye will say Was not this an injury to us that he should make the Covenant so as to make our Terms as well as his own Answ For Answering this ye may remember some Sabbaths ago I opened to you That it was a Despotick Covenant such as is made betwixt Prince and Subject Master and Servant Land-lord and Tennents that he is absolute Lord and hath power to give Laws 2. Take notice that Christ the Mediator hath represented us in the Covenant and so we had him like a Commissioner in a Shire having a Commission to go to Parliament and giving his Vote for the Shire he represents that Shire from whom he hath the Commission So we had a representative in the person of a Mediator in the Covenant 3. The Terms are made so as it was impossible to imagine them to be more to our advantage could there be an easier Clause put in than that we should accept This is is all that is required on our part that we shall consent now since the coutrivement of the Covenant and the Terms on which it runs proceeds both from God it may justly be said that he hath made the Covenant Thirdly He is said to have made the Covenant in regard the furniture for doing our part of the Covenant proceeds also from him whatever is necessary on his part or our part and the truth is he stands on both sides of
the Well all that we can do adds nothing to his Essential Glory now it 's strange that he should make such a Covenant and that all the advantage should redound to us and not to him except what is Declarative 2. The damned Angels they had many grounds to have pleaded a Covenant with him rather than we they were more noble Creatures and whatever was their sin it is generally thought to be pride though it be difficult for us to determine for they aspired to be as God so we are guilty of the same sin the Serpent tempted Eve to eat the Apple and be like God and so we were guilty of the same sin the Angels were guilty of Now that he should make a Covenant with thee and not with them is strange 3. The foundation of this Covenant and there was no other possibility of making it in the strain it runs on it was to be laid in the Blood of his Son O! how many ways would man have taken to have shifted the bargain if the bargain could have stood no other way but on the Blood of their Children yea though the advantage was all to be ours and we were as ill deserving as the Devils and that he saw there could not be such a bargain driven for our pardon our peace and our Heaven but it behoved to be laid on the Blood of his Son yet he drew the Covenant contrived it as it is this day O! ye should pray that ye may be able to comprehend the height the length the breadth and depth of such a Covenant SERMON X. 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my Salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow WE were neither the Contrivers nor the Treaters of the Covenant of Grace the Lord made it The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant I shall say no more of his making of it since it is so evident that neither Men nor Angels had no hand in it and since it savours of infinit Wisdom we may very rationally ascribe it to the Lord The word Jehovah is one of the greatest Names he hath which fitly comes in here when David is to speak of the Covenant The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant To say no more then of his being the Author Contriver and Orderer of the Covenant I come to speak of the Parties that enter in this Covenant The Lord hath made with me In the handling of this I shall consider the persons first something more generally and then I shall consider them more particularly and personally readily I will dwell some Sermons on this branch of the Verse First The general consideration of this I will not dwell on it I have spoken several things when I entred on the Verse of the Lords condescendency to make a Covenant with the Elect only I would have you notice four things about it 1. The Name Lord it is here not to be taken Personally but Essentially as including all the three Persons of the Trinity so that in effect in making the everlasting Covenant all the Persons in the Trinity became our Covenanted Parties each of them have their distinct Work in fulfilling the Covenant the Father hath his Work the Son hath his and the Spirit hath his work and the truth is when we Covenant with God so far as we can reach there ought to be a distinct eye had to each Person of the Trinity who though they be One in Essence yet there are three distinct Persons M. Durham in his Treatise on the Revelation makes a question which I will not determine Whether in Prayer a Christian be obliged to eye distinctly every Person of the Trinity But sure I am in Covenanting with God since we find distinct actings ascribed to the Father Son and Spirit in the Covenant there is great need to eye the several Blessed Persons of the Blessed Trinity the Name Jehovah is common to them all so that in effect David's party with whom he Covenanted when this everlasting Covenant was made it was not the Father or the Son Personally considered but all the Persons of the Blessed Trinity each of them in the Covenant as they have their distinct works and operations in bringing the Elect to Glory so they all become Debtors to their own Faithfulness for accomplishing the things of the Covenant which they made with David 2. Take notice that this taking up of God essentially the Lord or Jehovah there is implyed as ordinarly the Name is used by the word Jah as Psal 68.4 Extol him that rides on the Heavens by his name Jah which is a Compend of the name Jehovah and is retained in our English Translation the taking him up under this name Jehovah holds him out as not only Faithful and True to his Promise in the Covenant but as abundantly able to accomplish his Promise in the Covenant It 's very pleasant to consider the Parties that made the Covenant all the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity holden out under the Name Jehovah thou that hangs by the Promise in the Covenant why goest thou with thy hands on thy loins constantly moving discouraging Questions and saying One day or another I shall fall by the hand of Saul Is not the Party Covenanting Jehovah Is he not known to thee by the name Jehovah He was not so known by the Tribes of Israel It 's remarkable in the beginning of the Belief the first Article of it I believe in God the Father Almighty He is not like a Father If his child ask bread of him he will give him a stone for he is a Father that will not beguile you but many Fathers are not willing nor able though they be willing but he is both able and willing to help he is Almighty It 's a remarkable beginning of the Commands I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage I am the Lord God I am Jehovah the taking him up thus as Jehovah is a necessary consideration David made many Covenants with Princes that were about him and he made many Covenants with his Subjects but he never made one like this the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant But 2. The taking of him up under this name the Lord and considering this Covenant in the general it is indeed astonishing that he should have made a Covenant with men take but a view of these three or four things and ye will find that the Lord and me to come under a Covenant together is exceeding strange First Consider that he is the God that gave Man who was lately nothing a Beeing O! they are words of wonder that he comforts his Church in a sad case with by the Prophet Isaiah Thy Maker is thy Husband Ye heard it was a mystery in the Covenant
Maries Son yet Maries Maker It is no less a mystery a Husband and yet our Maker to make us and then to marry us is it not wonderful And that is imported in The Lord hath made with me 2. If ye consider that by vertue of his creating he had a Right of Dominion he needed no more but Command and Threaten for he being our Maker and Preserver he needed no more he had a right to Command and Threaten he needed say no more but do not eat of the tree for is the day thou eats thou shalt die as he did with the first Adam but that he should lay by his Dominion and come as we were equals and treat a Covenant nay when it was treated the Person that represented us was his equal he was the Man that was his Fellow and thought it to robbery to be equal with God Philip. 2. Now that he should treat a Covenant with us as Abraham did with Abimelech how strange was this since the Parties were not equal 3. Had it been a Covenant of Works he had treated it had suited some way to a Command and Threatning but to treat such a Covenant the Lord Jehovah with us is wonderful Who of us would take a Dog or a Worm and Indenture with it to give it our own Bed and in a manner prefer it to our own Children The truth is he seemed to do this when that we might be healed he laid the stripes on him he was made a curse that we might be made righteous he was made sin that we might be holy But Lastly This Covenant was made with lapsed Man he could not promise to himself from us the thing he could promise from Adam for however Adam was under a possibility of falling yet that was all it seemed very improbable that so light a Temptation would make him break the Covenant that he had made with God but the imaginations of our hearts are evil continually it is since he made that Covenant frequently the complaint is I am pressed under with their iniquities as a cart is pressed under with sheaves And I am broken with their whorish heart So consider his being our Master and consider the Dominion he had on that account and consider that the Covenant is made with lapsed Man and that it is a Covenant of Grace it is in effect one of the greatest wonders in the Bible The Lord hath made with me c. O! learn to admire the condescendency of Grace it is a wonder that we are not oftner telling it to others and that we spend not more time when we meet in discoursing of it but this general I will not insist upon I will consider this transaction of the Covenant personally more particularly it 's remarkable David doeth not say he made with the Elect whereof I am one or he made with the Church whereof I am a member but the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant he takes it and applyes it personally to himself I had long time a design to speak to this Head of personal Covenanting with God I judge it one of the great duties of the Gospel and that which will contribute as much to lay a restraint on sin and to excite to duties as any mean that a Christian can follow therefore I intend to dwell some Sermons on it I shall make some entry on it now and shall take this Proposition to be handled Doctrine 1. That though the Covenant of Grace be generally made with the Mediator and with the Elect yet every believer should make it personally they should be at the Lord made with me It 's remarkable when God first entred in this everlasting Covenant he indeed published it generally to all the seed of the Woman that is to all the Elect who were comprehended under the Mediator who was the seed of the Woman and not of the Man yet afterward ye find it is personally made with Abraham Psal 105. it 's sworn to Abraham and confirmed to Isaac with an oath and afterward it 's particularly confirmed to Jacob and here it 's renewed to David it 's indeed a general Covenant made with the Mediator for all his Members yet often ye find God treating it with Abraham and again it is not enough it be made with Abraham but he must treat it with Isaac and confirm it with an Oath and over again he must treat it with Jacob importing he must not only make it with the Fathers but with their Children there are many that he hath made a Covenant with their Father and Mother but they are not in it themselves they can say the Lord hath made an everlasting Covenant but they cannot say the Lord hath made it with me therefore the Lord will manage this Covenant first with Abraham and afterward he will treat it personally with Isaac and confirm it with an Oath and renew it again with Jacob. But to follow this Head of Personal Covenanting with God I would have you notice this Caution in the beginning of it Caution That the Covenant of Grace is but one Covenant the same Covenant for substance that God made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob We must not think there are as many distinct Covenants as there are distinct persons that enters in that Covenant there is but one Sun and every one may have enough of light from that one Sun and a Ray of that Sun comes in at his own Window if he cast open a Broad of his Window though it be the common Sun that serves all the Kingdoms of the earth So it 's the same general Covenant made with the Mediator every particular person is to open his Window-broad and let in a suitable Ray of that Covenant to his case and particularly and personally apply it to himself We are not to think as Arminians say that God hath made a general Covenant with all the Elect but for particular persons he hath left a blank to be filled up when they believe and repent they say this same of Redemption they make general acts of Grace to be conditionally accomplished especially if they believe the Lord when he indented the everlasting Covenant he set down not only Abraham Isaac and Jacob's name but thy name if thou wilt consent Nay what do I say if thou consent he filled up thy name being an Elect and engaged to effectuat thy consent so we are not to think that there are as many Covenants as there are distinct persons it 's one general Covenant like as it is one Sun that affords light to all the World yet every Believer and Elect is personally to Indent for himself and to apply the Covenant and to apply the promises on the Fathers part but he hath bound himself to the duties of the Covenant on his part And in the general this personal Covenanting takes in three things I confess the third of them is not a proper act of Covenanting yet it is necessary to the making of it up 1
A person in making this Covenant is either saying or subscribing as Isaiah's word is One shall say and another subscribe himself to be the Lords whatever be the way of it sometime one will do it with saying sometime one will do it by subscribing or sometime one will do it with lifting up their hand to God that the solemnity may be the greater in their indenturing in this personal Covenant with God the tenor of what they do is I accept this Christ on these terms he offers me Wine Milk Honey without money and without price he offers me fine Gold I accept of the offer and I give my consent I will either write it down or give it under my hand I will say it or I will do it by lifting up of my hand to the Lord. 2. The person that thus personally Covenants or that is about to draw the general Covenant of Grace to his case subscribes to the duties of the Covenant particularly to give himself to the Lord One shall say and another subscribe with his hand I am the Lords It 's remarkable since God in the Covenant gives himself to us he will accept of nothing from us but our selves again when we subscribe to give our selves to the Lord we subscribe to this Lord dispose of me as thou wilt cross me or humble me as thou wilt for I give it under my hand that I am thy disposing it 's true we bind to all the duties of the Covenant likewise I deny not but a person may find their temptations miscarry them in reference to some sins some are led away with ill company and made to swear some are tempted to drunkenness I deny not but they may either Covenant with God or particularly bind against that wherein their greatest temptations and weaknesses lyes if persons find themselves negligent in Prayer of that the least wag of their neighbour coming will call them from their duty to God though they are in the Covenant to bind to all the duries of the Covenant yet we are particularly to bind where our temptations are greatest and where our weakness is greatest Personal Covenanting with God ought to run most on that Head which may prove an excellent restraint to the soul and an excellent hinderance to the corruption which the heart is drawn to with any light temptation so this personal Covenanting with God when we can say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant though the Lord hath made the Covenant in general with Christ and all the Elect and though he hath visibly appeared to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and afterward though he hath not so visibly appeared