draw neere and he shall approach unto me and then as one assured of it and admiring at it he presently ads for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord That is both Governour and people all of them should binde and engage themselves not their outward man alone but even their very heart and soule also by solemne Covenant to be the Lords That this was the meaning is cleare by the next verse Ye shall be my people and I will be your God For it was such an engaging of their hearts as that one should say I am the Lords and another shall can himselfe by the name of Iacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himselfe by the name of Israel Ver. 31. c. Jsa 44.5 Ier. 31. So againe the Lord having first promised to bring back the captivity he subjoynes Behold The dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel with the house of Iudah not according to the Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took him out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they brok although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people Here is a Covenant God begins the work but his people follow They imbrace the Covenant and joyne themselves by mutuall Covenant to him He puts his Law into their hearts for this very purpose Once more In Ier. 32.37 there is a promise that God would gather his people out of all Countries whither he had cast them in his wrath and that he would bring them back to their owne place and cause them to dwell safely He presently addes this as the product of that mercy they shall be my people and I wil be their God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever c. I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Which words goe no lesse than a solemne Covenant mutually made and strucken betweene GOD and His people Thus then you see many plaine and pregnant places of Scripture shew that the maine thing God on his part aymed at and expected from his people in delivering them from Babylon was the firme and solemne tying and engaging of themselves by a formall and effectuall Covenant to him and the remembring and keeping of it better than formerly they had done But secondly all these were but prophesies shewing what God foreshewed should be Will you therefore see the thing acted and all these promises fulfilled True it is indeed that the people did not on their parts performe this they entred not into such a solemne Covenant so soone as deliverance was by Cyrus proclaimed and they sped accordingly Zorobabel went indeed before in the first yeere of Cyrus and laid the foundation of the Lords House but we read of no Covenant then made Therefore the worke was stayed and the building not finished in an 100 yeeares after say the best Chronologers Then comes Ezra and makes some reformation of manners and not onely so but some Covenant he and the people entred into Ezra 10. But that was but in a particular case and it would be thought a strange one to this age especially should it now be pressed there were many that had trespassed against their God by taking strange wives of the people of the Land that worshipped not the same God Such therefore as now were duely touched with the sence of this sinne desire Ezra that a solemne Covenant might now be made with God to put away all such wives and such as were borne of them Vers 3. Now in the fifth verse we shall finde this executed For Ezra arose and made the chiefe Priests the Levites and all Israel to sweare that they should do according to this word and they sware This was somewhat but not enough a partiall Covenant and such as came short of that intended in my Text. You shall see it more throughly performed afterwards in Nehemiahs time For after Ezra came Nehemiah and he makes a more thorough Reformation not of mens manners onely but even of Religion also He set up the Ordinances of God in their purity and tooke care in particular for the preaching of the Word After all this he and all the people entred into a solemne Covenant and that at the time of a publique Fast And this brings it home to the businesse we are now about For as they entred into Covenant upon receipt of such a deliverance so they did it at the time of a solemne Fast This will appeare throughout the whole ninth Chapter of Nehemiah where it is first said that the Children of Israel were assembled with fasting and with sack-cloath and with earth upon them they separated themselves from strangers they stood and confessed their sinnes and the iniquities of their fathers They justified God in all his proceedings against them and in all the evils he had brought upon them They acknowleged that neither they their Princes people or fathers had kept the Law they had not served God in that kingdom he had bestowed upon them Behold say they v. 36. we are servants this day and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eate the fruit thereof and the good thereof behold we are servants in it And it yeeldeth much encrease unto the Kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sinnes also they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattell at their pleasure and we a e in great distresse And because of all this we make a sure Covenant in the last verse and write it and our Princes Levites and Priests seale unto it Now here is the full accomplishment of that you have in my Text. What in the Text is set downe by way of Prophesse you here see acted in the History In Nehemiahs time they come home unto it And if you looke into the tenth Chapter you shall see who sealed this Covenant first the Princes the Officers the Magistrates of the Kingdome the Parliament men if you will so call them and then the rest of the people And what is the substance of their Covenant They entred into a curse and into an Oath to walke in Gods Law which was given by Moses the servant of God and to observe and doe all the Commandements of the Lord their God and his Iudgements and Statutes verse 29. Here then is their Covenant 2. How it is so you see also with what solemnitie it was made and ratified by subscribing of
duties than in working up their hearts to that in dispensable pitch of heavenly resolution sincerely to strike through a religious and inviolable Covenant with their God Whereas without this all their labour will be utterly lost their expectations frustrate they take the glorious Name of God in vaine provoke the eyes of his glory more against them causing him infinitely to loath and abominate both their persons and service nor shall they ever by all their crying and sighing no not by whole rivers of teares be able to draw downe an arme of Mercy from Heaven to come and save them The more effectually therefore to provoke both my selfe and you at this time to the due performance of this most neglected but most necessary dutie I have thought fit in a very plaine and familiar way sutable to the nature of this exercise which ought to be as serious as solemne to worke and chafe into all our hearts the strength and spirit of that good Word of God which you shall finde written for our instruction in The Prophesie of the Prophet Ieremiah Chap. 50. V. 5. They shall aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyne our selves unto the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten WHich words are part of a Prophecy terrible to Babylon but comfortable to the Church uttered The Introduction to the maine Discourse and penned by the Prophet Ieremy about the fourth yeere both of the Babylonish captivity and of the tributary reigne of Zedekiah The occasion this The Prophet having laboured about thirtie yeeres to humble Iudah by continually ringing in her eares the dolefull tydings of a sore captivity approaching could not bee beleeved But when once the quicke and sad sense of their bondage under the Caldean Yoke had forced from them an acknowledgement of the truth of his Prophesies he found it as hard a taske to worke their hearts to any hope of deliverance For as it is a worke even insuperable to possesse a people ripe for destruction that any evill is neere them till the wrath of God breake in upon them and overwhelme them so is it a businesse of little lesse difficultie to hold up the spirits even of Gods owne people once cast under any great extremity with any hope of rescue This was Iudah case Before the Babylonian had laid this yoke on their necks God had plainly revealed and often inculcated that it should lye upon them just 70. yeares and no longer Ier. 25.11 29.10 after which they should have liberty of return to their own Land again Howbeit the weight of their misery the absence of God who had cast them out of his sight together with the insolence and cruelty of their proud oppressors had throwne them down so low in a disconsolate condition that nothing which God could either now say or doe was sufficient to raise up their hearts to any assurance of returne The same strength which Lust hath to draw men from obedience it will surely have afterwards to drive men from beleeving in their greatest necessities of living by faith The maine beame which stucke in their eyes to hinder their sight of deliverance promised was the greatenesse and invincible potency of the Chaldean Monarchy then in her pride and more especially the strength of Babylon the Queene and Mistresse of that puissant Empire Introduction How could they hope to be delivered when she that commanded the world detained them Shall the prey be taken from the Mighty Isay 49.24 or the lawfull captive delivered To cure them therefore of this desperate desponsion of mind the Lord stirred up this Prophet to foretell the totall and finall subversion and ruine of Babylon and of that whole Monarchy and further to declare from God that the