called for is Faith Faith is the special part of the Covenant required on our part this is his Command that is the great command in the Covenant of Grace for it was not commanded in the Covenant of Works that ye believe in his Son whom he hath sent God hath required many things in the Covenant of Grace but the great thing he hath laid on and commanded is believing There are three or four things will evidence the truth of this to you 1. Ye shall find the great Inquiry he makes when he Inquires about a persons Estate is after their Faith if ye will but take a view both of his Word and of his Works ye will find the truth of this it is evident that a man desires to know a thing by his inquiring after it Joseph when his Brethren came down into Egypt he inquired Is the old Man of whom you spake alive So Joab when he returned from the Battel David is very inquisitive is the young man Absalom safe Jacob was much on Joseph's spirit and Absalom was much on David's so in the Covenant of Grace ordinarily ye will find when he hath ado with any person he asks canst thou believe doest thou believe when he lays on the Cross it is to try their Faith 1 Pet. 1.7 That the tryal of your faith being much more precious than Gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ if he delay an Answer to prayer it is to try Faith as he did with the Woman he called her a Dog as if she were not in his Commission but in the end he faith O Woman great is thy faith 2. It will be evident that this is the main thing in the Covenant in the Order of it that we should believe in regard of the great commendation given to it in the Covenant it 's remarkable Heb. 11. When the whole cloud of Witnesses that covenanted wiht God are brought in beginning at Abel and coming down to Abraham and David the thing especially commended in them is their faith no question they had patience and love but that which the Scripture cryes them most up for is especially their Faith this evidences that faith the greatest thing in the Covenant on our part not only is it the thing that Christ makes a special Inquiry after but it 's the thing of all the Qualifications thou hast that Christ especially commends 3. In regard of the honour put upon it in the work of justification we are justified by faith alone without the works of the Law this is a special honour put upon it it 's a question among Schollars why faith only and not love is imployed in the work of Justification they give this as the reason of it faith is the meetest for it if ye Inquire why the Eye sees and not the Hand Why the Hand works and not the Eye The reason is they are fittest to be Instruments in Seeing and Working so faith is fittest to be the Instrument of Justification for it 's a receiving Grace it 's called a receiving of Christ in the Scripture John 1.12 But as many as received them to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Now there is no Grace so fit to be honoured in Justication where God gives the pardon of sin as a receiving Grace A second Reason why Faith is imployed in the work of Justitication and not Love because Faith will not wrong Christs honour Rom. 3.27 We are told by the Apostle boasting is excluded by what Law by the law of works nay but by the law of Faith v. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the law Faith excludes boasting and gives all the honour to Christ if Love or Patience were imployed in the work of Justification they would plead to more meritorious causes but Faith is the instrumental cause so no wonder Faith be made the principal condition of the Covenant of Grace in regard it is so fit to receive from Christ and it will not wrong Christ in his honour it will plead for merit in regard it is only to receive what Christ hath bestowed But 4. and lastly Faith it furnishes all other Graces work every other duty is influenced by Faith patience repentance prayer and love are influenced by faith for faith works by love every other Grace is actuated by faith so until we come to believe we cannot repent we cannot suffer we cannot pray all these things like a body without a Soul will be dead and lifeless things without this Grace of Faith Lay all these four together and ye will see that in the Order of the commanding part of the Covenant Believing hath the precedency of all other Graces and Duties so in the Order of the commanding part of the Covenant whatever other Duties God hath commanded he hath especially commanded Believing that is to be the first in order of our Obedience and to have the precedency of all other Graces which is necessary to be observed for many think that they can go about other duties before they believe and that in a way suitable to the Covenant but they are altogether mistaken for there is nothing acceptable to God without Faith Thirdly In the Order of the commanding part of the Covenant though Faith be first and principally requiried yet it 's not only required Papists calumniat 〈◊〉 when they say we preach and say that Faith is only required it is the only Instrument of Justification it is by Faith only that we are Justified but it 's no faith only that is the condition of the Covenant of Grace therefore in the order of the Covenant the obedience to the whole Law comes in after believing such as would observe the order of the Covenant must be obedient to all the commands of the Covenant it 's remarkable the obedience that the Covenant of Grace requires hath these three Properties 1. It must be new obedience that is to say obedience from a new heart and obediedce conform to the tenor of the new Covenant the obedience is new when the principle of it is Love it was of old fear but it hath a new principle when the end of it is the exalting of Christ it was of old the exalting of our selves 2. The obedience must be strict obedience I would recommend to you the excellent discourse that Master Allan hath wirtten in his Vinditiae pietatis proving that the holiness he says of a Christian is strict ay no less strict than that of the Covenant of works requires every Christian must be a Precisian and must labour to strive and wrestle and take the Kingdom by violence to watch against the least beginnings of sin and the least incroachments of it on Christ's Honour or else it 's no Obedience according to the Covenant 3ly It must be perpetual Obedience
