A Discourse of the Two Covenants

SECT. I. The Covenant as made with Believers, explicated and demonstrated.

§. 1. THat the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ primarily, as the second Adam, has been formerly cleared unto you; but when we look farther into the Scripture, we find also that God did establish that Covenant with the Faithful, and with their seed; and this the Text holds forth clearly to you, when I have but premised this position, That the Covenant that God made with Abraham, is the same for substance with the Covenant, under which the Saints under the New-Testament do, and shall stand to the end of the world, which I conceive is to perform the mercy promised to our Fathers, and to remember his holy Covenant, the oath which he sware to our Father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of all our enemies might serve him without fear, &c. and Rom. 4.11. He received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of Faith, which he had being yet uncircumcised, that he might be the Father of them that believe, though they be not circumcised, and the Father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but do walk in the steps of the faith of our Father Abraham; and therefore verse. 16. he is said to be the Father of us all, If you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs of the Promise: and Galat. 4.28. now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of the promise, &c. so that both Jews and Gentiles are Abraham's seed, because they come under Abraham's Covenant; therefore there is the same Covenant now for substance, that was made with Abraham: and hence Acts 3.25. 'tis said, ye are the children of the Covenant, which God made with your Fathers: Therefore as Abraham's Covenant, so the Covenant made with the Saints is made with them and with their seed. Hence we do learn in the next place,

[Doctrine.] Doctrine, That the Covenant of grace that was principally made with Christ, is also made with the faithful, the members of Christ. In the opening of this Doctrine there are three things to be spoken to, (1) To prove that the Covenant is made with the Saints. (2) To show why it must be so. (3) To show the different manner how it's made with Christ, and with them.

1. That the Covenant of grace is made with the Saints, and they are all federates therein, will appear by these arguments. 1. From the type of the first Adam, for he is made the type of him that was to come: Now the Covenant that God did make with Adam was not made with him only, but with all his posterity; as appears plainly, because the curse of the Covenant being broken comes upon them all; in Adam all died because in him all sinned; now the Covenant must be as large as the Curse, and the Curse coming upon them must argue the Covenant to be made with them: and so it is in the second Covenant also, God has not only taken Christ into Covenant, but he being an everlasting Father has taken in all his seed; for he is the Father of all the faithful, and the Lord enters into Covenant with them also. So that all his posterity were bound unto the same Covenant, and to perform the same obedience, or to endure the same Curse that he did, if they did transgress. And whereas it may be said then, as all that was required of the first Adam lay upon his posterity, so all that is required of the second, lies upon his posterity also; and as what Adam was to perform, they were in their own persons to perform, so what Christ did perform that also lies upon all his posterity to perform: in this there is a great deal of difference between Adam and Christ; the first Adam stood before God as a public person, as a representative head, that is, such a one as personates and acts the part of another by the allowance of the Law; so that what he doth is by the Law accounted to be done by him whom he represents, and what is done unto him is accounted by the Law to be done unto the other: so in the Law an Attorney appears for another, receives money or takes possession for another, and that stands good in Law, as if a man had done it in his own person; and so Ambassadors do represent the Princes or States from whence they come, and from whom they are sent; what they do, the Prince that sends them is accounted by the Law of Nations to do, if they act according to their commission; and what is done unto them, the Prince doth take as done unto himself, &c. And so indeed Adam was a Common or a Public person standing in our stead, that what he did was accounted to be ours, whether to righteousness and life, or unto sin and death; but yet so, that had he stood, the same obedience was in their own persons required of his posterity for themselves as was required of Adam, though not with the same respect; not as public persons and representative heads; so that if they had not performed it, they had fallen for themselves, though all mankind had not fallen, if Adam had stood; for the woman was first in the transgression, 1 Tim. 2. and yet though the woman fell first, all mankind did not fall in her fall; but by one man sin entered into the world, and therefore it was not every sin of a particular person, that would have destroyed all mankind, but of their representative only. But the second Covenant hath this in it, that the first never had in Adam, the second Covenant hath a surety, and that is something more than a public person, that is one that represents another, and stands in his place, and is bound unto his debt; so that if the person engaged pay not the debt, the surety must; and so Adam was not the surety for all mankind, that he would perform the debt or bear the curse for them all; there was no Covenant that had a Surety but Christ, and he was a surety of the first Covenant, made under the Law, and of a better Covenant to perform all the duties of the Gospel. So that all that is required is of Christ as the second Adam, only in his public capacity and representation; the Law is required of us, but if we perform it not, we have a surety that has undertaken it. Thus as the first Covenant was made with the first Adam and all his posterity, so the second Covenant is made with the second Adam and all his posterity also.

2. We read of a Covenant made with Persons and people, and promised unto them as special mercies, a Covenant made with Abraham and Isaac, a Covenant made with David, 2 Sam. 23.5. The Lord has made with me an everlasting Covenant in all things ordered and sure. And there is a Covenant made with a people also, Jer. 31.31. God made a Covenant with the house of Judah, a Covenant that he would bring them under the bonds of the Covenant, and Esa. 55.3. Everyone that thirsts come to the waters, &c. and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David, and Ezek. 16. I entered into Covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine; and therefore Zac. 9.12. By the blood of thy Covenant I have delivered the prisoners out of the pit, in which there is no water.

3. Men are said to make the Covenant and to break it: Hezekiah exhorts them, 2 Chron. 30.7, 8. to give the hand unto the Lord: it's an expression of entering into Covenant; as striking the hand is in the Proverbs an expression of entering into suretyship for another: there are four expressions of it in 1 Chron. 29.24. All the Princes, and the mighty men; and all the house of the Kingdom gave their hands unto Solomon: it notes a military subjection by way of Covenant and agreement between them, they did take an oath of Allegiance unto him. And so that expression to join the hand, Ezekiel. 17.18. He hath broken the Covenant after he had given his hand, &c. and Job 17.3. to strike hand is to enter into suretyship or to be engaged in a Covenant; so the saints are said to enter into Covenant with the Lord by sacrifice, and they are said to take hold of the Covenant: again they are said to break the Covenant, which could not be if the Covenant were not made with them; and not to be faithful and constant therein, Psal. 25.10. Lev. 26.15.

4. It will appear from the promises of the second Covenant, though it's true, that they are all yea and amen in him, yet are they properly and formally made unto us, either the first promises of grace or else of reward unto grace. Promises of grace are, He will give his Spirit, and will give repentance, he will heal our backslidings, &c. and we have an unction from the holy one, &c. And reward of service done, either in the inward dispositions, Blessed are the pure in spirit, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, &c. or in the outward action, 1 Cor. 9.24. So run that you may obtain; your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And though the Covenant be made only out of free grace, yet the Saints do claim these promises, not only out of mercy, but from the faithfulness of God. 2 Tim. 4.8. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able: he is faithful and just to forgive us, &c. And what is the ground of this but the Covenant of God, whereby his faithfulness is engaged?

5. The Covenant of grace is a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator, and confirmed by the death of the Testator; it's not only a Covenant, but it's a Testament. (1) Christ is the Mediator; now no man is a mediator between God and himself, a Mediator is not a Mediator of one, it must be a third person, a days-man, that must lay hold upon both; therefore there is a Covenant made with Christ, and Christ is a Mediator for the establishment of the Covenant with us also. And (2) Christ is the Testator, he died and left his Legacies of all the promises to the saints; now no man gives a Legacy to himself. In the Covenant made between the Father and Christ, Christ is a party and a public person; but in this Covenant between God and us, he is a Mediator and the Testator, by whom we receive all the Legacies and Inheritance, that he has purchased for us and granted to us.

6. The Sacraments are seals of the Covenant of grace: Now if we look upon the Covenant made with Christ, and consider that his faith was perfect in God, and he knew the Lord would not fail him, but says, He is near that justifies me, who will contend with me? he will not leave my soul in Hell, &c. But though Christ had a strong faith, yet we have but a weak faith, and therefore had need of Sacraments and outward signs to confirm it; wherefore the Sacraments are not to confirm the Covenant made with Christ, but the Covenant made with the Saints; he to whom the Covenant is made, unto him the seals are to be applied; and it would seem unreasonable for the Covenant to be made unto one, and the seals to be applied unto the other; therefore there is a Covenant made with the saints, and to this Covenant the Sacraments are added as seals.

