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 down 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 Jer. 50. 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 Prophecie terrible to Babylon but comfortable to the Church uttered and penned by the Prophet Ieremy about the fourth yeere both of the Babylonish captivitie and of the tributary reigne of Zedekiah The occasion this The Prophet having laboured about thirtie yeers to humble Judah by continually ringing in her eares the dolefull tydings of a sore captivitie approaching could not be beleeved But when once the quick and sad sense of their bondage under the Chaldean yoke had forced from them an acknowledgement of the truth of his prophecies 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 extreamitie with any hope of rescue This was Iudah's 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. yeeres and no longer after which they should have libertie of returne to their owne Land againe Howbeit the weight of their misery the absence of God who had cast them out of his sight together with the insolence and crueltie of their proud oppressors had throwne them downe 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 ther sight of deliverance promised was the greatnesse 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 How could they hope to be delivered when she that commanded the world detained them Shall the prey be taken from the Mightie or the lawfull captive delivered To cure them therefore of this desperate desponsion of minde 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 captivitie 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 self which he sent to Babylon by the hand of Scraiah Lord Chamberlaine to Zedekiah 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 Olyes 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 Idol 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 posteritie 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 Romane 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 Vers 1 2. and all to make way for the deliverance of the Church But what should be the meanes of such an unexpected destruction This was to be 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 and therefore ominous That these were the men appeares more fully by their description in the residue of this and of the 51. Chapter This Northern Army should be the confusion of Babylon the confusion of Babylon should prove the restoring of the Church vers. 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 return of the captive Jews from thence to Jerusalem 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 seek 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 70. yeeres determined when the Empire was first over-run and subdued by Cyrus the Persian For he made Proclamation of libertie to returne in the first yeere of his reigne 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 be forgotten but daily remembred and carefully performed You now see the Context Should I now divide the Text 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 it is 1. With all intention of spirit they aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward 2. With fervent charitie 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 charitie calling and crying to one another in such a manner they set upon all was for this Let us joyne our selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall 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 dutie 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 however 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 own heart with you is plainly this that 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 inviâ—lable Covenant to be 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 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of it that it is so Next the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} if you will how and in what manner this must be done Thirdly the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the grounds and reasons of it and so proceed to the Application For the first the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that it is so this will appeare 1. More generally upon receipt of any deliverance 2. More specially upon any deliverance from Babylon above all other 1. In generall 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 Hâ—reb To induce them thereunto Moses tefresheth their memory with the repetition or representation of the many deliverances God had given unto them out of Egypt 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 and Og the King of Bashan came out against us unto battell and we smote them c. What then Here is deliverance upon deliverance and the inference is Keep therefore the words of this Covenant and dâ—e them vers. 9. But that is the Covenant on Gods part you will say True 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 be speaks 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 only doe I make this Covenant and this oath but with him that standeth here with â—â— 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 strickâ—n 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 himselfe to them Thus then it was in the time of Moses No eminent deliverance went before but a solemne Covenant followed after * 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 King of Iudah When Zerah the Ethiopian infested his kingdome with an huge army even 1000000 and 300 Chariots a Chron. 14. Asa falls to praying God heard him they joyned battell Asa obtained the victory and carryed away very much spâ—â—le What was the issue Another Covenant For in Chap. 15. you shall finde that presently upon this God addresseth a Prophet to Asa Azariab the sonne of Oded to tell him and the people The Lord is with you while ye be with him And to encourage them to close with God he addes in vers. 7. Be ye strong therefore and let not your hands be weake for your worke shall be rewarded They must not only worke for God but be strong to his worke and that they might be so there was no way like to that of entring into a Covenant with him For so Asa understood it as appeares by the next words where it is said Asa when he heard these words tooke courage and although he had before done much in purging the Cities of Judah of