we are not to debate the Event he that commanded the Duty foresaw the Event before he commanded it and we are to leave the ordering of the Event to him O! says one if I Covenant with him I will look for a harsh life of it says another I will never be able to wade through the things I see if I ingage in a personal Covenant with him all these things should be referred to him who commanded the Duty Lastly If this be a Duty personally to Covenant it informs us that certainly these who Indenture with him will get strongth to perform for they are about a duty however it may be the failings that adhere to our corrupted nature may accompany us in the Duty yet if they be not wilfull failings but that they be in sincerity minding their duty the case will be as if a Father call to a Child to give him a Glass of Wine and the Child takes the Glass and throws it in a passion on the Ground and breaks it no question the Father will be angry at him and scourge him but if the Child take the Glass and fill the Wine but his shaking arm lets the Glass fall readily the Father will pity him because it is an infirmity accompanying his arm There are in our performing Duties many infirmities accompanying our Arm we will not get it perfectly done but the Arm will shake and let the Glass fall yet if we set sincerely about the Duty we will get strength to perform They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength All these Uses of Information follows from this natively that this personal Covenanting with God is a duty it 's no Phanaticism it 's a Commanded Duty it 's the great Duty of the Gospel it is on the matter all one with Believing it 's no presumption to Covenant with him But I insist not on this there are some moe special and practical Improvements of it than this general Therefore I proceed Vse 2. To a Second Use of Information Is this personal Covenanting with God a duty and so great a duty as is proven then be exhorted to Covenant with him I have pressed you before to go home and do it and not delay it and to make it as express and distinct as to the Terms as ye can and either with writing or saying it over to God as that place ye heard cited Isaiah 44. One shall say and another subscribe with his hand I am the Lords But this Use of Exhortation that I may the more distinctly handle it I shall follow it with Reference to two sorts of Persons in the visible Church and in this place who have need of Exhortation 1. There is a multitude of carnal careless Professors that readily are at the pains to wait on Ordinances and the Externals of Religion are punctually observed but for personal Covenanting with God for ever having done any thing of this kind they are great strangers to it That I may at least leave a conviction on these I will speak a word to two things 1. What are the things that hinders the generality from this of personal Covenanting with God 2. What is their misery Quest First What is it that hinders the generality from this personal Covenanting with God Answer Among many things I will name these Four First A great many understand not the nature of the Covenant they are in the estate of nature they are under the Covenant of Works it 's a truth beyond all controversie all natural men however they may be visibly under the Covenant of Grace they are really under the Covenant of Works they are in the first Adam and therefore they are under his Covenant until they be really unite and married to Christ the Covenant is the Contract and until we marry the Man we have no right to the Contract now the generality understand not the misery and danger of this Covenant they consider not that it 's a Covenant that requires perfect and personal obedience they are under a Covenant if they fail in the least they must be damned for it however they cry to Christ and die hoping in Christ yet their Covenant admits not of a Christ nor of a Cautioner nay the Covenant they are under admits not of Repentance It 's remarkable the Covenant made with Adam was on these terms in the day thou eats thou shalt die it 's not said in the day thou eats if thou repent thou may be spared no it admits of no Rpentance if Esau should seek the blessing with tears he cannot have it he rews that he had sold his birth-right but he could not obtain the blessing though he sought it with tears even Adam in the state of innocency could not keep this Covenant the generality consider not the misery of it but were it pondered as becomes men that in a little will meet in the Valley of Decision and reckon before the Tribunal of God for ye are under a Covenant that admits not of a Christ nor Cautioner nor of Repentance but it requires personal and perfect obedience if it were seriously pondered O! what pains there would be to get a Covenant made with God through the Son 2. The generality do neglect this personal Covenanting with God because other things take up their time it is very remarkable Isaiah 55.2 3 and 4. Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies of David but what goes before why spend ye your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not There is the impediment that hinders many from entring into this personal Covenant they are so taken up spending their money for that which is not Bread and their labour for that which satisfies not that their ear is not inclined to hearken unto this everlasting Covenant with Christ readily the thing hinders you from personal Covenanting that hindered Martha from hearing Christ she was busie taken up in the house Martha saith Christ thou art troubled about many things and very lawful things may be sinful hinderances in the way of this Covenanting It 's remarkable the persons that sent the Answer to the Master of the wedding when he sent out his servants to invite them the one of them says not I have a Whore I cannot come another says not I have a drunken lawing to count I cannot come but one of them says I have a Farm another I have a yoke of oxen another I have a Marriage I cannot come all the three were lawful things but they became sinful hinderances in the way of coming to the Wedding No the truth is earthly-mindedness lyes in the way of many in this place of personal Covenanting with Christ They spend their money for that which is not bread and their labour for that which satisfieth not 3. A third impediment in the way of the generality in making this personal
