Now, as the stability and everlastingness of God's covenant with His elect, lies in the strength of the foundation, "His own love, and the blood of His Son:" so the stability and firmness of our covenant with God, lies in the strength of this foundation, the securing of the gospel, and the asserting of gospel-purity in worship, and privileges in government; the securing of our lives, and the asserting of our common liberties. When at any time ye can question, and, from the oracles of truth, be resolved, that these are sufficient grounds of making a covenant, or that these are not ours, ye may go, and unassure the covenant which ye make this day.

Application. Let me therefore invite you in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, "Come let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant that shall never be forgotten." And do not these look like the days wherein the prophet calls to the doing of this? "In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord." What time, and what days were those? the beginning of the chapter answers. "The word that the Lord spake against Babylon, declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard, publish and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bell is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces: for out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate." Then follows, "In those days and at that time saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come. And they shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten."

Are not these the days, and this the time (I speak not of time to a day, but of time and days) wherein the Lord speaks against Babylon, and against the land of the Chaldeans: wherein He saith, "Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up the standard." Are not these the days, and this the time, when out of the north there cometh up a nation against her? As face answers face in the water, so do the events of these days answer, if not the letter, yet much of the mystery of this prophecy. There seems wanting only the work which this day is bringing forth, and a few days more (I hope) will bring unto perfection, the joining of ourselves in a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten. It is very observable, how the prophet, as it were, with one breath saith, "Babylon is taken." And, "Come let us join ourselves in covenant." As if there were no more in it but this, take the covenant, and ye take Babylon. Or, as if the taking of a covenant were the ready way, the readiest way to take Babylon. Surely at the report of the taking of this sure covenant, we in our prayer-visions (as the prophet Habakkuk), "May see the tents of Cushan in affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian tremble." Or, as Moses in his triumphant song, "The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold of the inhabitants of Palestina. The dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; the inhabitants of Canaan (who are now the inhabitants of Babylon) shall melt away. The towers of Babylon shall quake, and her seven hills will move. The great mountain before our Zerubbabel, will become a plain, and we shall bring forth the head-stone (of our reformation) with shouting, crying, grace, grace unto it." Why may we not promise to ourselves such glorious effects (and not build these castles in the air) when we have laid so promising a foundation, this sure covenant, and have made a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten?

The three things I shall propose, which this covenant will bring in, as facilitating contributions to so great a work:

1. This covenant will distinguish men, and separate the precious from the vile. In the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel, the Lord promiseth His people, after this manner, "I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant." The phrase of causing to pass under the rod, is an allusion to shepherds, or the keepers of cattle, who when they would take special notice of their sheep or cattle, either in their number to tithe them, or in their goodness to try them, they brought them into a fold, or some other inclosed place, when letting them pass out at a narrow door, one by one, they held a rod over them, to count or consider more distinctly of them. This action was called a "passing of them under the rod," as Moses teaches us, "And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord." The learned Junius expounds that text in Ezekiel by this in Leviticus, giving the sense thus, "As if the Lord had said, I will prove and try the whole people of Israel, as a shepherd doeth his flock, that I may take the good and sound into the fold of My covenant, and cast out the wicked and unsound." Which interpretation is not only favoured, but fully approved, in the words immediately following, "I will bring you into the bond of the covenant, and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me."

A covenant is to a nation, as a fan to the floor, which purges away the chaff and purifies the wheat. It is like the furnace to the metal, which takes away the dross and shews you a refined lump. It is a Shibboleth, to distinguish Ephraimites from Gileadites. And who knows not how great an advantage it is for the successful carrying on of any honourable design, to know friends from enemies, and the faithful from false brethren? Some have thought it unpolitical to set-a-foot this covenant, lest it should discover more enemies than friends, and so holding out to the view more than otherwise can be seen, the weakness of a party may render them, not only more obnoxious, but more inconsiderable.

To this I answer, in a word, invisible enemies will ever do us more hurt than visible; and if we cannot deliver ourselves from them, when they are seen and known, doubtless unseen and unknown, they will more easily, tho' more insensibly devour us. And I verily believe, we have already received more damage and deeper wounds from pretended friends, than from professed and open enemies. The sad stories of Abner and Amasa inform us, that there is no fence against his stroke, who comes too near us, who stabs while he takes us aside to speak kindly to us, who draws his sword, while he hath a kiss at his lips, and art thou in health, my brother, at his tongue. Let us never think ourselves stronger, because we do not know our weakness; or safer, because we are ignorant of our danger. Or that our real enemies and false friends will do us less hurt, because they are less discovered. I do not think, that a flock ever fared the better, because the wolves that were amongst them, went in sheep's clothing. Rather will our knowledge be our security, and the discovery which this covenant makes, help on both our deliverance and our business. For as, possibly, this covenant may discover those who are faithful to be fewer, than was supposed before this strict distinction from others; so it will certainly make them stronger than they were before, by a stricter union among themselves. And this is

2. The second benefit of this covenant, which I shall next insist upon. As it doth separate those who are heterogeneal, so likewise it will congregate and embody those who are homogeneal. And therefore it cannot but add strength unto a people; for whatsoever unites, strengthens. A few united, are stronger than a scattered multitude. Tho' they who subscribe this covenant should be, comparatively, so few, as the prophet speaks, "That a child may write them;" yet this few thus united are stronger than so many scattered ones, as exceed all arithmetic, whom (as John speaks,) "No man can number." Cloven tongues were sent, to publish the gospel, but not divided tongues, much less divided hearts: the former hindered the building of Babel, and the latter, tho' tongues should agree, will hinder the building of Jerusalem. Then a work goes on amain, when the undertakers, whether they be few or many, all speak and think the same thing. A people are more considerable in any work, because they are one, than because they are many. But when many and one meet, nothing can stand before them. So the Lord God observed, when "He came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded." And the Lord said, "Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language: and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." Men may do as much as they can think, while they all think and do as one; and not only can such do great things, if let alone; but none can let them in doing what they intend; so saith the Lord, "They have begun to do, and nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined." Nothing could restrain, or let them from their work, but His power, who "will work, and none can let it." Thus it is apparent that union is our strength. And it is as apparent that this covenant, through the blessing of God upon it, will be our union. To unite, is the very nature of a covenant. Hence it is called "the bond of the covenant, I will bring you into the bond of the covenant," saith the Lord. Junius and some others render it, I will bring you (ad exhibitionem foederis) to the giving or tendering of the covenant: deriving the word from Masar, signifying, to exhibit or deliver. Whence (to note that in passage) the traditionary doctrine among the Jews is called Masora, or Masoreth. Others (whom our translators fellow, and put the former sense, delivering, in the margin) others, I say, deriving the word from Asar to bind, render it the bond of the covenant.

And this covenant is the bond of a twofold union. First, It unites us of this kingdom among ourselves, and this kingdom with the other two. Second, It makes a special union of all those who shall take it holily and sincerely throughout the three kingdoms with the one-most God. Weak things bound together, are strong, much more then, when strong are bound up with strong: most of all, when strong are bound up with Almighty. If in this covenant, we should only join weak to weak, we might be strong. But, blessed be God, we join strong, as creatures may be accounted strong, with strong. The strong kingdoms of England and Ireland, with the strong kingdom of Scotland. A threefold cord twisted of three such strong cords, will not easily, if at all, be broken. They which single, blessed be God, have yet such strength, how strong may they be when conjoined? as the apostle writes, "I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh:" so I speak now after the manner of men, concerning the strength of our flesh, outward means, in these kingdoms. For as the apostle Peter speaks in like phrase, tho' to another occasion, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness:" so I may say, no man, no kingdoms, are strong to any purpose, as the Lord counts strength.