which may cause ambiguity touching the place you must put a difference between Sihon or Sion and Zion for these were two different places and are written in the originall with two different Letters the former with ש the other with צ you must not here understand this of the former namely of Mount Sihon which is all one with Hermon situate in the utmost confines of Israel North-East-ward neere unto Jordan Deut. 4. 48. but conceive it to be meant of 〈◊〉 or Zion in Hierusalem which was once the strong hold of the Jebusites and held out longer unsubdued than any Peece belonging to that people For when Israel under the Conduct of Ioshua had conquered Iebus after called Hierusalem yet could they not winne Zion in it Zion was a strong Castle or Fort erected upon a rocky mount toward the South-west part of the Citie over-looking all the rest and that the Jebusites having aboundantly fortified and victualled it still held all the dayes of Ioshua and long after albeit the Israelites possessed the rest of the Citie Iosh. 15. 63. But afterwards when David came against it even that strong hold which the Jebusites thought to be so invincible that in scorne of him and his siege they set up only a few blind lame people on the walles to defend it he conquered and called it the Citie of David because after he had wonne it himself dwelt in it 2 Sam. 5. 7. This for the Topography Then you must know further that by Zion is sometimes meant the whole city of Hierusalem by a Synâ—chdoche sometimes it was taken for the place of Gods Worship in the holy city or rather with reference to his Worship and presence there for that City being the Capitall City of the Kingdome where Thrones were set for Iudgement was also the speciall place which God chose to place his name in there were the Altars placed for Gods worship and thither the Tribes went up to worship because there God pleased to manifest his more speciall presence and to command the blessing for evermore Thither therefore these returning Captives repaired even unto Zion the Watch Towre as St Hierome interprets it whence God inspeciall manner watched over his people for Good there they seek his face and enquire of him before they presume to enter Covenant with him Now their addresse to this place is set forth in this Text by asking the way to Zion The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} * though it sometimes import the demanding of a thing which is a point of Justice or equity to give as Gen. 34. 14. yet is it usually applyed to note the seeking of some thing by humble prayers and intreaties so as it is not seldome put for prayer it selfe 2 Chro 20. 4. and sometimes for an earnest humble enquiry after some thing we know not Num 27â— 21. Deut 13. 14. that we may be directed aright and pursue the direction with effect So here They aske the way to Zion and that of God not onely to seek of him a right way for them by fasting and prayer Ezra 8. 21. but as resolving that somewhat should be done that they would walke in it and appeare before God in Zion for so much is intended here as is expressed more fully elsewhere viz. in Isay 2. verse 2 3. Mic. 4. 1 2. where they not onely call on each other to undertake but they also performe the journey going up to the mountaine of the Lord So the Prophet Zachary the inhabitants of one City shall goe to another saying Let us goe speedily to pray before the Lord and to seeke the Lord of Hosts I will goe also yea many people and strange nations shall come to seeke the Lord of Hosts in Hierusalem and to pray before the Lord Zach. 8. 21. 22. And how goe they not sleightly carelessely proudly but in all humility yea as in the verse before my Text even with weeping they shall seeke the Lord their God with deepe humiliation and godly sorrow for all those sinnes whereby they had formerly broken his Covenant and for which he had entred upon the forfeiture and laid those heavy afflictions upon their Loines Going and weeping they shall goe to seeke their God in Zion The very same thing was foretold before to shew the necessity of the duty touching Israel Ier. 31. 9. They shall come with weeping and with suplications will I lead them So then this is the first thing in this worke to dispose and prepare men for the Covenant namely to aske the way to Zion by a serious humble affectionate inquiring and seeking after God in his Ordinances even with many prayers and teares that he would be pleased to accept them Secondly the manner of their addresse is as necessary as the former It is not every manner that will serve the turne It must be done with all intention of spirit in regard of themselves and with fervent Charity towards others For they must aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come Their intention and fervency of spirit wherewith they set upon this worke is set forth under that Hebraisme of asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward This phrase is usually an expression of the greatest intention fervency and contention of mind that can be in the pursuit of any businesse on foote or of any way wherein a man is going Such a phrase you have in Luke 9. 51. where it is said of Christ that he stedfastly set his face to goâ— to Hierusalem or as if he would goe to Hierusalem for which cause the Samaritanes would not receive him ver. 53. that is they would not entertayne him with any respect because that stedfast setting of his face towards Hierusalem * manifested by his very countenance and aspect that where ever his body was his heart was at Hierusalem which the Samaritanes could not brooke and that nothing in the world could take him off from that journey or so farre prevaile with him as to make him linger or loyter upon the way no entreaties feare shame nor any thing could stay him but obstinataet imperterritamente locum petiit as it is exprest by Bede He was no way afraid or ashamed to be seene and knowne whither he was bound and what he was going about When therefore it is here said they shall aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward the thing meant thereby is that they shall set upon this work with their whole heart with their whole man without any feare or being ashamed or unwilling to owne the businesse but they shall doe it thoroughly and affectionately without wavering lingring halting they shall doe it boldly presently openly indefatigably and continually In a word whatsoever can be sayd or thought upon to set forth the utmost intention of a mans Spirit in any worke that his heart is most set upon and that he would lay out his life and all