the condition on His part of it the reason of it is the Cautioner in the Covenant becomes bound for our failing in the Covenant and what is wanting in our Sanctification and Obedience the Lord gets satisfaction for it in Christs Righteousness So there are conditions and great things required yet they make nothing against it's being a Covenant of Grace I hope from all this I have in this Sermon abundantly evinced that this everlasting Covenant is properly a Covenant of Grace though it hath conditions in it SERMON VIII 2 Samuel 23. Verse 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although 〈◊〉 makes it not to grow IT 's an Act of Grace that God did ever condescend to any kind of Covenant with man so great a God but to make such a Covenant a Covenant of Promises and of 〈◊〉 great and precious Promises we may indeed do as the builders that builded the second Temple cry Grace grace unto him I was proving in the forenoon that this Covenant was a Covenant of Grace notwithstanding o◠all the conditions in it Before I proceed in the following of it I would have you notice that when the Covenant is called a Covenant of Grace ye are to suppose that the Grace of the Covenant hath these three properties 1. It 's a Covenant of pure and unmixed Grace there is nothing but Grace in it there is neither merit nor motive and therefore the whole contrivement of it is Grace and only Grace 2ly While we call it a Covenant of Grace it is not only to be understood of pure and unmixed Grace but of perfect Grace the Grace in the Covenant is advanced to so great a hight as the definition of perfection agrees to it Moralists say that that is perfect in which nothing is wanting and to which nothing can be added now the Grace of the Covenant is of this nature 3ly When we call it a Covenant of Grace it 's to be understood of persevering Grace Grace which cannot be changed Some things may be pure and perfect but they are variable the most part of the kindnesses of Cretures are of this nature let them run like a burn in a spait yet a Summer comes and they dry it 's not so with the Fountain They say the original of all Springs is the Ocean and that the Waters grows fresh running through the bowels of the Earth and they must drain the Ocean ere they drain the Spring no wonder then it be persevering Grace so that when we call it a Covenant of Grace the meaning is it 's a Covenant of pure unmixed Grace perfect and full Grace and of persevering and continuing Grace But before I improve this the calling it a Covenant of Grace because it will have a great influence on all the Sermons following I would clear two or three questions that may come in as Objections against the Covenant being a Covenant of Grace Quest 1. It may be objected what reasons or motives since there was neither meriting nor moving consideration what rise could this Covenant have to be a Covenant of pure perfect and preserving Grace These that write of this Head bring a number of reasons they say that God intended to humble man and to make him inexcusable for when He shall judge him at the great day he will have no thing that will be a clock of excuse according to that word Joh. 15.22 If I had not come unto them and spoken unto them they had not had sin but now they have no clock for their sin To refuse a Covenant of Grace takes off all clock of excuse I deny not but there may be many reasons why He made it a Covenant of so pure perfect and persevering Grace but I conceive the special reasons why it 's so made may be reduced to these two 1. He made it thus of Grace that it might be sure Rom. 4.16 Therefore it is of faith and by grace that the promise might be sure to the seed Mark there it 's by Grace that the Promise might be sure had God entred with us in a Covenant on any terms in the world but Grace it would never have been sure suppose we had been as perfect as Adam and had had as great a stock of grace within us yet He would never make a bargain with the like of us who were so changeable things if the bottom of the bargain had not been Grace therefore it 's through Faith and by Grace that the Promise might be sure to the seed He knew what we were when we were at our best when we were new come off the stocks and were new come from His Hands by Creation probably Adam stood not above five hours and what would a Covenant with the like of us signifie if it stood not on Grace 2ly He made it thus of Grace that He might exalt Christ the securing of us and the exalting of His Son both contribute exceedingly to His own Glory afterward I will make it out to you if the Lord will that the Father is infinitly more Glorified in th◠Covenant of Grace than if the covenant of Works ha◠stood but the great design He had in making a covenant of Grace was to secure us and exalt His Son the covenant runs in these Terms that in all Daties in all our sufferings we must ay go to Christ for strength But if any would ask our right to the Crown what ground we have to think that He will not cast us in Hell how we will pray how we will suffer and believe and how we think to be freed from Hell The Answer of all these Questions is in one word in Christ the covenant is so contrived as when we have to do for Wisdom Sanctification Righteousness Redemption the truth is in the covenant Christ is made all things He is the way the truth and the life the door the bread the drink and the apparel the Apostle sums them up in one word He is all in all Now the exalting of His Son never was there so submssive a Son to the Father He was his Equal and was content to be trampled on and in a manner bruised therefore the exalting of His Son is the great contrivement of the covenant so that in effect it is of Grace both that the Promise might be sure to the seed and that Christ might be exalted in both which the Glory of the Father is more advanced than in all the Works of Creation and Providence and that clears the first difficulty why God resolved to make it a covenant of Grace Quest 2. The second difficulty against this that it 's thus a covenant of pure perfect and persevering Grace How can this stand with the Justice of God and with His Holiness God is naturally just and infinitly just and He as necessarly punishes sin as the