7. There is a double oath to confirm this Covenant, there is an oath made by God the Father to Christ, and there is an oath also made to us; there is an oath made unto Christ, and therefore he is said to be made a Priest by a Covenant oath, Psal. 110.4. and the oath to us, Heb. 6.17, 18. Who are heirs of promise, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, &c. God having taken up unchangeable counsels concerning this Covenant, he did therefore to show the Immutability of his Counsel confirm it by an oath, and being so engaged, he cannot go back, though that be true also, because he is faithful and cannot deny himself. Yet because his counsel was unchangeable, and he did never intend to alter his Covenant forever, therefore he did swear, that he might show how much his heart was in it, and that he did never intend to change it, but his counsel in it was unchangeable.

And this Doctrine I do the rather pitch upon in opposition to the licentious tenent of the Antinomians from the former Doctrine; The Covenant of grace is made with Christ, and he has undertaken to perform all duties required of us, and bear all the curse for us as he was our surety; therefore say they, all is required of Christ, and nothing of us; and so though we walk never so loosely and corruptly, yet God will require all at his hands; and while Christ doth not fail, the Covenant on our part can never be broken. Indeed this is a truth, that God has laid help upon one that is mighty; and he does expect all at Christ's hand, because he can never fail, the Covenant cannot be broken, for he is the surety thereof: but yet we must remember withal, that we come under the same Covenant with Christ, and we in our place are bound unto the same obedience, and so far as we come short, we sin, and may be charged with unfaithfulness before God; though this shall never break the Covenant, nor be imputed unto a man to his destruction, because this Covenant has a surety; yet as the Covenant with the first Adam bound all his posterity unto the same duty, so does the Covenant made with the second Adam also; only a man might have broken the first Covenant for himself, though he could not break it for all mankind; but under the second Covenant a man cannot break the Covenant for himself, (so as not to be capable of mercy upon repentance) because the second Adam is the surety thereof.

2. The Reasons why it was necessary that the Covenant of Grace should be made with all the faithful, and not with Christ only as their head, are

[Reason 1] 1. To answer those great ends, why God will deal with man in a Covenant way. (1) The Lord will enter into Covenant that he may declare his glory, not only in a way of goodness, but in a way of faithfulness. In the Creation, the Lord did show forth much power and wisdom; and in the Law much holiness: But there was no way to manifest his faithfulness, but by Covenant. The Lord hath chosen you above all people, that you might know that he is the Lord the faithful God. And Rom. 15.8, 9. there is the truth of God to the Jews herein manifested, and the mercy of God to the Gentiles, who were strangers, and not before taken into Covenant; so that it is hereby the Lord doth gloriously manifest an Attribute, and that which shall manifest an Attribute must be no small matter; and therefore when the Lord doth show his power, he doth create the Heavens and the Earth, and lays the beams of his Chambers in the waters, raiseth such a roof as the Heavens, and lays such a foundation as the earth, and settles it upon nothing; if he will show his love, he will give his Son; and if his grace, he will pardon sin; and if his holiness, he will give a Law, if his mercy to the vessels of mercy, give them Heaven, a kingdom of joy and glory; and if his wrath, he will make Hell. So that whatever the Lord hath done in the world, is for the manifestation of himself; and that which shall make manifest any Attribute of God to the World, must needs be some great thing. It is only this entering into Covenant, that hath manifested the faithfulness of God, he had not been else known to be a faithful God unto the World, as Exod. 3.6. says the Lord, By the name Jehovah I was not known to them; that is, as a God fulfilling of the promises: So by the name of a God faithful and true, he had not been known, but in reference to the Covenant; and the faithfulness of God was so much the more manifested by this. Had the Lord only entered into Covenant with Christ, he keeping the Covenant, and yielding obedience to it, the faithfulness of God had not been put to that stress and trial as it hath been, now that the Covenant is made with man, and he unsteady therein, and does transgress it, and forget the Covenant of his God, and yet that the Lord should towards him remember his holy Covenant still, and our unfaithfulness not make the faithfulness of God of none effect; and the people of God therefore notwithstanding all their unfaithfulness, to cast themselves upon the Covenant of God and the promises thereof (as David did) 2 Sam. 23.5. and his words yet to be found, as it were tried words, Psal. 12.6. The words of the Lord are pure words, tried as silver seven times, &c. The fire that tries these words was that of affliction, and when a man is brought into a straight, and then casts himself upon a promise, and thereby has experience of the truth and faithfulness of God therein, then it is said to be tried; and all the people of God have had experience of it so often, that there is no dross to be found in it, no more than can be conceived to be in gold and silver purified seven times.

2. The Lord's intention was to honor man also; and it's one of the greatest and highest dignities that the Lord hath put upon his people, to bind them unto himself for a name and a glory; and Deut. 26.18, 19. the Lord did avouch them to be his people, to make them high above all people; and therefore the staff of beauty mentioned in Zach. 11.10. is the Covenant between God and his people; I brake my staff of beauty, that I might break my Covenant which I made with all the people, &c. and it is a Covenant of friendship, a Covenant of marriage; and in all this there is an honor, and a kind of equality, and it's the ground of all the honor that the Lord doth put upon us; for our union with Christ is grounded upon our Covenant with God. Had the Lord taken Christ into Covenant with himself only, he had indeed honored his Son, but not his Saints; but now to make them one with the Son, and to enter into the same Covenant with them, and in their own persons, that he hath established with the Son, it doth highly honor the Saints, and exalt the grace of God towards them also.

3. That the Lord might bind men unto him more firmly in a way of obedience, and that the obedience might be made the more sweet. Man was bound unto God by a bond of creation; and from whom he had his being, unto him he did owe his service; but the Lord will bind him unto him with a further cord and bond of stipulation; the one was natural and necessary, and the other voluntary; and though he did owe obedience, had there been never a promise made him of a reward, yet much more when the Lord will bind himself by Covenant, to reward his meanest services. The ground of the Covenant is love, and God loves the Saints also in his Son, and is willing to be reconciled to them in him; and a man may say, the yoke of Christ is not only easy, but profitable also, Matt. 11.29. because it hath a promise annexed to every service; and for this cause was the Covenant made with the Saints, that they might be a willing people in all their obedience, there being a promise going with the duty in whatever was required of them.

4. That the people of God might exercise faith in their prayers, putting these bonds in suit that the Lord hath made over unto them, when they look upon themselves as sons of Abraham, Heirs of Promise, and Children of the Covenant, &c. and thereby they come with a great deal the more boldness before the throne of grace, as David, 1 Chron. 17.23, 24. Let the thing thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and his house, be established forever; do as thou hast said, that thy name may be magnified forever; the Lord of Hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: For because thou hast told thy servant, that thou wilt build him an house, therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray before thee; now Lord thou art God, and hast promised this goodness to thy servant; let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before thee forever; for thou blessest, O Lord, and it shall be blessed forever: have respect unto the Covenant, for all the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

[Reason 2] 2. There is a Covenant made with the Saints also, that they may see that they are as strictly bound to obedience in their own persons, under the second Covenant, as they were under the first Covenant; and that the doctrine of the Gospel, though it be a Doctrine of liberty, yet is not a Doctrine of licentiousness; there is as much of duty required of us now, as there was then; and so far as we come short of the Law we sin, and every such transgression is, so far as it prevails, a Covenant-breaking on our part, and an act of unfaithfulness; but the Covenant cannot be broken, because we have a surety which the first Covenant had not; and the righteousness of this Covenant sin can never spend, it is an everlasting righteousness; therefore that Doctrine that saith God requires all of Christ and nothing of you, is a Doctrine of sinful liberty; it's true, That he takes satisfaction in his Son, and he makes you accepted in his beloved, and therefore he will never suffer his faithfulness to fail; for Psal. 102.28. Thou art the same, and the children of thy servants shall continue, &c. yet in point of duty, he expects from us uprightness, and perfect obedience; so that it is your sin and unfaithfulness, if you perform it not; as it was required of the first Adam, so of all his posterity; and as of Christ, so of all his posterity also.

3. That the Saints also may stand in awe of the threats of God under the second Covenant; it's true there is no curse there, for it is a covenant of blessing; but yet there is a double anger in God, paterna, & hostilis ira, simplex & redundans, &c. I will visit their offenses with a rod, and that with many sharp and lesser trials, and yet my Covenant I will not break; they shall be the sure mercies of David still, therefore Psal. 119. he saith, Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me; because God had in Covenant undertaken to preserve him to his kingdom, therefore he could not else have been a faithful God; and there is also a faithfulness in the threatening executed, as well as there is in the promises performed; and that the hearts of the people of God may stand in awe thereof, therefore it is necessary, that as they should remember all duty was not so performed by Christ, but that there is duty also in their place required of them; and all suffering was not so undergone by Christ, but that there may be suffering reserved for them also; though not as a part of the curse of the first Covenant, nor for satisfaction; yet as the threatening was for their unfaithfulness under the second Covenant, so it is inflicted for their humiliation and sanctification.