And therefore, I reckon this the least part of our strength, that these three strong kingdoms will be united by this covenant. Nay, if this were all the strength, which this union were like to make, I should reckon this no strength at all. Wherefore, know that this covenant undoubtedly is, and will be a bond of union between strong and Almighty: between three strong nations, and an Almighty God. This covenant engages more than man, God also is engaged; engaged, through His free grace, in His power, wisdom, faithfulness, to do us good, and much good, tho' in and of ourselves unworthy of the least, unworthy of any good.

All this considered, this covenant will be our strength: our brethren of Scotland have, in a plentiful experience, found it so already. This covenant, thro' the blessing of God upon their councils and endeavours, hath been their Samson's lock, the thing in fight, wherein their strength lieth. And why should not we hope, that it will be ours; if we can be wise, as they, to prevent or overcome the flattering enticements of those Delilahs who would lull us asleep in their laps, only for an opportunity to cut or shave it off? Then indeed, which God forbid, we should be but weak like other men, yea, weaker than ourselves were before this lock was grown, having but the strength of man; God utterly departing from us, for our falseness and unfaithfulness in this covenant.

3. This covenant observed will make us an holy people, and then, we cannot be an unhappy people. That which promotes personal holiness, must needs promote national holiness. The consideration that we are in the bonds of a covenant, is both a bridle to stop us from sin, and a spur to duty. When we provoke God to bring evil upon us, He stays His hand by considering His covenant. "I will remember My covenant, saith the Lord, which is between Me, and you; and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh." As if the Lord had said, It is more than probable, that I shall quickly see as much cause, "all flesh corrupting all their ways before Me," to drown the world with a second deluge, as I did for the first: the foulness of the world, will quickly call for another washing. But I am resolved, never to destroy it by water again; for, "I will remember My covenant." Hence also in the second book of the Chronicles, chap. xxi. where the reign and sins of Jehoram are recorded; such sins as might justly put a sword into the hand of God to cut him off root and branch; howbeit, saith the text, "The Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and as He promised to give a light to him, and to his sons forever." Now, as the remembrance of the covenant on His part, stays the hand of God from smiting; so the remembrance of the covenant on our part, will be very effectual to stay our hands, and tongues, and hearts from sinning. A thought of that will damp and silence our lusts and passions, when they begin to move or quest within us: it will also break the blow of Satan's temptations, when he assaults us. The soul in such cases will answer, True, I am now as strongly tempted to sin as ever, I have now as fair an opportunity to commit sin as ever, I could now be false to, and desert this cause with as much advantage, upon as fair hopes and promises as ever: O! but I am in covenant, I remember my covenant, I will not, I cannot do it; and so he falls a praying against the temptation: yea, he begs prayers of others, that he may be strengthened against, and overcome it. I read you an instance of this effect. Before the sermon, a paper is sent to this congregation, containing this request: "One who through much passion oftentimes grievously offends the Majesty of God by cursing and swearing, and that since his late taking the covenant, desires the prayers of this congregation, that his offence may be pardoned, and that he may be enabled to overcome that temptation from henceforwards." This is the tenor of that request, to a letter and a tittle, and therein you see how the remembrance of the covenant wrought. Probably this party (whosoever he was) took little notice of, or was little troubled at the notice of these distempers in himself before; least of all sought out for help against them. And I have the rather inserted this to confute that scorn which, I hear, some have since put upon that conscientious desire. As if one had complained, that since his swearing to the covenant he could not forbear swearing, and that this sacred oath had taught him profane ones. But what holy thing is there which swine will not make mire of, for themselves to wallow in? I return; and I nothing doubt, but that this covenant, wherein all is undertaken through the grace of Christ, will make many more gracious who had grace before, and turn others, who were running on amain in the broad way, from the evil and error of their ways, into the way which is called holy, or into the ways of holiness. Every act wherein we converse with an holy God, hath an influence upon our spirits to make us holy. The soul is made more holy in prayer, tho' holiness be not the particular matter of the prayer: a man gets much of heaven into his heart, in praying for earthly things, if he pray in a spiritual manner; and the reason is because, in prayer, he hath converse with, and draws nigh to God, whatsoever lawful thing he prays about. And the same reason carries it in covenanting, tho' it were only about the maintenance of our outward estates and liberties, forasmuch as therein we have to do with God. How much more then will holiness be increased through this covenant which, in many branches of it, is a direct covenant for, and about holiness? And if we improve it home to this purpose, for the subduing of those mystical Canaanites, those worst and indeed most formidable enemies, our sinful lusts: if we improve it for the obtaining of more grace, and the making of us more holy: tho' our visible Canaanites should not only continue unsubdued by us, but subdue us; though our estates and liberties should continue, not only unrecovered, but quite lost; tho' we should neither be a rich, nor a free, nor a victorious people; yet if we are an holy people, we have more than all these, we have all, He is ours, "Who is all in all." So much of the first general part of the application.

The second is for admonition and caution, in three or four particulars.

1. Take heed of "profaning this covenant," by an unholy life. Remember you have made a covenant with heaven; then do not live as if you had made a "covenant with hell or were come to an agreement with death," as the prophet Isaiah characters those monsters of profaneness. Take heed also of "corrupting this covenant," by an unholy gloss. Wo be unto those glossers that corrupt the text, pervert the meaning of these words: who attempt to expound the covenant by their own practice, and will not regulate their practice by the covenant. The apostle Peter speaks of Paul's writings, "That in them some things are hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction." We may fear, that tho' the text of this covenant be easy to be understood, yet some (who, at least think themselves learned), and whom we have found not only stable but stiffened in their own erroneous principles and opinions, will be trying their skill, if not their malice, to wrest, or, as the Greek imports, to torture and set this covenant upon the rack, to make it speak and confess a sense never intended by the composers, or proposers of it: and whereof (if but common ingenuity be the judge) it never will, nor can be found guilty. All that I shall say to such is that in the close of the verse quoted from the apostle Peter, let them take heed such wrestings be not (worst to themselves, even) to their own destruction.

2. Take heed of delaying to perform the duties of this covenant. Some, I fear, who have made haste to take the covenant, will take leasure to act it. It is possible, that a man may make too much haste (when he swears, before he considers what it is) to take an oath; but, having taken it upon due consideration, he cannot make too much haste to perform it. "Be not rash with thy mouth," saith the preacher. That is, do not vow rashly, but, "When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it: for He hath no pleasure in fools (slow performance is folly); pay that which thou hast vowed." Speedy paying (like speedy giving) is double payment; whereas slow payment is no payment or as bad as none, for it is foolish payment. A bond, if I mistake not, is presently due in law, if no day be specified in the bond. It is so I am sure in this covenant; here is no day set down, and therefore all is due the same day you take it. God and man may sue this bond presently for non-payment: the covenant gives no day, and therefore requires the next day, every day. It is not safe to take day for payment, when the obligation is in terminis de praesenti, and none is given.

3. Take heed of dallying with this covenant. It is more than serious, a sacred covenant. It is very dangerous jesting with edged tools. This covenant is as keen as it is strong. Do not play fast and loose with it, be not in and out with it; God is an avenger of all such: He is a jealous God, and will not hold them guiltless, who thus take His name in vain. They who swear by, or to the Lord, and swear by Malcham, are threatened to be cut off. To be on both sides, and to be on no side; neutrality and indifferency differ little, either in their sin or danger.