he hath upon for the accomplishment of it that was the resolution care of these people must be ours this is to aske the way to Zion with our faces thitherward And without this no entring into Covenant with God This is for substance no other though otherwise expressed than that of the people in Asa his time when they sware the Covenant before mentioned 2 Chron. 15. where it is said they did it with all their heart and with all their soule and exprest it by the loudnesse of their voyces and with shoutings c rejoycing at the Oath because they had sworne with all their hearts and sought him with their whole desire vers. 15. Men that will stand disputing consulting with flesh and bloud and casting about how the entring into such a Covenant may consist with their profits honours lusts designes relations c. are no fit Covenanters for God His people shall be willing Psal. 110. 3. their heart minde spirit body countenance all shall professe and proclaime this to the whole world that they are for God for a Covenant for putting themselves into the strongest bonds that can possibly be thought on to bind them hand and foot soule and body to the Lord for ever 2. Nor is this all For the men in my Text content not themselves to be thus earnestly addicted to the worke in their own particulars but as one stick kindles another they desire to kindle the same flame of affection in others also and mutually to blow up the coales in one another saying Come This notes the fervency of their Charitie towards others also For 't is not here brought in as a formalitie or complement but as the evidence of a strong desire to draw as many others as they can to the same journey and if it be possible to keep the same pace with them as being most unwilling to leave any behind them This indeed is true Love unfained Charitie to draw all we can along with us unto God True Converts when once they returne themselves they cause others tâ—â—eturns also And this was often prophecyed as a thing which should certainly be Witnesse all those places in Isay 2. Mic. 4. and Zach. 8. before quoted So then all these things are requisite and previous to the Act of Covenanting with God There must be a seeking to God with true humiliation a seeking of him with all intention of spirit and with all manifestations of a resolution not to be terrified from daunted at or ashamed of the worke yea with fervent Charitie to draw others into the same Covenant also Thus much for the disposition previous to the Covenant 2. The next thing considerable in the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the Substance of the Covenant it self Let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a Covenant Two things here must be opened the matter and the forme of this solemne action 1. The matter of this Act is set forth under this expression Let us joyne our selves to the Lord The original word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is very emphatical so as that word being explained will sufficiently set out before you the nature of the Covenant here intended Some Translators render it Let us glue our selves unto the Lord which imports a conjunction so neere as nothing can come between and so firme as nothing can dissolve But more particularly the verb here used is in Scripture applyed to a double sense or to denote two things both of which being set together will fully discover what it is to be joyned to the Lord in Covenant First it signifyeth the binding of a mans self to the Usurer of whom he hath borrowed money to pay backe both principall and interest So it is used in Nehem. 5. 4. where the people complaine We have borrowed money for the Kings tribute and that upon our Lands and Vineyards That is they had engaged both Lands and Vineyards for securitie of the money borrowed that the Usurer should enter upon all in case they failed of payment at the day So that as men to make sure will have a Statute Staple or recognisance in the nature of a Statute Staple acknowledged whereby a mans person goods lands and all are bound for the securitie of the Creditor that he shall have both principall and interest at the day agreed upon and here that of Solomon proves too true The borrower is servant to the lender for he hath nothing left to his own dispose if he would sell any Land settle any joyncture there is a Statute upon it he can dispose of nothing till that be taken off so it is in the case of any man joyning himself to the Lord by Covenant he must even bind himself to God as firmely as fully as the poore borrower who for his necessitie takes up money binds himself to the Usurer If Godlend him any mercy any blessing he binds himself to restore not only the principall the blessing it self when God shall call for it but even the interest too I meane all possible homage service and honour which becomes those who have received so great a benefit This is more than implyed in that parable of our Saviour touching the talents dispensed Matth. 25. 27. for even to him who had received but one talent was it said Thou oughtest to have put my money to the Exchangers that at my coming I might have received mine own with usury God will have his returne some interest for every mercy and expects a Statute Staple that is a Covenant for his better securitie God will have him bound soul body estate life and all so as all he is and hath shall be forfeited if he do not keep touch and make payment according to agreement and Covenant made between them This is the first use of the word nilvn Secondly there is yet more in it For though it be true that the obligation of a borrower to the usurer be as strong as bonds and Statutes can make it yet there is not such an entire neere firme and lasting tye of the borrower to the Lender nor such a thorough interest in the whole estate of the Usurer as there is of him that is in Covenant with God The Usurer though he bind the poor borrower fast to him yet he keeps him at distance not giving him interest in or use of any other part of his estate but only of the summe borrowed But now this joyning of our selves to the Lord is such as is made by marriage and gives interest in all that the Lord is and hath and admits us to the participation of all the most intimate neerest choysest expressions of the deerest Love of God which is or can be found between the husband and the wife who are joyned together by the bond of marriage and made one flesh So the word is used Gen. 29. 34 where Leah being