§. 3. Wherein lies the difference between the Covenant made with Christ, and with us? (1) It was made with Christ primarily as a public person for all the Elect, but it is made with everyone of us in the second place as we are members of Christ; and so being in him, we come under his Covenant. (2) It is made with Christ immediately and for his own sake, there was no mediator between God and Christ, but the Lord accepted of his engagement and relied upon his faithfulness in performing his duty, as Christ did upon God's faithfulness in fulfilling his promise; and whatever the Lord performs unto us, it is for Christ's sake; but it is with us mediately in him, he being the mediator of the Covenant, and of all the mercies thereof. (3) The promise made unto Christ, was made from everlasting before the foundation of the world; it's said, The Lamb had a book of life before the foundation of the world; it cannot be understood of election, for he himself as mediator was elected; therefore it is spoken in reference to this Covenant, that God did make with Christ before the world was, he being from the beginning, and this Covenant was to take place immediately after the fall; but the Covenant with his people is made with them, when they believe and are engrafted into Christ, faith being nothing else but a consent unto the Covenant, and the terms of it on our part, and therefore that is an act done by the creature in time, when a man is converted; and therefore notwithstanding the Covenant made with Christ, yet the elect themselves, till they be converted, are said to be strangers to the Covenant of promise; as it is in justification, though there be a justification in capite when Christ rose from the dead, (because he rose as a public person) yet there is not a personal justification in a man, till he do believe, and be made one with Christ, and hath thereby an interest in his righteousness. (4) All the promises of the second Covenant belong unto Christ as his purchase, and unto us of promise; to him of debt, and unto us of grace: the making of the Covenant indeed was an act of free grace with Christ, but the performance, and all the benefits thereof is an act of purchase, Ephes. 1.14. it is all the inheritance of Christ purchased by his merits, but to us it comes of grace, and merely for Christ's sake. (5) Christ as to his Covenant hath no surety, God took his word, and his faithfulness he did rely upon, and therefore calls him faithful and true, and said he had laid help on one that is mighty, Psal. 89. but we have a surety of our Covenant to pay the debt and perform the duty:

SECT. II. The Covenant as made with Believers applied.

[Use 1] §. 1. NOw therefore if the Lord do enter into Covenant with his Saints, and they are all a Covenant people, and not only made a Covenant with our head for us, but with every particular man in his own person; then 1. Let everyone of us know that it's our duty to enter our Covenant with the Lord; and this is the great end of publishing the Gospel, to bring men into the bond of the Covenant. Dan. 9.27. He shall confirm the Covenant with many, &c. here is a Provinical Calendar, and that Dan. 7. is an Oecumenical, which is the time from the going forth of the Commandment of Cyrus to rebuild the City and the Temple; he names the time of the final destruction of the Temple, and the utter desolation of the City, after the end of sixty two weeks, before the Messiah be cut off but not for himself; and then he shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week, and in the middle of the week he shall cause the daily sacrifice to cease, &c. and this is commonly interpreted of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, and bringing them unto the knowledge of Christ. A tacit antithesis between the old Church and the new, which does extend through the whole world, &c. And this Preaching the Gospel and declaring the new Covenant unto the Gentiles, and bringing them into the fellowship of the Mystery is called confirming the Covenant with them, but the word in the original signifies praevaluit, superavit; therefore it doth signify that the second Covenant shall prevail over men, and bring them in by the power thereof; and therefore when the Lord sends forth his Gospel, it is called the day of his power not that of armies to force men by constraint, but subdue their wills unto the obedience thereof, and that there should be willingness in the day of this his power: so far should the Covenant prevail; for the Lord hath strengthened it, that it should prevail upon many, and bring them into the bonds thereof: so that the great end of the Gospel, and all the glorious power put forth therein, is but that the Covenant may prevail, and men submit thereunto. Now if a man would enter into Covenant with God, what is required of him? O that the Lord would bring his word at this time upon any soul, and that I might be but instrumental therein, to bring you under this Covenant, that your hearts may take hold of it. The arguments to persuade you and to plead with you are very many, and forcible, in the spirit of grace and power accompanying them. I may take enough from • he misery of the former Covenant under which you must needs stand, unless you enter • nto this new Covenant: for it is no more possible for the same man to be under both Covenants, than it is possible to be born of two mothers, as has been manifested to you • lready out of Gal. 4.21, 23, &c.

But for the present I would pitch upon these; 1. If you come not under this Covenant, you have no interest in God; for the former Covenant being broken, God is become your enemy, and he is now no more your God than he is the Devils God, and the damned Spirits God, unless you enter into Covenant with him anew, for there is no way for you to have an interest in God, but by Covenant with him: they are a happy people whose God is Jehovah; and they on the contrary are a miserable people that have not the Lord for their God, but for their enemy. Now as the Lord came to be Christ's God, so he must be your God; and Christ takes a new Covenant-right unto God to this every end; he hath a double right unto all things, [1] As he is haeres natus, as it was his natural inheritance, as he had a right to whatever his Father had; for he thinks it no robbery to be equal with him; and yet he takes a new Covenant-right unto all things; [2] As he is Haeres constitutus, an Heir appointed by God, that he might be able to communicate the same unto us; so he takes a new covenant-right unto God, that we entering into the same Covenant the Lord might become our God, as he is Christ's God: and how is God made over unto a man in this Covenant? It is in his all-sufficiency, so that look whatever sufficiency there is in God, all this is thine, and thou mayest claim an interest in it. Now if a man had all things else in the world, this very consideration would embitter all to him, that he has no interest in God: as on the contrary, if a man were deprived of all things else, this would sweeten all, that God is his God; as it was said of Job, he lost all that God had given him, but he had him who gave him all▪ and as Bernard says, all meat is unsavory that has not this salt: And so on the contrary, thou hast all these good things, but thou hast no interest in him who is the God of them all, and whose Love is infinitely in sweetness beyond them all; for his loving kindness is better than life, and all the revenues of life: which appears, because perfection of Happiness in Heaven lies in God alone, when a man shall be taken off from all the comforts of the creatures: and though while men taste the sweetness of the creatures and the pleasures of them, they seem not to find that want of God, but can be content to be without him to all eternity; yet there will come a time when men shall know what it is to live without God in the world, as all they do that have no interest in the Covenant of grace.

2. It is only in the Covenant of grace that all the persons have undertaken peculiar offices for the good of men, and no men have benefit by them but they that are brought under this Covenant; it is for their sake that the Father has given the Kingdom into the hand of his Son, and what benefit other men have by it, it is but as the beasts have, and in some respect as the Devils have; they have some less degree of torment, and that's granted them for their sakes who are heirs of promise, and for their sake the spirit is the prorex, and has undertaken to rule under Christ: all the Offices of Christ are for their sake, and for their good, and all the Offices of the Spirit either enlightening, convincing, sanctifying, or comforting, they are all for their good; and the common works of the Spirit that do fall upon any wicked men in the world is by the Saints Covenant, or else you should have no more of them (oh hear all you wicked ones) than the Devils and damned in Hell have at this day. Now the great plot of the Gospel in the new Covenant is not only to honor the Attributes of the nature, but also to honor the Persons in the hearts of men; this was the way, for the Persons to undertake certain appropriated works in the days of the Gospel in the administration of the Covenant and all the parts thereof. Now as you will have no benefit by the attributes of the divine nature, but they all make against you, and will at last day bring in their several charges against your souls that are out of this Covenant, not only the Holiness and Justice of God, but even the Mercy and Patience of God will cry against you, Justice Lord, for Mercies sake; so you will have no benefit by the Offices of the persons, but they will all of them be used against you, and bring in their several charges against you. Christ as a King, a Prophet and a Priest, will charge thee: then shall the King say, Go ye cursed: and the Spirit of God as a Spirit, that has been convincing thee and enlightening thee in thy life time, shall condemn thee; and Christ as a Judge will condemn thee, and the Spirit of Christ as a Spirit of Bondage will in Hell perfectly torment thee: for as in Heaven the Spirit shall be perfectly a Spirit of Adoption, so he shall be in Hell perfectly a Spirit of Bondage forever.