4. Above all, take heed of apostatizing from, or an utter desertion of, this covenant. To be deserted of God, is the greatest punishment, and to desert God, is the greatest sin. When you have set your hands to the plough, do not look back: remember Lot's wife. Besides the sin, this is, First, Extremely base and dishonourable. It is one of the brands set upon those Gentiles whom "God had given up to a reprobate mind, and to vile affections," that they were covenant breakers. And how base is that issue which is begotten between, and born from vile affections, and a reprobate mind? where the parents are such, it is easy to judge what the child must be. Second, Besides the sin and the dishonour, this is extremely dangerous and destructive. We are said in the native speaking, to cut a covenant, or to strike a covenant, when we make it; and if we break the covenant when we have made it, it will both strike and cut us, it will kill and slay us. If the cords of this covenant do not bind us, the cords of this covenant will whip us; and whip us, not as with cords, but as with scorpions. The covenant will have a quarrel with, and sends out a challenge unto such breakers of it, for reparation. And (if I may so speak) the great God will be its second. As God revenges the quarrel of His own covenant, so likewise the quarrel of ours. He hath already "Sent a sword to revenge the quarrel of His covenant." He will send another to revenge the quarrel of this upon the wilful violators of it. Yea, every lawful covenant hath a curse always waiting upon it, like a marshal or a sergeant, to attack such high contemners of it. It was noted before from the ceremony of killing, dividing, and passing between the divided parts of a beast, when covenants were made, that the imprecation of a curse upon the covenanters was implied, in case they wilfully transgressed or revolted from it. Let the transgressors of, and revolters from this covenant, fear and tremble at the same curse, even the curse of a dreadful division: "That God will divide them and their posterity in Jacob, and scatter them in our Israel; yea, let them fear, that God will rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling wind before the whirlwind. This is (their portion, and) the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us." And if so, is not their lot fallen in an unpleasant place? have they not a dreadful heritage? to be under any curse is misery enough; but to be under a covenant curse, is the greatest, is all misery. For as the blessings we receive are most sweet, when they pass to us through the hands of a covenant; a mercy from a promise is far better than a mercy from bare Providence, because then it is sprinkled with the blood of Christ: so on the other side, the curse which falls upon any one is far more bitter when it comes through a covenant, especially an abused, a broken covenant. When the fiery beams of God's wrath are contracted into this burning glass, it will burn as low as hell, and none can quench it. That alone which quenches the fire of God's wrath is the blood of Christ. And the blood of Christ is the foundation of this covenant. Not only is that covenant which God hath made with us founded in the blood of Christ, but that also which we make with God. Were it not by the blood of Christ, we could not possibly be admitted to so high a privilege. Seeing then the blood of Christ only quenches the wrath of God, and this blood is the foundation of our covenant, how shall the wrath of God (except they repent, return and renew their covenant) be quenched towards such violators of it? And, as our Saviour speaks upon another occasion, "If the light which is in them be darkness, how great is that darkness?" So, I say, if that which is our friend turn upon us as an enemy, how great is that enmity; and if that which is our mercy be turned into wrath, how great is that wrath, and who can quench it? It is said of good king Josiah, that when he had made a covenant before the Lord, "he caused all that were present in Jerusalem, and in Benjamin, to stand to it." How far he interposed his regal authority, I stay not to dispute. But he caused them to stand to it; that is openly to attest, and to maintain it. Methinks the consideration of these things, should reign over the hearts of men, and command in their spirits, more than any prince can over the tongues or bodies of men, to cause them to stand to this covenant. Ye that have taken this covenant, unless ye stand to it, ye will fall by it. I shall shut up this point with that of the apostle, "Take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, when ye have done all, to stand," (Eph. vi. 13). Stand, and withstand, are the watchword of this covenant, or the impress of every heart which hath or shall sincerely swear unto it.

For the helping of you to stand to this covenant, I shall cast in a few advices about your walking in this covenant, or your carriage in it, which, if followed, I dare say, through the mercy of the Most High, your persons, these kingdoms, and this cause, shall not miscarry.

1. Walk in holiness and uprightness. When God renewed His covenant with Abraham, He makes this the preamble of it, "I am the Almighty God, walk before Me, and be thou perfect, and I will make My covenant between Me and thee." As this must be a covenant of salt, in regard of faithfulness; so there must be salt in this covenant, even the salt of holiness and uprightness. The Jews were commanded in all their offerings to use salt; and that is called the salt of the covenant, "Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking." What is meant by salt on our parts, is taught us by Christ Himself, "Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." Which I take to be parallel in sense with that of the apostle, "Follow peace with all men and holiness." As salt, the shadow of holiness, was called for, in all those Jewish services; so holiness, the true substantial salt, is called for in all ours. As then it was charged, "Let not the salt of the covenant of thy God be lacking:" so now it is charged, "Suffer not the salt of thy covenant with God and His people to be lacking." Seeing we have made a covenant of salt, that is, a sure covenant, let us remember to keep salt in our covenant. Let us add salt to salt, our salt to the Lord's salt, our salt of holiness to His salt of faithfulness, and we shall not miscarry.

2. Walk steadily or stedfastly in this covenant. Where the heart is upright and holy, the feet will be steady. Unstedfastness is a sure argument of unsoundness, as well as a fruit of it. "Their heart was not right with Him; neither were they stedfast in His covenant." As if He had said, would you know the reason why this people were so unstedfast? It was, because they were so unsound. "Their heart was not right with Him." We often see the diseases of men's hearts breaking forth at their lips, and at their finger ends, in all they say or do.

God will be steady to us; why should not we resolve to be so to Him? and this covenant will be stedfast and uniform unto us, why should not we resolve to be so too, and in this covenant? The covenant will not be our friend to-day, and our enemy to-morrow, do us good to-day, and hurt to-morrow, it will not be the fruitful this year, and barren the next; but it is our friend to do us good to-day, and ever. It is fruitful and will be so for ever. We need not let it lie fallow, we cannot take out the heart of it, tho' we should have occasion to plough it, and sow it every year. Much less will this covenant be so unstedfast to its own principles, as to yield us wheat to-day, and cockle to-morrow, an egg to-day, and to-morrow a scorpion; now bread, and anon a stone; now give us an embrace, and anon a wound; now help on our peace, and anon embroil us; now prosper our reformation, and anon oppose, or hinder it; strengthen us this year, and weaken us the next. No, as it will never be barren, so it will ever bring forth the same fruit, and that good fruit; and the more and the longer we use it, the better fruit. Like the faithful wife, "It will do us good, and not evil, all the days of its life." It is therefore, not only sinful, but most unsuitable and uningenuous, for us to be up and down, forward and backward, liking and disliking, like that double minded man, "Unstable in all our ways," respecting the duties of this covenant.

3. Walk believingly, live much in the exercise of faith. As we have no more good out of the covenant of God, than we have faith in it; so no more good out of our own, than (in a due sense) we have faith in it. There is as much need of faith, to improve this covenant, as there is of faithfulness. We live no more in the sphere of a covenant, than we believe. And we can make no living out of it but by believing. All our earnings come in here also, more by our faith, than by our works. Let not the heart of God be straitened, and His hand shortened by our unbelief. Where Christ marvelled at the unbelief of a people, consider what a marvel followed: Omnipotence was as one weak. "He could do no mighty works among them." Works less than mighty will not reach our deliverances or procure our mercies. The ancient worthies made more use of their faith, than to be saved, and get to heaven by it. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down. By faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, (or exercised justice) stopped the mouths of lions. By faith they quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness they were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." We have Jerichos to reduce, and kingdoms to subdue, under the sceptre and government of Jesus Christ: we have justice to execute, and the mouths of lions to stop: we have a violent fire to quench, a sharp edged sword to escape, Popish alien armies to fight with; and we (comparatively to these mighty works) are but weak. How then shall we out of our weakness become strong, strong enough to carry us through these mighty works, strong enough to escape these visible dangers? If we walk and work by sense, and not by faith? And if we could get through all these works and dangers without faith, we should work but like men, not at all like Christians, but like men in a politic combination, not in a holy covenant. There's not a stroke of covenant work (purely so called) can be done without faith. As fire is to the chemist, so is faith to a covenant people. In that capacity, they can do nothing for themselves without it; and they have, they can have, no assurance that God will. Seeing then we are in covenant, we must go to counsel by faith, and to war by faith; we must pull down by faith, and build by faith; we must reform by faith, and settle our peace by faith. Besides, to do a work so solemn and sacred, and then not to believe and expect no fruit; yea, then to believe and expect answerable fruit, is a direct taking of God's name in vain, and a mock to Jesus Christ. And if we mock Christ by calling Him to a covenant, which we ourselves slight, as a thing we expect little or nothing from: "He will laugh at our calamity," and "mock when our fear cometh." Wherefore to close, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established," no, not by this sure covenant. But, "believe in the Lord your God, in covenant, so shall you be established; believe His prophets, so shall you prosper."