house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow I Proposed in the second Branch of this verse three things to be considered First Who is the Author of the Covenant Of this I have spoken Secondly The parties considered personally and particularly and the special thing I insisted on the last day was That every particular Believer ought personally and particularly to find himself concerned in the Covenant and named five or six grounds to prove the warrantableness and necessity of personal covenanting with God And then opened that Question wherein personal covenanting consisted I also requited in this Question who were bound in this Duty of personal covenanting I told you that it was the duty of all the Members of the visible Church but especially the Elect. I shall now that I may the more fully open the Duty of our personal and particular covenanting or entering in a covenant of Grace with God open some properties of this Act of personal indenturing and covenanting with God and I shall name these five or six of them and from them ye will better understand the nature of it First This Act of personal covenanting with God it 's an absolutely necessary Act it 's indispensibly necessary that we should accept his offer in the covenant and bind our selves to the Terms of the covenant and that is the first character and property of it It 's observed by Divines there are some things God hath forbidden there are some things God hath left indifferent and hath neither commanded nor fordidden them there are some things God has commanded and they are necessar necessitate praecepti they are to be obeyed hic nunc as the Sacrament of the New Testament is and there are some things necessar necessitate medii as School-men speaks we cannot be saved without them Now this Act of personal covenanting with God is of this nature it 's of absolute and indispensible necessity which will appear from the consideration of these three or four things 1. Unless we particularly and personally and expresly accept of the covenant of Grace and indenture with God on the Terms of the covenant we cannot be stated in a Covenant-relation with God The Covenant made in Baptism by our Parents wherein we have but a virtual consent doth not state us in a real covenant with God until we really Indenture and with consent covenant with Him in the Covenant so until we consent we must be under the curse and covenant of Works in all the Clauses and Heads of it and cannot claim unto the Covenant of Grace in all the Clauses and Articles of it for there cannot be a Covenant-relation with God until we expresly particularly and personally Indenture in a personal Covenant with Him 2ly Until we thus particularly and personally Covenant we cannot have any benefit by Christ's Death whatever he hath purchased and he hath purchased great things yet until we accept and take hold of the Covenant and particularly and personally Indenture in it we can have no benefit by his Death the Covenant is as it were the Contract and there is no woman that has a right to the Contract but she that marries the man until we be unite to Christ we can have no benefit by the Covenant and until we enter in the Covenant we cannot be unite to him Ephes 2.12 At that time ye were aliens from the common wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise mark how these two go together without christ and strangers to the covenant of promise even so that until we come to Indenture personally and particularly in the Covenant we are without Christ and without a right to the benefits of his Death 3ly Until we come personally and particularly to indenture with God and accept of the Covenant of Grace we can have no comfortable views of Providence especially if they be dark and humbling Providences The Covenant is as it were a Key that opens all Providences it 's a remarkable word Psal 25.10 All his ways are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant mark here all his ways are mercy and truth And how come they to be known to be Mercy and Truth They come to be known by our interest in the Covenant and by the Covenant it self Let him do to us what he will let Him correct and let Him do it never so sharply yet by the Covenant and our Interst in it we see them to be Mercy and Truth 4ly Until we thus personally Indenture and Covenant with God we neither owne our Baptism nor can we rightly Communicat there is a Covenant indeed made with God by our Parents in Baptism in whom we virtually consent to the Covenant in all the Clauses and Articles of it but this not enough as a man suiting a woman he judges it not enough that he have her Parents consent it 's her self he must marry and he must have her own express consent before they marry so in Baptism our Parents gave their consent that we shall accept Christ on the Terms of the Covenant but we never owne our Baptism until we personally covenant with God neither go we rightly about the Sacrament of the Supper which is as Seal of the Covenant until we personally Indenture and Covenant with Him Lastly Until we personally Covenant and Indenture with God there can be no comfortable viewing of the Great Day the thoughts of Judgement and Eternity are terrible to them that have not an interest in the Covenant It 's a remarkable word Psal 50. The beginning whereof the current of Interpreters refer it to the Judgement of the Great day in the 5. and 6. verses Gather my Saints to me those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice the heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is judge himself mark here that Day will be a comfortable day to the Saints and who are they that are to be gathered to him that day It 's those that have made a Covenant by Sacrifice with Him and God himself is Judge now lay all these five together and ye will find that this particular Indenturing with Him is of absolute necessity But I come to a second property of this Covenant this Act of covenanting personally with God and accepting of the Covenant of Grace personally and particularly as it is an Act of absolute necessity it ought to be a Deliberat well pondered Act no Act ought more to be pondered many go about this rashly they are like that Scribe that came to Christ in Matth. 8.20 The Scribe saith Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest Christ tells him the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head but we read no more of that Scribe it 's as much as thou art not