3. Unless thou art in Covenant this way, the Lord regards thee not, nor anything that thou dost; an instance of it we have, Heb. 8.9. There are God's own people, whom he took into Covenant with himself, and for the outward part of the Covenant they did enter into Covenant with him, but yet their hearts did not consent unto the terms of the Covenant; and therefore they brake the Covenant. The meaning is not, that ever they were truly and indeed spiritually in Covenant; for then the Covenant could never have been broken; but they were only in the Covenant externally, but their hearts did not come up unto the spiritual part of the Covenant; and therefore the Lord says, I regard them not, I took no care for them, I made no account of them at all, whatever became of them it was all one to me, as it is with us of things that we have no regard of; and for God not to regard a man or a people is the sum of all Judgment: whatever did befall them, the Lord pitied them not, assisted them not, &c. But in the place whence it is taken, Jer. 31.33. there is something more in it, it is, I Lorded it over them, when I consider how the name Baal is used, Hos. 2.16. he did exercise his Lordly authority over them: when they would not be ruled by him as a Husband, he doth then lay Judgment and Chastisement upon them as a Lord, he did not regard their persons; whereas precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints, yea he puts their Tears in his Bottle, &c. and he does pour out their blood as dust, and their flesh as dung, and he regards them not; but man though in honor, if he understands not, becomes like the beasts that perish. Without that Covenant he may be compared to the Beasts that perish, pardon the expression, but it's suitable unto the intention of the Holy Ghost, he is unto God counted no better than a Dog that dies in a ditch. And as it is for their persons, so it is for their services also, a man that is out of Covenant the Lord accepts nothing that he doth; unto Cain and his offering he had no respect. But a man in Covenant with God, the words of his mouth, the meditations of his heart, find acceptance with God, and be to him incense of a sweet savor; their persons and their services, their smell is as the Wine of Lebanon, according to the promise of acceptation; but all the services of men out of the Covenant are abominable to God, as the Grapes of Sodom: all the acts performed by them that are in Covenant are as the Grapes of Lebanon; your works are very acceptable, The Sun of righteousness shall rise upon you with healing in his Wings: but for all others that are not in Covenant with him, the Lord does not respect their offering or take it with good will at their hands; but he saith, To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices, Incense is an abomination unto me, it is a burden, even your solemn assemblies are an offense to me, I will not smell in them, I am weary to bear them; and when you kill an Ox it is as if you killed a man, and he that burns Incense as if he blessed an Idol; because you have chosen your own ways, therefore the Lord abhors you.

4. This is a matrimonial Covenant, and it is a Covenant of friendship; it is of this Covenant that the Lord saith, I will betroath you to me forever; and it is the same Covenant which when God had entered into with Abraham, he doth call him, Abraham my friend: Wife and Friend are two of the sweetest and highest relations: if any could prevail, it would be the Wife of thy Bosom, or thy Friend, which is as thy own soul. Now in this Covenant a man enters into both these relations with God, there is the nearest union with him, he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with him; there is the interest love of the persons one to another, they are most precious one to another, and all the world besides are but as Pebbles, to Diamonds which outshine all other stones, and they are still prizing the love one of another: how excellent is thy loving kindness, O God! it is better than life: because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him, and love him at all times; and in the greatest trials all true friends love most, forsake not one another; the fire burns hottest in Winter by an Antiperistasis; God found Israel as Grapes in the Wilderness, saw her in her blood, and that was the time of love, my Love is as a bundle of Myrrh which is bitter, yet he shall lie between my breasts; all true love is like wild-fire, the more you cast water upon it, it will flame the more, Cant. 8.6. Many waters cannot quench it; true Lovers will bear any afflictions one for another; in all their afflictions he is afflicted, and when his Children are persecuted, he says, why persecutest thou me? Let God, saith Ambrose, turn the adversaries of the Church against me, and • quench their thirst with my blood; I had rather, says Bernard, men should murmur against • me, than against God. The soul that loves God is willing to undergo any reproach for God, and be dishonored, so God may be honored. And there is also the sweetest communion between friends opening their hearts one to another, and each striving that they may exceed. The Lord's heart is contracted towards other men, his heart is straitened, he cannot discover himself to them; but there is a secret of his Counsel, and a secret of his providence; the one is in the heart, and the other upon the Tabernacle of those that are in Covenant, and they pour out their whole hearts also to the Lord, as Hannah did, and • lie, Lord all my desires are before thee, they keep nothing back; and there is the fullest • ommunication, the Lord gives up all that he has unto such a soul, and he shall inherit 〈◊〉 things, I will be his God, all that is in God is as truly thine for thy good, as if thou hadst infinite wisdom, and power, and holiness in thy own hand; and the soul gives up all unto God, his love, and his joy, and fear, &c. for God will not marry a Harlot, that hath any reserve from him, but he will have all the strength of the soul; the Apostle says, they gave themselves up to the Lord, their bodies were the Lord's, Rom. 12.1.

5. God and the soul know not how to live asunder; tell my Beloved, that I am sick of Love: and as Augustine saith after the death of his friend Nebridius, that he was in a straight desiring to die, because he knew not how to live by halves: yet he was willing to live that his friend might not wholly die, but might yet live in part, even in him. And truly though relations amongst men be notions in a great measure, and their affections do not answer them, and fill them up; yet with God they are not so, but there is something still that fully answers every relation wherein he stands unto you: and whereas your relations here are but for the time of this life, it is but till God shall part us by death; relations unto the Lord are eternal; and it is entering into this Covenant that does invest thee with these relations. It is also to this Covenant that all the promises are annexed, they do all meet as lines in this center; and therefore till a man be in Covenant he is not an heir of the Promise; we that believe are Abraham's seed, and heirs of the promise; if once, by entering into Abraham's Covenant, you become his seed, then all the promises are yours, but never till then; for before, all the curses of the first Covenant were thy due, but not any one promise of the second Covenant belongs to thee, which is the Covenant under which Abraham, and David, and all the Saints do stand, and by which they hold their happiness at this day; for it is the inheritance that is by promise; now there is no way to be made blessed with faithful Abraham, and to attain the sure mercies of David, the blessing of the new Covenant, but by this, for they are all fruits of the Covenant, and streams that flow from this Fountain.

6. and Lastly, The Covenant of Grace is the last Covenant that ever God does intend to make with mankind, or tender to him: 'tis true, he did make a former Covenant, and you brake it, and the Lord has made a second, but he will never add a third Covenant, The Lord willing to show the immutability of his Counsel, &c. God doth not change his Covenant because he has sworn, the oath now binds him that he cannot change; yet it was the unchangeableness of his purpose that he might manifest that to be the ground why he did it by an oath, that we might be assured the mind of God will never change to eternity; it is by this Covenant only that he intends to bring all his Sons to glory, and he will never make another; therefore as I may say of Christ, This is the last way Salvation, that ever God will take, He that believes in him shall be saved, but he that believes not in him, shall be damned. There is no hope of another, the Lord has no more Sons in his Bosom to bestow. And as these be the last Ordinances, (and therefore in the Lord's-supper, you show forth the Lord's death till he come ) so it's here, it's the last Covenant that ever God will make, and if you do not accept of this, and like the terms of it, you can never have the Lord to become your God in Covenant forever.

Now it will be said, What should we do, and what is required on our part that we should enter into Covenant with the Lord? All Covenants must be by mutual consent, and out of choice and election, and therefore some do derive the word in Hebrew signifying a Covenant from a verb which signifies to choose, because a Covenant must be an act of choice, and therefore there must be something done on our part; though God offer the Covenant, we must accept it; and that we may do the duty on our part, it's a work of almighty power, Ezek. 20.37. and I will bring you into, as the word signifies, I will make you to come into the bond of the Covenant. Now when the Lord in this Covenant is pleased to put forth the grace of it in the day of his power, there are these three things that he does work the soul to, wherein our entering into Covenant doth consist, answerable to these three expressions; (1) Jer. 11.2. Hearken to and hear the words of the Covenant; a man doth learn and generally observe the terms of the Covenant, upon what terms God offers a Covenant unto him. (2) That in 2 Chron. 30.8. Give the hand to the Lord, which is a token and an expression of a man's free and full consent to it, when he does understand it, there is a mighty power enlightening the understanding, and bringing about and inclining the will to consent to it. (3) Joshua 24.23. Incline your hearts unto the Lord, or take up a full resolution or purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord to keep this Covenant, and to stick to the terms of it, to perform all thy duties towards God by it, and expect all from God according to it, and this is properly to enter into Covenant with the Lord.