desolation thereof should be the dissolution of the captivity of Iudah in it The better to assure them of all this Ieremiah wrote the whole Prophecy against Babylon contained in this Chapter and the next following in a Book by it selfe which he sent to Babylon by the hand of Seraiah Lord Chamberlaine to Zedekiah Ier. 51.59 and now going in an Embassie from his Master to great Nebuchadnezzar with Command from the Prophet that after the reading thereof to the captives he should binde a stone unto it and cast it into the midst of Euphrates with this saying pronounced over it Thus shall Babylon sinke and shall not rise c. But to hasten to my Text In the five first verses of this Chapter the Prophet summarily compriseth the substance of his whole Prophecy against Babylon declaring 1. her destruction 2. the Meanes 3. the consequent thereof to the people of God And first he makes Proclamation and an Oiyes as it were to all the world to come and behold the Great Worke he was to doe against Babylon the chiefe Citie of the Empire against Bell the chiefe Idoll of that Citie and against Merodach the glory both of that Citie and Empire yea though the King then reigning when God meant to destroy it should prove as potent as that great King the first of that name who for restoring the declining Empire to her ancient Splendor and for translating the Imperiall Seat from Nineve to Babylon was by posterity worshipped as a God and transferred his name to all his successors as the name of Pharaoh to the Egyptian Kings of Benhadad to the Syrian Monarchs and of Augustus to the Roman Emperours Although all these should be joyned together to withstand the downfall of that Monarchy yet desolation should be brought over them all they should all be confounded and removed for ever Verse 1.2 and all to make way for the deliverance of the Church But what should bee the meanes of such an unexpected destruction This was to bee done by an Army from the North that is by the Medes and Persians both of which but more especially the Medes were situated towards the North from Babylon Omne malum ab Aquilone and therefore ominous That these were the men appeares more fully by their description in the residue of this and of the 51. Chap. This Northerne Army should bee the confusion of Babylon the confusion of Babylon should prove the restoring of the Church ver 3. And the restoring of the Church should produce a Covenant with God For behold the issue and consequent of the ruine of Babylon was the returne of the captive Iewes from thence to Ierusalem and a renewing Covenant with him that had shewed such mercy on them vers 4.5 For in those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the children of Israel shall come they and the children of Iudah together going and weeping they shall goe and seeke the Lord their God They shall aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyne our selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten This began to be fulfilled at the end of seventy
yeeres determined when the Empire was first over-runne and subdued by Cyrus the Persian For he made Proclamation of libertie to returne 2 Chr. 36.22 in the first yeere of his Raigne And when they returned this was their deportment they went weeping and to seeke the Lord their God They goe not so much to repossesse their ancient patrimony and inheritance and to grow rich in the world as to seeke and finde the Lord their God and that with a resolution to enter into Covenant with Him and such a Covenant as should never bee forgotten but daily remembred and carefully performed You now see the Context Should I now divide the Text Actus I might shew you here First an Act expressed by their industry in setting upon a long and tedious journey to Zion They shall aske the way to Zion Secondly the manner how they manage this journey Modus it is 1. With all intention of spirit they aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward 2. With fervent charity towards and mutuall zeale for each other to quicken and inflame one another to the same work saying Come Thirdly the end of their journey which with so much intention of spirit and inflamed charity calling and crying to one another in such a manner FINIS they set upon all was for this Let us joyne our selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shal not be forgotten I might easily also cast out these generals of the Text into many lesser branches but it is not now a time to trifle or to play with a Text. Yea I shall not distinctly prosecute all the parts already laid out but as the duty of this day requireth insist rather upon that which is the maine and bring in the other as subordinate thereunto by occasion afterwards in explication of the principall point For we see troopes in the Text bound for Zion and so hasty thitherward that they salute not any man by the way nor so much as looke aside any way they goe with their faces thitherward all the stay they make is but to call others along with them and amongst these us saying Come And what is the businesse the end of all this hast Nothing but this Let us joyne our selves unto the Lord in an everlasting Covenant c. This how ever it were last in execution yet was it first in their intention in the undertaking of this journey and therefore now must be principally insisted upon You see here a people loosed from the Babylonish captivitie and returning to Zion and in their returne to have this in their hearts in their mouthes and in their endeavours namely upon the receipt of this mercy to make speed to their God to enter into a new Contract and solemne Covenant with him So that now the chiefe and only point of instruction which I shall recommend to and presse upon you and mine owne heart with you is plainly this that The maine Observation or Doctrine When God vouchsafes any deliverance to his Church especially from Babylon then is it most seasonable and most necessary to close with God by a more solemne strict and inviolable Covenant to bee his and only his for ever In prosecuting this point wherein I resolve to be plaine and in earnest I shall first shew you the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it that it is so Next the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you will how and in what manner this must be done Thirdly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grounds and reasons of it and so proceed to the Application i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod sit That it is so For the first the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so this will appeare 1. More generally upon receipt of any deliverance 2. More specially upon an deliverance from Babylon above all other 1. In generall 1. That it is so in the generall Proved 1. More generally that this use must be made of any deliverance appeares both by precept and example in holy Scripture We shall carry them along together In Deut. 29. you shall finde Moses requiring the people to enter into a speciall Covenant with God beside the solemne Covenant which he made with them and they with him in Horeb. Exod. 19.5 c. To induce them thereunto Moses refresheth their memory with the repetition or representation of the many deliverances God had given unto them out of Egypt The first solemne Covenant which they passed into was after their deliverance out of Egypt Vers 1. and in the wildernesse by the space of fortie yeeres together with the wonders and miracles which he daily wrought for them And in the seventh ver he tels them that when ye came into this place that is into the Land of Moab Sihon the King of Heshbon Og the King of Bashan came cut against us unto battell c. What then Here is deliverance upon deliverance and the inference is Keep therefore the words of this Covenant and do them verse 9. But that is the Covenant on Gods part you will say True A second Covenant about fortie yeeres after the first when they came neere to Canaan and shortly after were to enter into it but that is not all He therefore presseth them to an actuall personall Covenant on their parts and that upon consideration of so many deliverances This was his maine businesse with them at the Lords own command Therefore in vers 10. he thus bespeaks them Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God your Captaines of your tribes your Elders and your Officers with all the men of Israel your little ones your wives and thy stranger that is in thy Campe from the hewer of thy wood to the drawer of thy water that thou shouldst enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God and into his Oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day And in vers 14. he addeth Neither with you onely do I make this Covenant and this oath but with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God and also with him that is not here with us this day Thus you see a Covenant required stricken and ratified by solemne Oath of God and his people mutually to one another they binde themselves by solemne Oath to him as he by oath had bound himself to them Thus then it was in the time of Moses No eminent deliverance went before but a solemne Covenant followed after * As Moses drew the people into a Covenant before their entrance into Canaan so did Ioshua also after they were possessed of it Iosh 24.25.26 So did Iehoiada upon the deliverance of Iudah from the tyranny of that bloudy monster Athaliah 2 King 11.17 And To sweare a Covenant is no new device no humane invention nor arbitrary Action I will give you but one instance more among many of this kinde and it is that of Asa that good and religious