delivered of her third sonne Levi thus saith to the women about her Now this time will my husband be joyned * unto me because I have born him three sonnes That is now shall my husband be more arctly united to me in all love and in all demonstrations of it and that in the most free full and intimate way of expression that possibly can passe between those who are coupled together in so neere a relation So then lay both these together and you have a cleare view of this joyning of our selves to the Lord by Covenant He that enters into Covenant with God doth not only bind himself as the needy borrower to the Covetous Vsurer for a time but as the wife to the husband to be wholly his for ever without any reservation limitation or termination till death dissolve the bond As the wife hath interest in the goods estate and person of the husband and all that he hath is hers so by this joyning of our selves to the Lord He becomes ours as well as we become his and both are mutually conjoyned to each other by an indissoluble bond for ever All the power wisdome goodnesse mercy grace glory that the Great God hath to communicate to the creature is now assured and made over to every soule that thus engageth himself unto him And on the other side all the wit strength industry wealth honour friends life and all that this man hath he makes over and resignes up actually totally absolutely and for ever unto the Lord to serve and honour him withall and that with all his heart and with his whole desire to have nothing to do nothing to be nothing but for the Lord though all the world be against him for it This I take to be the full latitude of the Covenant for the Matter of it 2. Touching the forme of this Act of joyning our selves to the Lord it is expressed in the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Covenant A Covenant is nothing else but an agreement or bargaine between two or moe persons and ratified ordinarily by some externall solemnitie or rites that may testifie and declare the agreement and ratifie it whereby it becomes unalterable Therefore it is that among the varietie of ratifications of Covenants mentioned in Scripture still there is somewhat of outward solemnitie reported to have been used at the making of them to strike the bargaine thorough Sometimes they were made by Sacrifice Psal. 50. 5. sometimes by Oath Deut. 29. sometimes by an Oath and a curse Neh. 10. 29. sometimes by subscription of their hands sometimes by sealing it with their seales also Sometimes by all these and by what ever else might most firmely inviolable knit men unto God And as it was then so must it be still To strike a Covenant is not in a private or publique prayer only to goe to God and say Lord I will be thine I here enter into a Covenant with thee be thou a witnesse of it c. but it is to stand and make it publiquely before the Lord by some speciall solemnitie that may witnesse it to all the world as Iosiah * Asa and all the Godly ever did even as in â—n entring into bonds or as in solemnizing of matrimony men use to doe Whether by the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by fasting or by ought else whereby they may become so firmely and arctly joyned to the Lord that they may not only be no longer sui jurls to depart away from the Living God but not so much as to sit loose from God or to stand in any termeâ— of indifferency which might leave them at libertie to serve or not to serve God in any dutie how difficult or dangerous soever And thus have you the Substance of the Covenant opened 3. Take we now a short view of the properties of this Covenant and they are two perpetuitie and heedfulnesse 1. It must be an everlasting Covenant in regard of continuance In the Originall it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a Covenant of Ages And the 72 Interpreters render it to the same purpose {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is such a Covenant as no time shall terminate till they who make it cease to be Some understand this of engaging themselves to stick close to him in the due celebration of his Legal worship so long as he should continue it in his Church which was till Shiloh came without those mixtures wherein formerly they had been too bold and for which God had spewed them out of his Church and hurled them as farre as Babylon Others conceive it to be meant of the Covenant of Grace that God had sealed to them in the bloud of his Sonne But neither of these are ful For it is clearly 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 Usurer 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 dog 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 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 Tremelius 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 Usurer 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 do to take my Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou castest my words behind thee Psal. 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 do 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