1. You are to hear the words of it, and to know aright the terms of it; for he that enters into Covenant with the Lord, it must be by giving up himself unto God, which must be a reasonable service, Rom. 12.1, 2. and therefore Christ, when men enter upon Religion, would have them sit down first and count the cost; for if men enter not upon any duty with a right understanding, their hearts will again draw back, and they will forsake it; so here, if men understand not the terms of the Covenant aright, they will depart from the living God, the consent of the Covenant must be a consent without error, or else it is supposed, that if a man had known it before, he would not have consented; it's said of a marriage Covenant, Error circa ea quae sunt de essentia contractus, vitiat contractum, &c. and a consent with error, and when a man understands not what he doth, is no consent. Now what are the Terms of this Covenant? They are these, 1. That you take Christ and close with him in a work of faith, believe in him and be unto him alone: for Gal. 3. ult. We that believe are Abraham's seed; and it is by our following the steps of his faith that he becomes the Father of us all; therefore the Gospel is said to be making a marriage for his Son; it's Christ and the soul that are married in this Covenant, or else, now is the time of betrothing, and the marriage is to come; and therefore the Church of the Jews, when they shall be converted, and the glorious marriage of the Lamb is come, she is said to be the Bride the Lambs Wife: now that soul that takes Christ for his portion, looks upon him as altogether lovely, the chiefest of ten thousand, and relies upon him alone for righteousness, and life, and accounts all things else as dross, with an exclusive resolution of looking to anything else whatsoever; I would win him, (saith Paul) and be found in him alone, not having mine own righteousness: this is the first branch upon which God offers this Covenant.

2. A man must deny himself, Mat. 16.24. and forsake also thy own Kindred, and thy Fathers house. Now self is commonly considered by Divines three ways, (1) As sinful, (2) As natural, (3) As moral self, religious, renewed self; and all these must be denied. (1) Sinful self, that is, the whole body of sin, but specially that lust that thy heart is most addicted to, thy peccatum in deliciis, which the Scripture calls thine own iniquity, and the stumbling block of thy iniquity, there must be a reserve of no sin. (2) Natural self, all thy reason, and natural parts, wealth, Father, and Mother, House and Lands, yea and life for my name sake; and that always, [1] Habitually, in preparation of mind and resolution of heart to give them up all unto God, when he shall call for them, Act. 21.13. I am ready, says the Apostle, not only to be bound but to die, &c. [2] And actually whensoever the Lord calls for anything thou hast, if they be temptations to draw thee unto sin, and a snare to thy soul, or if the Lord call for them as oblations to himself, if the Lord call thee forth to own him with them by resigning them up; (and we know not how soon the Lord may call to suffering) if thou art a Moses, thou must leave Pharaohs Court and suffer affliction with the people of God; and if thou art a Daniel and canst not worship a false God nor the true God in a wrong manner, thou must expect to be thrown into the Lions den; and if a Paul, thou wilt resolve to preach a crucified Christ though Nero forbid it, and the powers of the world threaten bonds and imprisonment to abide thee; nay, thou mayest expect to lay down thy life upon a block: and if thou art a Mordecai, and refusest to bow to unsanctified greatness, or stoop to the lusts of men, thou must expect to have a Gallows prepared for thee. (3) Self renewed must be denied in the notion of duties; we are to perform all, but in relation to righteousness we are to deny all, and account them all as dross and dung and menstruous rags; and if we would have acceptance we must look upon the forehead of the High Priest, wherein alone is written holiness to the Lord, that we may find acceptance with him; for our righteousness has such an ill savor, that the Lord must abhor it, there is iniquity in our holy things, unless the Lord Christ does offer and present them mixed with his odors: therefore we must deny our righteousness utterly, there must be a perfect self-denial, as the word signifies, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

3. A man must bear his yoke, Mat. 11.29. Take my yoke upon you; the Lord does not set a man free in the Covenant of Grace, that he should turn the grace of God into licentiousness; he has a yoke of obedience for the neck of every Saint, and what is that but all the duties of the Law a • • en in the hand of the Mediator? And this yoke is easy and profitable for a soul, it brings in a revenue both of pleasure and profit; in the keeping of the Commandments is great reward; and there's sincerity required, which is everlasting evangelical perfection, as the Lord says to Abraham, walk before me and be thou perfect: the perfection in this life that is attainable under the second Covenant is sincerity of heart, a suitableness of the will to the Law of God; though a man's actions • ome short of the Law, yet he can delight in the Law, in his inward man, and has re • pect unto all the commandments, when he is willing to put his neck under the yoke of Christ, and neglect no known duty; for it is dangerous to seek ease in the ways of God, that the Lord would not have, as we see, Numb. 7.7, 8, 9. the Sons of Gersham and Merari had Wagons to carry their burdens, but the Sons of Coah were to carry the Ark upon their shoulders; now they were not to take their ease: and David brought the Ark upon a new Cart, and the Lord was displeased and made a breach upon Uzzah for it, &c.

4. You must take heed you shrink not at the Cross, but take it up; for there is a Cross goes with the second Covenant, and a man with all the blessings of it must expect affliction, Mat. 19.29. Mark 10.30. He that takes up his Cross in losing anything for Christ's sake shall have a hundred fold more in this life, but with persecutions; all the rewards of this Covenant are so given as there is a part of affliction and persecution in them all, Psal. 8.9. If thy Children forsake my way and walk not in my judgments, I will visit their offenses with a rod, but my Covenant I will not break; he does chastise every Son whom he receives to glory; if you endure not chastisements you are Bastards and not Sons: be not deceived, if you will follow Christ in the world, you must meet with a cross, none ever went to Heaven without it, some of one kind and some of another; some men's enemies are they of his own House, the Daughter-in-Law against the Mother-in-law; some are reviled and persecuted by strangers only by hearsay, that they are such as are of strict lives and holy in their conversation: Oh servum illum beatum, cujus emendationi Deus instat, cui dignatur irasci, Tert. de Patien. c. 11. And for God to afflict a soul under this Covenant is an act of faithfulness, that the Lord may keep your graces active; for there are some things are preserved in Salt, as well as others are in Sugar, and so doth the Lord do. Therefore he that will enter into Covenant with the Lord, must in this manner rightly understand the terms of the Covenant.

2. But yet when he doth understand it, this will never make up the Covenant propounded. Though in all the terms of it it is sufficiently known, and the Lord doth call upon them from day today; yet they are terms they like not, they consent not unto them; therefore the Covenant is not made up between God and them, the whole Soul doth not consent to accept of the Covenant upon the terms that God requires, they like them not, they are not willing to give the hand to the Lord, as it's called, 2 Chron. 30.7, 8. and it's also called being willing or consenting, Isa. 1.19. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the Land: Till the will doth open, the soul of man is forever shut against the Covenant, and it is the Lord only hath the key thereof to open the heart, as the Lord did open the heart of Lydia; else the Lord will say, I would have gathered you, but you would not. It's a Marriage Covenant, a consent of parties is essential to Marriage, and where that is wanting, the Marriage is null and void; but this consent to the Covenant must be free: In what is the Will so free, as in acts of Election? All the World cannot force the will to choose anything. When men are brought into Religion by education, and have as it were a force upon them to own such and such principles, and forbear such and such practices, it's like a force upon a man by his friends to take a Wife, that suits the Parents advantage, but not the Childs inclination, his heart afterwards dislikes and falls off: so when the terrors of death, the fear of Hell work any affection to the ways of God, this Covenant, he will promise anything, and will needs enter into Covenant with God; but it is with a mixed will, his soul is not free. As a Mariner in a storm, he will cry, Oh! cast out the wares to save the Ship and his life, but it is not a free consent, his heart still hankers after his goods; so says the Soul in reference to Christ, If I were left to my own liberty, I would pitch here, and make the match up between Christ and me, the sight of his excellencies hath so taken my heart: he is the chiefest of ten thousand, I grant, and fairer than the daughters of men; but there is, alas! a preingagement between me and my earthly treasure, my Parents have already provided for me, I have goods for many years, it's hard to undergo losses, and crosses, and reproaches for Christ's Name and the Gospel, and here the soul sticks and the match is never made up.