as farre as Babylon Others conceive it to be meant of the Covenant of Grace that God had sealed to them in the bloud of his Sonne But neither of these are full For it is clearely meant of an Act of theirs towards God whereby they bind themselves to him and that not for a definite time only but for ever It is such a binding as that of the borrower to the Vsur r whom nothing can satisfie but full payment Or rather such a closing with God as is that of the wife to the husband called in particular reference to the nuptiall knot the Covenant of her God Prov. 2.17 She must be his for ever that is so long as she liveth Rom. 7. So that for men to bind themselves by an everlasting Covenant to the Lord is to bind themselves never to step out from him to Idols to their base lusts to any creature in any strait upon any occasion or tentation whatsoever nor with the dogge to returne any more to their vomit of any kind They are in Covenant as the wife to the husband for they are marryed unto the Lord for ever Hos 2. 2. It must be heeded and minded 2 It must be heeded and not forgotten else it will be to small purpose to be so lasting It must be a Covenant that shall not be forgotten A Covenant quod non tradetur oblivioni as Tremellius well that is that shall not be cast behind their backs It is but a plaine mockery for men so to enter Covenant with God as young Gallants enter into bonds to the Vsurer never thinking more of them till the day of payment be past and the Sergeant ready to attach them Vnto the wicked saith God what hast thou to doe to take my Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou castest my words behind thee Psalme 50. Only they rightly performe this dutie who so joyne themselves to the Lord as to remember and minde the obligation they have sealed As a poore man that meanes honestly if he be necessitated to take up money upon his bond he can hardly eate walke sleep doe any thing be in any company but that still his minde runs upon the obligation and day of payment he complaines he is in debt he hath given bond for so much money and all his care is how to pay his debts or to get longer time so it is with a Godly man that hath entred Covenant with the Lord he hath sealed a bond and he knowes it must be satisfied or it will be put in suit Therefore he beares it in minde he is alwayes casting about how he may performe and keep touch with God I will never forget thy precepts saith David I have inclined mine heart to performe thy Statutes alwayes even unto the end Psal 119.112 This is one expression Againe It is a Covenant to be remembred as that of the wife whereby she stands bound to her husband she must ever remember it It is the note of an Harlot to forget the Covenant of her GOD. The chaste wife will so remember the marriage bond Pro. 2.17 that if she be solicited to unfaithfulnesse to uncleannesse c. she ever hath this in her thoughts that she hath given her selfe wholly away to an husband and is bound to keep her only unto him during life and this makes her to be even an impregnable wall against all assaults that might otherwise draw her to folly So must it be in the case in hand The Covenant must still be in the heart and in the memory In every action of a mans life in every passage and turning of his estate and condition in every designe or engagement this must not be forgotten viz. I have entred into Covenant with God as a wife with her husband will that I am now doing or going about stand with my Covenant Is this to performe Covenant with God c. If he be solicited to uncleannesse to fraud oppression any evill whatsoever this still runs in his minde There is a Covenant between me and the Lord I am bound from such courses by the strongest bonds How then can I commit this great wickednesse and sinne against God Psal 78.10 What was it for which Judah and Israel became Captives but the breach of the Covenant They kept not the Covenant of God saith the Psalmist And how so because they did not remember it As they soone forgot his workes so it was not long ere they forgot God their Saviour himselfe too and then no marvaile if at the next bout they forgot his Covenant also Psal 106 He then that would not breake Covenant must not forget it but mind and performe it Otherwise it is like vowing unto God and not paying which is worse than not to vow at all Eccles 5. Thus have I dispatcht the Second generall the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shewed you how and in what manner this Covenant must be striken first in regard of the disposition and preparation of the Soule unto it it must be with serious seeking the face of God and humbling the soule before hand it must be with al intention earnestnes with fervent Love and charity to draw others the same way Next in regard of the Covenant it selfe it must be an act and firm joyning and binding our selves to the Lord as of the borrower to the Lender of the wife to the husband and that by some solemne Act which may testifie it to all the world and be a witnesse against us if we keep it not And all this thirdly for properties must be of everlasting continuance and had in continuall remembrance so as it may be continually performed of all that make it 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ur fit the grounds why it is so these are of 2 sorts viz. 3. I proceed to the third and last branch the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grounds and reasons why upon receit of any deliverance but more especially from Babylon people should enter into such a covenant with God And these respect deliverances either in general or from Babylon in special 1. The reasons why this must be done upon any deliverance in generall 1. Why for any deliverance in generall are these 1. Because God at no time so much as when he bestowes upon his people some notable deliverance 1 God at such times gives clearest evidence of his readinesse to enter covenant with us gives such cleere hints and demonstrations of his willingnesse to strike an everlasting Covenant with them No sooner had the Lord delivered Israel out of Egypt but within 3. Moneths after he commanded Moses to tell the people from him Ye have seene what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bare you on Eagles wings and brought you out unto my selfe Now therefore if ye will obey my voyce and keep my Covenant then yee shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people Exod. 19.1 and verse 4.5 God himselfe you see was now
from vers 9 to verse 17 yet he will never perfect the deliverance till this be done The people which returned from Babylon found God to keepe touch with them to a day So soone as the 70. yeares determined their captivity was dissolved and somewhat was done the foundation of the Lords house was laid but the building went slowly up the reformation of Church and State went heavily on and they were never in a thriving condition till Nehemiah 3. Why it is so by the good hand of God lighted upon this course Some Fasts they had kept before yea very many but they never thrived till he added to their publique and solemne Fasting the fastening of them to God by a solemne Covenant Then the worke of Reformation and establishment went on merrily then they prospered Thus farre the Reasons concluding for a Covenant upon receit of deliverances in generall 2. The Reasons inducing us thereunto upon deliverance from Babylon 2 why for deliverance from Babylon in speciall in particular are these 1. Because Babylon 1. Babylon hath ever bin the sorest enemy after once the Church was put under her power had alwaies been the most insolent heavy bitter bloody enemy that ever the Church felt The violence of Babylon was unsupportable her insolency intolerable her bloud-thirstinesse insatiable Hence the Church is bold to challenge all the world to match her misery under the yoke of Babylon Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me that is by the heavie hand of Babylon in the day of his fierce wrath Lam. 1.12 This was so sore that it hath been by some Fathers and others conceived to be the fullest and most lively typical expression of that matchlesse agony and extremity which our Lord himselfe hanging upon the Crosse sustained when he bare all our sins and the wrath of God due to us for them so farre as to make a full satisfaction to the Iustice of his Father in behalfe of all his people And as it was with old Babylon so it is now and ever wil be with the new I meane mysticall Babylon to the end of the world might she so long continue Even she also delights in no other drink but the bloud of the Saints as you shall finde in Rev. 17.5 where the very name written upon her forehead sufficiently sets out her nature Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth And what of her I saw saith St Iohn the woman drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus and when I saw her I wondred with great admiration v. 6. And well he might A woman and drunke And if drunke would no liquor suffice but bloud no bloud but that of Saints and Martyrs She is never in her element but when she is swimming in bloud So insatiable is she that like the horse-leeches daughter she never saith it is enough Therefore when God gives any deliverance from thence 3. Why it is so in speciall there is more than ordinary cause to close with the Lord in a more solemn and extraordinary manner giving him the praise and glory of so great a mercy But then more especially when God works out the full deliverance of his Church by the totall and finall ruine of Babylon Oh then then is the time when all the people in heaven must sing Halleluiah ascribing salvation and honour and power unto the Lord our God Revel 19.1 And againe Halleluiah verse 3. as if they could never sufficiently expresse themselves to God for such a deliverance such a mercy such a vengeance 2. Againe When