that has broken Covenant with Him and Indentured and art afraid to hazard again know this that burnt Bairns fire dreads the thing that occasioned the breach of Covenant eshew that I will offer you two or three things that uses ordinarly to bring Persons that uses to Covenant with God under a breach of Covenant 1. Ordinarly overly and careless performance of secret Duties thou goes to God and it's words without Life or Spirit that thou vents to God in prayer thou will soon break all they Vows if there grow a dryness betwixt the Root and the Branches the Branches will soon wither It 's remarkable that which Elihu said to Job he was mistaken in Job but the Word he spake was true had it not been applyed to Job's case he thought Job spoke unreverently of God and he took him for an Hypocrite and he thought all his Arguments reflected on God and when he had heard him out surely sayes he thou restrainest Prayer and castest off Fear his meaning is therefore thou may say any thing thou thinks overly performing of prayer will soon bring one to break all their Vows 2ly It 's given by some Divines as one of the Reasons of breaking Covenant with god unprofitable Converse among Christians every Christian meeting with another should be like a man going to light a Candle in another House where he knows there is fire when we use to Converse together there is nothing of God in it nothing of Christ's Death and Sufferings readily we may grow careless of our Covenants with God It 's a great fault among many I know whether it be Ingnorance or the want of matter within that occasions it if one should begin a spiritual Subject they will give it no kind of Intertainment but silence they will sit graver possibly at that time than at another and hear but they give it no kind of Answer thou art refusing to light thy Candle at thy neighbours fire and readily thou wilt break thy Covenant wiht God to be brief I exhort thee who has broken thy Covenant to take the Promises of Reviving Renewing Restoring and of healing that which is broken strengthning that which is Weak and lay them to sore with the Tear in thy Eye for nothing will make the Plaister stick so well as Tears mingled with a contrite heart The last sort of Persons to whom I will speak and therewith close with this Theam and it is to those that has Covenanted with Him they have made a Covenant with him by sacrifice and would gladly know some Advice how to keep it that they be not guilty of the sins abounding in their time of being breakers of Covenant with Him That I may not let thee go without some word of Advice who art serious how thou shall get it keeped I shall for present give thee these two words of Advice First if thou would keep this Covenant with God look well to thy Conscience 2ly Look well to thy Conversation First If thou would keep this Covenant with God look well to thy Conscience it 's Gods Deputie within thee and the immediat Judge of all thy actions and here I would shew you that a Man looks well to his Conscience when he looks to these three things in it 1. When he looks to have his Conscience well informed the Conscience is a blind Guid it 's the candle of the Word that must regulat it therefore ye will find a conscientions Christian he is always waiting on the Word waiting on Sermons and proposing Doubts and the great Reason of all is to get the Conscience well informed therefore if the Conscience be blind and decline to Errour as often it will do it will sometimes call the thing a Duty that God calls Sin and that Sin which God calls Duty therefore if thou would keep Covenant with God look well to thy Conscience that it be well informed and regulate by the word of truth that thou make not a Duty when there is none In this time I am afraid many are taken away from their Obligations to Him through an ill informed Conscience Conscience may err on the right hand there are many make more Duties than God hath made it may make that Duty which God has never made one It may Err in the lest hand by presuming on Dity and prostituting Duties to Lusts and if thou have not a well informed Conscience all thy running through the Wilderness is to no purpose I believe all Papists Turks and Quakers out-strip us there are no persons takes less pains to come to Heaven than protestants therefore if thou would keep thy Covenant with God in such a time when there are some saying Here is Christ and there is Christ and many falling into Errours both on the right hand and on the left hand labour to have thy Conscience well informed 2ly Look to thy Conscience in this that it be kept tender all the light in thy Conseience will not keep thy Vows and Covenants to God if it be not keeped tender It 's a singular Character of Josiah's sincerity that he weeped when he heard the Book of the Law read Huldah the Prophetess sent him word because thy heart was tender if thou would look well to thy conscience look well that it be well informed and then that it be tender there are some ye may drive Carts and Wains over their Consciences they will not crack and of all Plagues this is the greatest 3ly Hearken to the voice of thy Conscience do not sit it out when Conscience presses on thee Amesius in his cases of Conscience says He that resists his Conscience or what he takes to be the mind of God in the Conscience he resists God because it is the mind of God for he takes it up as the mind of God in such a time No man ought to follow another mans Light but to follow the Dictats of his own Conscience many are like the old Prophet and the young the young Prophet comes to Bethel and denounces woes against it the Lord said See thou turn not aside to the right hand or to the left hand to eat or drink The old Prophet comes to him and says turn in with me and eat Bread he follows the old Prophets Light and goes with him and there comes out a Lyon and tears him So labour first to have the Conscience well informed and then that it be tender that ye may not drive Carts and Wains over it And 3ly Hearken to the voice of the Conscience for it's Gods Deputy a man will never keep a personal Covenant with God that looks not to these three Secondly as ye would look to your Conscience so look to your Conversation there are many things that are necessar to be spoken to here our secret Walk oru family Walk our publick Walk comparing them with the Rules of the Gospel It would take a long time to go through them I will close all with these two words and shall say no