2. But a Soul that is truly in love with Christ, and has his Image fixed deeply upon his heart, his consent to the terms that Christ proposes, when he enters into Covenant, is universal, he takes Christ for righteousness, and gives up himself unto him. But there is many a soul, that though they do consent to many of the terms that Christ proposes, and would take Christ for their righteousness, yet they are not willing to deny themselves, or if they do come so far, yet their self-denial is not universal, it is not utterly, there is some sin he cannot forsake; or if he bear Christ's yoke, yet he would not willingly bear his Cross. But there must be (1) a general consent unto the Covenant in all the terms of it, else there is a treaty only, but no agreement. (2) And in the next place, this consent must be perpetual and in all times, and conditions, for the Covenant is an everlasting Covenant, and therefore the consent to it must be for everlasting, never to look for more or another, beloved, forever: In Matrimony there is a certain kind of perpetual obligation to service, the Soul must never draw back: For then surely the Lord will take no pleasure in thee. It is a Harlot that is for lust, and for hire, and only loves a person in his prosperity; but a true wife loves at all times, as a friend doth, who is still as thy own Soul. Therefore all you that have been enlightened with a beam of light and love, to see the excellencies that are in Christ, let your Soul be still ravished with his Laws, for they are better than Wine: consent still to the terms that he proposes to you, and let neither crosses in your way fright you on the one hand, nor carnal comforts allure you on the other, to draw you back from your beloved, for he is the chiefest of Ten thousand, and his ways are holy, just and good.

3. Unto all this there must be added a full resolution and purpose of heart, to observe all the duties that are required of us in this Covenant, and to keep close unto the terms of it. Joshua made a Covenant for the people, Josh. 24.23, 24. and in that day they say, The Lord thy God will we serve, and his voice will we obey; and thus also in Jer. 50.5. they bind themselves in a perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten, to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart; and therefore they are willing to engage themselves in all God's ways, to show the sincerity of their heart and purpose, they will subscribe it, they do bind themselves with a curse, and this is the answer of a good Conscience, 1 Pet. 3.21. when a man doth engage no more than the purpose of his heart is to perform; God's Covenant with us is a Covenant of salt, that is perpetual, Sal duraturae amicitiae symbolum. So Pierius. God is always mindful of his Covenant, and so should we be of ours also, as the Lord says, Obey my voice according to all that I command thee, so shall you be my people, and I will be your God, and I will perform the oath that I swore to your Fathers; and the Prophet did answer, Amen, O Lord, &c. so should our souls do; take heed of the treachery that is in your spirits, that you behave not yourselves unfaithfully in the Covenant; for though it is true, that the Covenant cannot be broken by your unfaithfulness (because the Lord hath laid help upon one that is mighty, who is the surety of your Covenant) yet remember, that Covenant-breaking is a great aggravation of every sin on your parts; and there is a quarrel of the Covenant that the Lord will certainly avenge, and the stripes even of a God in Covenant are terrible, even our God is a consuming fire.

[Use 2] §. 2. Having entered into Covenant with the Lord, let me now exhort you to make Conscience to keep it, let thy heart be faithful, and steadfast in the Covenant: It is that which the Lord requires of all those that do enter into Covenant with him, Exod. 19.5. If you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my Covenant, you shall be unto me a peculiar treasure, my Jewels, above all people in the world: therefore being taken into Covenant, he doth expect you should observe the breach of it, and be careful to avoid it.

1. From the nature of a Covenant, and the ends thereof; it is vinculum conservandae fidei, the great bond and engagement that men lay upon themselves for the being faithful in the promises that they make each to other. And therefore, Ezech. 20.37. it is called the bond of the Covenant; because by it a man is bound unto the terms thereof; and therefore if men keep not their Covenants it destroys their end, and makes them of none effect; and it is an obligation that a man takes and lays upon himself by his own consent; for every Covenant must be free and voluntary, Voluntas est spontanea, the will is most free: And therefore it being free and voluntary, afterwards for us to recede and go back, is the greater abomination, Ezek. 17.18. He despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant, after he had given his hand; and therefore they say, Let us bind ourselves in an everlasting Covenant, Jer. 50.5. never to be forgotten. And for a man to be unsteady and depart from his engagement in which he hath freely bound himself, is the greater evil: but always Covenants have amongst men been counted sacred, and nature has taught men to keep them inviolable; if it had been but a man's Covenant, no man would disannul or add thereunto: and it was looked upon as the binding that men could not go back from, although it were never so much against their hearts to keep it, it is sanctissimum humani pectoris bonum, Seneca de benefic. l. 5. to 10. and therefore, perfidi lege Aegyptiorum capite plectebantur quod duplici tenerentur scelere, quod & pietatem in Deos violarent & fidem inter homines tollerent: Diodorus. Sic. l. 1. to 6. Perfidious persons were by the law of the Egyptians beheaded, because they were guilty of a double crime, impiety towards God, and unfaithfulness to man. Now if there be so much respect unto Covenants between man and man, how sacred should the Covenant be between God and man; the holy Covenant?

2. It is a Covenant made unto God, and there is no going back; for (1) God knows it; if he falsify the Covenant in the least, God will find it out. There is a great deal of falseness of heart within us this way, Our righteousness is like unto the morning dew, and as an early cloud, we promise and go back from our purposes and promises, and our purposes are broken off; we repent, and repent of our repentance; we vow, and after our vows we make enquiry; we come out of Sodom, and yet with Lot 's wife we look back; we are brought out of Egypt, and yet our hearts turn back into Egypt again. Now our Covenant being made with God he will observe it, though the treachery of our Spirits be carried never so secretly; and therefore, Psal. 44.21. the Psalmist says, God would search it out, If we have forgot thy name, and stretched out our hands, to any strange God, God will find it out, for he knows the secrets of our hearts; and this Covenant is a Marriage Covenant, and therefore the Lord looks upon the breaches of it with a jealous eye, which is exceeding quick-sighted; there is no disguising of ones self from a true Lover, he observes every motion and out-going of the heart, and will not admit the least deviation from the royal Law of Love; And our God is of purer eyes than to behold the least iniquity, he trys the heart and the reins, by him actions are weighed. (2) God hath declared that he hates Covenant-breaking, and unsteadiness of spirit therein; and he will certainly punish it: There is not only the mercy of the Covenant, but there is the quarrel of the Covenant: I 〈◊〉 • eal with thee, says the Lord, as thou hast done, for thou hast despised the Oath in br ••• ng the Covenant. That is, he would deal with them in judgment, as they had dealt with him in a way of sinning. Quis miles a regibus hostibus stipendium captat; nisi plane transfuga & desertor? Tert. de praescript. c. 12. For a man that is a subject to one king to be a Pensioner to an enemy, we judge it very hateful amongst men; that wear the Livery, and take the Wages of one Master, and do the work of another. A subject to Christ and a pensioner to Satan is exceeding hateful to the Lord. And therefore when the Lord would express the worse sort of sinners, the Apostate Jews that did join with Antiochus the Vile, he calls them those that forsake the holy Covenant. God will surely avenge the breach of human Covenants, as we see in the story of Zedekiah because he falsified his oath he had sworn by God; much more will he avenge the holy Covenant, when that is broken by any; and therefore it being a Covenant made unto God, there is no dallying, it is one of the great things of God, and if we despise it and cast it behind our back, the wrath of God will surely overtake us.

3. We have the highest patterns for our imitation, the glorious Angels; they abide in the truth, they never left their first habitation, they have always kept their Covenant, and they stand before God to this day, in the Covenant of their Creation. And consider your own Prayers, you do pray, that the will of God may be done by you on earth as it is in Heaven, do not therefore perseverante iracundia orationem perdere: will you, by living in any sin destroy your own prayers? And take, not only the example of the Angels, but the example of our Lord Christ, the rule and pattern of holiness, for you to walk by; he is your Prince, your Leader, &c. all manner of terms that note out exemplariness, and require imitation; and he was faithful in the Covenant made with God; he doth for the active part of his obedience fulfill all righteousness, and for the passive part he paid the utmost farthing, though the Lord did hide his face, and his enemies did rage and triumph over him, it was the hour of the power of darkness, and if the flesh did desire its own preservation, yet the will of nature did give way unto the will of duty; and He did drink up the Brook in the way, that Torrent of Curses and wrath that lay between us and glory; and therefore did lift up his head, and he is now in Heaven as God's servant, and so shall be till the last day, that he shall give up the Kingdom unto God the Father; he is performing the remaining acts of his Office there and by his Spirit on Earth, and by his presence and intercession in glory; and all is, that he might be a faithful High Priest, and able to save to the uttermost those that come unto him. But we have yet a higher pattern, and that is God the Father himself, he is always mindful of his Covenant. Psal. 111.5. My Covenant I will not break, for he is a faithful God, and he will perform his truth to Jacob, and his mercy unto Abraham, as he has sworn in the days of old. And the faithfulness of God is infinitely seen in this, that the unfaithfulness of man cannot make the faithfulness of God of none effect. Says the Lord, I will give thee thy Sisters, thy elder and thy younger Sister unto thee as Daughters, but not by thy Covenant: it is a promise, that though they had by doing more wickedly justified the Gentile nations, (and he instances in Sodom and Samaria, ) and therefore worse judgments▪ should come upon them, yet the time would come, that the Lord would remember his Covenant that he had made with their Fathers, and he would make them the Mother-Church, and all the Gentile Churches and Nations should flow unto her; and it shall come to pass, that ten men out of all the Nations under Heaven should lay hold on the skirt of a Jew, Zac. 8.23. but all this shall not be, by thy Covenant: sic non desciverant, ut Deus esset liber, Cal. and therefore it was not in reference to their keeping Covenant with God, but in remembrance of God's Covenant with them; and therefore he refers them unto his faithfulness, and not to theirs; and therefore when they should see it, they should be ashamed, and put their mouths in the dust, to think that the Lord should continue faithful unto those, that had been so unfaithful every way to him as they had been.