God delivereth from Babylon 2. Such a deliverance implyes more than ordinary breach of Covenant on our parts for which God formerly put us under such a yoke there is more than ordinary cause of entring into solemne Covenant with him because the very subjecting of the Godly under that iron yoke argues more than ordinary breach of Covenant with the Lord in time past which stirred him up to deale so sharply with them as to put them under the power of Babylon This Provocation was exceeding great too much to be endured even by infinite Patience it selfe else the People of God had never been cast into such a furnace It was for such a fault as dissolved the very marriage knot between God and his people it was for going a whoring from him For this it was that God first put away Israel giving her a Bill of divorce Ier. 3.8 And for this it was that hee afterwards cast Iudah also out of his sight 2 King 17.19.29 And as it was in former times so in later Ages of the world What was the reason that so many millions of soules have been exposed to the butchery of Antichrist in Mysticall Babylon and to bee so hood-winckt and blinded by strong delusions as to beleeve nothing but lyes even that Great Great soul-killing Lye that they might be damned S. Paul tels us it was this They received not the love of the truth that they might be saved but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse 2 Thess 2. What unrighteousnesse Is it meant of every unrighteousnesse that is in the nature of it damnable which is to be found in the world Surely no but signanter of that unrighteousnesse whereby men turned the truth of God into a lye Rom. 1. that is by corrupting the true worship of the true God and afterwards falling off to down-right Idolatry even within the pales of the Church it selfe Most of you are well seene in the History of the Church and can soone point with your finger to the times wherein Babylon began to besiege Hierusalem and Antichrist began to pull off his vizzard in the Churches of Christ even then when Pictures and Images began first to be set up in Churches for remembrance then for ornament then for instruction too and at last for adoration and worship Then God suffered her to bee over-run and over-spread by Babylon as by an hideous opacum or thick darknesse and to bee exposed and prostituted to all manner of whoredomes and filthinesse so as the slavery of the Iewish Church in old Babylon was scarce a flea-biting in comparison of the miseries of the Church Christian under the new which makes havock and merchandise not of the bodies onely but even of the soules of men Revel 18.13 Now then when God pleaseth to deliver a people from such bondage and to awaken them effectually to look up and to reflect even with astonishment upon those great and gastly sins of theirs which had cut asunder the cords of the Covenant betweene God and their Soules and provoked God to subject them to so much bondage and that they must either renew Covenant or bee obnoxious to more wrath and be laid open to more and greater temptations and sinnes this cannot but exceedingly work upon their soules causing their hearts to melt and
their very bowels to yearne after the Lord to enter into a new an everlasting Covenant that shall never be forgotten This is that which God by his servant Ezekiel spake touching the deportment of the remnant of Israel which should escape the sword among the nations and countries whither they had been carried captives Ezek. 6.9 They should upon such a deliverance remember God not onely with griefe but resolution also to joyne themselves to him more firmely in a perpetuall Covenant For of them he saith there they that escape of you shall remember mee among the nations because I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from me and with their eyes which goe a whoring after their idols and they shall loth themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations And of the same people hee saith afterwards * Cap. 11.18 19 20. that upon their returne home They shall take away all the detestable things and all the abominations thereof from thence And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh and give them an heart of flesh that they may walke in my statutes and keepe mine ordinances and doe them and they shall bee my people and I will bee their God So that here is a full Covenant striken and that upon this ground viz. the Consideration of those great sins they formerly committed whereby they had broken their first Covenant and departed from their God So farre the Reasons and Grounds of the point I shall now as briefly as I can endeavour to bring home and set on all by some Application Application Threefold which I shall reduce to 3. heads namely to matter of Reproofe Information and Exhortation For if When God vouchsafeth any deliverance to his people especially from Babylon it bee most seasonable and necessary to close with him by a more solemne firme and inviolable Covenant to be onely his for ever Then 1. How may this reprove 1. Vse of Reproofe and condemne of great ingratitude and folly many sorts of men among us that are farre from making any such use of the deliverances which God hath wrought for them O beloved Should I but give you a Catalogue of the many great stupendious and even miraculous deliverances which God hath given us the personall deliverances hee hath often given to each of us apart the publique eminent glorious deliverances hee hath given to us together with the whole State that in 88. and that of 1605. I meane from the horrid hellish Gun-powder-Treason but especially and above all the rest our happy deliverance out of Babylon by the blessed Reformation of Religion begun amongst us some good number of yeares by past the time would faile me But alas Of foure sorts of men viz. 1. Of such as think a Covenant needfull in trouble but not after deliverance Hosea 5.15 What use have we made of them Hath this use ever been so much as thought of by us Nay verily For 1. Some think it bootlesse thus to close in with God after an evill is over When Gods hand is heavy upon them sense of smart compels them to think it then a fit season to doe somewhat to confesse their sins to humble themselves and to seek God In their asfliction they will seeke me early saith the Lord. But so soone as hee takes his hand off from them they cast all care away as if now according to that homely proverb the devill were dead and no further use of any feare or diligence were to be once thought upon till with Pharaoh they come under a worse plague than before and as if God had delivered them to no other end but to live as they list to cast more dung into his face and to dishonour and provoke him yet more than ever before I appeale to the consciences of many who heare mee this day and I require them from the Lord to witnesse truly whether it bee not even thus with them 1. Vse Reproofe If the plague knock at their doore if death get in at the window and begin to shake them by the hand there is then some apprehension of wrath and judgement some humbling some hankering after Cod. Then Oh what would not these men do what would they not promise on condition to bee delivered from their present anguish and feares But once deliver them and God shall heare no more of them till they bee in the same or worse case again They turne Covenanters Nay leave that to the Puritans For their parts they think more of a Covenant with death and hell for God is not in all their thoughts Had there been upon the discovery of the Powder-Treason which this Honourable Assembly hath cause above all others to preserve eternally in fresh remembrance and to think more seriously what God looks for at all your hands upon such a deliverance had there been I say no possibility of escaping that Blow what would not men have then done Oh what prayers what fasting what humiliation should we have seene But when the snare was once broken what followed A Covenant with God Nothing lesse for so soon as ever the danger the feare the amazement at such an hellish project and the neere approach to the execution of it was a little over the Traitors themselves fell not deeper into the pit of destruction which themselves had digged than generally all sorts of men did into the gulfe of their old sinnes as if they owed more to Hell than to Heaven for so great a deliverance And is it better now Where is the Covenant such a Covenant with God that so wonderfull a deliverance deserveth and requireth These men may please themselves and feed sweetly upon a vaine dreame that there is no harme in all this but the Apostle brings them in a sad reckoning after a sharp chiding for it Rom. 2.4 5 What saith he Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance The end of all Gods goodnesse in forbearing advancing and giving thee prosperity and of his long suffering in sparing thee when thou hast abused prosperity and of all his mercy in delivering thee out of adversity is to lead thee to repentance to draw thee neerer to Himselfe even in an everlasting Covenant And if it have not this effect on thee the Apostle hath said it and the God of Heaven will make it good that thou despisest the riches of his goodnesse c. Thou tramplest all mercies under thine impure feet when they doe not raise and scrue thee up so neere to thy God as to enter a solemne Covenant with them And what then Thou wilt not stay there but fall into more sinne and under greater judgement and after thy hardnesse and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy selfe wrath that is more and more wrath against