to David yet he hath his own way of communication and we enter in a personal Covenant with him when we go and either with our voice or with our hand subscribe it on Paper or with lifting up the hand solemnly when we are in a spiritual frame in Prayer and we do this when we accept of the offer of the Covenant and of the Mediator on the terms of the Covenant and binds our selves to the duties of the Covenant especially such as we are most negligent of and soonest led away from There lyes the way of personal covenanting with God especially if ye add as a Capestone 3. When the soul engages to these two that it cast an eye to the Treasurer unto whom the Father hath committed the bearing of the Purse The Truth is our covenanting with him is like Deliab's binding Sampson with cords so long as she cuts not his locks his strengthremains but when his locks are cut he is weak When we can an eye to the Treasurer in our covenanting we are strong but when we eye him not we are weak It 's supposed Adam when he was perfect stood not above five hours and what can lapsed man do Therefore the Covenant takes in the accepting of the offer and binding to the duties but both to be done through the Mediator and if this be neglected it is not right covenanting And I believe it lyes at the root of much of our covenanting and many lave challenges in their covenanting with God that they have not eyed the Mediator and gone to the Fountain and Treasurer out of which their strength both for accepting and binding must come Quest But ye will say I have opened in this Covenant personal and particular covenanting but what if God make not a Covenant with me or if I make a Covenant with him how shall I know if he makes a Covenant with me Ans For Answer to this I shall only say these two things 1. God in making personal Covenants with men had very different ways of communication of himself when he made the Covenant with Abraham he spake with him face to face he did so to Isaac and Jacob but he did not so to David but he sends a Prophet to him it were unreasonable he should do so to every body there were many Worthies under the Old Testament that could say the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant and God did not come down and speak face to face with them and confer with them and say this is my promise it were I say unreasonable he should do so to us for though the Covenant be not so sensible as it was to Abraham Isaac and Jacob it may come to thee as it did to David So that we are not to expect he will take the same way with every one that he brings under the bond of the Covenant I will close this Sermon with exhorting you to study this personal covenanting with God I indeed take it up for the great duty of the Gospel I confefs it 's the great neglect of the generation that we live in the generation coming may be more in the practice of it that Masters of Families will not take their Wives Children and Servants and enter in a Family-Covenant with them and when they are in corners would enter in a personal Covenant with him I will only close this discourse of it with naming three or four things that I judge to be great hinderances in the way of Christians personal covenanting with God 1. It is a great hinderance our mistaking the end of the Law the Law is a School-Master to lend to Christ and there are many if they come under a Law-word they perswarded that they should dwell on it they cannot be perswaded that this drives at personal covenanting with him ye will hear afterward if ever there be a time of entering in a personal Covenant with God of accepting the Covenant of the terms offered it 's when we are under a work of the Law now many Christians mistake quite the end of the Law they think their tears and humiliations and Law-works they are to dwell on them and they know not that the Laws is a School-Master to lead them to Christ the end of these fears is to terrifie you to seek a shelter in the everlasting Covenant 2. It hinders
many to enter in this Covenant personally they are exceedingly afraid that their guilt be greater if they break I consfess it 's justly to be feared but that same Argument should hinder thee from being Baptized and from going to the Sacrament of the Supper wherein thou renews a Covenant with him the same Argument that hinders thee from covenanting with God hinders thee from these two but would ye think it a good arguing if a man were like to drown in a Well and one let down a Rope to him and bid him take hold of the Rope and it will bring him up if he should argue I dare not take hold of the Rope for fear when I near up the Rope break and my fall be the greater But I say unless thou enter in a personal Covenant with God and accept of the Covenant of Grace and apply it to thy case thou art arguing as the man in the Well that will not take hold of the Rope for fear when I am near up 〈◊〉 get the worse fall 3. It hinders some from covenanting with God they would have some Arles in their hand before they trust him saith one I would Covenant with him personally if he would give me a fill of Sense and would take me to the Banqueting-house and cast his Banner over me and give me that soul-delight that he gives to some but they do not remember it 's a reflection on him not to trust him without something in hand Take heed to this Covenant and hang upon his promise and if thou should never be able to sing the Lord hath filled my hand with sende all my life thou has a nobler song to sing The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant 4. It hinders some from making a personal Covenant they are afraid to lay bonds and tyes on them and take away their mirth O! it were a mercy if some of our profane young ones that are filling the Town with profanity and their Parents taking no notice of them the most part of them begging the one half of the day and profaning the Name of God the other if they could be brought thus to Covenant with God But many think that a great tye and a burden that they should be more in speaking of Christ when they were in company and may be thou can be in many companies and never a word of him or thou can mock at Prayer and Godlienss and may be it not challenge thee but thou art afraid that personal covenanting bring a burden on thee I will Answer all these when I go thorow the point I will say this of it thou must either accept personally of the Covenant on the terms that it 's offered and engage personally to the terms on which it 's made or then thou shalt never have any benefit by it O? what a mercy were it if when we come under some strait some sickness or when we get any loosing of heart at a Communion nay when we come under desertion the renewing of a Covenant may be the way to an out-gate It 's remarkable when Christ was hanging on the Cross and the great cloud of his Fathers wrath hanging over his head in a manner he renews the Covenant with him My God my God why hast thou forsaken me If thou fall in any gross sin go and renew the Covenant if he command some signal stroke to attend thee renew the Covenant The great Objection is it 's a sore matter to be ay binding and ay breaking and this is thy case readily I confess it 's a dreadful case to be ay binding and ay breaking yet notwithstanding of all thy breaches if thou wilt yet go and say and subscribe with thy hand to be the Lords and to be more to his praise if thou be a neglecter of Christian fellowship that thou shall speir it out speir where thou shall get some to pray with and put in that in the personal Covenant if thou be negligent in Prayer to lift up thy hand to be so no more all former breaks will be all past if thou can say with full purpose of heart the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant SERMON XI 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow HAving spoken of the nature of David's security I came the last Sabbath to speak of the Parties transacting in this Covenant The Lord and me I proposed four things to be noticed First The Author of the Covenant Secondly the Parties with whom the Covenant is made and told you that that the word Jehovah is to be taken essentially as including all the Persons of the Trinity who are all Partiesin the Covenant and each of them has their particular work in the accomplishing of the Covenant But passing what was spoken I come to that which I proposed to dwell on this day the particular Application of the Covenant individually and personally to David It 's no the Lord hath made with Abraham nor with the Elect but The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant That which I shall dwell on this day shall be this Proposition which natively arises from this Scripture Doctrine That however the Covenant externally and visibly be made with the whole visible Church and really with the Mediator and through him with all the Elect yet every Believer ought personally and particularly to Indenture in this Covenant and apply it It is true the Covenant is offered to be Transacted with all the Members of the visible Church and really with all the Elect yet every Believer who would secure his interest in the contents and clauses of the Covenant is to indenture personally and particularly apply the Covenant to himself as if it were made with them This Truth hath a great deal of opposition in the world Arminians and Antinomians who though they unite not in many things they unite in opposition of this Truth they deny personal and particular Covenanting with God the generality of Atheists and profane mockers look on it as a fancy personally to Covenant with God and the most part of hypocrites in the visible Church satisfie themselves with their Transactions in Baptism and some external kind of Transacting at the Sacrament of the Supper but personally and really to indenture with God on the Terms of the Covenant they utterly neglect therefore to follow this Truth since it comes so directly in my way I will insist on these three things in following this head 1. I shall labour to prove by some reasons that it is not only a warrantable but a most necessary Duty for Christians to make personal and particular Covenants with God 2. I shall open wherein this personal and particular Covenanting with him doeth consist And 3. shall apply it First That it is not only warrantable but necessary
personally and particularly to Covenant with God for confirming of this I will offer these five or six rational Considerations First We have not only Scriptural practices of it particularly of David of whom this Text speaks whom we have frequently practising it Psal 16.2 O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my God So we find Asaph Psal 73.25 It is good for me to draw near to God And then Whom have I in heaven but thee and on the earth that I desire besides thee It was in effect a Covenant of this nature that Thomas entred into when he said to Christ thou art my Lord and my God We have not only practices of it but Prophesies of it amongst many Prophesies about it for clearing and confirming it I will read two one of them ye have Isai 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand to the Lord and sirname himself by the name of Israel Mark here ye have one and one and another individually and indefinitly indenturing with God and ye have the different way of their doing of it one shall say and another shall subscribe with his hand ye have the same over again Prophesied Isai 45.24 Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall men come here ye have these two Scriptural Prophesies relating to the times of the Gospel wherein there should be a saying and subscribing with the hand and it 's no the Church in general but one shall say and another shall subscribe it 's a particalar and personal indenturing with God I know not what a multitude of Scriptures I might multiply for the confirmation of this that it 's not only warrantable but absolutely necessary it is the accomplishment of Prophesies and an imitation of the cloud of Witnesses who have gone before us in it Secondly The Light of Nature teaches that in mutual Transactions that pass betwixt Parties about business of concernment the Transaction should be mannaged particularly and personally Natures Light teaches that dolus versatur in generalibus frequently this holds in this case where there passes no indenturing betwixt God and the Soul but meerly generals readily the a surance of an interest in any Transaction by the Light of Nature it 's the surer and clearer the more particular mention be of the Parties concerned in ti hardly is there a very small business a man will Transaact with his neighbour but he will be as distinct and particular as he can especially if he know it be a thing will be subject to much debate in Low is it not strange that Nature should teach men to be so distinct and particular in their smallest concernments and yet they rest on generals contrair to the Light of Nature in their greatest concernments No that same Light that leads men to be personal and particular and distinct in mannaging all their other other affairs in order to their clearing and assurance leads them up in the business of their greatest concernment far more to be personal and distinct Thirdly All the fundamental Priviledges are all particular and personal and why ought not the Covenant to be particularly and personally entred into Election is not indefinit and universal as Arminians and Papists teach no it 's neither universal nor conditional it 's absolute and particular there is a certain number given by the Father to the son in Redemption so it 's no universal nor indefinit nor conditional Election Adoption Union with Christ and all the rest of the fundamental Priviledges they run in this stream to be particular and distinct Why ought not the Covenant which is as it were the Charter by which we come to be secured of these fundamental Priviledges to be also personal and distinct Why should our Election Redemption Adoption and Effectual Calling each of them be particular and personal and the Covenant which is the Charter and great ground of our security not be particular and distinct also Fourthly On Gods part whether we respect the absolute Promises or the conditional they all point at particular persons I will take away the heart of stone I will put my fear in their heart and I will give them pardon of sin whatever promise be made whether absolute of conditional they are not terminat nor have their accomplishment together in the visible Church but like Water that is to be poured in every particular Bottle now since on the Fathers part he became debtor to every individual or personal Member taken within the Covenant Is it not only warrantable but absolutely necessary that there should be a particular application and personal taking hold of the Covenant in all these clauses whether absolute or conditional Fifthly The duties of the Covenant are particularly and personally to be performed there is none here can go a warfare for another none can pay anothers debt in the Covenant every man must give an account for himself in this Covenant the Parent cannot do for the Child nor the Husband for the Wife but every man must do for himself now fince every Duty must be performed particularly and personally Is there not then and absolute necessity that there should be an engaging and personal indenturing with God Lastly The nature of justifying Faith which is the great condition of the Covenant consists in a particular and personal application of the Covenant an Historical Faith will carry the Devils to believe that Christ loved the Elect and gave himself for them but justifying Faith carries a Paul to He loved me and gave himself for me herein lyes the nature of justifying Faith it 's a particular application of Christ and of the Covenant in all the articles and caluses of it and there can be no right application by Faith of the priviledges of the Covenant without becoming subject to the duties of it otherways as in marriage we would separat what God hath joyned we would separat the promising and commanding part of the Covenant Now lay all these six together and I conceive I have laid before you most rational grounds why the duty of personal Covenanting with God is not only warrantable but of absolute necessity The second thing proposed shall be to open wherein this Act of personal Covenanting with God consists some have dilated on it at a great length and have dwelt on the preparatory Acts to it and the things formally required in the Act it self and there have spoken of the Properties and Consequences of it but I will not dwell on it at this length yet that I may be helpful to you in your personal Covenanting in regard one of the great grounds of our withering and dryness results from the neglect of this Duty I shall therefore insist in opening the nature of it only in speaking to these tgwo things which I conceive will briefly sum up wherein this act of personal Covenanting