4. Walk cheerfully. So it becomes those that have God so near them. Such, even in their sorrows, should be like Paul, "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." The (as) notes not a counterfeiting of sorrow, but the overcoming of sorrow. On this ground David resolves against the fear of evil, tho' he should see nothing but evil; "Tho' I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me." In a covenant, God and man meet; He is with us who is more than all that are against us: and when He is with us, who can be against us? For then all things, and all persons, even while (to the utmost of their skill and power) they set themselves against us, work for us; and should not we rejoice? If we knew that every loss were our gain, every wound our healing, every disappointment our success, every defeat our victory, would we not rejoice? Do but know what it is to be in covenant with God; and be sad, be hopeless, if you can. It is to have the strength and counsels of heaven engaged for you; it is to have Him for you, "Whose foolishness is wiser than men, and whose weakness is stronger than men." It is to have Him with you, "who doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what doest thou?" It is to have Him with you, "who frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh the diviners mad, who turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish." It is to have Him with you, before whom "the nations are as the drop of a bucket, and as the dust of the balance, who taketh up the isles as a very little thing." In a word, it is to have Him with you, "who fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength." This God is our God, our God in covenant; "This is our beloved and this is our Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." And shall we not rejoice? Shall we not walk cheerfully? Tho' there be nothing but trouble before our eyes, yet our hearts should live in those upper regions, which are above storms and tempests, above rain and winds, above the noise and confusions of the world. Why should sorrow sit clouded in our faces, or any darkness be in our hearts, while we are in the shine and light of God's countenance? It is said, "That all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart:" If we have sworn heartily, we shall rejoice heartily. And for ever banish base fears, and killing sorrows from our hearts; and wipe them from our faces. They, who have unworthy fears in their hearts, give too fair an evidence that they did not swear with their hearts.

5. Walk humbly and dependently; rejoice, but be not secure. Trust to God in covenant, not to your covenant. Make not your covenant your Christ; no, not for this temporal salvation. As a horse trusted to, is a vain thing to save a man, so likewise is a covenant trusted to; neither can it deliver a nation by its great strength: tho' indeed the strength of it be greater than the strength of many horses. "In vain is salvation hoped for from this hill, or from a multitude of mountains," heaped up and joined in one by the bond of this covenant. Surely in the Lord our God, our God in covenant, is the salvation of England. We cannot trust too much in God, nor too little in the creature; there is nothing breaks the staff of our help, but our leaning upon it. If we trust in our covenant, we have not made it with God, but we have made it a god; and every god of man's making, is an idol, and so nothing in the world: you see, pride in, or trust to this covenant will make it an idol, and then in doing all this, we have done nothing; for "an idol is nothing in the world." And of nothing, comes nothing. By overlooking to the means, we lose all; and by all our travail shall bring forth nothing but wind: it will not work any deliverance in the land. Wherefore, "rest not in the thing done, but get up, and be doing," which is the last point, and my last motion about your walking in covenant.

6. Walk industriously and diligently in this covenant. You were counselled before to stand to the covenant, but take heed of standing in it. Stand, as that is opposed to defection; but if you stand as that is opposed to action, you are at the next door to falling. A total neglect is little better than total apostasy.

We have made a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten, as was shewed out of the prophet. It is a rule, that words in scripture, which express only an act of memory, include action and endeavours. When the young man is warned to "remember his Creator in the days of his youth," he is also charged to love, and to obey Him. And while we say, this covenant is never to be forgotten; we mean, the duties of it are ever to be pursued, and, to the utmost of our power, fulfilled. As soon as it is said that Josiah made all the people stand to the covenant; the very next words are, "and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers." They stood to it, but they did not, like those, "stand all the day idle;" they fell to work presently. And so let us. Having laid this foundation, a sure covenant, now let us arise and build, and let our hands be strong. Do not think that all is done, when this solemnity is done, It is a sad thing to observe how some, when they have lifted up their hands, and written down their names, think presently their work is over. They think, now surely they have satisfied God and man for they have subscribed the covenant.

I tell you, nay, for when you have done taking the covenant, then your work begins. When you have done taking the covenant, then you must proceed to acting the covenant. When an apprentice has subscribed his name, and sealed his indentures, doth he then think his service is ended? No, then he knows his service doth begin. It is so here. We are all sealing the indentures of a sacred and noble apprenticeship to God, to these churches and commonwealths; let us then go to our work, as bound, yet free. Free to our work, not from it; free in our work, working from a principle of holy ingenuity, not of servility, or constraint. The Lord threatens them with bondage and captivity, who will not be servants in their covenant, with readiness and activity. "I, saith the Lord, will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant, which they had made before Me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof; the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf, I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and their dead bodies shall be meat to the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth." Words that need no rhetoric to press them, nor any comment to explain them: they are so plain, that every one may understand them; and so severe, that every one, who either transgresses, or performs not, who doeth any thing against, or nothing for the words of this covenant, hath just cause to tremble at the reading of them: I am sure, to feel them will make him tremble. Seeing then our princes, our magistrates, our ministers, and our people, have freely consented to, written, and sworn this covenant; let us all in our several places, be up and doing, that the Lord may be with us; not sit still and do nothing, and so cause the Lord to turn against us.

You that are for consultation, go to counsel; you that are for execution, go on to acting; you that are for exhorting the people in this work, attend to exhortation; you that are soldiers, draw your swords; you that have estates, draw your purses; you that have strength of body, lend your hands; and all you that have honest hearts, lend your prayers, your cries, your tears, for the prosperous success of this great work. And the Lord prosper the works of all our hands, the Lord prosper all our handy-works. Amen.



THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT.

SERMON AT LONDON.

BY THOMAS CASE[13]

"And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant."—Lev. xxvi. 25.

Since covenant-violation is a matter of so high a quarrel as for the avenging whereof, God sends a sword upon a church or nation: for which, it is more than probable, the sword is upon us at this present, it having almost devoured Ireland already, and eaten up a great part of England also, let us engage our council, and all the interest we have in heaven and earth, for the taking up of this controversy; let us consider what we have to do, what way there is yet left us, for the reconciling of this quarrel, else we, and our families, are but the children of death and destruction: this sword that is drawn, and devoured so much Christian protestant flesh already, will, it is to be feared, go quite thro' the land, and, in the pursuit of this quarrel, cut off the remnant, till our land be so desolate, and our cities waste, and England be made as Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of the fierce anger of Jehovah.

Somewhat I have spoken already in the former use, to this purpose viz. "To acknowledge our iniquities that we have transgressed against the Lord our God." To get our hearts broken, for breaking the covenant; to lay it so to heart, that God may not lay it to our charge. But this looks backward. Somewhat must be done, de futuro: for time to come: that may not only compose the quarrel, but lay a sure foundation of an after peace between God and the kingdom. And for that purpose, a mean lies before us; an opportunity is held forth unto us by the hand of divine wisdom and goodness, of known use and success among the people of God in former times; which is yet to me a gracious intimation, and a farther argument of hope from heaven, that God has not sworn against us in His wrath, nor sealed us up a people devoted to destruction, but hath yet a mind to enter into terms of peace and reconciliation with us, to receive us into grace and favour, to become our God, and to own us for His people; if yet, we will go forth to meet Him, and accept of such honourable terms as shall be propounded to us: and that is, by renewing our covenant with Him; yea, by entering into a more full and firm covenant than ever heretofore. For, as the quarrel was raised about the covenant, so it must be a covenant more solid and substantial, that must compose the quarrel, as I shall show you hereafter. And that is the service and the privilege that lies before us; the work of the next day. So that, me-thinks, I hear this use of exhortation, which now I would commend unto you speaking unto us in that language; "Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten." It is the voice of the children of Israel, and the children of Judah, returning out of captivity. "The children of Israel shall come, they, and the children of Judah together; seeking the Lord," whom they had lost, and inquiring the way to Zion; from whence their idolatry and adulteries had cast them out; themselves become now like the doves of the valley, mourning and weeping, because they had perverted their way, and forgotten the Lord their God. "Going and weeping they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward." And if you inquire when this should be? The fourth verse tells you, in those days. And if you ask again, what days those are? Interpreters will tell us of a threefold day, wherein this prophecy or promise is to be fulfilled; that is, the literal or inchoative, evangelical or spiritual, universal or perfect day.