the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous iudgement of God This is the end of all who make not the Goodnesse of God a prevailing motive thus to ioyne themselves to the Lord they fall into moe and greater sinnes and abominations and so adde daily to that great heape and to those Seas of divine wrath that hang over their heads to overwhelme and confound them for ever 2. Others if after some time of lying under the weight of many pressures of the Church and State they arrive at some hopes and opportunities of easing themselves of those burdens and of freeing the Land of the great Instruments of all their evils 2. Of such as having meanes of deliverance think it enough to rid out of the way the instruments of their evils they conceit strongly that if this be done all is done If but some of the Nimrods who have invaded their Lawes and Liberties bee pulled downe Which is an act of Iustice how doe the Many who doe nothing towards any Reformation of themselves rejoyce and promise to themselves great matters Now think they there will be an end of all our miseries and we shall see golden dayes Amos 5.24 Iudgement shall run downe like waters and righteousnesse like a mighty streame Oh Brethren deceive not your selves If this bee all you look at if upon opening this doore of hope this be all you ayme at to make use of the time to secure your selves against oppressors and never think of closing with God or but think of it you may perhaps goe farre in pursuit of your owne designes in providing against the evils you sigh under and this Parliament may do great things this way But let mee tell you from God that this will never doe the deed till the Covenant wee have been all this while speaking of bee resolved on and solemnly entred into by all those that expect any blessing from that High Assembly Nor this nor all the Parliaments in the world shall ever be able to make us happy in such a degree at least as we expect till the Lord hath even glewed and marryed us all unto himselfe by mutuall Covenant It is not onely the making of good Lawes to remove our present grievances no nor the cutting downe of all the evill Instruments in our State or Church at one blow that can secure us against the like yea worse evils for the future but rather as one wave followes another so one mischiefe will still tread on the heeles of another and greater plagues will ever crowd in after the former till wee close with God by such a solemne Covenant The people of Palestine or Philistia made themselves marvellous merry when any of the Governours or Kings of Israel or Iudah such as Sampson David Vzziah c. that had sorely yoked and hampered them were removed by death and others come in the roome that could doe but little against them When such an one as Ahaz who never wonne battaile of them but still went by the worse swayed the Scepter oh how joyfull were the Philistines But mark what a damp God cast in among them in the midst of all their mirth Jsai 14.28 Reioyce not thou whole Palestina because the rod of him that smote thee is broken that Vzziah and other Potent and successefull Kings are taken away and weake unhappy Ahaz come in the roome for out of the Serpents root shall come forth a Cockatrice and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent Ahaz shall leave an Hezekiah behind him See 2. King 18.8 that shall pay all his Fathers debts upon the Philistines and plague them yet more than all that went before him And have not we seen this verified also neerer home Have not some in former times beene taken away who have been great Oppressors and Instruments of many sore pressures And how have men rejoyced at their fals Nor know I why they should not if justice in a just way have cut them off But alas what good in the issue hath followed or can be yet hoped for so long as men continue Philistines enemies to God and his Church Anti-Covenanters even with Hell rather than true Covenanters with God Whether is our Condition any what better now then heretofore when those Leviathans were alive in their height I appeale to your selves And the reason of all is this that men mistake the meanes of Cure or at least fall short of it The cutting off of evill Doers how necessary soever it be is not all nor the maine requisite to make a people happy unlesse also there be a thorough joyning of themselves to God by Covenant If you therefore that be now convened in Parliament should sit so long as you desire even these 7. yeares if your businesse should require it and think you would make such Examples of men that have violated the Lawes and invaded your Liberties and enact so many wholesome Lawes to prevent the like presumptions for the future as should put us into a new world causing men to admire the happy state and frame of Government which you would set up yet all this would never produce the expected effect but prove as a meer dreame of an hungry man who in his dreame eateth aboundantly but when he awakes is empty unlesse you also not onely resolve upon but execute this maine duty of entring Covenant with your God Againe thirdly others can roare like beares 3. Of such as think extraordinary Fasting and Prayer sufficient without a Covenant Jsai 59.11 and mourne sore like doves when they find themselves disappointed of their hopes when Parliaments have been broken up in discontent when they have looked for Iudgement and there is none for salvation but it hath been far from them then they have howled like dragons not onely for afflictions but perhaps for sinnes also especially if deliverance upon deliverance hath been snatcht from them even when it hath seemed so neere that they had begun to take possession of it yet silly men that they are their evils haunt them still and prevaile more and more after all their fastings humblings and strong cries to God their Redeemer For alas what will all this doe without a Covenant without taking hold of God and ioyning themselves to him to bee his for ever you may see such a state of the Church as this described by Isaiah and good were it for us to take warning by it Jsai 64.6 7. Wee all doe fade as a leafe and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away And why all this The next words will tell you there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himselfe to take hold of thee say they to the Lord who had hid his face from them and consumed them for their sins Not that they did not at all call upon God but because they did not so call upon him as to stirre up themselves to take hold of him by Covenant therefore is it
accounted no better than a not calling upon him at all Thus men lose not onely their opportunities of deliverances offered but their duties also by which they desire to further it against another time 4. Some it may bee goe yet further Vpon the hearing of such a duty so much pressed and inculcated they beginne to bee a little stirred they are convinced that it is indeed true such a Covenant 4. Of such as are convinced of the necessity of a Covenant yet come not up to it Hosea 3.14 is fit to be made but here like Ephraim an unwise sonne they stand still at the breaking forth of the Children of the Covenant They faine would but loth they be to goe thorough with the bargaine They beginne to come on and then fall back againe They are so long a cheapning treating complementing disputing how safe it may bee for them how well it may stand with their profits projects ends interests relations that they coole againe and never come up to a full resolution Oh sayes one this is a good course and fit to bee taken but my engagements callings Alliance company service will not consist with it Another sweares hee could finde in his heart to make triall of it but that he should be jeered scorned and perhaps lose his place or hopes for it another he is for it but at present he cannot enter upon it Thus one thing or other still keeps this duty without doores and holds most men off from the work for ever But beloved take heed of this dallying What ever you think it is no better than a departing away from the living God that springs from an evill heart of unbeliefe when being fully convinced of the weight necessity and commodity of the duty you will yet while it is called to day adventure so farre to harden your hearts as not to set upon the work instantly and to go thorough with it Heb. 3. Woe unto all such dodging Christians they shall finde to their cost that God will write them Lo-ammi Hos 1.9 and pronounce of them They are not my people and I am not their God If any think what adoe is here what meanes this man to bee so earnest would hee have us all turne Covenanters yes with God Why what if I doe not Then never look for good from him how faire soever thy hopes be No sayes another I le try that sure I have seene many a good day in my time and hope to see more though I never swallow this doctrine therefore he resolves to go hence as he came hither as he lived yesterday so he will to morrow though this day hee doe as his neighbours doe keeping some order much against the will of his base lusts that ring him but an harsh peale in his eare for this little abstinence yet to morrow he will bee for his swearing drinking whoring any excesse and riot as much as ever and yet by grace of God he hopes to prove all these words to be but wind and to do as well as the best of them all when he comes to die But woe worth the day that ever such a man was born that when hee heares God calling him with so much importunity to stand even this very day before the Lord to enter into Covenant with the Lord his God and into his Oath shall so harden his neck and harbour such a roote of gall and wormewood within his heart as when he heares the words of the Curse upon all those that will not enter into Covenant or entring into it shall not keep it hee shall blesse himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of