4. The people of God in this life do miss of many of the Promises of the second Covenant, that they are not accomplished unto them, because they do not walk exactly according to the rules of this Covenant; therefore, Psal. 25.10. But the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth unto them, that keep his Covenant: The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting unto them that fear him; to such as keep his Covenant, and think upon his Commandments to do them; but else though they shall not fail of eternal mercy, (Christ is the surety that the Covenant shall not be broken) yet there be many promises of the Covenant, that in this life they shall never have accomplished to them, 1 Sam. 2.29. says the Lord, I said thy House and the House of thy Fathers should stand before me forever; but now that be far from me, says the Lord, for they that honor me, I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. The promises of God are of two sorts, (1) Some are absolute, which God hath undertaken to perform of his own free grace, not only citra meritum, but also citra conditionem, not only without merit, but without all supposed or prerequired conditions in us, As, I will be your God, I will give you my Son, I will pour out my Spirit, I will pardon your sins, &c. I will take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh: these are absolute promises. (2) There are conditional promises, which show what God will do upon such duties performed by the creature; which are such as without God's special grace he is never able to perform; and these are made for the encouragement of men in a way of obedience; but they do not always promise the purpose of God to give the condition of the reward: for as it is in Judgments, there are some conditional threatenings, which upon a change in the creature never come to pass, Jer. 18.7 At what time, says God, I speak against a nation to pluck up and destroy, if that nation turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them; and if I speak of a Nation or a Kingdom, to build and plant it, if it do evil in my sight, I will repent of the good I would do unto them; so it is in the conditional promises, Novit Deus mutare decretum si tu non noveris em ndare delictum, God knows how to change his declared promise, if thou know not how to change thy sin, which I conceive to be the meaning of all those places where God is said to break Covenant with his people; Numb. 14.34. You shall bear your iniquity even forty years, and you shall know my breach of promise, that is, by woeful experience you shall find what a misery it is to have such glorious promises made unto you, but by reason of your unfaithfulness on your part, they being conditional shall never be performed; and so the Psalmist has it, Thou hast made void the Covenant of thy servant, all his posterity were cut off from this mercy and promise in this life, because they disobeyed the word of the Lord and walked not in his Covenant, &c. and so Zach. 11.10. I will break my Covenant with them; it is spoken of a national Covenant, and casting off the Nations from being a Church or people unto himself, wherein even the Saints must needs be deprived of many temporal promises of the Covenant, because they did not walk steadfastly with God therein. And if a man shall consider the example of the sufferings of many of the Saints, as of Eli, David, Sampson and Solomon, though they were beloved of God and in Covenant with him, yet by their unfaithfulness in the Covenant, how many temporal promises of the Covenant did they miss? and how many temporal afflictions were inflicted on them? And so I may say to any soul that keeps Covenant with God, thy sufferings will say to thee, cavendae tempestates & flenda naufragia, Austin. de Nat. & Grat. cap. 35. And thus we should take heed of keeping the Covenant, or else, though the Lord continue faithful in reference to the promises of eternity, because Christ is the surety, yet in regard of temporal promises, you may go without them, and many of them never be performed unto you.

But you will say, may a man that is in the Covenant of Grace break the Covenant? may the Covenant of Grace be broken as the Covenant of Works was? If it may not be broken, to what end do you exhort us to keep it? It's true, that the Covenant of Grace cannot be broken, a man that is once in Covenant is ever in Covenant, and the grounds of it are these.

1. The Love of God that made the Covenant is an everlasting Love, and therefore the Covenant itself is everywhere called an everlasting Covenant; and the Lord saith; If you can bring another flood upon the Earth, and if you can stop the Sun in his course, and change the Ordinances of Heaven, then the Covenant might be broken, that he had made with his people. Therefore Rom. 8. the Apostle says, that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord; for the Lord loves us with an everlasting Love.

2. It is a Covenant made with the persons of men; men's persons are first taken into Covenant; and there is this difference between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works; in the later Covenant the works were taken into Covenant first, and then the person for the works sake, and so long as their works continued holy, so long their persons were to be accepted and find favor, and honor with the Lord, Gen. 4.7. If thou doest well, there is an elevation and a lifting up of the face, but if thou dost evil cursed is thy person for thy works sake; and there is an ira redundans in personam, wrath falling on the person, that doth immediately follow thereupon: but now in the Covenant of Grace it is quite contrary, men's persons are first taken into Covenant and accepted, and then their works for their persons sake; the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering; and therefore till the person be in Covenant the works are abominable before God. Now the works of the Saints may not always be accepted of God, he may be and is often displeased with the acts of his covenant-people; but yet their persons always find acceptance with him, their persons are the same, I will visit their offenses with a rod, and their sins with scourges; but my loving kindness I will not take from their persons, my Covenant I will not break, Psal. 89. there is an ira simplex, simple anger that doth reach to the sin, but not to the person, he is never a child of wrath more after his person is taken into a state of adoption with the Lord.

3. Their union with Christ is that which puts them into the second Covenant, Gal. 3.29. as this union gives them interest in Christ's righteousness and Sonship, so it doth first state them in the Covenant, which is the ground of all the rest; the intendment of God was, that the union between Christ and them should be the means to convey all this to their souls; all comes in by Union: Now, so long as the Union between Christ and a soul continues, so long the Covenant cannot be broken; but this Union is indissoluble; sin cannot, nay death cannot separate between God and a soul in Covenant with him; and therefore as they live, so they die in the Lord, and sleep in Jesus.

4. The righteousness of this Covenant, is an everlasting righteousness. Dan. 9. The Lord hath finished transgression, and made an end of sin, in the great condemning power of it, and brought in everlasting righteousness, such as sin could never spend, for he is the son of righteousness, the Lord of righteousness, and therefore his Covenant can never be broken, seeing the righteousness of the Covenant can never be expended.

5. Christ is the surety of this better Covenant, and therefore though we pay not the debt that we owe, he hath undertaken it, and the Lord will expect all of him, and thence he is said to lay help on one that is mighty, Psal. 89. he will take your words no more, but Christ is able to pay it; as he did the debt of the first Covenant, so he is able to perform the duty of the second; the Lord hath engaged him in it, and he expects all from him, as from the surety of the Covenant which he hath undertaken.

6. Lastly, This Covenant can never be broken, because there is an everlasting principle of Grace begun in the Soul that doth always lay hold of the Covenant, and cleave to it, and consent to it, and work towards it; for it is incorruptible and immortal seed, and therefore, Jer. 32.40. This is the Covenant I will make with you, I will write my law in your heart, &c. that you shall never depart from me. In a Married condition there may be many failings in a Wife, or a Husband, as neglect, disobedience, &c. but the Marriage Covenant is never broken, till she take another Husband; and the Covenant of Grace is a Marriage Covenant: Now though there be many errors and failings in a Wife, yet unless thou choose another Husband, and subject thyself to another Lord, the Covenant between God and thee is not broken. It is a matter of wonderful consolation, that the Covenant between us and the Lord is a Covenant of salt, that the sins of the people of God, though they be many, yet they cannot break the Covenant; How should the consideration of this rich Grace and Mercy, make the Saints triumph over Death and Hell! O death where is thy sting, O Grave where is thy victory? blessed be God we are more than Conquerors, through Christ Jesus our Lord.