The first day is a literal or inchoative day, here prophesied of, and that is already past, past long since; viz., in that day wherein the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity expired; then was this prophecy or promise begun in part to be accomplished: at what time the captivity of Judah, and divers of Israel with them, upon their return out of Babylon, kept a solemn fast at the river "Ahava, to afflict their souls before their God." There may you see them going and weeping, "to seek of Him a right way for them, and their little ones." There you have them seeking the Lord, and inquiring the way to Zion with their faces thitherward. And when they came home, you may hear some of their nobles and priests, calling upon them to enter into covenant; so Shechaniah spake unto Ezra, the princes, and the people, "We have sinned against the Lord, ... yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God." And so you may find the Levites calling the people to confess their sins with weeping and supplications, in a day of humiliation, and at the end of it, to write, and swear, and seal a covenant with "the Lord their God." This was the first day wherein this prophecy began to be fulfilled, in the very letter thereof.

The second day is the evangelical day, wherein this promise is fulfilled in a gospel or spiritual sense; namely, when the elect of God, of what nation or language soever, being all called the Israel of God, as is prophesied, "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, ... and surname himself by the name of Israel." I say, when these in their several generations and successions shall turn to the Lord their God, either from their Gentilism and paganism, as in their first conversion to Christianity; as Tertullian observes after the resurrection of Christ, and the mission of the Holy Ghost; Aspice exinde universas nationes ex veragine erroris humani emergentes ad Dominum Deum, et ad Dominum Christum ejus. From that day forward, you might behold poor creatures of all nations and languages, creeping out of their dark holes and corners of blindness and idolatry, and betaking them to God and His Son Jesus Christ, as to their Law-giver and Saviour; or else turning from Antichristian superstition, and false ways of worship, as in the after and more full conversion of churches or persons purging themselves more and more, from the corruptions and mixtures of popery and superstitions, according to the degree of light and conviction, which should break out upon them, and asking the way to Zion, i.e., the pure way of gospel worship, according to the fuller and clearer manifestations and revelations of the mind of Christ in the gospel. This was fulfilled in Luther's time, and in all those after separations which any of the churches have made from Rome, and from those relics and remains of superstition and will-worship, wherewith themselves and the ordinances of Jesus Christ have been denied.

The third day wherein this prophecy or promise is to be made good, is that universal day, wherein both Jew and Gentile shall be converted unto the Lord. That day of the restitution of all things, as some good divines conceive when "ten men out of all languages of the nations, shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you." And to what purpose is more fully expressed in the former verses, answering the prophecy in the text. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, it shall come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts; I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord."

This I call the universal day, because, as you see, there shall be such an abundance of confluence of cities, and people, and nations, combining together in an holy league and covenant, to seek the Lord. And a perfect day, because the mind and will of the Lord shall be fully revealed and manifested to the saints, concerning the way of worship and government in the churches. The new Jerusalem, i.e. the perfect, exact, and punctual model of the government of Christ in the churches, shall then be let down from Heaven. "The light of the moon being then to be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound."

By what hath been spoken, you may perceive under which of these days we are: past indeed the first, but not yet arrived at the third day; and therefore under the second day, that evangelical day; yet so, as if all the three days were met together in ours, while it seems to me, that we are upon the dawning of the third day: and this prophecy falling so pat, and full upon our times, as if we were not got beyond the literal; a little variation will do it. The children of Israel, and the children of Judah: Scotland and England, newly coming out of Babylon, antichristian Babylon, papal tyranny and usurpations, in one degree or other, going and weeping in the days of their solemn humiliations, bewailing their backslidings and rebellions, to seek the Lord their God, to seek pardon and reconciliation, to seek His face and favour, not only in the continuance, but in the more full and sweet influential manifestations of His presence among them; and to that end, asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward; that is, inquiring after the pure way of gospel worship, with full purpose of heart; that when God shall reveal His mind to them, they will conform themselves to His mind according to that blessed prophecy and promise, "He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." And that they may make all sure, that they may secure God and themselves against all future apostasies and backslidings, calling one upon another, and echoing back one to another: "Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten."

You see by this time I have changed my text, tho' not my project; to which purpose I shall remember that, in the handling of these words, I must not manage my discourse, as if I were to make a new entire sermon upon the text, but only to improve the happy advantages it holds forth, for the pursuit and driving on of my present use of exhortation. Come, let us join. To this end therefore, from these words, I will propound and endeavour to satisfy these three queries, 1. What? 2. Why? 3. How?

I. What the duty is, to which they mutually stir up one another?

II. Why, or upon what considerations?

III. How, or in what manner this service is to be performed? And in all these you shall see what proportion the text holds with the times. The duty in our text, with the duty in our hands, pressing them on still in an exhortatory way.

For the first. What the duty is?

Answ. You see that in the text; it is to join themselves to the Lord, by a solemn covenant; and so is that which we have now in our hands, to join ourselves to the Lord by a covenant; how far they correspond, will appear in the sequel. This is the first and main end of a covenant between God and His people, as I have shewed you, "to join themselves to the Lord. The sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, and take hold of His covenant."

This, I say, is the first and main end of the covenant in the text: the second is subordinate unto it; namely, to inquire the way to Zion, i.e., to inquire the way and manner, how God would be worshipped; that they might dishonour and provoke Him no more, by their idolatries and superstitions, which had been brought in upon the ordinances of God, by the means of apostate kings, and priests, and prophets, as in Jeroboam's and Ahab's reigns, and for which they had been carried into captivity.

And such is the covenant that lies before us: in the first place, as I say, to join ourselves to the Lord, to be knit inseparably unto Him, that He may be our God, and we may be His people. And in the next place, as subservient hereunto, to ask the way to Zion; to inquire and search by all holy means, sanctified to that purpose, what is that pure way of gospel worship; that we and our children after us may worship the God of spirits, the God of truth, in spirit, and in truth. In spirit opposed to carnal ways of will-worship, and inventions of men; and in truth, opposed to false hypocritical shews and pretences, since the Father seeks such to worship Him.

Now, that this is the main scope and aim of this covenant before us, will appear, if you read and ponder it with due consideration; I will therefore read it to you distinctly, this evening, besides the reading of it again to-morrow, when you come to take it; and when I have read it, I will answer the main and most material objections, which seem to make it inconsistent with these blessed ends and purposes. Attend diligently while I read it to you.

(The covenant was then read.)

This brethren, is the covenant before us; to which God and His parliament do invite us this day; wherein the ends propounded lie fair to every impartial eye.

The first article in this covenant, binding us to the reformation of religion; and the last article, to the reformation of our lives. In both, we join ourselves to the Lord, and swear to ask and receive from His lips the law of this reformation. Truly, this is a why, as well as a what, (that I may a little prevent myself) a motive of the first magnitude. Oh! for a people or person to be joined unto the Lord; to be made one with the most high God of heaven and earth, before whom and to whom we swear, is a privilege of unspeakable worth and excellency. "Seemeth it (said David once to Saul's servants) a small thing in your eyes, to be son-in-law to a king," seeing I am a poor man? Seemeth it, may I say, a small thing to you, for poor creatures to be joined, and married, as it were, to the great God, the living God; who are so much worse than nothing, by how much sin is worse than vanity? yea, to be one with Him as Christ saith in that heavenly prayer of His; as He and His Father are one. "That they may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in us." And again, "that they may be one, even as we are one." Yea, perfect in one; not indeed, in the perfection of that unity, but in unity of that perfection; not made perfect in a perfection of equality, but of conformity.