of Grace hath bound us to all the Duties be hath commanded in the Covenant of Works what a multitude of them there are take a compend of them in that word 2 Cor. 7. at the beginning Having these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God mark there we must cleanse our selves of the fil hiness of the flesh and spirit a famous Ancient said well when he read that verse this seems to me says he like the Message the King of Syria sent to the King of Israel 2 Kings 5.2 I have sent my servant to thee that thou mayest recover him of his leprosie what says he am I a God to kill and make alive that this man sendeth to me to cure him of his leprosie 2ly We are to consider the constancy we are bound to in these Terms if we enter in Covenant with God it 's a marriage Covenant whatever fall out to a man or woman except Adulters the marriage-tye remains firm if one were never so sickly or tender it does not break that tye all the variety of cases his people can come under cannot dissolve it we are not to be Time-servers in these things for in a little they that serve Time their Master will be taken from them Rev. 10.5 And I saw an angel Hand upon the sea and he lift up his hand to heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever that there should be time no longer But 3ly We are to consider the difficulties that will accon pany these Terms the Terms are to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God what multitude of difficulties must these Terms be carried on with will they make a man walk like an Owl among the rest of the Birds What a deal of crosses and difficulties will attend him that makes a Covenant with God Now one that would Indenture in a personal Covenant with God must consider and ponder all these Now this is the second Property of personal Indenturing with God it 's an Act of absolute necessity and we ought to be very deliberat and serious in it Thirdly This Act of personal covenanting as it ought to be deliberat so it ought to be sincere and an Act of the whole Soul Psal 16.2 O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my God God will dispense with any Infirmity in this Act sooner than Hypocrisie He cannot endure to be mocked For clearing this that it ought to be done with the whole Soul I would have you notice First This Act of personal covenanting requires a very well ordered Soul not only Morally well ordered but Spiritually Divines observe well the Soul is well ordered in two Cases First When the Will comes to beled by the Understanding several times the Will like a domineering Lady it glories in it's Liberty and Freedom it will bind the Understanding and draw it after it we are easily brought to believe what the Will inclines us to and to find our Reasons for justifying of the thing which it desires Next the Soul is well ordered when Understanding Will and Affections follow the Conscience and the Conscience is regulat by the Word of God the Affections often it holds true of them that is said of Fire and Water they are good Servants but ill Masters when the affections comes to domineer they are ill Masters but when they are ruled by the Conscience and the Conscience regulat by the Law of God so that we can moderat our Anger and not sin that we can desire nothing but what we lawfully desire and we fear nothing but what we lawfully can fear when gref keeps within it's bounds when the Affections are thus regulat what a sweet calm is there in the Conscience like an Instrument that all the Strings of it are rightly placed and when ye strike on them every string gives the sound they ought to give so the Understanding Will and Affections when they are rightly regulat they give the sound that is proper for them when the Understanding is thus regulat that the Will follows the Understanding and the Soul is regulat by the Conscience and the Conscience by the Word of God 2ly This Soul covenanting it imports a rightly ordered frame of the Soul for it 's an affectionat and sincere Act it 's not to be wrung out of us Bellarmine calumniats Protestants when he says we maintain in the Act of Effectual Calling that Deus torquet voluntatem in he doth not thraw the Will no in this Act of personal covenanting it uses to be done when it 's done with the Soul not with the Affections only but with the Bensil of the Affections it 's as it were the marriage day and in that day the Soul is clothed in its best Appatel and the Unferstanding Will and Affections are at the height of their Vigor and Fervency it 's necessar it should be so for the Lord when he entered in Covenant with us O! so sincerely and affectionaly as He enters and when he hath found the lost Goat and stragling Sheep He call His neighbours and friends to rejoyce with Him Luk. 15. I likewise say there is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repents c. When he doth it so affectionatly and is so much taken when a person doth personally Covenant with Him ought we not to Covenant sincerely with the Bensil of the Affections SERMON XIV 2 Samuel 23. Verse 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow AMong many excellent Truths in this verse this is one not of the meanest that David speaks of the everlasting Covenant as a thing personally and particularly made with him he doth not say the Lord hath made with the Church but with me an everlasting Covenant I entered on the Properties of this personal Covenant and spoke to three of them there are some yet remaining and therefore I shall proceed as this personal covenanting with God is of absolute necessity and is a very deliberat Act and a sincere Act so there is a Fourth Property of it it 's an Act that ought to be timeously speedily and early done without delay some of our Divines in their casuistical Disputs with Papists they rationally alledge that the Doctrine of the Popish Casuists in some Principles tends to hough all the Practises of Religion for among other things they maintain that if a sinner fall in sin he is obliged to repent when he comes under some cross or at some solemn Ordinance or at the hour of Death we maintain against them that a sinner is obliged to repent immediatly on the back of the commission of the Sin the same we say of personal covenanting with God it 's to be
in all the Books that I have read o're all the Sermons that I have heard I know not a possible way how to escape hell but by taking hold of this Covenant desperat necessity helps to boldness ye remember the Lepers at the Gates of Samaria who were to hazard on the Camp of the Syrians all the men of War durst hardly hazard on them but their motive was good if we stay here we shall die and they hazarded on the Camp of the Syrians if thou be without this Covenant thou art eternally ruined Now to go and accept of the Covenant take hold of it and personally to Indenture with God in it may be a great help and motive to confidence thou may reason with thy self I am eternally ruined without it there is no other way to escape the fire that burns in the bottom of Hell but by taking hold of it 3ly This may be a ground of confidence in going about it in that there is nothing promised in it but Christ hath purchased it it 's true all this is of free Grace in regard the giving of the Purchaser was an act of free Grace If we confess our sins he is just to forgive any would think it would suit better to say He is merciful and gracious to forgive but He is just to forgive to speak it with reverence it were in consistent with Justice not to pardon Sin and ransome the Elect for whom He hath received a Price the Price is payed and we may say how sweet soever the pardon of Sin be and peace of Conscience and communion with God yet there is something given for it beyond the value of them for they are all purchased by the Blood of God 4ly We should do it confidently in regard when we go to Indenture with God the want of confidence fills us with doubting which is very near of kin to unbelief often if we be to Indenture with God the smell of Corruptions and Temptations and a discouraged Spirit striking in with it makes it like the Meteors that ascend upward they may go to and fro but at length they resolve in Clouds and fall down upon the earth again So when we go to personal covenanting with God doubtings and fears the smell of guiltiness and a multitude of Temptations produces a wavering in the Spirit which is the next door to unbelief now to be free of this we should covenant with confidence and boldness There are many that Indenture with him in a personal Covenant and the next day a very small Temptation makes them doubt that it was a personal Covenant Why They had so much fear and so many doubtings in the menagement of it thererefore we are to loup over all our difficulties and cut them all with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ and this is the right way of managing a personal Covenant with God The sixth Property of it as this Act should be confidently so it should be done with full purpose of heart as Barnabas Acts. 11.23 exhorts them all at Antioch to cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart this Act os personal covenanting on our part the first beginning of it lyes meerly in Purposes and Resolutions on which we cast on the knot of a Vow in personal covenanting with God therefore I will speak a little to these Purposes and Resolutions that in the first act of the souls personal covenanting with God are that in a manner wherein the Act of covenanting with Him consists and two things I will speak to it 1. I shall shew what weight is to be laid on these Purposes and Resolutions of the heart when it 's about to covenant with God 2ly I shall shew you what are the reasons why many of these Purposes and Resolutions prove so evanishing First What weight is to be laid on these purposes and resolutions of heart I desire ye may take notice that when we come with full purpose of heart to enter in a personal Covenant with God there is a considerable weight to be laid on these purposes if ye notice these things 1. The rational way of the Spirits working is first to convince the Understanding and then to determine the Will to purpose and choose I confess Philosophers call the purposes of the Will Velleities they deny it to be that elicit Act of the Will which they call Velle but yet they suppose a complacency of the Object and ye will find these three or four things about them in Scritpre First When there is no more but a purpose the Lord will commend it even when one is but purposing and resolving It 's a remarkable word 2 Sam. 7. The Lord sends the Prophet Nathan to David to tell him Because it was in thy heart to build me a house I will build thee a sure house he says not because thou hast builded me a house David had no more but a purpose of building a house he could not endure to dwell in houses of Cedar and the Ark of God in Curtains any would have thought that the Lord would have stayed until David had builded him an house but he had no more but a purpose because it was in thine heart to build me an house I will build thee a sure house And it 's remarkable that the Prodigal Luke 15. When he was in a far Countrey he came only to resolutions he is only saying I will arise and go to my father and say I have sinned against heaven and before thee and when he was yet far off his father saw him and ran and kissed him and embraced him 2ly These purposes several times they contribute to determine the Will the Will is an unstayed thing in us it 's like running water ye will not find it one hour where it was another it goes like a Wheels the Spaik that is up now is presently donw and we are willing the things to day that we are loathing the morn it 's rouch to get the Will determined and if any thing do it it will be a purpose with the cord of a Vow and the cord of God fastning it 3ly These purposes have something good in them they are like the flourish of an Apple-Tree though it may be it be nto compleatly an Apple yea many of them falls off and is never an Apple yet they have something of the Apple in them there is something of God in these purposes it 's true it 's a great agrravation of ones guiltiness is God hath convinced them and brought them to purposes and resolutions if they fall away from them it 's hard to renew them again by repentance the Lord by his Spirit is doing with them as a man taking a Key to open a Lock if he throw about the Key and open not the Door he readily spills the Lock where there are purposes and resolutions and falling away from them it 's one to ten thousand but the Lock is spilt and readily will never be opened by that Key yet
there is good in these purposes they are like a smoaking flax that hath something of fire in at but it can do no more but smoak and he that will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed will not readily set his foot on these purposes so when we come to Indenture with God and with full purpose of heart Covenant that we will keep by the terms of the Covenant and accept of the offers of it it 's a character of personal covenanting with God Quest And here I will clear this case what is the reason that there are so many purposes and resolutions to God that evanish we makes a Covenant with him to day and Indenture against these sins that our remptations carries us most easily away as there are some things wherein every one is weakest what is the reason that these purposes do so often evanish Ans I will name two or three things that influences this 1. Serveral times we purpose in our owe strength we putpose and we go in our own strength It 's a remarkable thing in Either she saw the dauger that the Church of God and her people were in and she sends to Mrdecai and tells him I will go to the King if I perish I perish though it be against the Law but says she Conveen thy people and fast three days and I and my maids will do likewise there is a thing difficult to be done she goes not in her own strength but she carries it on by prayer when we go out against any corruption within us we are like David going out against Goliah with a sling and with a stone and what would that signfie unless he had that to tell I come to thee in the Name of the Lord whom thou hast blasphemed the sling and the stone and the Name of the Lord was strong enough against a Goliah but when we go against any corruption in our own strength we go like David with a sling and with a stone and not in the Name of the Lord. The reason why our purposes evanish when we are sick or at a Sacrament or when we are at a low ebb we do not as Esther carry them on by Prayer nor as David in the Name of the God of Isreal 2ly Several times there comes purposes and resolutions in the soul or convictions of the Spirit and these purposes evanish because they have not been sincere deliberat and serious enough readily they have been extorted by fears and readily we do as Earsmus reports of the man that when he was at Sea vowed he would offer a pound of Candle to the Virgin Mary when he came to Shore but when he came to Shore he said a Plack Candle might serve here Readily we do as that man when we are under a strait we come under vows and when the strait is over like one come to Land we forget all this is the reason why many their purposes evanish the Lord will lift off the Cross and the Spirit abates their challenges and the humility that will sometimes be in them will be but like the Dogs returning to his vomit again Josephus tells us that after the Flood the inhabitants of the World that were the posterity of Noah for fear of a new Deluge built their Houses on the tops of Hills but when they see there is no new Deluge like to come ye find them in the Plains of Shinar building a Babel whose top reaches to Heaven this is a great cause why our purposes evanish under a strait we would take the Covenant and the righteousness of it but when our fears and challenges are away like a man in a rainy day that will take an old Cloak about him but when the showre is past he lays by the old Cloak But 3ly These purposes and resolutions evanish by the company of the ungodly there is nothing will sooner cooâ— these purposes than the company of the wicked It 's a remarkable resolution of Davids Psal 6. Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity Why I have resolved to keep his Commands and I know I will not follow this resolution if ye do not depart from me oftentimes there is nothing makes purposes sooner evanish than the company of wicked men therefore the young man whom Solomon would have kept from the whorish woman among many directions he gives this My son go not near her door not only commit no uncleanness with her but go not near her door Seventhly The last property of this act of personal Covenanting as it hath all these six that I have mentioned so it hath this character as it is often broken so it should be often renewed we are frequently breaking our Covenant how many times will we bind against a lust or to the performing of duty and readily if a man should bind himself as for instance to secret Prayer to reading the Scripture the Lord will tryst him with some tryal with some diversion with something that will appear vertue to him or that will appear to be his interest to try if this will make him break and if on this account we break we should be as oft renewing again and two things will evidence that when we come to break our engagements of personal Covenanting we are no to say there is no help for my soul in God 1. Take notice that one God part with them the Covenant remains constantly firm Think ye the Covenant everlasting bacause we everlastingly keep it It 's everlasting because he is everlasting and everlastingly keeps lasting because he is everlasting and everlastingly keeps it So he calls often to us to renew this Covenant Jer. 3. Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers any would have thought the next word would be thou shall never be owned by me again yet the next word is yet return unto me backsliding children for I am married to you and I will take you one of a tribe and two of a family and bring you to Zion 2ly This evidences that the Covenant should be renewed because the Sacrament of the Supper is renewed he hath commanded the Sacrament of the Supper to be often taken and what is that but to renew a personal Covenant with him 3ly The renewing of the Covenant is our only safety there is no other way of doing for us in safety and eschewing the wrath of God but by renewing the Covenat Vse I will only close this day with a word or two of practical improvement of all that hath been said of these seven characters of personal Covenanting with God 1. I exhort you who are minding this as the great design ye have to put you to accept the offer of this Gospel and Indenture with God on t he terms that are made labour from all that is said to take up the nature and properties of this personal Covenanting with God many never knew what it meant and therefore they never practised it But consider for giving you light in this
matter what ye heard the last day of the nature of the Covenant and of the acts it consisted of and these properties that ye have hard of it that it is an act of absolute necessity there is no safety through all eternity but in the doing of it consider that it 's an act that is deliberat that is sincere that is done with confidence and should have a full purpose of heart in the beginning of Indenturing with God and when it 's broken should be renewed take it up thus and it may give you a great deal of light 2ly I would have you for your encouragement be taking good notice what God doth in his part of the Covenant to you readily when ye are about to Covenant with him if he give warmness of heart if he give a full purpose of heart if he give any act of confidence if he give deliberaltly to cast over the cord of a vow for our after-walking or if he give full purposes and resolutions of heart ye may take these things from him as an earnest that he will do more if ye find these things ye may do as Naomi to Ruth she goes to Boaz's Field and he bids the Reapers let some Heads fall to her the next day she comes and he lays on a burden of Corn on her back Naomi finds him taking this course with her sit down my Daughter says Naomi for the man will not be at rest until thou be Lady of the whole Field If he be beginning the accomplishment of the promises let it be but a Head falling this day and a Head another day this is a sure Earnest that ye will come to enjoy all that the Covenant contains and will be Ruler over all that he hath 3ly I would have thee that art thus Indenturing and resolving from all these Sermons to give thy self to him and to give him thy service in thy while of this Wilderness do not only purpose but endeavour to perform It 's lamentable to hear how much we talk of the Covenant of promises and what great encouragements there are from it and yet what a careless walk and how unanswerable to the great things offered therefore if thou be Indenturing with him delay it not but accept it and resolve that thou be for him and not for another but remember that the Sundays Covenanting with him be not broken on the Munday It was a notable answer that one gave to a temptation when it offered to draw him away from God it 's not lawful saith he for a man to tempt another mans wife I am married and another wifes husband and it is not lawful for me to tempt another mans wife Therefore let thy walk in reference to the temptation and the thing thy heart inclines thee to let them look like thy personal engagement and Covenant with God otherwise the thing that is thy great help shall be the greatest witness against thee and thy Judge shall tell thee before all the sons of Adam thou art a person condemned out of thy own mouth SERMON XV. 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my Salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow THE last day I fell on the properties of this duty of personal Covenanting with God I spoke to six or seven which I will not now resume but because it is so necessary a Theme and that which the practice of it affords to many that are now in Glory a great deal of sweetness I will yet add three or four properties of this personal Covenanting with God before I apply it First this personal Covenanting the bringing the Covenant particularly home as made with me as it ought to have these six or seven things ye heard of the last day so in the eighth place it ought to be very express distinct and formal it ought not to be a general entering in a Covenant with God nor a conclusion drawn out of a general but it ought to be an express formal explicite Covenanting with Him There are two remarkable words ye find David have Psal 16.2 O my Soul thou hast said to the Lord thou art my God compared with Psal 35.3 Say to my soul I am thy salvation lay the two together David in personal Covenanting with God he can give an express account what his soul said to God and what God said to his soul it ought not to be a meer general or a conclusion drawn out of a general but it should be very explicite and express and here I will clear two things 1. Wherein ought a Christian in his personal Covenanting with God to be express And 2ly shall give you some grounds why we ought to be so express in our personal Covenanting with God First Wherein ought we to be express in our Covenanting Among many things I will name these three 1. We ought to be very express in this that it 's a Covenant we make with God it 's not a purpose nor a resolution that we take up but it 's an express Covenant we make ye have often heard that of all tyes the ty of a Covenant is most binding no man can loose himself nor no society of men can loose themselves from the ty and obligation of a Covenant with God Therefore it 's remarkable when the Lord makes over to Believers the things purchased in and by his Sons death firmly and surely he hath amongst all other ways eligible for that end pitched on making them over by way of Covenant he knew well that of all things that made up a Security a secure right in a Covenant was the most firm so when we come to make a Covenant with God that we may not shake our head loose as often we do in purposes we ought to be very express in it this that ye I do and that which I transact it 's a formal Covenant which contains the strongest tye It 's not a purpose nor a resolution only but it 's a formal and express Covenant which is necessary to be adverted unto because many at Sacraments and when they come under the Spirits convictions they come under purposes and possibly some kind of vows and they slip as hastly from them again whereas if they were express in this that it is a formal Covenant the soul enters into with God the obligation would readily appear more binding 2ly As we are to be express in this that it 's a Covenant we transact with God that afterward we may remember such a day I not only purposed resolved and vowed but I Covenanted with God In the second place we are to be express in the terms on which we Covenant and here ye would notice two things 1. We are to be express in the things we bind our selves to do 2ly We are to be very express in the condition on which we bind our selves to do
believing and closing with Christ in the Covenant we are not to proceed on this ground I am an Elect and I will close with Christ in the Covenant and make a personal Covenant with him but rather our closing with him is a Medium or Argument to prove our Election we are not to proceed on this method I will first be clear of my Charter Election and of the purpose of God before I build on this ground no we are first to build on this foundation and then to be clear of Election for though Election be first in the order of Christs working Calling is first in the order of our knowledge and we must first know that we are called before we know that we are Elected 2. Consider this where will ye find in Scripture that ever God secluded man from any promise in the Covenant merely because the were not Elect He hath indeed secluded many because they were not Believers and because they were scandalous and hypocrites but in all the Bible ye will never find him seclude any merely because they were reprobats why should we go to put in an exception where he makes none It 's not our Election or Reprobation that is made an impediment in all the Bible against our being bettered by Christ our unbelief may be one but our Election is none 3. Ye would notice this that the debate about our Election and Reprobation is very impertinent before our Effectual Calling and closing with Christ in a personal Covenant It 's observed by School-men that there are only three ways possible for a man to know his Election there is the reading of the Book of Gods Decrees the Revelation of the Spirit and thirdly the fruits of Election appearing in the progress of Sanctification now the first two are impossible for us we cannot read the Books of Gods Decrees we cannot tell who are Elect or who are Reprobate out of the Book of his Decrees we cannot tell the Revelations of the Spirit because our Effectual Calling it may convince and challenge but it cannot reveal therefore it remains that it must be the third which cannot be until we personally Covenant with Christ So to dispute our Election before we Indenture with him and to say I will not Covenant with him for I am not an Elect thou must have understanding to read the Book of Gods Decrees and to have the Revelation of the Spirit 4. Consider that our Election is not our duty it 's our priviledge but not our duty we cannot elect our selves a servant in an house is not bound to be most taken up about his masters secret thoughts the thing he is most to be taken up about is his masters command and that what he hath bidden him do we cannot elect our selves God hath not commanded it Now when we are personally Covenanting with Christ it 's not our duty to enquire about things that are not our duty God hath commanded us to accept of his Son on the Terms offered and for us to refuse for a thing that he hath never commanded to be our duty we cannot be sure of Election until we personally and particularly Covenant with him we may like a Husband-man know that it is the Spring time by the springing of the grass he knows it not by the position of the Heaven but by the springing of the Grass and Herbs so we would be clear of Election and I would warn Christians of this when Satan hath a mind to bring a person under the neglect of some duty he will readily puzzle them with Questions of Election or Reprobation as a Robber that will ride with a man in a fair high way and not wrong him but will wait until he get him in some Wood or some Den and then he will assault him Now the Question of Election and Reprobation is like a Wood or a Den and the Tempter hath a great advantage when he assaults about these Therefore since Election is not our duty but our priviledge and since we cannot know it before we personally Covenant it ought to be no exception to thee suppose thou be in the dark about thy Election and not be able to tell thine own heart and thy neighbours I know not if I be an Elect and if I personally Covenant with him I am but like a man that is going to build upon another mans ground that hath neither Bond nor Charter but thou follows not the Gospel-method which is first to Covenant with him and then to be clear about thy Election A second Objection that I suppose will ly in the way in hearkning to the Sermons that ye have heard I am exceeding guilty and shall I owne God to be my God Doth not the 50 Psalm say What hast thou to do to take my Covenant in thy mouth seing thou hates to he reformed Shall I take this Covenant in my mouth when I have such a heart and such a way Readily all the aggravations of guilt and all the threatnings against it they come never to be more multiplied than when we are called to some special duty the challenges about guilt will let us alone at one time that will follow us at a Sacrament or some solemn Ordinance and when we should personally covenant with him For removing of this impediment I would have thee first in the general notice that to stand at personal covenanting with God because thou art guilty is very like Peters Argument Depart from me for I am a sinful man and Peters Argument is like as a Patient should say to a Physician depart from me for I am sick Why said he to him who was called Jesus because He should save His people from their sins Depart from me for I am a sinful man But more particularly to this thy guilt can be no rational impediment in the way of thy entering in this personal Covenant on these considerations 1. Know that never any entered in this Covenant but guilty persons Adam that was an innocent man came not under the Covenant of Grace until he became guilty and it had been unsuitable for Adam so long as he was innocent never any came under this Covenant but guilty persons and sometime they that came under it were among the most guilty the like of David of Paul of Manasseh of Mary Magdalen so that thou mistakes the nature of this Covenant that will stand at Indenturing and subscribing to the Lord because thou art guilty for it 's a Covenant made for the guilty and it would not have agreed to Adam when innocent 2ly Thou would notice that the Covenant expresly mentions the pardon of all guilt except one it 's a large word it 's true it 's a dreadful word but it is exceeding comfortable All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven except the sin against the Holy Ghost there is neither Adultery Murther Swearing Lying nor Drunkenness excepted but only this sin against the Holy Ghost why should thou put in exceptions