grown secure and neglects Duty and goes out against sin as a friend and has not taken it up as a Enemy and dealt with it so thou may say I have made a Covenant with the Lord but thou cannot say the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant Secondly These that have made a personal Covenant with him and he with them they have a second Mark they follow the design of the Covenant which is Holiness 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord. Now he that hath entered in Covenant with God and would have a sure Mark from his Holiness should look to these two 1. He is to look to the Holiness of his heart and conversation if he say I am holy in my Desires and holy in my Delights I have a holy Joy and a holy Peace and has not a holy Walk and looks not like a savourie Christian in his conversation that person cannot readily say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant he may have made a Covenant with God but he cannot say God hath made a Covenant with me Besides 2ly Not only must Holiness be in the conversation and in the heart but he is careful to prefer the design of the Covenant to all other things if the Lord should give thee the Offer that he gave to Solomon at Gibeon Ask of me says he Riches or Honour and many things he named and I will give it to thee he preferred Wisdom to them all So he that is in covenant with God would prefer Holiness to any thing that God could offer It 's remarkable Psal 119.111 Thy testimonies have I chosen as an heretage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart Mark how he came by that I have chosen what choosed he I have chosen thy testimonies that is a general word it 's no I have chosen thy Promises but I have chosen thy Testimonies taking in the Commands Mark 3ly For what he choosed them I have chosen thy Testimonies for my heretage Mark 4ly The reason why he choosed them I have chosen thy testimonies for they are the rejoycing of my heart importing whatever I meet with I get no true joy from it therefore I have chosen the testimonies for my heretage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart I can get nothing that rejoyces my heart but allennerly thy Testimonies therefore I have chosen them that is the second Mark whereby ye may try if God hath made the Covenant with you if ye have come to take up sin as an Enemy and deal with it so and if ye have taken Holiness not only in heart and conversation but ye have chosen it as your Heretage because it rejoyces the heart Thirdly ye may know if he hath made this Covenant with you by his accomplishment of the Covenant to you if he hath begun to fulfil the covenant he hath certainly made the covenant with you Experience is a notable ratification of the Promise O but it is a sweet proof of the truth of the Promise he that believeth hath a witness within him that Christ is the Son of God he hath the Spirit within him and none can send the Spirit but the Son of God take a view of the Promises and sort them that ye may go to such a Promise when ye are under challenges under deadness and desertion and mark them it 's a dreadful thing when all the Bible is alike to us and when we have not some passages of the Bible that we may say of them these are may Scriptures Now if he hath been pleased to acccomplish the Promise thou may say he hath made with me a Covenant It will fall in afterward when I speak of the several passages in this Verse by what Rules we shall try if the things that we meet with in our Spirit be the accomplishment of the Promise Observe your case and compare it with the Promise many have no skill to do this they take the Promises in Grosse they observe not absolute and conditional Promises they compare not their case with the Promise therefore none is so confident to say God hath made with me a Covenant I say to you go home and say to your hearts the word that Ahab said to Micajah How often shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but the truth Go and charge your Heart and Conscience with see thou tell me nothing but the truth if these Marks do not agree to thee whatever thou say of making a Covenant with God thou may go home after all these Sermons and say I have made a Covenant with God but I dety thee to say God hath made a Covenant with me SERMON XXIII 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow WHen first I entered on this Verse I proposed four things to be considered First the Nature of Davids security it 's a Covenant 2ly The Parties Transacting in this Covenant the Lord and me of these two I have spoken all the things that I judge necessary to be spoken in a multitude of Sermons The other two Branches of the Verse which are the most natural remain to be handled the first whereof are the Properties of this Covenant there are three of them mentioned in the Verse it 's everlasting it 's ordered in all things and sure Where by the way in the general ye would notice two things First That these three Properties are marks of Distinction betwixt the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace it was neither Everlasting nor ordered in all things in any way suitable to mans Salvation nor was it sure so that from these three Properties we can prove That the Covenant God made with David it was a Covenant of Grace and not the old Covenant of Works 2ly Ye would notice that such as would have peace from the Covenant they must study and be acquaint with the Properties of it it 's no sufficient ground for David at death to say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant unless it be an everlasting Covenant and well ordered and sure these who are ignorant of the Properties of the Covenant can never have the sweetness and consolation that the Covenant affords Therefore without further I will begin and handle this day the first Property that is here mentioned of this Covenant it 's an everlasting Covenant it 's true the main thing I design is to handle the order of the Blessings of the Covenant and here before I can come at that I am to handle there are two textual Doubts necessary to be cleared 1. How is the Covenant said to be everlasting 2ly Whether this be a peculiar Property of the Covenant of Grace not