shall be a siery flying serpent Ahaz shall leave an Hezekiah behind him 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 been taken away who have been great Oppressors and Instruments of many sore pressures And how have men rejoyced at their falls 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 his Church Anti-Covenanters even with Hell rather than true Covenanters with God Whether is our Condition any what better now than heretofore when those Leviathans were alive and 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 si 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 and mourn sore like doves when they find themselves disappointed of their hopes when Parliaments have been broken up in discontent when they have looked for Iudgment and there is none for salvation but it hath bin farre 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 neer that they had begun to take possession of it yet silly men that they are their evills haunt them still and prevaile more and more after all their fastings humblings and strong cryes to God their Redeemer For alas what will all this doe without a Covenant without taking hold of God and joyning themselves to him to be his for ever you may see such a State of the Church as this described by Isaiah good were it for us to take warning by it We 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 sinnes 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 be goe yet further Vpon the hearing of such a duty so much pressed and inculcated they begin to be a little stirred they are convinced that it is is indeed true such a Covenant 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 go thorough with the bargaine They begin to come on and then fall back againe They are so long a cheapning treating complementing disputing how safe it may be for them how well it may stand with their profits projects ends interests relations that they coole againe never come up to a full resolution Oh sayes one this is a good course and sit to be taken but my engagements callings Alliance company service will not consist with it Another sweares he could find 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 keepes this duty without doores and holds most men off from the worke 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 unbeleife 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 find 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 be so earnest would he have us all turne Covenanters yes with God Why what if I doe not Then never looke 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 goe hence as he came hither as he lived yesterday so he will to morrow though this day he 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 tomorrow he will be 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 doe 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 he 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 worme wood 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 he shall blesse himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the
to â—ander 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 and 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 own 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 himself 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 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 joyne your selves even this day to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten Make this day a day in deed a day of Covenanting with God and God shall Covenant with you and make it the beginning of more happines 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 meerly 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 himself to lift up his Soule to take hold of God to be glued and united to him in all faithfulnesse sincerity care and diligence to be onely his for ever This if we doe we need not care much for other Covenants God will provide for that and make a league for us even with the beasts of the field and with the stones of the street he will make our Exactors peace and our Officers righteousnesse violence shall no more be heard in the Land nor wasting nor destruction within our borders our very walls shall be salvation and our Gates praise He will be a God of Covenants and take care for our estates Lawes liberties lives children and all that belong to us when once this is done Therefore I beseech you yea I require you in the name of the God of heaven whose you are whom you serve before whom you stand and from whom you expect salvation in the midst of the Earth as well as in heaven that you forthwith enter into this bond Expect no assistance no successe in any of your Consultations in any Lawes that you agree upon till you have fully brought your hearts to this point to follow the Lord fully to be no more for your selves than you would have the dearest wife of your bosome to be for any other man in the world but to be wholly for the Lord to imploy and improve all your wit abilities industry Counsells actions estate honour and lives to promote his service and honour what ever become of your selves and yours for doing of it Say not as some Jeerers of whom it is hard to judge whether their malice or ignorance be the greater doe that there needes no more Covenants than what we made in Baptisme and that all other Covenants savour strongly of fâ—ction and the Puritan Leaven For so Gods people of old made a Covenant by Circumcision and after by Sacrifice that is in every sacrifice which they offered they did renew their Covenant begun in Circumcision Neverthelesse God thought it necessary often to call them out to strike another solemn Covenant with him besides the former You have already heard that so soone as the Israelites were gone out of Egypt entred a little way in the wildernesse he put them upon a Covenant When he brought them neer to Canaan he required another solemne Covenant of them And when Ioshuah had brought them into Canaan and divided to each of them the lot of his inheritance he drew them into another solemne Covenant Iosh. 24. So that here was Covenant upon Covenant and yet can no man without blasphemy charge it with any Puritan humour faction or any thing superfluous or uncomely for the Greatest on earth to submit unto That I may a little more enforce this duty and quicken you to the imbracing of it give me leave to present you with some Motives further to presse you to it and with some few Directions to guide you in it 1. For Motives Consider 1. how many great admirable and even miraculous deliverances God hath given us What great things he hath done for us No Nation under heaven can say more to his praise in this kind than we have cause to do Our Great deliverances out of Babylon from the Spanish Invasion from the Gun-powder Treason and from many other evils and feares do all call upon you for a Covenant Yea even the present Mercy and Opportunitie of opening that Ancient Regular and Approved Way of cure of those publique evils that threaten confusion and desolation to all pleades hard for the same dutie But among all these I desire You of that Great and honourable Body of the Parliament to reflect sadly upon that Stupendious Deliverance from the Gun-powder Treason which more especially and immediately was bent against You. For albeit the ruine of the whole Kingdome was in their Eye who were the Cursed instruments of Antichrist and of the Devill his Father in that hellish Designe yet no blow could have come at us but through Your sides And albeit some of You that have the honour to be members of this present Parliament were then unborn yet had that Plot taken effect scarce any of You had been this day â—â— being to have sate there now but had long since been covered and buryed under the ashes of confusion Thinke now whether