have their Summer and Winter Decayes and Growings So there may be great mistakes about Hypocrisie and Sincerity some have observed it well ordinarly Satan who is a liar and a deceiver tempts ordinarily to things contrary to Truth he will perswade the Hypocrite that he is sincere and on the contrair he wil perswade the sincere Christian that he is a Hypocrite therefore if thou stand at personal Covenanting with God on that Score that thou art a Hypocrite and cannot Covenant with Him know that there is nothing more ordinary than mistakes about Hypocrisie and Sincerity many concluding themselves sincere that God will send to Hell and many concluding themselves Hypocrites that are sincere But secondly to make this matter clear and plain it concerns thee to try in thy covenanting with God whether thou be sincere and upright and I will offer thee three Marks whereby to try it 1. Sincerity where it is it aims at perfection it may be known by it's aims the same word in the Hebrew that signifies Perfect signifies Sincere and ye will find them often convertible in Scripture not only because God accepts of Sincerity for Perfection but Sincerity can never be satisfied until it be perfect therefore ye find the most part of the exercises of the upright run on this they cannot get Love enough Faith enough Repentance enough for Sincerity will ay be complaining until it be perfect it 's resembled by a Divine to a young Heir that is never content though he have meat and cloth in the house until he get the whole Inheritance for the Mark of Sincerity is that it 's ay complaining and humbled because it 's not perfect 2ly Sincerity is discerned by something in the nature of it it takes in the Gospel qualifications it hath love to Christ as the principle it hath the glory of Christ as it's motive and end Sincere it 's sine cera without Wax it has love to Christ as the principal Motive and the glory of Christ as the End of it that it drives at and where these two concur in our Covenanting with God we may rationally conclude that it 's not hypocritically done if we find the love of Christ and the glory of Christ as the two Butts set up the one from which the Arrow comes the other to which the Arrow drives and if there be an aiming at perfection that though we cannot say we perfectly love Christ and believe in Him yet Sincerity will ay be complaining until it come to Perfection if thou find these two Characters of Sincerity thou may conclude thy Covenanting is not Formal and Hypocritical but that it 's done in Uprightness and Sincerity 3ly I will say this for removing this Doubt suppose after all that is said thou art unclear about Covenanting with Him for fear thou do it Hypocritically yet that ought not to hinder thee from personal Covenanting and there are two Reasons for confirming this For 1 All that live under the Gospel they are bound to accept of the Covenant and that on the Terms offered now Suppose thou find not Sincerity in thy covenanting yet it takes not off the Obligation of the Command the Command binds thee if thou be under the offer of the Gospel personally to Covenant under the hazard of the eternal wrath of God whether thou be a Hypocrite or Sincere therefore thou art not to dispute thy case so much as to understand the Command 2ly Take notice That there is in many their Indenturing with Christ that at the first have many Selfish and Hypocritical-like ends that after they have covenanted with him have become sincere the case is as with a woman that at the first marries a man because he is rich but afterward she would not be divorced from him if he were begging several times it comes to pass that at our first Indenturing with him it will be some selfish end that the Soul may drive at but afterward the Soul would not quite him and renounce him and give him over though they had nothing but his Cross so ye would not stand at that I am not upright and sincere as becomes one that would Covenant with God thou may have some selfish ends at the first but like the woman that marries the man because he is rich thou wouldst not now be divorced from him but loves him for himself The second thing I proposed in following this exhortation was to show you some Advantages that the Soul will have by this personal covenanting with him I have hinted at some before and before I give you the Marks of right personal covenanting I will tell you the Advantages that are in personal covenanting with him and I will say these three or four particulars to you 1. All the good we are to expect from God must come in to us through Jesus Christ without Him we could expect nothing from Him but wrath and hell for we have broken the Covenant of works and he is infinitely Just he punishes Sin by a necessity of nature But add to this 2ly That all the things we can expect from Jesus Christ they must come in to us by the Covenant what is the ground that one has no benefit by Christ he is to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence and they will be broken on him And another they will get peace and pardon by him It comes in by the Covenant they are concerned in the covenant of Redemption they are concerned in the covenant of Grace so that as we can have no benefit by the Father but by the Son so we can have no benefit by the Son except we be concerned in the Covenant 3ly We can expect no good from the covenant except we be particularly and personally concerned in the covenant what would it signifie for David to say The Lord hath made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob a Covenant if he be not able to say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant So laying these three together First Being particularly concerned in the covenant all that is in God and all that is in Christ and all that is in the Covenant becomes ours O! what a cooling is there in these three I like the Observation that one has on that Word that David often uses by vertue of this Covenant O my God thou art my God says he this Word my God takes in more than all the Philosophers in the World could draw out of it if he had not explained it himself I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Christ brings it in to prove the Resurrection for says he I am not the God of the dead but of the living but there is something in that Word my God that no Logick can reach all the Philosophers on earth could not have proven the Resurrection out of that if he had not done it it 's a strange consequence Abraham and Isaac and Jacob willl rise therefore
with your hand if ye have not done it go and do it ye should be exhorting your own Soul to it and your neighbours ye that have children should be pressing them to do it Husbands should be saying to their Wives Come let us return to the Lord come and let us enter in a personal Covenant with him they that hath sitten all these Sermons and have not advanced one step I am afraid they be the Tree of which it is said Never fruit grow on thee henceforth ye are daily dying and going off this Stage therefore be exhorted to take you to this personal Covenant SERMON XX. 2 Samuel 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant or dered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow I Have spoken to Two uses of this Doctrine of personal Covenanting with God one of Instruction which consisted of five or six Branches another of Exhortation which hath been prest in several Sermons by removing the Impediments and considering the Advantages of personal Covenanting The third Use might be of Tryal whether we have personally Covenanted with God or not but since this will come in in the Third Doctrine of this Branch of the verse David's asserting The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant I will refer the marks of personal Covenanting until I handle that Branch of the verse I purpose this Afteernoon to close this Head of personal Covenanting though it will occur often in handling this verse after wards I will shut it up with an Use of Direction Vse 3. For the right management of this Work of personal Covenanting with God I have proven the necessity of it opened the Nature and Properties of it and have cleared many Questions about it Now the Key and Kirnel of Direction follows to be handled and that I may do it the more distinctly and clearly I will follow it to four sorts of Persons which will readily take up the substance of this afternoons Sermon First is it a Duty thus personally and particularly to Covenant with God then it speaks a word to these who have hitherto neglected or it may be are still averse from this Duty they can count on many things that have occurred in the wilderness to them our never of a personal Covenanting with God I have spoken some what to this sort of people before and may be the shorter now I shall only name these four things to them 1 It is already proven to be a Duty of absolute necessity the Saints of old have practised it if we believe particular Election and particular Redemption and that we stand bound personally to the Duties of the Covenant that we personally and particularly claim the priviledges of the Covenant we stand obliged of absolute necessity personally and particularly to Covenant to them I think I have on solid Gospel Principles proved that there can be no benefit by Christ without particular Covenanting with him thou ownes not thy Baptisme thou goes not rashly about the Sacrament of the Supper if thou do not particularly and personally Indenture with God I exhort thee to consider these grounds who has never dreamed of this Duty all that is in Christ all that is in the Covenant all that is in the Father they signifie nothing to thee without a personal and particular Covenanting with him 2ly I would exhort thee that has never done it to consider the wretchedness and misery of the Covenant that thou art under until thou particularly Covenant with Christ according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace thou art under the Covenant of Works Doest thou hear This is a Covenant that admits not of a Cautioner nor of Repentance that will not dispense with the smallest transgression nor admits not of Sincerity however thou talk of Christ and of Repentance if thou has not made a particular Covenant with God according to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace thou art under the Covenant that admits not of a Christ Repentance and Sincerity 3ly Thou that has not made this personal Covenant and particularly Indentured either by Word or Subscribing or lifting up the hand to God I would have thee considering that there is in thy Lot somewhat that is worse than the câ—â—e of Heathens they have no Revelation of a Covenant of 〈◊〉 they will not be comptable for the thing that was never revealed Tyrus and Sidon Sodom and Gomorrab the men of Nineveh will rise in judgment against thee for at the preaching of Jonah they repented but thou that lives under the drop of the Gospel and hears of a particular and personal Indenturing with God thou shall have them coming from the East and the West at the great Day and they shall all be witnesses against thee for at the preaching of Jonah Nineveh repented and thou hast this Covenant pressed on thee by the Gospel yet thou dost not repent nor make this personal Covenant 4ly I would have thee to consider that if thou be not in a particular personal Covenant with God thou can lay no claim to the Covenant at all Thou art an alien to the common wealth of Israel and a stranger to the Covenant of Promise we must either be particularly inerested in it or not at all it must have our several consents or we have no claim to it thou that has never made this personal Covenant with him and yet art living under the drop of the Gospel thou art neglecting a Duty of absolute necessity thou owns not thy Baptism thou can plead no benefit by the Covenant if all these things will not move thee I know not what will do it if thou sit them out thou art like to be the Tree on which fruit never will grow thou may be fewel for burning but not for bearing and I am afraid there are many so that are standing in the vineyard and are Trees for burning but not for bearing Secondly this was of personal Covenanting speaks a word to a second sort of Persons and that is to those who come some length but they stick in the Birth and never come up to the full length in this act of particular and personal Covenanting with God There are a great many that do so we have a number of sober Civilians some Divines that write of personal Covenanting they say It 's the lot of many persons of Quality they go some length in Covenanting but they go not the full lenght length readily they forsake the pollutions of the World but comes not the length of giving themselves over to him according to the Covenant of Grace in their lot and service and condition in the World I would have such considering for there are many that sit down betwixt Towns betwixt Heaven and Hell I would have them considering three or four things 1 Thou art in danger to lose two Worlds If thou take this present
more 1. I have long longed to handle this Head of personal covenanting ye have now heard fourteen Sermons on it the Stones of these Walls and the Timber of this House God himself and his holy Angels shall be witnesses against you if ye do not personally Covenant with him for in so far as I know the mind of God has been delivered truly to you and all of you your selves shall be witnesses against other if ye fall not on this work of personal covenanting with God I know nothing would conbribute more to make you serious Christians then the practice of it and if ye have not done it go and do it subscribe your Name life up your hand to God if ye delay it and expects some better time remember a Fever a Flux or a Scrubie will stop the flux of your glass and if you delay until death either Roving or Stupidity shall carry you to to the Grave Therefore let one go and say I am the Lords and another subscribe and call himself by the name of Israel 2ly if ye will go and do it all by-gones shall be bygones and all former Transgressions shall be past nay if ye were never so poor never so simple never so Ignorant if ye were of never so mean a Birth of never such mean Parts if ye had never so weak a Father if ye had never such a mixture of Corruption with it if ye will but say I am the Lords and from this time forth will Covenant to take him as he is offered in the Gospel and do the Duties that the Covenant requires the Bargain is made and it 's subscribing it 's an everlasting Covenant and as ye have made an everlasting Covenant ye shall have an everlasting Name so long as God is God and this Covenant shall bring you to the place where ye shall be made a Pillar in the Temple of God and ye know a Pillar lasts as long as the house stands SERMON XXI 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my Salvation and all my desire although be make it not to grow THE third particular in this part of the verse remains which is the assurance that David had that he was personally Covenanted with God he can affirm it and set it down in the Bible and make it a part of the Canon of the Scripture The Lord has made with me an everlasting Covenant so that this being the third thing I shall take this third Note and therewith close this second Branch of the verse and the Note is this Doctrine That not only does God take Believers in a personal Covenant with Him but they may be clear assured and able to affirm it that God has made a Covenant with them This assurance David hath here and the Spirit of God doth so agree with his assertion that it 's made a part of the Cannon a part of the Bible that God made with him an everlasting Covenant So this is the Truth that I will handle this day that one may be assured and very clear they may be able confidently to assert that God has made a Covenant with them This being a thing of great Importance I will follow it in this Method 1. I will open to you that Assurance of a personal Interest to the Covenant is very necessary 2ly I will shew you that this Assurance is not only attainable but it 's not so difficult as ordinarily it 's apprehended to be 3ly I will open to you some of the Ways and Methods that the Spirit keeps in bringing Believers to be Assured that God hath made a Covenant with them And Lastly I shall apply it For the First That this Assurance that we particularly are in Covenant with God is of great necessity that we may be able to say The Lord hath made with me a Covenant For clearing a little the necessity of it I will premise two Distinctions First Take notice that there is a Three-fold Assurance that the Scripture mentions First There is an Assurance of knowledge Colose 2.2 That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ 2ly There is an Assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water 3ly There is an Assurance of hope Heb. 6.11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end v. 12. That ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises There ye have a Three-fold Assurance there is an Assurance of Knowledge that is the first proposition of the practical Syllogisme by it I come to be assured of the Mystery of Godliness that it 's a Truth There is an Assurance of Faith whereby I am assured of my Interest in that Mystery there is an Assurance of Hope whereby I am assured that God will make out all that is contained in that Mystery now we take in all the Three when we speak of Assurance in the Covenant there must be first Assurance of Knowledge that God hath made a Covenant and on what Terms he hath made in 2ly There is Assurance of Faith that I am in that Covenant 3ly There is Assurance of Hope that all the contents of that Covenant shall in due time be accomplished when I say that it 's necessary a Believer be assured I take in all the Three But 2ly Take notice that there is a twofold necessity when we say this assurance is necessary that God hath made a Covenant with us First There is something necessary for the being of a Christian 2ly There is somewhat necessary for the well-being of a Christian now we say not assurance that we are in the Covenant is necessar for the being of a Christian no one may be in Covenant with God and far from being assured of it several times Questions about their Interest may be more necessar than Assurance for them several times the Thief Scandalous and presumptuous sins will take away their Assurance and some times the moth slothfulness will take it away it were a hard Doctrine and dreadful to say Assurance is necessary for the being of a Christian only this Assurance we say is necessary for the well-being of a Christian they cannot live so comfortably in Christ if they were not assured that the Covenant is made with them so ye may understand what is meaned by this when we say Assurance is necessary for the well-being of a Christian to be assured that he is in the Covenant To confirm this I will offer you five or six things that will let you see the