to folk but I exbort thee who hath gotten a Promise according to the order of the Covenant not to doubt your Peace stands on as sure a ground as Heaven and earth but we do exhort you that ye do not lightly lay hold on a Promise otherwise into your coming by it ye have taken an Apple off a Tree that is not yours and hath but stollen a Promise try if ye have submitteel to the Covenant if ye have a right to the Covenant and if the Spirit hath made out the absolute Promises and if your life and conversation hath looked like the order of the Covenant if ye first believe and then pray and come to the Church if these be not I exhort thee to suspect thy self and rather to quite a Promise than to entertain a deluding peace So ye see the necessity of looking to the order of the Covenant and the rules and marks whereby ye may try if any Promise ye have gotten hath come in by the way of the Covenant and if it hath not come in so it will be vomite up again and of all the ill smell'd things in the world that will be one to swallow down a Promise and vomit it up again Vse 2. The second use of the point is there such an excellent Order in the Covenant then I would have thee to submit to this Order in the Covenant and I will offer you four cases wherein I would press you to submit to the Order of the Covenant I believe there are many and I wonder often that both my self and other Ministers that we are not more in preaching so necessary a truth that it s not more ordinar to tell people that they have gotten a Promise and they observe not the Order of the Promise 1. I exhort you to submit to this Order of the Covenant in your desires when we go to God with our prayers the thing we pray for is never prayed for right except we submit our desires in two things 1. I desire you may submit your desires in trying the things ye make request for submit to it according to the tenor of the Covenant do not say give me pardon when he hath not given Repentance do not say Justifie me when he hath not effectually called you for ye bid him in that case overturn the Order of the Covenaut 2ly I would have you submit to it in the answer of your desires many a time we go to him and of all the fruitless works we go about throughout the week is Prayer we never know our selves a strae-broad better at the Weeks end than at the beginning of it when we have been in secret morning and evening and sometime at midtime of the day the reason is ye go not to him according to the Order of the Covenant it 's an unreasonable desire to bid him overturn the thing that his Son hath treated and sealed with his own Blood and payed for we go to him and desires him not according to the Order of the Covenant we cry give me Peace and give me Pardon and it may be he hath not given Repentance therefore learn from this Sermon to submit your desires and the answers of them to the ordering of the Covenant and I am confident there are many that use to go to God if ye would cast up your reckoning what ye desired and the way of your desires whatever it was it was something inconsistent with the Order of the Covenant that the Mediator treated In the second place I would have you to submit your practice to the Order of the Covenant ye were hearing that believing is the first and principal thing and other Duties must be influenced by faith many when they go to pray observe not this and when they come to hear they hear not in faith what ever they ask they ask not in faith they would have Prayer Hearing Repentance without Faith which is not according to the Order of the Covenant Submit thy practice to the Order of the Covenant when thou goes to God examine if it be according to the Order of the Covenant 3ly I would have thee submitting thy Enjoyments to the order of the Covenant I mean even thy greatest Spiritual Enjoyments the Lord hath ordered the Covenant so as he hath the timing of the Peace and deliverance of his Ghurch and the communications of his Spirit to his people many a time we would limit God in asking peace and delivering the Church we bid him do this the day or to morrow the Covenant is so ordered as he hath left the timing of these to him who is a Lord of his Liberty thou that will quarrel I was at this Sermon and that Sermon and I saw him not and I go to him in corners and I scarce find him ye would take notice that the ordering of the Covenant it secures the mercy yet it allows him the timing of it in the ordering of the Covenant And lastly I would have you to submit to this order in the Covenant not only your desires your practices and your enjoyments but also subrnit to it in every thing whatever be more comprehended under any of these three O! If this were more observed readily there would be more peace Vse 3. But to close all because of the time I would close all with a word to three sorts of persons and shall say no more The first shall be a word of Reproof to them that observe not this order and they are the generality among us and the truth is it makes up a frothy Profession these that perform duties without Faith these that have gotten a promise without a right from the Govenant they observe not the order of the Commands and Promises they hear they pray they wait on Ordinances they confer and have spiritual fellowship and in the mean time they do it without the spirit of faith I tell thee and I close with this part of these four Sermons that thou boserves not the order of the Covenant and thou shall never be the better of the Covenant It was a well contrived and a wisely ordered Covenant and ye that think to take Heaven in another order and way and will not first believe and then do and thou wilt take a Promise without observing the order of the Covenant thou shall have the Lord meeting thee in the valley of decision with what hast thou to do to take my Covenant in thy mouth And thou shalt have a real curse for taking a Promise that thou hast no right to and stealing an Apple off a Tree that is not thine 2ly I exhort all of you to observe the order of the Covenant better it 's a business of a Heaven and of a Hell if ye would feed on the consolations of the Covenant the blessed Jesus who was the Wisdom of the Father he drew it treated it contrived it in such an order in Commands and Promises and the sweet harmony of Commands and Promises I exhort you