This is the fruit of a right managed covenant; and the greatest honour that poor mortality is capable of. Moses stands admiring of it. You may read the place at your leisure. But, against this blessed service and truth, are there mustered and led up an whole regiment of objections, under the conduct of the father of lies; though some of them may seem to have some shadow of truth; and therefore so much the more carefully to be examined. I shall deal only with some of the chief commanders of them, if they be conquered the rest will vanish of their own accord.

OBJECTIONS PROPOUNDED AND ANSWERED.

Object. 1. If this were the end of this service, yet it were needless: since we have done it over and over again, in our former protestations and covenants; and so this repetition may seem to be a profanation of so holy an ordinance, by making of it so ordinary, and nothing else, but a taking of God's name in vain. To this I answer.

Answ. 1. It cannot be done too oft; if it be done according to the law and order of so solemn an ordinance. 2. The people in the text might have made the same objection; it lay as strong against the work, to which they encourage one another: for surely, this was not the first time they engaged themselves to God by way of covenant; but having broken their former covenants, they thought it their privilege, and not their burden to renew it again, and to make it more full, stable, and impregnable than ever; "a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten"; which hints 3. And that is, there was never yet so full and strict a covenant tendered to us since we were a people. Former covenants have had their defect and failings, like the best of God's people: but I may say of this in reference to other covenants, as Solomon of his good house-wife, in reference to other women; "Other daughters have done well, but thou hast exceeded them all." Other covenants have done well, but this hath exceeded them all; like Paul among the apostles, it goes beyond them all, though it seems to be born out of due time. Now, if your leases and covenants among men be either lame or forfeited; need men persuade you to have them renewed and perfected? Of how much greater concernment is this, between God and us, O! ye of little faith? 4. You receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper once a month, and some will not be kept off, tho' they have no part, nor portion in that mystery, say the ministers of Christ what they can; and the sacrament is but the seal of the covenant; consider it, and be convinced.

Object. 2. But secondly, it is objected there be some clauses in this covenant, that serve rather to divide us farther from God, than join us nearer to Him; as binding us to inquire the way to Zion of men rather than of God; to receive the law of reformation from Scotland, and other churches, and not from the lips of the great prophet of the churches.

In the article, we swear first to maintain the religion, as it is already reformed in Scotland, in doctrine, government, and discipline; wherein, first, the most shall swear they know not what; and secondly, we swear to conform ourselves here in England, to their government and discipline in Scotland which is presbyterial, and for ought we know, as much tyrannical, and more antichristian than that of prelacy, which we swear to extirpate; yea, some have not been afraid to call it the Antichrist that is now in the world.

Answ. 1. To whom I first answer, beseeching them in the bowels of compassion, and spirit of meekness, to take heed of such rash and unchristian censures, least God hear, and it displease Him; and they themselves possibly be found to commit the sin and incur the woe of them that "call evil good, and good evil." 2. Whereas they object that many shall swear they know not what, the most being totally ignorant of the discipline of Scotland, and very few understanding it distinctly. I would have these remember and consider two examples in Scripture the one of king Josiah, the other of the women and children in Nehemiah's time. Josiah (as the text tells us) not being above eight years of age, "While he was yet young, began to seek after the Lord God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem." And this purging and reformation he did by covenant, wherein he swore, to "walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes." Which surely, at that age, we cannot conceive he did distinctly and universally understand; no more could all the men, their wives and their sons, and their daughters, that took the covenant (in Nehemiah's time) understand all things in particular to which that covenant did bind them; since they did enter into a curse, and an oath, not only to refuse all intermarriages with the heathen, but also to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord, and His judgments, and His statutes.

Surely there were in this multitude, not an inconsiderable number that were not acquainted with all the moral precepts, judicial laws, and ceremonial statutes, which God commanded the people by the hand of Moses.

There be two things I know, that may be replied against these instances. 1. That of those women and children in Nehemiah, it is said in the same place, they were of understanding, "Every one having knowledge, and having understanding; they clave unto their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse." 2. That there is a great difference between the laws and statutes to which they swore, and this government and discipline to which we swear in this covenant. Those laws and statutes were ordained immediately of God Himself; and therefore being infallibly right, unquestionably holy, and just, and good, Josiah and the people might lawfully swear observance to them with an implicit faith; but not so in a government and discipline set up by man, by a church, be it never so pure and holy: for their light being but a borrowed light, and they not privileged with an infallible Spirit (as the apostles) their resolutions and ordinances may be liable to mistake and error; and therefore, to swear observance to them by an implicit faith, is more than comes to their share, and as unwarrantable as it is unsafe for a people or person to do, who are yet ignorant or unsatisfied in the whole, or in any particular.

To these objections I rejoin: first, that that description of the covenanters in Nehemiah, that "they were of understanding, and knowledge," supposeth not a distinct actual cognizance of every particular ordinance, judgment, statute, and provision, in all the three laws, moral, judicial, ceremonial, in every one that took the covenant; that being not only needless but impossible; but it implies only a capacity to receive instruction and information in the things they swore unto, tho' at present they were ignorant of many of the severals contained in that oath. And so far this rule obtains among us; children that are not yet come to understanding, and fools, being not admitted to this service, as not capable of instruction.

Answ. 2. To the second (tho' more considerable) yet the answer is not very difficult: for,

First, We do not swear to observe that discipline, but to preserve it: I may preserve that, which in point of conscience I cannot observe, or not, at least, swear to observe. Second, We swear to preserve it, not in opposition to any other form of government that may be found agreeable to the Word, but in opposition against a common enemy, which is a clause of so wide a latitude, and easy a digestion, as the tenderest conscience need not kick at it; this preservation relating not so much to the government, as to the persons or nation under this government; not so much to preserve it as to preserve them in it, against a prelatical party at home, or a popish party abroad, that should attempt by violence to destroy them, or to force another government upon them, that should be against the Word of God; under which latitude, I see not but we might enter into the like covenant with Lutherans, or other reformed churches, whose government, discipline, and worship, is yet exceedingly corrupted with degenerate mixtures.

Third, Neither in the preservation of their government, nor in the reformation of ours, do we swear to any thing of man's; but to what shall be found to be the mind of Christ. Witness that clause, article 1: "According to the word of God:" so that upon the matter, it is no more than Josiah and the people in Nehemiah swore to; namely, "what shall appear to be the statutes and laws which Christ hath left in His Word, concerning the regimen of His church?"

Fourth, Nay, not so much; for we are not yet called to swear the observation of any kind of government, that is or shall be presented to us, but to endeavour the reformation of religion in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, according to the Word of God.

In the faithful and impartial search and pursuit whereof, if Scotland, or any of the reformed churches, can hold us forth any clearer light than our own, we receive it not as our rule, but as such an help to expound our rule, as Christ Himself hath allowed us. In which case, we are bound to kiss not the lips only, but the very feet of them that shall be able to shew us "the way to Zion."

So that still, it is not the voice of the churches but of Christ in the churches, that we covenant to listen to, in this pursuit; that is to say, that we will follow them, as they follow Christ: and when all is done, and a reformation (through the assistance and blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, that great king and prophet of His church) resolved on according to this rule thus interpreted, under what notion or obligation the observation of it shall be commended to us, sub judice lis est, it is yet in the bosom and breast of authority; we are as yet called to swear to nothing in this kind. So much in reference to the instances.

Answ. 3. I answer further to the satisfying of this second doubt, that by this covenant, we are bound no more to conform to Scotland, than Scotland to us: the stipulation being mutual, and this stipulation binding us not so much to conform one to another, as both of us to the Word; wherein, if we can meet, who would not look upon it, as upon the precious fruit of Christ's prayer: "That they might be one, as we are one?" and the beauty and safety of both nations, and of as many of the churches as the Lord our God shall persuade to come into this holy and blessed association?