grown secure and neglects Duty and goes out against sin as a friend and has not taken it up as a Enemy and dealt with it so thou may say I have made a Covenant with the Lord but thou cannot say the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant Secondly These that have made a personal Covenant with him and he with them they have a second Mark they follow the design of the Covenant which is Holiness 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord. Now he that hath entered in Covenant with God and would have a sure Mark from his Holiness should look to these two 1. He is to look to the Holiness of his heart and conversation if he say I am holy in my Desires and holy in my Delights I have a holy Joy and a holy Peace and has not a holy Walk and looks not like a savourie Christian in his conversation that person cannot readily say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant he may have made a Covenant with God but he cannot say God hath made a Covenant with me Besides 2ly Not only must Holiness be in the conversation and in the heart but he is careful to prefer the design of the Covenant to all other things if the Lord should give thee the Offer that he gave to Solomon at Gibeon Ask of me says he Riches or Honour and many things he named and I will give it to thee he preferred Wisdom to them all So he that is in covenant with God would prefer Holiness to any thing that God could offer It 's remarkable Psal 119.111 Thy testimonies have I chosen as an heretage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart Mark how he came by that I have chosen what choosed he I have chosen thy testimonies that is a general word it 's no I have chosen thy Promises but I have chosen thy Testimonies taking in the Commands Mark 3ly For what he choosed them I have chosen thy Testimonies for my heretage Mark 4ly The reason why he choosed them I have chosen thy testimonies for they are the rejoycing of my heart importing whatever I meet with I get no true joy from it therefore I have chosen the testimonies for my heretage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart I can get nothing that rejoyces my heart but allennerly thy Testimonies therefore I have chosen them that is the second Mark whereby ye may try if God hath made the Covenant with you if ye have come to take up sin as an Enemy and deal with it so and if ye have taken Holiness not only in heart and conversation but ye have chosen it as your Heretage because it rejoyces the heart Thirdly ye may know if he hath made this Covenant with you by his accomplishment of the Covenant to you if he hath begun to fulfil the covenant he hath certainly made the covenant with you Experience is a notable ratification of the Promise O but it is a sweet proof of the truth of the Promise he that believeth hath a witness within him that Christ is the Son of God he hath the Spirit within him and none can send the Spirit but the Son of God take a view of the Promises and sort them that ye may go to such a Promise when ye are under challenges under deadness and desertion and mark them it 's a dreadful thing when all the Bible is alike to us and when we have not some passages of the Bible that we may say of them these are may Scriptures Now if he hath been pleased to acccomplish the Promise thou may say he hath made with me a Covenant It will fall in afterward when I speak of the several passages in this Verse by what Rules we shall try if the things that we meet with in our Spirit be the accomplishment of the Promise Observe your case and compare it with the Promise many have no skill to do this they take the Promises in Grosse they observe not absolute and conditional Promises they compare not their case with the Promise therefore none is so confident to say God hath made with me a Covenant I say to you go home and say to your hearts the word that Ahab said to Micajah How often shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but the truth Go and charge your Heart and Conscience with see thou tell me nothing but the truth if these Marks do not agree to thee whatever thou say of making a Covenant with God thou may go home after all these Sermons and say I have made a Covenant with God but I dety thee to say God hath made a Covenant with me SERMON XXIII 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow WHen first I entered on this Verse I proposed four things to be considered First the Nature of Davids security it 's a Covenant 2ly The Parties Transacting in this Covenant the Lord and me of these two I have spoken all the things that I judge necessary to be spoken in a multitude of Sermons The other two Branches of the Verse which are the most natural remain to be handled the first whereof are the Properties of this Covenant there are three of them mentioned in the Verse it 's everlasting it 's ordered in all things and sure Where by the way in the general ye would notice two things First That these three Properties are marks of Distinction betwixt the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace it was neither Everlasting nor ordered in all things in any way suitable to mans Salvation nor was it sure so that from these three Properties we can prove That the Covenant God made with David it was a Covenant of Grace and not the old Covenant of Works 2ly Ye would notice that such as would have peace from the Covenant they must study and be acquaint with the Properties of it it 's no sufficient ground for David at death to say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant unless it be an everlasting Covenant and well ordered and sure these who are ignorant of the Properties of the Covenant can never have the sweetness and consolation that the Covenant affords Therefore without further I will begin and handle this day the first Property that is here mentioned of this Covenant it 's an everlasting Covenant it 's true the main thing I design is to handle the order of the Blessings of the Covenant and here before I can come at that I am to handle there are two textual Doubts necessary to be cleared 1. How is the Covenant said to be everlasting 2ly Whether this be a peculiar Property of the Covenant of Grace not
among all the Sermons preached on this Text that ye would observe the order of the Covenant which readily may be more necessary for you than any part of the Bible but for Believers that have observed this I have three or four things to say to them and will close with it 1. Christian I exhort thee to build on the Covenant O! it 's well ordered There are some Divines regrate that in our Church we want Evangelick Psalms taken out of the New Testament on the immediat praises not Typical praises but the express praises of Jesus Christ though I be against the Papists on this head yet it is a thing we may have drawn up as Simeons Song and Maries Song to be sung among us yet what ever of this be we are to be be praising him for the right guiding of the Covenant the Father could wish no more in the rigour of Justice and we could wish no more in the rigour of Grace than we have gotten therefore build nto only on the Covenant but when ye have any occasion ye are to tune over a Song to God and bless him for the order of the Covenant and for the treating of the Commands of the Covenant 2ly I would have you making use of a main particular in the ordering of the Covenant and the not use-making of it undoes a Believers peace that is to say 1. The Covenant is so ordered that he is to pay for all our debt 2ly He is to pay for all the infirmities of the heart 3ly When there are any failings that he shall accept of the sincerity of the will for perfection therefore go ye and make use of the order of his own contriving he hath done the business so as there is not a Groat left to thee and me to pay the Father hath received a ransom and he hath payed the whole Shot he hath ordered the Covenant so as it 's not laid on me in the Covenant to take away my heart of stone but it runs I will take away the heart of stone now Isay press this order of the Covenant on him and be supported with it for your friends and for your selves and when there comes to be any fail or breach made and ye have gotten a wound for it as a Beleiver may have all his bones borken as David had his Plal. 51. know that he is bound to bind up your wounds and press him with it for he is abundantly able to pay never press him with less than he hath undertaken in the Covenant press him that he would keep you from a delusion and from laying a stollen Apple to your door but have first a right to the Apple Tree I will close this with pressing you to improve these Sermons on the order of the Covenant I know no Scripture will contribute more for your illumination than this order of the Covenant for it may shake many of your peaces therefore go and observe the order of the Covenant SERMON XXIX 2 Samuel 23. Verse 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow HAving spoken in some preceeding Sermons to the order of the Covenant and shewed the necessity of observing the order of the Covenant both in its Promises and Commands and rebuked those that steal a Promise and lay it as a God to Security to sleep on while in the mean time the Promise comes not in according to the order of the Covenant the absolute Promise not accomplished and yet claiming to the conditional Promise A multitude of things of this nature have been handled But I come now to the third property of this Covenant and sure it 's ordered in all things and sure if this property were wanting all the rest of the properties would be insignificant for it would not be everlasting though it were never so well ordered nor it would not be comfortable unless it were sure The word in the Hebrew Montanus renders it Conditum others render it Munitum it is ordered in all things and fortified it is a word in the Hebrew that comes from a Root that signifies to guard a Metaphor borrowed from a Garison when Souldiers use to ly in Garisons together it 's ordered in all things and guarded and Garisoned but our Translation hath it It is ordered in all things and sure and accordingly I will take it in handling this Theme The word sure it imports many things into it it is a Covenant that God will not change not alter nor yet that he will break it is called 2 Chron. 13 5. A Covenant of salt when Abijah comes out to fight with Jeroboam who had stollen Israel from the House of David ought venot to know says he that the Lord God of Israel gave the Kingdom over Israel to David for ever even to him and to his Sons by a covenant of salt now salt is the thing that keeps any thing from purrifaction the thing that is salted uses to be preserved so ye find it Numb 18.19 speaking of the Priests portion of the offerings It is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee so a Covenant of salt that is it is a Covenant that will not putrifie nor corrupt But I will take this property of the Covenant as it lyes translated in this text and shall propose this observation from it Doctrine That among many excellent ingredients and properties of the Covenant this is one that it is sure it is ordered in all things and sure The mercies of David are called sure mercies Isaiah 55.3 Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David But ye have a remarkable word to confirm this property of the Covenant that is sure among many others in the Bible Jer. 33.20 Thus saith the Lord if you can break my Covenant of the day and of the night and that there should not be day and night in their season then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant c. Now is there any thing surer than night and day in their season Since the foundation of the earth was laid this hath never failed what ever reelings have been in the world day and night in their season hath never failed now the Covenant is no less sure than night and day in their season a number of such like Scriptures might be brought to prove that it is sure Now I would insist a little in proving that it is sure and then shall clear some Practical Questions about it and 3ly shall apply it And First that I may let you see that your Faith walks not upon ice that will crack under you and break thorow while you take you to the Covenant but upon a sure foundation
now heard many Sermons upon it wherein all the things that I judge necessary to be spoken to and many moe yet to be spoken to have been handled I would have you make use of all the helps ye can get from the Covenant and be often sorting the Promises as Apothecaries use to do with Herbs laying them in Eundles together that when ye have to do with such a Promise ye may know where to get it and after ye have considered the Covenant in all the Articles of it add to it these are all sure 2ly The generality of Ranters and these that come under temptations from Satan they question not but that the Covenant is great the Promises exceeding great and precious but all the matter is if they be sure this is the thing that makes ungodly men lay their souls at the Stake for a while of their lusts they resolve to take a time of it and the ground of it is the Covenant is not sure but be taking a view of all the particulars ye have gotten laid down before you this day and be perswaded there is no greater certainty that the Sun will go down the night and rise the morn and the Mooâ— will keep her course that the fire is hot yea there is noâ— greater certainty ye have heard with your ears and seen with your eyes than this Covenant is in all the Articles of itâ— therefore answer all your temptations with this that are tempting you to call the Covenant Phanaticism and call theâ—â— Phanaticks that take themselves to it but take this Covenant and view it in all the Articles of it and ye will find iâ— sure and then ye shall be made to sing the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure SERMON XXXI 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow I Have spoken to three Branches of this verse First the nature of Davids security with which he encourages himself at death it is a Covenant Secondly the Parties Indenturing in this Covenant the Lord and me the Lord hath made with me Thirdly the properties of this Covenant whereof very remarkable are mentioned by him it 's everlasting it 's ordered in all things and it 's sure I will not resume any thing that hath been spoken to but I come to the fourth Branch of this Verse which contains the superstructure and that which David â—uilds on this Covenant so qualified and there are two great things he builds on it First All his hopes of Salvation Secondly Satisfaction to all his desires this is all my salvation and all my desire now meâ—s desires are vast it is not easie to find that one thing that will satisfie all our desires but saith