mine heart and adde drunkennesse to thirst See and tremble at what God hath resolved to do with that man Deut. 29.20 21. The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his iealousie shall smoke against that man and all the Curses that are written in Gods Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven Here is nothing but fury powred out upon such a wretch not a blessing shal descend upon him not a curse shall escape and goe by him not onely himself and posterity but his very name so far as it is an honour shall all be cast out of the world as out of the midst of a sling If hee please himselfe with this Yet I shall live as long as some others if they have any happinesse I resolve to share with them he will find that God will not leave him so but the Lord will separate him unto evill out of all the Tribes of Israel so as though all others be safe yet as a strucken Deere is unhearded from all the rest and followed by the dogs till he be pul'd downe and kill'd so shall it be with this man according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in the Book of the Law Although the whole Kingdome be safe and all others in it be in peace yet he and his house shall perish the line of Confusion shall bee stretched out over him hell and damnation shall be his portion how high soever hee now beares his head and how much soever hee suffer his heart to swell against the truth supposing all that he likes not to be nothing but a spice of indiscretion yea of faction and it may bee of Sedition when yet nothing is offered but what is I trust pregnantly proved out of Holy Scripture So farre the first Vse 2. Vse Information â—ouâ—â—ing the chiefe cause why Reformaâ—â—â— and full â—â—drâ—sse of our evills goes on 〈◊〉 slowly 2. This may informe us touching the true cause which most neerely concernes our selves of the slow proceedings of Reformation of things amisse among us both in the Church and Common-wealth Why God hath not yet given us so full a deliverance from Babylon why there have been so many ebbings and flowings in matters of Religion yea more ebbings than flowings Why generall grievances swell to such an height and that all opportunities of cure have vanished so soone as appeared how it comes to posse that albeit God hath moved the heart of the King to call Parliament after Parliament yet by and by one spirit of division or another sometimes from one quarter 2. Vse Information sometimes from another like the evill spirit which God sent between Abimelech and the men of Shechem to the ruine of both still comes betweene and blasteth all our hopes Iudg. 9.23 24. leaving us in worse case than we were in before and whence it is in regard of our selves that in stead of setting up the Kingdome and Ordinances of Christ in more purity there is such a contrary mixture and such a corrupting of all things in Doctrine in worship in every thing Arminianisme Socinianisme and Popish Idolatry breaking in againe over all the Kingdome like a floud What is a chiefe cause of all this Have we not
prayed have wee not fasted Have we not had more Fasts at Parliaments of late than in many yeares before Yea hath not there been generally among Gods people more frequent humiliations more frequent seeking of God notwithstanding the malice and rage of some men to discountenance and suppresse it than in former times Why then is Deliverance and Reformation so slow in comming Surely Beloved we have all this while mistaken the maine businesse and neglected the principall part of a Religious Fast You come Fast after Fast to seek God in his House You forbeare your victuals afflict your soules endure it out a long time you pray heare confesse your sinnes and freely acknowledge that all is just that God hath brought upon us and that we suffer lesse than we deserve All this is well But here is the error and the true Cause of the continuance of all our evils and of their growing greater namely that all this while wee have never in any Fast or at any other time entred into such a solemne and publique Covenant with God as his people of old have often done upon like occasions and exigents That I may yet more effectually bring home this to all our hearts give mee leave briefly to parallel the slow pace of our deliverance out of Mysticall Babylon with that of Iudah and some of the remnant of Israel out of old Babylon which for a long time had held them Captives And here first bee pleased to call to minde that as touching the Captive Iewes God failed not on his part of his promise At the end of 70. yeares liberty of returne from Babylon to Hierusalem was proclaimed in the first yeare of Cyrus the Persian Monarch whereupon Ezra 1.1 2. Ezra 2. many did returne under the conduct of Zorobbabel Being come home to Hierusalem wee may not conceive that they were not at all touched with sense of their deliverance or of the sins which had formerly provoked the Lord to cast them into that great bondage out of which they were delivered Well on they goe first to offer sacrifices in the right place Although the foundation of the Temple of the Lord was not yet laid Ezra 3.6 In the second yeare of their comming Zorobbabel began to set forward the work of the house of the Lord and the foundation was laid Verse 8. Verse 10. Ezra 4.1 But the adversaries of Iudah the Great Officers of the Kingdome under the King of Persia apprehending or rather pretending the going on of this building to be matter of prejudice and danger to that Monarchy they procure a stay of it upon reason of State so as it was well nigh an hundred yeares ere they got liberty to go on againe and it was above an 100. yeares before the Temple could bee finished For as many exact Chronologers observe the Temple was not perfected in the reigne of Darius Hystaspis as some have thought but in the sixth yeare of Darius Nothus betweene whom and the former Darius both Xerxes the husband of Esther and called in Scripture Ahashuerus and Artaxexes Longimanus successively swayed the Persian Scepter In all which time many things were amisse Cruelty Oppression Adultery Mixture with strange wives and other great deformations remained Then comes Ezra after the Temple was finished and somewhat he did to set forward the work of Reformation in the seventh yeare of Artaxerxes Mnemon Ezra 7.7 successor to Darius Nothus And yet there was much more to doe After him therefore comes Nehemiah Neh. 1.1 in the twentieth yeare of the same Artaxerxes Mnemon and after all the former endeavours he findes the Church still weltring in her bloud and even wallowing in her owne gore I meane in most of her old and long continued sins although cured of Idolatry so that still there was great corruption in doctrine in worship and in manners Whereupon he now resolves and sets upon a more thorough Reformation of all these but could never effect it till beside the proclaiming and holding of a publique Fast he and all the people lighted upon this course namely of entring into a publique and solemne Covenant with the Lord subscribed sealed and sworne unto Neh. 9. ult and 10.29 as before you have heard and so from that time forward the work prospered and the Church was purged of many abominations wherewith till that time she was defiled Behold here Quantae molis erat dilectam condere Gentem how great a work how long a businesse to perfect a Reformation even of Gods dearest people Their captivity in Babylon lasted not halfe so long time as was spent after their returne thence ere their Reformation could be brought to any tolerable perfection And why so Did they omit prayer and fasting and seeking early after God surely no. For in Zach. 8.19 we read of foure severall publike Fasts * Quarto menst Vrbs fuit expugnata quinto autem fuerat excisum Templum consumptum incendio septimo mense interfectus tandem fuit Godoliaes qui stâ—terat cum residua plebe quae collectaserat ab ejus manu Iejunium autem dici mi mensis putant fuisse institutum post urbem obsessam Ergo jejunium mensis decimi tempore alio praecessit Calvin in Loc. Non quod haec omnia in eodem acciderunt anno sed diversis annorum intervallis The fast of the fourth moneth the fast of the fifth moneth the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth moneth which they held not onely by all the time of the 70. yeeres captivitie in Babylon but many yeeres after their return thence Zach. 7.3 and vers 5. But all this labour was in great part lost for want of this addition to all their humiliation and prayer namely The ioyning of themselves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant not to be forgotten And when God once directed Nehemiah to this course see how all things began to thrive and come on a maine Now not onely the Temple but even the walls of Hierusalem were built up and that within one twelve yeeres after this Covenant was smitten which before lay wast many scores of yeeres Let us now reflect upon our selves and the State of Religion and progresse of Reformation in our owne Church that we may make up the Parallel Some beginnings of our deliverance from Babylon we received by King Henry the eighth For he threw out the Pope His sonne King Edward the sixth came after and cast out Popery in the body and bulke of it A great work and a large step for the short time of his infant reigne And indeed he had many excellent helps that way beside the zeale of his owne pious heart an Excellent Archbishop a Prudent and vigilant Protector beside others else he could never have done so much Notwithstanding the potency and secret underminings of those mighty Factions then prevailing hindred the work not a little so that it exceeded not an infant Reformation yea through the immature