all that will enter into Covenant with God And this was part of Gods Answer to the Jewes 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 own wisdome will teach you that Only I am to pray you that if you shall find any escapes to have been made in the Ordinary Courts of Justice in the condigne punishment of Murder and Idolatry take notice of them and there be 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 Justice and Judgement Therefore if you will indeed enter into a Covenant let this be done 4. Do your best to draw as many others 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 behalf 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 in Deut. 29. 15. made it not only for themselves and such as were present but for all that were absent also And Iosiah when he entred into a Covenant himself he not only caused all that were present of Iudah at the house of the Lord to stand to it 2 Chron. 34. 32. But he made all Israel to serve even to serve the Lord their God vers. 33. that is to strike a Covenant with him Therefore take care that all others when you returne home may make a Covenant before the Lord to walk after him in all his Commandements that God may be set up more and more and the hearts of all men may be lifted up in the wayes of the Lord to take hold of his Covenant also If you do not this you do nothing formore is required at your hands than of private persons who yet are bound to call upon others as the men in my Text saying Come and let us joyne our selves unto the Lord in an everlasting Covenant 5. Would you have this to be done namely that all should appeare before God in Zion for this purpose Then set up Way-markes to direct them thither Take speciall care that the Ordinances of God be set up and held up in more puritie and plentie Down at once with all inventions and fancies of men which corrupt and adulterate the pure worship of God Let none but He be worshipped and let no worship be thrust upon him which himselfe hath not prescribed Herein especially yet still within your bounds be zealous and quit your selves like men Above all take better order for the more frequent and better performance and due countenancing of that now vilified but highly necessary Ordinance of Preaching which albeit it be Gods own arme and power unto salvation is yet brought into so deep contempt and by none more than by those who should labour most to hold up the honour of it that it is made a matter of scorne and become the odious Character of a Puritan to be an assiduous Preacher Yea so farre have some men run mad this way that it is held a crime deserving Censure in the highest Ecclesiasticall Court in this Kingdome to tell but a few Clergy men out of a Pulpit that it is an essentiall part of the Office of a Bishop to Preach * Some of you know that I belye them not And is it not then high time to vindicate the honour of Preaching from those virulent and scurrilous tongues and pens that have of late daies more then ever blasphem'd this Ordinance and to take more pitie of the many darke and barren parts of this Kingdome where many scarce have a Sermon in seven yeeres nay some as divers of worth do credibly report not in their whole lives Hath not God himselfe said plainly a Where there is no vision the people perish Is it not his own complaint b My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge And how so thus for a long season Israel had been without a teaching Priest and without the Law 2 Chro. 15. 3. And mark too that while they had no teaching Priest they were without the true God also For there is no coming at the true God in the ordinary way but by a teaching Priest c How shall they heare without a Preacher And d it pleaseth God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve and e faith comes by hearing Wherefore I dare pronounce that while so many thousands within the Kings Dominions especially in England Wales and Ireland are still suffered to sit in such darknesse and in the shadow of death and so to perish for ever for want of constant sound profitable Preaching it is impossible that they should be capable of a Covenant with God or that it may be truely said that the maine body of these Kingdomes aâ—e in case to make a Covenant with him unlesse you the Representative Body thereof take more care than ever yet hath been taken in this behalfe I know the many plea's of many idle droanes and mercilesse men to excuse and defend an unpreaching or seld â—ne-preaching Ministry but all their fig-leaves are too short to cover their own shame and the nakednesse of those poore perishing people whom such men make naked to their own destruction also To tell us that preaching indeed is necessary for the planting of a Church but not so afterwards is nothing but to bewray their owne sottish ignorance Is not the word preached the milk and food whereby men are and must be continually nourished to grow up in the body of Christ as well as the Seed whereof they are first begotten unto Christ And can men that are born and living live safely or at all without continuall supply of food convenient for them What fearefull tristing is this in a businesse of such high Concernment Good Iehoshaphat when his heart was once life up in the wayes of the Lord tooke other order for he sent not only some of the prime Levites and Priests who taught in Iudah and had the Book of the Law of the Lord with them and went about through all the Cities of Iudah and taught the people 2 Chron. 17. 8 9. but with them he sent divers of his Princes and chiefe Officers Benhail Obadiah and sundry others to see that this work should be effectually done vers. 7. yea