Object. 3. A third objection falls upon the second article or branch of this covenant; wherein it is feared by some, that we swear to extirpate that which, for ought we know, upon due inquiry, may be found the way to Zion, the way of evangelical government, which Christ and His apostles have set up in the church.

Answ. Where lies that, think you? In what clause or word of the article? Who can tell? Surely not in popery; or if there be any that think that the way, I would wish their persons in Rome, since their hearts are there already. Is it in superstition? Nay, superstition properly consisteth in will-worship, "teaching for doctrine the traditions of men;" this cannot be the way to Zion, which Christ hath chalked out to us in His word. No more can heresy, which is the opposition to sound doctrine; nor schism, which is the rent of the church's peace; nor profaneness, the poison of her conversation. None but superstitious heretics, schismatics, profane persons, will call these the way to Zion; nor these neither, under the name and notion of superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness; for the heretic will not call his doctrine heresy; nor the superstitious, his innovation superstition; nor the schismatic, his turbulent practices schism; nor lastly, the profane person, his lewdness profaneness; tho' they love the thing, they hate the name.

And this, before we go further, occasions another objection, which you must give me leave both to make and answer in a parenthesis, and then I will return.

Object. How can we swear the extirpation of these, since, who shall be judge? While some will be ready to call that schism and superstition, which is not; and others deny that to be heresy, superstition, schism, which is?

Answ. 1. To which I answer, By the same argument, we ought not to covenant against popery and drunkenness, sabbath-breaking, nor any other sin whatsoever, there being nothing so gross but it will find some friends to justify, and plead for it; which if we shall not condemn till all parties be agreed on the verdict, we shall never proceed to judgment, while the world stands. 2. The word must be the rule and the judge, say men what they please, pro or con. 3. And if the matter be indeed so disputable, that it lies not in my faculty to pronounce sentence, I have my dispensation to suspend, till the world determine the controversy.

I now return; if then in none of these, the doubt must of necessity lie in that word prelacy. And is that indeed the way of gospel government? Is that it indeed which bears away the bell of jure divino? What is it then that hath destroyed all gospel order, and government and worship, in these kingdoms, as in other places of the Christian world, even down to the ground? Hath it not been prelacy? What is it that hath taken down a teaching ministry, and set up in the room a teaching-ceremony? Is it not prelacy? What is it that hath silenced, suspended, imprisoned, deprived, banished, so many godly, learned, able ministers of the gospel; yea, and killed some of them with their unheard of cruelties, and thrust into their places idol, idle shepherds; dumb dogs that cannot bark (unless it were at the flock of Christ; so they learned of their masters, both to bark and bite too) greedy dogs that could never have enough, that did tear out the loins and bowels of their own people for gain, heap living upon living, preferment upon preferment; swearing, drunken, unclean priests, that taught nothing but rebellion in Israel, and caused people to abhor the sacrifice of the Lord: Arminian, popish, idolatrous, vile wretches, such as, had Job been alive, he would not have set with the dogs of his flock; who, I say, brought in these? Did not prelacy? What hath hindered the reformation of religion all this while in doctrine, government, and worship? Prelacy, a generation of men they were, that never had a vote for Jesus Christ; yea, what hath poisoned and adulterated religion in all these branches, and hath let in popery and profaneness upon the kingdom like a flood, for the raising of their own pomp and greatness, but prelacy? In a word, prelacy it is, that hath set its impure and imperious feet, one upon the church, the other upon the state, and hath made both serve as Pharaoh did the Israelites, with rigour. Surely, their government hath been a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.

Now, that which hath done this, and a thousand times more violence and mischief to Christ and His people, than the tongue or pen of man is able to express; can that be the way of or to Zion? Can that be the government of Christ and His Church?

Object. Aye, but there be that will tell us, these have been the faults of the persons, and not of the calling?

Answ. 1. So cry some indeed, that ye like the men, as well as their calling, and would justify the persons as well as the office, but that their wickedness is made so manifest that impudency itself cannot deny it. But is it indeed only the fault of the men, not of the calling? What meant then that saying of queen Elizabeth, "That when she had made a bishop, she had spoiled a preacher?" Was it only a jest? 2. And I wish we had not too just cause to add, the man too. Surely of the most of them we may say, as once Arnobius spake of the Gentiles, apud vos optimi censentur quos comparatio pessimorum sic facit. Give me leave to vary it a little: he was a good bishop, that was not the worst man; but if there were some of a better complexion, who yet, apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto, were very rarely discovered in their episcopal see; yet, 3. Look into their families, and they were for the most part the vilest in the diocese, a very nest of unclean birds; and, 4. If you had looked into their courts and consistories, you would have thought you had been in Caiaphas' hall, where no other trade was driven but the crucifying of Christ in His members. 5. But fifthly, produce me one in this last succession of bishops (I hope the last) that had not his hands imbrued more or less in the blood of the faithful ministry, (I say not ministers, but ministry) produce a man amongst them all, that durst be so conscientious as to lay down his bishoprick, rather than he would lay violent hands upon a non-conforming minister, though he had failed but in one point of their compass of ceremonies, when their great master, the pope of Canterbury, commanded it, although both for life, learning, and orthodox religion, their consciences did compel them to confess with Pilate, "we find no fault in this just person." I say, produce me such a bishop amongst the whole bunch, in this latter age, and I will down on my knees, and ask them forgiveness. Oh! it was sure a mischievous poisoned soil, in which, whatsoever plant was set did hardly ever thrive after. 5. But yet further, was not the calling as bad as the men? You may as well say so of the papacy in Rome, for surely the prelacy of England, which we swore to extirpate, was the very same fabric and model of ecclesiastical regimen, that is in that Antichristian world; yea, such an evil it is that some divines, venerable for their great learning, as well as for their eminent holiness, did conceive sole episcopal jurisdiction to be the very seat of the beast, upon which the fifth angel is now pouring out his vial, which is the reason that the men of that kingdom "gnaw their tongues for pain, and blaspheme the God of heaven."

Object. Aye, but it is therefore pleaded further against this clause, that although it may be prelacy with all its adjuncts and accidents of archbishops, chancellors, and commissaries, deans, &c., may have haply been the cause of these evils that have broken in upon us, and perhaps Antichristian; yet should we therefore swear the extirpation of all prelacy, or episcopacy whatsoever; since there may be found perhaps in scripture an episcopacy or prelacy, which, circumcised from these exuberant members and officers, may be that government Christ hath bequeathed His church in the time of the gospel?

Answ. Now we shall quickly close this business. For, 1. It is this prelacy, thus clothed, thus circumstanced, which we swear to extirpate; read else the clause again, prelacy, that is, church government by archbishops, bishops, their chancellors. Not every, or all kinds of prelacy; not prelacy in the latitude of the notion thereof. 2. And secondly, let us join issue upon this point, and make no more words of it; if there be an episcopacy or prelacy found in the Word, as the way of gospel-government, which Christ hath bequeathed the churches, and this be made appear, we are so far from swearing to extirpate such a prelacy, as that rather we are bound by virtue of this oath to entertain it, as the mind and will of Jesus Christ. And this might suffice to warrant our covenanting to extirpate this prelacy, save that only.

Yet some seem conscientiously to scruple this in the last place. Object. That they see not what there is to warrant our swearing, to extirpate that which is established by the law of the land, till the same law have abolished it. To which I answer, 1. If the law of the land had abolished it, we need not swear the extirpation of it. 2. In this oath, the parliaments of both kingdoms go before us, who, having the legislative power in their hands, have also potestatem vitae et necis, over laws, as well as over persons, and may as well put to death the evil laws that do offend against the kingdom and the welfare of it, as the evil persons that do offend against the laws. 3. Who therefore, thirdly, if they may lawfully annul and abolish laws that are found to sin against the law of God, and the good of the kingdom may as lawfully bind themselves by an oath, to use the uttermost of their endeavours to annul and abolish those laws; their oath being nothing else but a solemn engagement to endeavour to perform what they have warrantably resolved upon; and with the same equity may they bind the kingdom to assist them in so doing. 4. Which is all that the people are engaged to by this covenant. Not to outrun the parliament in this extirpation, but to follow and serve them in it, by such concurrence as they may expect from each person in their stations and callings; for that clause, expressed in the first and third article, is to be understood in all.