he this is all my aesire or that satisfies all my desires I desire no more since he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure But I will take the first of them to be the Subject of some few Sermons this is all my salvation the word in the Hebrew Col-segni it 's rendered by Montanus cuncta salus mea these words are not in the Hebrew but supplyed by Interpreters as being implyed in iâ— it 's a pathetick expression all my salvation but these words are put in to make up the sense Before I can reach what I design there are two Textual doubts necessary to be cleared 1. What is meant by salvation 2. How this Covenant can be called all his salvation For the first What is meant by salvation The word salvation hath several senses in Scripture it 's sometimes put for the Doctrine of the Gospel so ye find it Heb. 2.3 4. speaking of the word of the Gospel delivered by Christ How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him That is the Doctrine of the Gospel ordinarily it 's put in Scripture as ye will find it Heb. 1. last Verse Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation that is of Heaven The other difficulty is greater how can the Covenant be called all his salvation or all his Heaven Are there not rivers of pleasures at his right hand and who would be content to take the Covenant for all their Heaven For Answer to this take notice that there is a figurative speech in this the object is taken as including the act relating to its object some read it is all the conduit or channel through which my salâ—ation runs but the current of Interpreters take it thus this is all my hope of salvation as in the following words this is all my desire the act of the soul is taken that is this is sufficient to all my desires so here the object is taken as including the act this is all my salvation that is to say this is all my hope of salvation That ye may be perswaded of this the more thak notice 1. That salvation is sometimes taken in this sense in Scripture as Luke 19.9 This day is salvation come to the house that is this day is the hope or assuracne of salvation come to thy house says Christ to Zacheus when he called him down from the Tree 2. Ye shall find one even David in personal Covenanting with God who uttered these words expressing very confidently his hope of salvation Psal 16.2 O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord c. Which generally is understood of personal Covenanting but verse 9. For this my flesh shall rest in hope there ye have him building the hope of salvation on this Covenant his flesh shall rest in hope on the account of his entring in a personal Covenant with God this is all my hope or assurance of salvation But there rermains a third difficulty how can this be called all his hope of salvation Is not Christ and mercy amongst the grounds of his hope of salvation Shall I rob Christ to clothe the Covenant with the honour due to him But the Covenant is as the Case and Christ as the Jewel for all the excellency of the Covenant comes from Christ this as ye shall hear excludes the Covenant of Works and it 's one of the places some bring against Just fication by Works but this Covenant neither excludes Christ nor mercy no they are like the blood that run through all the Veins of the Covenant so this is all my salvation the meaning is this is all my hope of salvation If any shall ask what ground have I to hope that I will come to glory This is all my hope of salvation that God hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure and this is all
afflictions or death so grievous but where a person hath gotten the hope of salvation he looks on the world as Abraham looked on Canaan he looked on it as a strange Land and looked for a City that had foundations c. 5. The hope of salvation proves a great encouragement in regard of Hope especially when the Soul comes to the full affurance of Hope it hath assurance of these three things 1. It assures the salva ion to be certain for hope grounding it self on Faith hath apprehended its object for Faith and Hope have the same object but diversly considered Hope brings in Assurance of the certainty of the object so where the Soul comes to a lively hope of salvation it 's sure 2. Hope brings Assurance that the object is transcendent that the salvation looked for will counter-ballance all the afflictions of time The light afflictions of this present world saith Paul are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed and what a special Cordial is this in affliction and at death 3. Hope discovers the subserviency of afficton to Glory through much affliction we must enter into Glory It may be said of every Christian as Christ said to the two Disciples going to Emmaus Ought not he to suffer these things Now when one comes to be lively in the hope of salvation it not only assures this is a rock a resting place but it assures that all our afflictions will be swallowed up in that Now lay all these together the influence that the hope of salvation hath on patience and joy and groaning after glory and contempt of the world and that it hath in it the assurance both of the glory to come and the transcendency of the glory and the subserviency of affliction to that glory I say lay them all together and I hope ye are convinced that the hope of salvation is a special Cordial though ye were under the greatest affliction and even at your last words Quest 2. The second Question I shall clear what is this hope of salvation that is so great a Cordial in affliction and at death It 's true we have no express definition of Hope in our Catechism many think it 's included in the description of Faith it being an act whereby we rely on God for the good promised and not yet accomplished differing only from Faith in that that the object of Faith is present and the object of Hope is future but that ye may know what this hope of salvation is I will describe it thus It 's a supernatural grace wrought by God in the heart of a believer whereby he expects and wairs for from God the good of the promise not yet accomplished It 's a supernatural grace grace cannot be the hope of salvation in a natural heart there cannot be a lively hope in a natural heart nay Heathens cannot have this lively hope they have had some hope of resemblance since the Fall their hope is like an old Tower that is all fallen and ruinous ye find some pieces of the Wall standing which tells there was once a stately House there but now there is nothing but a bit of an old Wall so the hope of the natural heart that remains since the Fall is but a bit of a decayed Tower it 's not an house wherein a man can shelter himself from challenges from rain storm and terrors it 's a supernatural grace and Heathens they can have no hope of salvation but some relicts of the old Wall that says once there was a House there Next it is a supernatural grace wrought by God all the Angels and Ministers could not work this grace of hope therefore if ye find a person tending to despair all the Ministers ye can bring to them cannot bring them to his hope of salvation till God work it 3. It 's a supernatural grace wrought in the heart of a Believer the person must be first a Believer before he can have the hope of salvation 4. The object of it is some good not yet accomplished for hope that is seen is no hope so if ye would see what this hope of salvation is that is so great encouragement in affliction and at death it 's a supernatural grace wrought by God in the heart of a believer Quest 3. There is only one practical Question to make way for the application that I shall clear and it 's this Have all believers this hope of salvation in their end to encourage them with David had it indeed but have all believers and all that are in Covenant with God have they this hope of salvation The rather this difficulty is to be noticed in regard 1. The Lord sometimes will bring some to their last words very despondent full of fears there are many their first assurance hath been the setting their foot on the Shore and many have gone in to glory and the tear in their eye with the fear of the pit have they all then this hope of salvation to be their encouragement at their last words Answ I will Answer this in these three or four particulars 1. All believers have grounds of the hope of Salvation they are all within the Covenant they have the purpose of God the promise of God and the purchase of Christ it 's true their Evidences may be out of sight and so dark that they cannot read them in the night and readily the tear may be in their eye and they cannot see to read their Evidences yet generally all the Elect and Believedrs they have as leamed men observe this hope of Salvation either in promisso in decreto or in semine they have a ground to hope for Salvation and ye must distinguish betwixt these two the actual hope and the ground of hope it 's true the very unbelievers and ungodly men have a possibility of hope which is a great mercy there is hope for a living man the Devils and Apostat Angels would buy this possibility of hope at a dear rate but they are excluded from a possibility of hope but the Elect they have a possibility of hope either in promisso in decreto or in semine they have the actual ground of hope though readily the exercise of their hope be slow 2. Though God deny to some the assurance of hope yet ordinarily he gives the full assurance of it then it 's a Question among Divinges what is the reason that many that have gone doubting all their days that when they have come to die have had more peace more joy more clearness than before They Answer that God who is the Steward of our peace and of our joy keeps it till then and then he letteth it out And 2. They whom God denyes the full assurance of hope they will be content of bare marks at death and under affliction they would not be content of it another time and the marks they rejected when they were well they are forced to take them then And 3.
promised several times Believers are called in the Bible Heirs of the promise was ever a man called an Heir of the Charter he may be called Heir of the Land that the Charter carries but the Believer may be called an Heir of the promise the reason is because the Promise is a great part of the Inheritance a person in Covenant with God is an Heir of the Promise as Isaac and Jacob are called so that there is an Inheritance of the Promise as well as in the thing promised a very necessary thing to be observed for there are many precious to God who think if they were in Heaven and if they enjoyed the glory that is to be had there they would count themselves as Heirs but while thou hast a Promise thou art possessing an Inheritance for the Covenant it self is a kind of possession thou that says thou would be possest in the promise and it 's no words and a Covenant thou would be put off with thou mistakes for the Covenant and the Promise is an Inheritance and thou art no Minor in the case but art possessing as a Major 2. Take notice ye that would be at the Possession of the Promise and that thinks all your desires will not be satisfied until then that the Covenant though it put you not in the possession of the promise yet it makes the Possession as sure as if it were in your hand that which we have in a promise from God It 's even as sure as if it were in possession it 's remarkable Psal 3.7 The Psalm is entituled a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly how could they be broken when he was flying from Absalom But David had a promise for it and he counts it as sure as if it were in his hand it 's true it 's not so sweet nor so refreshing as if it were in hand but it 's as sure so ye see though the Covenant put us not in possession of the promise yet it holds forth that which is as sure as if it were in possession But the third thing I will give you that will more fully answer the Question and remove the Objection that the delay of the possession of the promise is no denyal of it and to desire the possession of the promise except it be in the method of the Covenant is an irregular desire ye heard that the Covenant satisfies all regular and warrantable desires but to desire the possession of a thing before we have sought for it and done that for which we came into the world is an irregular desire so if thou say I have a great desire of the possession of the Peace the Joy and the Heaven that the Covenant holds forth thou art irregular in thy desire would thou be at the possession before thou hast run the race or would thou be at the Crown before thou hast foughten the battel that is an irregular desire and the Covenant is not to satisfie these desires the Covenant possesses thee in the promise and that 's an Inheritance and makes it as sure as if it were in possession Object 3. There are lawful desires of the Creatures and of eschewing the Cross and the Covenant satisfies them not may we not warrantably desire convenient Food many seek no more from God and gets it not they may have hundreds of Temptations about their Food and how to eschew the cross and doeth the Covenant satisfie all their desires For answer to this I would have you notice these things Answer 1. Take notice that we may desire indeed lawful convenient Food and it may be denyed and the removing of the Cross and it may be denyed but in this case the Lord satisfies the desire of our necessity however he satisfies not our appetite he may satisfie the cry of our need if he shall kill us with Hunger why not if Famine be the Post to bring us home to our Fathers house why not as well as a Fever Whatever be the way he bring us home he satisfies the scope of our desires the scope of our desires to him for temporal things if they be lawful they run in this Channel that he would give us the things of time in subordination to the things of Eternity if we seek them otherways we seek them irregularly we seek Bread and Cloaths to help us to Heaven but if he make Famine and Nakedness to help us to Heaven he satisfies our desires sometime we will go to God and cry Lord give me this outward Mercy and remove this Cross for that will be helpful for my Heaven if he deny the Mercy and keep on the Rod and yet help thee to Heaven he satisfies thy desire as if a Patient should cry to a Physician O! I am burning in a Fever give me water to drink but he makes a Cordial and gives him to cool him he grants his desire though he give not water to drink so in affliction we cry Lord remove this affliction and help me to Heaven he lets the affliction ly on and helps thee to Heaven does he not grant thy desire we are ill carvers of our own Lot our desires about temporal things may be granted when the particular way and manner of it may be removed he takes one way for the end and we would take another we cry to be brought to Heaven in a Chariot and he thinks sit we should be brought in a Cart we would be at glory with a fair wind and he thinks fit in a cross wind but if we come to glory as well with a cross wind as a fair wind the desire is granted Another thing I would have you consider is this Though we desire temporal things and get no satisfaction yet the Covenant may satisfie our desires the reason is it 's rare to find us regular in temporal things such a Woman would have her Husband living and she would quite God many other things if he would not remove the delight of her eyes another does so with her Child and yet they both die notwithstanding God makes it up and he grants their desire they think they cannot have contentment in the World but in such a Lot they have swallowed and drowned all their contentment if that be taken away the case is so with David there is a Child Bathsheba bare in Adultery the Child falls sick and dies he lyes on the ground while the Child is lying sick and will not eat all that time after he hath cryed to the Lord the Child dies was it not much better the same Woman bore him a Solomon than that the Child begotten in Adultery should live to be brief there is hardly any Objection can be brought from a Christians case or from their worldly desires but they may be all abundantly answered from this that the Covenant is satisfaction to all our desires I would speak a
