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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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; G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 l.u.s.ts and pa.s.sions, when they begin to move or quest within us: it will also break the blow of Satan"s temptations, when he a.s.saults 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 pa.s.sion oftentimes grievously offends the Majesty of G.o.d 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 t.i.ttle, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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 l.u.s.ts: 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 h.e.l.l 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 G.o.d, 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. G.o.d 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; G.o.d is an avenger of all such: He is a jealous G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, is the greatest punishment, and to desert G.o.d, 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 "G.o.d 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 G.o.d will be its second. As G.o.d 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 pa.s.sing 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 G.o.d will divide them and their posterity in Jacob, and scatter them in our Israel; yea, let them fear, that G.o.d 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d"s wrath are contracted into this burning gla.s.s, it will burn as low as h.e.l.l, and none can quench it. That alone which quenches the fire of G.o.d"s wrath is the blood of Christ. And the blood of Christ is the foundation of this covenant. Not only is that covenant which G.o.d hath made with us founded in the blood of Christ, but that also which we make with G.o.d. 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 G.o.d, and this blood is the foundation of our covenant, how shall the wrath of G.o.d (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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d renewed His covenant with Abraham, He makes this the preamble of it, "I am the Almighty G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d be lacking:" so now it is charged, "Suffer not the salt of thy covenant with G.o.d 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.
G.o.d 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 c.o.c.kle 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.surance that G.o.d 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 G.o.d"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 G.o.d, in covenant, so shall you be established; believe His prophets, so shall you prosper."
4. Walk cheerfully. So it becomes those that have G.o.d 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, G.o.d 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 G.o.d; 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 G.o.d is our G.o.d, our G.o.d 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 G.o.d"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 G.o.d 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 mult.i.tude of mountains," heaped up and joined in one by the bond of this covenant. Surely in the Lord our G.o.d, our G.o.d in covenant, is the salvation of England. We cannot trust too much in G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, but we have made it a G.o.d; and every G.o.d 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 G.o.d, the G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 n.o.ble apprenticeship to G.o.d, 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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, G.o.d 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 G.o.d." To get our hearts broken, for breaking the covenant; to lay it so to heart, that G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d in former times; which is yet to me a gracious intimation, and a farther argument of hope from heaven, that G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. "Going and weeping they shall go, and seek the Lord their G.o.d. 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 G.o.d." 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 n.o.bles 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 G.o.d." 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 G.o.d." 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 G.o.d, of what nation or language soever, being all called the Israel of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d and His Son Jesus Christ, as to their Law-giver and Saviour; or else turning from Antichristian superst.i.tion, 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 superst.i.tions, 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 superst.i.tion 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 rest.i.tution 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.s, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d would be worshipped; that they might dishonour and provoke Him no more, by their idolatries and superst.i.tions, which had been brought in upon the ordinances of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d of spirits, the G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, the living G.o.d; 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.