Object. If it be yet objected, that the members of parliament have, at one time or other, sworn to preserve the laws; and therefore to swear to endeavour the extirpation of prelacy, which is established by law, is to contradict their own oath and run the hazard of perjury: it is easy for any one to observe and answer. 1. That by the same argument, neither may king and parliament together change or annul a law, though found destructive to the good of the kingdoms, since his majesty, as well as his subjects, are bound up under the same oath at his coronation. 2. But again, there is a vast difference between the members of parliament, simply considered in their private capacities, wherein they may be supposed to take an oath to maintain the laws of the land; and that public capacity of a parliament, whereby they are judges of those laws, and may, as I said before, endeavour the removal of such as are found pernicious to the church or state, and make such as will advantage the welfare of others; his majesty being bound by his coronation-oath, to confirm these laws, which the commons shall agree upon and present unto his majesty.

Object. Aye, but it seems this objection lies full and strong upon them that stand in their single private stations. I answer, that if there be any such oath, which yet I have never seen nor heard of, unless the objection mean that clause in the late parliament protestation, wherein we vow and protest to maintain and defend the lawful rights and liberties of the subject; surely, neither in that nor this, do we swear against a lawful endeavour to get any such laws or clause of the law repealed and abolished, which is found a wrong, rather than a right, and the bondage, rather than the liberty of the subject, as prelacy was. Had we indeed taken the bishop's oath, or the like, never to have given our consent to have the government by episcopacy changed or altered, we had brought ourselves into a woful snare; but, blessed be God, that snare is broken, and we are escaped; while, in the mean time without all doubt, the subject may as lawfully use all lawful means to get that law removed, which yet he hath promised or sworn to obey, while it remains, when it proves prejudicial to the public safety and welfare; as a poor captive, that hath peradventure sworn obedience to the Turk, (while he remains in his possession) may notwithstanding use all fair endeavours for an escape or ransom. Or a prentice that is bound to obey his master; yet, when he finds his service turned into a bondage, may use lawful means to obtain his freedom.

But once more to answer both objections; it is worth your inquiry, whether the plea of a legal establishment of this prelacy, sworn against in this covenant, be not rather a tradition, than any certain or confessed truth. Sure I am, we have it from the hands of persons of worth and honour; the ablest secretaries of laws and antiquities in our kingdom, that there is no such law or statute to be found upon the file, among our records. Which assertion, if it cannot find faith, we will once more join issue with the patrons or followers of this prelacy, upon this point, that when they produce that law or statute which doth enact and establish prelacy, as it is here branched in the article, we will then give them a fuller answer, or yield the question.

To conclude therefore, since this prelacy in the article, this many headed monster of archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy, is the beast, wherewith we fight in this covenant, which hath been found so destructive to church and state; let us not fear to take this sword of the covenant of God into our hands, and say to this enemy of Christ, as Samuel said once to Agag, (at what time he said within himself, "surely the bitterness of death is past") "As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women." So hath prelacy flattered itself, finding such a party to stand up on its side among the rotten lords and commons, the debauched gentry, and abased people of the kingdom: "Surely the bitterness of death is past." "I sit as a queen, and shall not know widow-hood, or loss of children." In the midst of this security and pride, the infallible forerunners of her downfall, let us call her forth, and say, as thy sword, prelacy, hath made many women childless, many a faithful minister peopleless, houseless and libertyless, their wives husbandless, their children and their congregations fatherless, and pastorless, and guideless; so thy mother, papacy, shall be made childless among harlots, your diocese bishopless, and your sees lordless, and your places shall know you no more. Come, my brethren, I say, and fear not to take this Agag, (prelacy, I mean, not the prelates) and hew it in pieces before the Lord.

Object. 4. A fourth and main objection that troubles many, is, that in the following article there are divers things of another nature that should fall within the compass of such a covenant, as that which the text holds forth, "to join ourselves to the Lord." There be state-matters, and such too, as are full of doubt, and perhaps of danger, to be sworn unto. I shall answer, first, the general charge, and then some of the particulars which are most material. In general, I answer, there is nothing in the body of this covenant which is not either purely religious, or which lies not in a tendency to religion, conducing to the securing and promoting thereof. And as, in the expounding the commandments, divines take this rule, that that command which forbids a sin, forbids also all the conducibles and provocations to that sin, all the tendencies to it: and that command which enjoins a duty, enjoins all the mediums and advancers to that duty; circumstances fall within the latitude of the command: so in religious covenants, not only those things which are of the substance and integrals of religion, but even the collaterals and subserviences that tend either to the establishing or advancing of religion, may justly be admitted within the verge and pale of the covenant. The cities of refuge had their suburbs appointed by God, as well as their habitations, and even they also were counted holy. The rights and privileges of the parliaments, and the liberties of the kingdom, mentioned in the third article; they are the suburbs of the gospel, and an inheritance bequeathed by God to nations and kingdoms, and, under that notion, holy. Concerning which a people may lawfully reply to the unjust demands of emperors, kings, or states, as Naboth once to Ahab, when demanded to yield up his vineyard to his majesty: "God forbid, that I should give the inheritance of my father." These be the outworks of religion, the lines of communication, as I may so say, for the defence of this city; which the prelates well knew, and therefore you see, it was their great design first, by policy to have surprised, and, when that would not do, then, by main strength of battle, to storm these outworks: well knowing, that if they once had won these, they should quickly be masters also of the holy city, religion itself, and do what they listed. And, therefore, the securing of these must of necessity be taken into the same councils and covenant with religion itself.

This premised in general, we shall easily and apace satisfy the particular scruples and queries as I go.

1. Scruple. The most part that swear this covenant are in a great degree, if not totally, ignorant what the rights and privileges of the parliament, and the liberties of the kingdoms are, and how can they then swear to maintain they know not what?

1. By the same argument no man, or very few, might lawfully swear to maintain the king's prerogatives in the paths of allegiance and supremacy; nor the king himself swear to maintain the liberties of the subject, as he doth in his oath at his coronation. 2. But there is hardly any person so ignorant but knows there are privileges belonging to the parliaments, and liberties belonging to the subject. 3. And that it is the duty of every subject, according to his place and power, to maintain these; so that, in taking of this covenant, we swear to do no more than our duty binds us to; in which there is no danger, tho' we do not in every point know how far that duty extends in every branch and several thereof. 4. In swearing to do my duty, whether to God or man, if I be ignorant of many particulars, I oblige myself to these two things. 1. To use the best means to inform myself of the particulars. 2. To conform myself to what I am informed to be my duty. Which yet, in the case in hand, doth admit of a further latitude, namely, that which lies in the very word and letter of this article (as in most of the rest) in our several vocations; which doth not bind every one to the same degree of knowledge, nor the same way of preservation: as for example, I do not conceive every magistrate is bound to know so much, no, nor to endeavour to know so much, as parliament-men; nor every member of parliament so much as judges; nor ministers so much as the lawyers; nor ordinary people so much as ministers; nor servants so much as masters; nor all to preserve them the same way; parliament-men by demanding them, lawyers by pleading, judges by giving the sense and mind of the law, ministers by preaching, magistrates by defending, people by assisting, praying, yielding obedience. All, if the exigencies arise so high, and the state call for it, by engaging their estates and lives, in case they be invaded by an unlawful power. And in case of ignorance, the thing we bind ourselves to is this, that if at any time any particular shall be in question, what the parliament shall make appear to be their right or the liberty of the subject, we promise to contribute such assistance for the preservation or reparation thereof, as the nature of the thing, and wisdom of the state shall call for at our hands, in our several places.