death of that Iosiah it soone prov'd abortive The Princesse that came after quickly turn'd the Tide before it was halfe high water and she set all the Gates wide open again both for Pope and Popery to reenter with triumph and to drink drunk of the bloud of our Ancestors till God discharged her and released his people from her crueltie So that when Queene Elizabeth that glorious Deborah mounted the Throne although her heart was upright and loathed the Idolatry of the former Reigne yet found she worke enough to restore any thing at all and to make any beginnings of a Reformation She soone felt when she would have throughly pluckt up Popery both root and branch superfluous Ceremonies and all remaining raggs of superstition as well as grosse Idolatry that she had to do with an Hydra having such a strong partie of stout Popelings to grapple with at home and such potent and dangerous abetters of them to cope withall abroad I need not name them I might adde hereunto some difficulties arising from the interests and engagements of not a few of those though good and holy men that underwent voluntary exile in the heat of the Marian persecution who while they were abroad had a large share in the troubles at Franckford too eagerly perhaps pursuing the English Formes of Worship and Discipline and so when upon their returne they were advanced to places of Dignitie and Government in this Church they were the more apt and forward to maintaine and hold up that Cause wherein they had so farre appeared and for which some of them with more heat than Charitie had so openly declared themselves in forrein parts And so what by one impediment and what by another we see it hath been a long time ere our Reformation can be thoroughly polished and perfected as were to be wished and desired for there is nothing so perfect here but is capable of more perfection Nay so farre are we become now from going forward with the work notwithstanding the pietie care of our Princes since the last Restitution of Religion in this Kingdome that as it was in Iosiahs time though his owne heart were for God yet there was a packe of rottten men both Priests and People very great pretenders to Devotion but indeed mad upon Images and Idols we begin to fall againe and not onely to coast anew upon the brinks of Babylon from whence we were happily delivered but even to launch out into her deepest Lakes of superstition and Idolatry under pretence of some extraordinary pietie of the times and of some good worke in hand What is the reason of all this but that not so much as once since the first beginning of Reformation of Religion in this Island we never for ought I know entred into such a solemne publique universall Covenant to be the Lords as he requireth for those beginnings already given us but have sate loose from God and so have not joyned together as one man zealously to propugne his trueth and Ordinances and to stand by him and his Cause as becomes the people of God in all just and warrantable wayes against all opposers and gainsayers So long as we please our selves in this liberty of our holding off from a Covenant with God we may feed our selves with vaine hopes of redresse of things amisse but shall speed no better than those libertines back-sliders in Ier. 14. who lookt for great matters from God but came short of all and then seemed to wonder at the reason For thus they bespeake him ver 8. O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the Land and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry onely for a night Why shouldst thou be as a man astonied as a mightie man that cannot save yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name See here how they are put to it They acknowledge his Power Goodnesse Presence yet they are not saved He seemes to be like Sampson with his Locks cut off as if he were not able to save or would not do it and this they wonder and stand amazed at as a thing incredible and impossible But God makes them a short and sharp answer which may also serve us ver 10. Thus saith the Lord have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them If God be as a wayfaring man sometimes with a people more often gone from them sometimes blessing sometimes crossing them and suffering them to fall under heavy pressures never keeps an even and setled station or course of proceeding with them it is but that he hath learnt from themselves as I may so speake they will be their owne men they will not be tyed to him so strictly they will have some libertie for their lusts for the world for the devill for any thing and loe here is the fruit of it God will not be bound to nor walke with them he will not draw out that strength that goodnesse that compassion which might deliver them from the evils they howle under He will neither heare them nor any body else for them not Ieremy himselfe vers 11. not Noah Daniel and Iob Ezek. 14. Nothing therefore but a more solemne and strict Covenant with God will put us into a posture and condition capable of perfect redresse of our grievances how faire so ever either now 3. Vse Exhortation or hereafter we may seeme to be for it This is the second use Thirdly suffer I beseech you a few words of exhortation The returning Iewes you see call upon all their Nation to enter into Covenant Give me leave then to call upon You the Representative Body of this whole Kingdome who stand here before the Lord this day to humble your soules and let me also prevaile with you all to ioyne your selues even this day to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten Make this day a day indeed a day of Covenanting with God and God shall Covenant with you and make it the beginning of more happinesse than ever you yet enjoyed Beloved mistake me not my meaning extends not to engage you in any Civill Covenant and Bond for defence of your Municipall Lawes and Liberties No doubt you will be able to find meanes enow by the blessing of God to setle those things in a legall way especially if you be carefull to Covenant with God Much lesse is it my purpose to draw you into that late Ecclesiasticall Oath and Covenant enjoyned by the late Canon which in my apprehension is little lesse than a Combination and Conspiracy against both King and State My businesse is meerely to perswade you into a Religious Covenant with God as himselfe hath prescribed and commanded and his people in the best times of Reformation have readily admitted namely every man to stirre up himselfe and to lift up
In the 45. of Isay vers 11. there is a strong expression this way Thus saith the Lard the Holy One of Israel and his Maker aske of mee things to come concerning my sonnes and concerning the work of my hands Command yee mee It is not to be thought that God complementeth with his people but is free and hearty in the expression of what they shall really find him But mark it concernes his Sonnes that is those that are truely in Covenant with him This priviledge is for none else So that the way to have God at Command with humility be it used is to bee his sonnes and daughters by Covenant For to whom it is said I will be their God and they shall bee my people to them is it spoken I will bee a father unto you and yee shall bee my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 6.18 And to them he saith also Command ye me 6. Consider that it is the proper and chiefe businesse of a Fast 6. This is the proper worke of a Religious Fast Nehem. 9. to enter into Covenant with God You see it to bee the practise of the Church in Nehemiahs time And where this hath been omitted the Fast hath been lost God never accounted any of those foure annuall solemne Fasts before mentioned that were so long in use among the Iewes to be fasts unto him but calls them fasts to themselves Zach. 7.5 6. Why but because they looked no further in their Fasts but to afflict their soules for a day Isay 58. to bow downe their heads as a bullrush and to spread sack-cloth and ashes under them and there an end But they lost all their labour getting nothing from God but a chiding and contempt And in truth when will wee thus ioyne our selves to the Lord if not at a Fast Then are our hearts in more than ordinary tune for such a work when wee are brought to set our sinnes before us and humbly to confesse bewaile and renounce them when wee have taken some paines with our Soules to soften and melt them before the Lord especially if then they be in any measure raised up towards Him with any apprehension of his love in the pardon of so many and great sinnes even when the Soule is most cast downe for them Then I say strike through the Covenant or it will never be If you let slip this opportunity you may perhaps never obtaine the like while you live but either your selves may bee cut off or your hearts shut up in desperate hardnesse like unto Pharaoh whom every deliverance and new experience of Gods favour in taking off new evils hardened more and made worse 7. In the last place and let it not have the least force of perswasion remember and consider that this day even this very day the 17. of November 82. yeares sithence began a new resurrection of this Kingdome from the dead our second happy reformation of Religion by the auspitious entrance of our late Royall Deborah worthy of eternall remembrance and honour into her blessed and glorious Reigne 7. This very Day began the second Reformation of Religion and that from thenceforth Religion thrived and prospered under her Governement with admirable successe against a whole world of oppositions from Popish factors at home and abroad So as the very Gates of hell were never able to extinguish that Light which God by her meanes hath set up amongst us Consider I beseech you that it is not without a speciall Providence that this your meeting was