to the Covenant when ye find ye desire a thing ye cannot produce a Promise for suspect it as an unwarrantable desire and all that hath gotten the victory over the corruption of their heart if ye can go this night and ly down and appeal to him that is the fearcher of the heart ye desire no more than what is promised it s an evidence he hath mortified your desires and brought you under the Bond of the Covenant blessed are they that can say the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant and desire no more if he would make me a King nay and give me all that is betwixt the rising of the Sun and the going down thereof I desire no more for he hath made with me a Covenant SERMON XXXV 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow DAvid is describing the Covenant that God made with him that it was everlasting and well ordered and sure he builds two great Conclusions on it this is all my salvation and all my desire the latter of these I have spoken to it 's a great mercy when we can have our desires regulat according to the Covenant when there is nothing desired but promised mercies irregular desires are the great foundation of the torment of our life they cannot choose but have sweet contentment and a life full of tranquillity that have gotten the victory over their desires not warranted by the Covenant But I will say no more of this before I leave these two there is one thing yet lying in them all my salvation and all my desire the two joyned together imports that the Covenant is a perfect Charter it 's a very rational Deduction from it That which is all the ground of the hope of salvation and that which is satisfaction to all desires must be a perfect Covenant therefore before I leave the handling of this Character of the Covenant I will take in this and handle it this day Doctrine That the Covenant of Grace made with believers is a perfect Covenant it is a very useful character of it and comfortable and therefore hearken unto it it may be said of the Covenant which David Psal 19.7 says The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul and that which he says Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad it 's as much as I can see no end of thy Commands they are so full and so perfect this is an excellent character and property of the Covenant whereas in other things we can see nothing but vanity and emptiness and froth there is a perfection in the Covenant That I may the more distinctly handle this I will propose these four things to be dwelt on 1. I will prove by some reasons that the Covenant of God is a perfect Covenant 2ly I will enquire in what respects it is perfect 3ly I shall clear some Questions and answer some Objections against its perfection and in the last place I shall dwell on the practical part of it Reasons First For some reasons to prove that the Covenant is perfect and indeed it 's not easie to believe the Covenant to be perfect every one will have their Objection against it yet there are these four things that will very strongly concur to demonstrat that it is a perfect Covenant 1. That to which nothing can be added and from which nothing can be wanting must be a perfect Covenant that is the proper definition of perfection now this agrees well to the Covenant there is nothing wanting in it and nothing can be added to it it is remarkable Rev. 22. He that adds to the words of this Prophesie God shall add to him the plagues written in this book and he that takes from it God shall take his name out of the book of life that is one sure reason to prove it a perfect Covenant Papists tell us they say they add no corrupt additions but perfecting additions to the words of this Book now corrupt additions is a contradiction for a corruption is not an addition but the Covenant is so perfect as whosoever he be that offers to add to the words of this Book God will add to him the plagues of this Book and whosoever he be that takes from it God will take his name out of the Book of life Reas 2. That Covenant that is sufficient to make the man of God perfect must be a perfect Covenant that which is in it self sufficient to make a Believer perfect what can be more requlsite to make up perfection as to us but the thing that will make us perfect And the Covenant is sufficient to make the man of God perfect 1 Tim. 3.16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness Now since they are sufficient to make the man of God Perfect the Covenant must be a perfect Covenant that is thus useful Reas 3. It will prove a perfect Covenant if ye consider that God in the Covenant is at the outmost of his offers now there can be nothing wanting if God be at the outmost of what he can offer There are three things that in the Covenant evidences God to be at his outmost so to speak with reverence that he cannot go beyond the three 1. The blessings of the Covenant he cannot go beyond them he cannot offer greater things than himself and his Son and both these are promised in the Covenant 2ly He is at the outmost of the freedom of the terms on which these offers are made it 's impossible to make an offer on freer terms that we should accept of him and turn from our iniquity and hearken and incline our ear to the Covenant what easier terms was it possible for God to make such great offers on 3ly He is at his outmost as to the Seals and Security of the Covenant it 's remarkable when he confirm'd the Covenant to Abraham Heb 6. Because he had no greater to swear by he swore by himself that imports that he gave the greatest Oath he could make if he could have sworn by a greater he would have sworn by it so he is at his outmost as to all these three Must not that then be a perfect Covenant where God is at his outmost and where to speak with reverence he can neither make greater offers nor freer offers nor give greater security for his offers Reas 4. That must be a perfect Covenant which upon the grounds given in the Text satisfies all desires and is all the hope of salvation this proves it a perfect Covenant our desires are very vast they are ordinarily like the Sea our desires are like an Ocean yet all desires and even when they shall be racked to
Kingdom and Church as sometimes it doeth in Scripture or whether it be his particular family in which there was abounding Incest Murther and Adultery and many other things or whether it be the house of his body and the tabernacle of his body his person where there were many failings like wife the meaning of the phrase Although my house be not so with God though it be not legally qualified and be not so with God as either God or I would have it for ther emust be some such thing here yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant so that before I can come to speak of his house and the failings consistent with the Covenant and of the answering their failings in the Covenant there is one thing I cannot pass and will handle it this day it 's this comparing the Objection and the Priviledge together my house is sinful it 's not so with God yet notwithstanding it be so ha hath made with me an everlasting Covenant Doctrine The Observation shall be That the Covenant made with believers it 's a Covenant of Grace it 's absolutely of Grace that Lord makes the Covenant with them although their house be not so with God yet the Covenant is made with them and this intirely proves it a Covenant of Grace I will in the work of this day comparing the Covenant with David's house handle this to you that it 's a Covenant of Grace it 's an absolutely this to you that it 's a Covenant it 's a remarkable confirmation of this you have Ezek. 36.32 The Lord hath in the former Verses set down many promises ses in the Covenant such as I will sprinkle clean water upon you a new heart will I give you and I will put a new spirit within you I will take away the stony heart I will sprinkle clean water upon you and write my Laws in your heart and Verse 32. Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own way O house of Israel Many precious promises hath he made in the Covenant yet for the rise of them be it known to you saith the Lord God not for your sakes do I this That I may follow this a little I confess it 's the great thing of our Soul it we were this day going to the grave that he should make a Covenant with you whose house is not so with God I will first prove this Covenant made with David and his seed to be absolutely and intirely a Covenant of Grace 2. I will inquire into the reasons why God will have this Covenant of Grace 3. I will clear a Question or two about it and lastly shall apply it Reas 1. First to prove it a Covenant of Grace that is a Covenant of free favour that 's made with them whose house is not so with God it 's a pathetick expression there is much more implyed than is exprest That the Covenant is a Covenant of meer grace and free favour will appear from these three remarkable truths 1. We have no accession in procuring it 2. The grounds and motives of it are only in God 3. It hath all the properties of grace and favour into it that could be expected to prove it a Covenant of Grace 1. It proves it a Covenant of free grace absolutely of free favour in regard we are altogether secluded from having any hand in procuring it It 's observed in Dispute with Papists there are four wavs by which we might be conceived to influence a thing from God and all these we are secluded from 1. By was of merit 2. By way of prive 3. By way of service 4. If there were suitableness in us to it several times there is beauty and comeliness where there is neither merit nor price nor service that will be alluring and procuring but all the four ways we are secluded from having any hand in it First There is no merit there are two things necessary to make up merit 1. The thing we give must be our own 2. It must be proportioned to the thing we receive the School-men cry down merit on these two grounds in strict Justice the thing we merit must be of something of our own we must have a proportion of the thing to what we receive and there is nothing of this in us in strict Justice Adam could not merit any thing that could have the name of merit it did refult from the Covenant and not from his obedience for it was neither his own nor proportioned to what he was to receive there could not be a proper commutative Justice betwixt God and Adam even though he had kept the Covenant of Works far less could we merit lapsed man could not merit under the Covenant of Grace 2. As we could give no merit we could give no price the reason of this is the outmost we could do was Sacrifices and Offerings all the Heathens could never go beyond this when they set their wits a-work to please their gods they took the best things they had to cast into the fire to their gods but what are Sacrifices and Offerings to him Psal 50.10 For every beast of the forrest is mine and the cattel upon a thousand hills Psal 51.16 For thou desirest not sacriace else would I give it thee thou delightest not in burnt-offerings Psal 16.2 My goodness extendeth not unto thee Micah 6.7 Shall I give my first born for my transgressim the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul What would all this signifie as a price to him 3. As we cannnot merit nor give a price so there is no service we can do there are servants that cannot buy nor merit yet there are some pieces of service by which they may bring an obligation upon their Master but there is no service we can do that can bring an obligation upon him Isaith 64.6 But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags Luke 17.10 So likewise ye when ye have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do Lastly suppose we have none of these three we might influence a thingfrom God by beauty and comeliness and suitableness to his inclination but neither can this be Read the sixteenth of Ezekiel and ye wil find what he found in Israel when he first entered in Covenant with her Thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born he compares Israel to a Child new born as for thy nativity in the day that thou wast born thy navel was not cut neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all c. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was the time of love and I spread my skirts over thee and covered thy
that hath been said on this Verse I will only say these three things 1. I shall give you a brief account of what led me to this Text I found the Refuge of the Soul in Distress to ly in the Covenant sometimes at the Gates of Death when other Refuges failed them they found no other I my self found no other for my Soul but to run to the Covenant in the Latitude and Freedom of it and since it appeared so sweet it was somewhat troublesome to me that I had not handled it ere now but in handling of it I gave an account of the nature of David's Security and then I handled personal Covenanting The Lord hath made with me ye heard ten or twelve Sermons on that head And 2. I came and handled the Properties of the Covenant that it was Everlasting Sure and Ordered in all things where ye heard several things on the Order and Method of the Covenant that a Christian should keep to keep him from delusion and false Peace in the Covenant 3. I came to the Superstructures This is all my Salvation and all my Desire I shewed you that that man that will plead for Mercy and Grace and hath no right to the Covenant he hath no ground to plead them more than the Devils have for they know that he is Merciful and Gracious the thing that makes the Devils have no claim to his Mercy and Grace is because they have no claim to his Covenant I have now studied the Covenant and laid it out before you as the great Foundation of Sanctification and Consolation and as the great Charter of Justification Now I say having gone through all these I would put all of you that has been hearing these Sermons to these three Questions 1. I would inquire What more light have ye of the Covenant than before The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal 25. What know ye more of the Covenant than before of the nature of it nay of personal Covenanting of the Properties of it of the Sweetness and Consolation that comes from it if ye have no more light and knowledge of it than before the Lord and the Stones and Timber of this House shall be a witness against you in the day of reckoning that this Covenant hath been holden out to you in the Latitude and Freedom of it and among all things that ye have heard it may be a sufficient witness against you when ye meet your Judge in the Valley of Decision But 2. Another Question is Whether hath what ye have heard from the Covenant 〈…〉 enter in a Personal Covenant with him I have several days sent you home beseeching you to enter in a Personal Covenant with him and I have given you Doctrines and Helps how to do it and hath the wind blown it all away and ye have done nothing have ye not Covenanted against the corruptions that the heart inclined you most unto have ye Covenanted to accept of his Son on the Terms of the Covenant I close this Text with wondring how ye have gotten it sit out if ye have not yet set about it I exhort you in my Masters Name in the close of this Text that now ye would Indenture and make a Personal Covenant with him Go and Indenture and Covenant with him otherwise the Lord and this place of Scripture shall one day joyn together and say Depart from me ye cursed I know you not 3. A third Question is Ye that have been hearers of me whether now when ye have heard me all out ye have heard Christ commended ye heard the Contract was well drawn ye heard what Grounds of Salvation and what Satisfaction to Desires is in the Covenant and have ye not heard how a person may plead the Covenant under many challenges Now whether or not are ye content this day to accept Christ on the Terms offered after ye have heard all I could say or read about it are ye content to accept him say ye Amen even so I take Him are ye content on these very Terms holden out in the Covenant to accept of him I testifie unto you that at the Gates of Death neither ye nor I will know of another way for refuge from his wrath but to run to this Covenant are ye saying now even so I take him as he is offered in the Covenant then have him and his Fathers blessing with him a Bargain be it there wanted nothing twenty years since but thy consent the only thing that delayed the Marriage was thy consent and if in the close of this day this be thy Note thou hast gotten even so I take him according to the Tenor of that Covenant this shall be the place of Scripture that thou shall bless the day that ever thou heard it opened to thee that thou was content to accept and imbrace this Christ on the credit of the Promise thou may take him and hazard all thy life on him FINIS