the person that hath a Covenant-relation to God they have in that relation satisfaction to all their desires Withoutinsisting further in clearing the words I will take one Observation and readily follow it in three or four Sermons for it is a great truth and as important a truth as any that hath yet occurred in this Verse and the Observation shall be this Doctrine That the Covenant is satisfaction to all our desires if God hath made with me an everlasting Covenant it 's that which may satisfie all my desires it 's true it will not satisfie our irregular and unwarrantable desires it will not satisfie covetous and lascivious desires I remember I read of a man who came to a Philosopher O saith he he is a happy man that hath all his desires the Philosopher answered he is a happy man but a far happier man that desires nothing but what he ought to desire so if we desire nothing but what we ought to desire the Covenant will satisfie all our desires This shall be the Theme that I resolve to follow a little that an interest in the everlasting Covenant is satisfaction to all our lawful desires It will be a great work to convince you of this but I hope to make it appear from very rational grounds and so let you see that the torment we have in our life it 's not from want of grounds of satisfaction to our desires but from the irregularity of our desires we go in our desires beyond what we ought That the Covenant affords ground of satisfaction to all our desires before I prove it I must give you this Caution as introductory to it Satisfaction of desires consists in two things 1. The object that satisfies must be adequat and full it must be as comprehensive as the desires are large other ways it cannot satisfie it is very observable that School-men teach that in glory if there were one desire unsatisfied it would be a degree of misery he that hath an appetite and hath his desire unsatisfied is in so far miserable and if there were one desire and one thing in our appetite not satisfied it would be a degree of misery so what is satisfying to desires must be adequat and fully proportioned to the desire 2. As it must be a full so it must be suitable satisfaction as some describe it it consists in a suitableness of the object to the faculty so that if ye ask what is that which satisfies the desires of the soul It 's a full object and an object suitable to all the faculties in the soul so when we say the Covenant satisfies all our desires there are two things wemust instruct to you that the Covenant is full and comprehensive of all the good we can desire and that these good things are suitable to our desire these two I will labour to make out in this Sermon that I may prove that the Covenant is satisfaction to all our desires I shall first prove it to be full and adequat and then prove it to be suitable and consequently prove it full satisfaction to all our desires First That the Covenant is full abundantly adequat and comprehensive of all the things we can warrantable desire for clearing of this I will offer you first some general proofs of it and secondly some particular and special proofs of it First I will offer you some general proofs of it and by way of Introduction to them I will give you this in the entry That God in the Covenant resolved to lay himself out to the outmost Mat. 22. the Gospel-offers in the Covenant are like to a certain King that made a Marriage-feast at the Marriage of his only Son a King making a Feast and making a Marriage-feast at the Marriage of his only Son thou may be sure he would lay himself out to the outmost at that Feast so the Lord hath laid himself out to the outmost in the Covenant This being generally premised it may make you expect that it will not be difficult to prove that the Covenant contains satisfaction to all our desires And I will offer you these four general proofs of it 1. The Covenant contains all the excellencies that are to be found in the Creatures ordinarily our desires they are regulat by our senses like Eva we see the Apple and we have an appetite after it according as we see our appetite and our desires are regulat by hearing and seeing there is nothing excellent that ever we heard of or saw but it 's contained in the Covenant take a view of the Covenant and ye will find in it the promises of a Kingdom nay more of Bread Wine Milk Honey Myrrhe Spices ye will find also in the Covenant promises of Fountains Gardens Beds of Roses ye will find Gold Linen Eye-salve there are some Divines have taken pains in some of their Books to gather all the similitudes together and they evidence that there is nothing excellent in the Creature but it 's promised in the Covenant if a man have a desire after Gold and fine Gold if he have a desire after Linen and fine Linen after Bread Wine Spices Beauty ye will find one who is white and ruddy hath promised all these in the Covenant what ever it be that a man hath an appetite after ye will find it in the Covenant and since the Covenant contains all these things that are excellent among the Creatures is it any wonder that it satisfie all desires all pleasure profit honour or whatever the appetite can be carried after is promised in the Covenant and which is remarkable Gold Bread Wine fine Linen c. they are but shadows that are to be found among the Creatures the substance is only to be found in the Covenant It 's called fine Gold to distinguish it from Gold in the earth it 's called fine Linen for all other Linens are but black in comparison of this it 's called Eye-salve for Salves may be Salves to our finger when it is cut but it 's much to make up Eye-salve all excellencies in the Creature are only to be found in the Creature in the Shell and are to be found in the Covenant in the Kernel 2. All that is in glory and all that is in Heaven are contained in the Covenant The Prophet tells us Isaiah 64.4 Since the beginning of the would men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him It is a strange description given of Heaven in Scripture Rev. 21.10 It 's called a City and a great City and vers 12. The wall of it hath twelve gates and vers 14. It hath twelve foundations and vers 19. The foundations of the wall of the City are garnished with precious stones and vers 21. The streets of the City are of pure gold and vers 22. and 23. There is no Temple there and there is no need of the