cast upon this very day for I presume little did you think of the 17. of November when you first fixed on this day for your Fast that even from thence one hammer might bee borrowed to drive home this nayle of Exhortation that the very memory of so blessed a work begun on this very day might throughly inflame you with desire to enter into a Covenant and so to go forward to perfect that happy Reformation which yet in many parts lies unpolished and unperfect Oh suffer not that doore of hope by Her set open this day to bee againe shut for want of a Covenant If you would indeed honour Her precious memory yea honour God and your selves and not onely continue the possession of what she as a most glorious Conduit pipe hath transmitted to us but perfect the work set upon this duty of ioyning your selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten And so have you the Motives Meanes how to enter into Covenant 2. I shall now shut up all with some few Directions to help us in it And here passing by what hath been already spoken touching the preparatives to it the Substance of it and the properties required in it I shall onely give you these sixe subsequent Directions 1. Give a Bill of divorce to all your Lusts 1. Give a Bill of Divorce to all your Lusts or kill them out right This Covenant is a marriage Covenant and there is no marrying with God so long as your former husband your base corruptions your swearing riot drunkennesse uncleannesse pride oppression and what ever else your soules know to bee the plague of your owne hearts remaine alive and undivorced For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband so long as hee liveth but if he be once dead she is free from that Law Rom. 7. Therefore send these packing in the first place 3. Vse Exhortation Meanes A wise man will never marry a strumpet nor with any woman that hath another husband his wife that shall bee onely his owne none else shall have interest in her Much lesse then will the Holy and Iealous God admit of any Spouse that is wedded to any lust and so continueth Say then what wilt thou now doe wilt thou still keepe thy darling lust Hast thou been a swearer and so thou wilt be a drunkard and an uncleane person an oppressour a prophane Esau and wilt be so still Know that God will none of thee but abhorres all such as thou art He will admit none into Covenant but such as touch not the uncleane thing but separate from it To them onely it is that hee promiseth 2 Cor. 6. I will bee their God and they shall be my people 2. More especially purge out and cast away as a Menstruous cloth all Idols and Idolatry 2. More especially cast out all Idols and Idolatry Psal 5.4 in particular All our Lusts are lothsome to his stomach but nothing is so abominable to his Soule as Idolatry This is that spirituall whoredome which meritoriously dissolves the marriage bond where it is already knit and lies as a barre in the way to a Covenant with God where yet it is not made Jer. 44.4 2 King 17. This was it for which the Lord proceeded so severely first against the ten Tribes and then against the residue as you all know For this the Land
spewed them out And where ever God promiseth to recall them hee usually premiseth this which should first be done From all your Idols will I cleanse you Ezek. 36.25 Ephraim also shall say What have I to doe any more with Idols Hos 14.8 and all shall cast them away with detestation saying Get thee hence Isai 30.22 Every Idol is that great Image of Iealousie which the Lord can by no meanes endure and which will certainly bee the destruction of King and People where ever it is entertained especially if againe received in after it hath been once ejected A sad example whereof we have in Iudah where after Iosiah had taken away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to Israel 2 Chro. 34.33 and made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord onely the Act of Resumption of Idols and Idolatry by the succeeding Kings although it is probable they did it onely secretly like those in 2 King 17.9 became the ruine of those Kings and Kingdomes Beloved let mee speake freely for I speake for God and for all your safeties You cannot bee ignorant of the grosse Idolatry daily encreasing among us and committed not as adultery in Corners onely but in the open light people going to and comming from the Masse in great multitudes and that as ordinarily openly confidently as others goe to and from our Churches And I doubt not but some of you doe know the number of Masses to exceed that of Sermons Whose heart bleeds not over this prodigious growth of Popery and over-flowing of Popish Masses Who knowes not that in the Masse is committed the most abominable Idolatry that ever the Sun beheld in the Christian world Who remembers not with indignation and horror how often that insatiable Idol hath bathed it selfe in the bloud of many of our Ancestors and Progenitors And can any be so silly as to beleeve that it will rest satisfied till it swim againe in our bloud also unlesse we will joyne with Idolaters and so perish in Hell For what ever some men talke of the possibility of the salvation of some persons in that Church as they call it yet it is agreed on all hands among us that for those of our owne Nation and once of our owne Church where the light hath so long shined in so much brightnesse so as they have both received and professed it if they shall whether to gratifie a Parent a wife husband friend Master c. put out their owne eyes and returne back to Babylon from whence they were once set free their case is very desperate and dismall 2 Pet. 2. and it had been better for them never to have knowne the way of righteousnesse then after they have knowne it to turne from the holy Commandement once delivered unto them Therefore I beseech you to take care of these above others Nor speak I this onely to prevent a publique toleration which I hope through the care of our pious King and your diligence our eyes shall never see but to put on Authority to the utter rooting out of that abomination 2 King 17.9 although committed in secret and with connivence onely If then you will not halt between Two opinions if you will bee thorough for God and follow him fully downe with all Idols and Idolatry through the Kingdome so farre as the making of the Lawes yet more strict and full for that purpose may effect it Till then you may if you will talke of a Covenant and think to doe great matters but that Great God who is so jealous of his glory in that above all other things will abhorre all Covenants with you And if you having now such opportunity and power shall not throughly cleanse the Land of these spirituall whoredomes so boldly facing and even out-facing the glorious Gospell professed among us bee sure that in stead of a blessing upon your Consultations and proceedings you will draw downe a Curse that will cleave to you and goe home with you and scatter like poyson over all parts and Corners of the whole Kingdom till all be utterly consumed and become a desolation You all I think agree upon the necessity of a great Reformation Where should you begin then but where God ever begins Looke into the Stories of Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah and even of Manasseh himselfe the grossest Idolater and most bloudy Tyrant that ever reigned in Iudah when once God had throughly humbled him and you shall ever finde that they began their grand Reformation at Idols and Idolatry committed with them I speake not this to back or countenance any tumultuous or seditious spirits that have lately been stirred up to do things without Commission but to You whom God hath duely called to the work and indispensibly requires it at your hands 3. Execute true judgment 3. Execute true Iudgement Isa 58.6 and Iustice Loose the band of wickednes undoe the heavie burdens let the oppressed goe free and break every yoke of the oppressor This is a maine part of an acceptable Fast and therfore must bee performed of all that will enter into Covenant with God And this was part of Gods Answer to the Iewes enquiring of the Prophet whether they should continue their solemne Fasts Zach. 7. Therefore herein deale impartially and throughly for hereby the Throne it selfe is established It is true a difference must be put between those that are only led on in evill wayes by others and those that are leaders of others but it becomes not me to prescribe to you in this case your owne wisdome will teach you that Only I am to pray you that if you shall find any escapes to have bin made in the ordinary Courts of Iustice in the condigne punishment of Murder and Idolatry take notice of them and there bee sure to strike home as Samuel did where Saul himselfe had been too indulgent There is nothing makes you such faire Images of God in the relation you now stand as due execution of Iustice and Iudgement Therefore if you will indeed enter into a Covenant let this be done 4. Draw others also 4. Do your best to draw as many as you can the same way Parents and Masters are bound to take care that their children and families do feare and serve God as well as themselves And you who now appeare before him in behalfe of the kingdome as you must enter into a Covenant for them as well as for your selves so must you do your utmost that they also for themselves may passe under the same Covenant with you The representative Body of Israel that stood before the Lord to make a Covenant Deut. 29.15 made it not onely for themselves and such as were present but for all that were absent also And Iosiah when he entred into a Covenant himselfe he not only caused all that were present of Iudah at the house of the Lord to stand to it 2 Chro. 34.32 But he made all Israel to