But yet you had need be exhorted, not to break this Covenant; 1. By reason of the falseness of our own hearts; for we are like a wild Ass in the wilderness, that doth traverse her paths, that no hedges or fetters can hold her; in so much, that the Lord speaks it with admiration, How weak is thy heart! Ezek. 16.30. That it's not able to hold out against any temptation, not able to bear any one affliction, but immediately it's ready to depart from God; unstable as water; there is a treachery and a perfidiousness of spirit in the best of us, and therefore we had need be often called upon; Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall; and let us take heed lest any of us fall short of the grace of God, and lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God, Heb. 3.12. For there is nothing that the heart of man is more prone to than backsliding; and therefore we had need be often admonished to keep firm to the Covenant under which we stand; for there is not the greatest cheat in the World, that is in falseness and unsteadfastness like our hearts; wherefore we need many bonds upon it, and should have regard to the cords of love, that God ties us with to himself in this Covenant.

2. We had need be exhorted to it, from the slothfulness and heedlessness of our spirits in whatever is good, though we be bound unto it by so many bonds; the Lord hath always respect unto his Covenant, and we desire he should do so; now we had need to have respect always to the Covenant, and to be continually minded, that we forget not what the Lord our God requires of us, as 2 King. 10.31. it was a brand upon Jehu, That he took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord his God. Heedlesness in a man's carriage to God, is a high provocation, to walk with God at an adventure, without respect unto the Covenants and great engagements in which you stand to God, this is to be towards the Lord, as a Cake not turned, which is baked only on one side and no more; therefore we had need have the more frequent admonition, to take heed lest any man fall short of the grace of God: we ought to give the more diligent heed, lest by any means we let slip the things that we have heard; and had need to be warned, to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and to desire of the Lord, that he would fix and unite our hearts to fear his name, as the Psalmist doth, Psal. 86.11. Let these things quicken any secure Soul that goes on in any way of disobedience unto God; for thou wilt pay dear at last for all thy wanderings from the paths of this Covenant, and thou shalt experience it, an evil and a bitter thing to draw back from God.

3. That you may be quickened to seek unto the Lord for Grace to keep this Covenant, and may acknowledge before the Lord, that the stability and eternity of the second Covenant lies not in us, nor in the observation of it; for, as much as in us lies, we do break it continually; but from the eternal love of God, and the inseparable union between Christ and us, and the Lord having made him the surety of the Covenant, therefore it stands; but were we left unto ourselves, we should break it every day; and every sin in us; would spend all the grace of the Covenant, as it did in Adam; but there is without us a fountain for a supply; for truly the stability of the Covenant doth not proceed from our part in the Covenant, as the Lord says in Ezekiel, that the mercies he would give them, should not be by their Covenant, but all proceed from his; and therefore, Hos. 10.12. it is, sow in righteousness, and reap in mercy; and it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in ore, in the mouth of mercy, that is, according to the measure of mercy: The mercies and blessings of the Covenant, God doth dispense, not according to the proportion of our righteousness, and stability of the Covenant, but according to the proportion of his own grace manifested there; and there is no argument that is more effectual amongst men than this. As one came unto a Prince, and desired him to perform a Covenant and engagement that he had made unto them, which he refusing, being in his Robes, the Soldier touching his Purple said, Imperator, hac vest indutum mentiri nefas est, O Emperor, it is not lawful for him who his clothed with this Robe to lie.

4. We had need be continually minded of the Covenant, that we may fear those sins that do come nearest a Covenant-breaking. It is true, there is no sin of a Godly man that can break his Covenant (as I have already shown you) but yet there are some sins that come nearer to Covenant-breaking than others do; and in this respect, are to be looked upon as sins of a very hanious nature, and of a deeper die, &c. This is a rule, That which doth manifest the most unsoundness of heart, that doth break the Covenant; for the condition of the Covenant is, that a man's heart should be perfect with God, Gen. 17.2. And it is one of these sorts, or I may say, both these sorts of sinning that do come nearest thereunto, (1) when a man doth sin against light, and doth it deliberately, and with a high hand; for Eo magis peccatum quo magis voluntarium: The will is the measure of all sins. The more of the Will there is in any evil, the greater the sin is; and therefore it is made the measure of the sin against the holy Ghost, it is sinning willfully after a man hath received the knowledge of the truth; and in this, David came nearest to breaking this Covenant, 1 King. 15.5. He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah. David had many other sins lay upon him; and he says, his iniquities were gone over his head, and as a sore burden for him to bear, but the Lord said, he turned not aside from the Lord in anything but this; because it was a studied, plotted sin, committed against knowledge; and therefore with a high hand thus to sin, did manifest the greatest unfaithfulness of David's spirit towards God, that he did show all the days of his life. (2) When a man walks on in a sin, and lies in it a long time together unrepented of, and can act it again and again, and it is as a thread drawn through the course of a man's life, it comes nearest to an unsound heart, and that denominates a man an Adulterer, or an Adulteress, as James 4.4. as we see in Solomon, he lived a great while in these evils, and though he were beloved of the Lord, yet his heart was turned away from following the Lord, and he said to his heart, Go to now, and I will provoke thee with wine: Now his lying and living in sin, it is true, did not break the Covenant between God and him, yet it was the most dangerous step to an unsound heart; and therefore came nearest to breaking the Covenant. A godly man cannot lie, and live, and die in any known sin, but he may live in it long, and be continually ensnared, and turn away to folly; but the more it is thus with thee, the nearer thou dost come unto Covenant-breaking with the Lord.

But what shall I do to keep Covenant with the Lord, knowing the falseness and instability of my spirit, the duties are many, and it is impossible for me to observe them all? Take these directions.

1. Get a true heart, Heb. 10.22. Let us draw near with true heart; a true heart is a heart perfect with God, that's the condition of the Covenant; though your ways be party-coloured, yet if you have the answer of a good Conscience, i. e. when your heart doth inwardly answer to what you do profess, and there is not a root of bitterness left in you, that draws you back from the Lord, this is a true heart: It is called the Girdle of truth, Ephes. 6.14. and that is (as I should understand it) not doctrinally, but morally, practically, full of stedfastness and stability of soul in the discharge of all the engagements wherein we stand bound unto God, without shrinking or tergiversation; as it is the sin in the practice of too many professors, both to God and man, there is a vein of dissimulation runs through their conversation, they will dissemble love to persons, behind whose backs they will accuse, and represent them as persons blame-worthy; and through the self-flattery that is in their spirits, they will strive to lessen the excellencies and virtues that are in others, that they may shine the more in the esteem of men; and hereby they manifest, they love the praise of men more than the praise of God; and herein they may have their reward, though it will bring in but little comfort when they come to die, or when they r • flect upon this great condition of the Covenant, which is to draw near to God with a true heart: For this faithfulness is a noble girdle, it was Christ's, and therefore it should be ours; it is this truth in the inward parts, that will keep the Covenant that it shall not be broken, notwithstanding thy daily failings.

2. Desire of God a stablished and a fixed heart: To have the heart stablished with grace is a good thing, and with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. And the Psalmists prayer is, Unite my heart to fear thy name, my heart is fixed, O God, &c. And there is not a greater spiritual judgment in this life, than to be given up to a light, vain, and unstable soul, that is moved with every wind of Doctrine, or with every wind of temptation, when a man is carried to and fro, to have the heart still fluctuating, and be sometimes fixed upon one thing, and sometimes upon another, and unsettled in the principles of Grace; such as are unstable shall not excel.

3. Exercise faith upon the Grace of God in this Covenant, which is eternal love, and have an eye unto the surety of the Covenant, in whom only it remains sure; for it is an ordered Covenant, and therefore sure, and for this cause Christ is called the Covenant itself; he is given as a Covenant to the Nations, to establish the earth, because in him only all the stability of the Covenant is to be found. Consider in the time of affliction what a sweet thing it will be, and what boldness it will give a man before God, when he is able to say, Though thou hast smitten us in the place of Dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death, yet have we not gone back from thee, nor behaved ourselves falsely in thy Covenant: and when at death a man shall look over to the common-wealth of another World, and shall be able to say, Lord, remember that I have walked before thee all my days with a perfect heart, my heart hath stood to the Covenant, and I have not chosen any other Lord, though in many things my ways have not been answerable unto the rule of the Covenant.

[Use 3] §. 3. Now having entered in this manner into Covenant with God, it is our duty to have respect unto our Covenant, and to improve our interest in it in all our ways: The Covenant is to run through our whole life; for it's a Covenant for a man's life, it being a Marriage Covenant, and In matrimonio est perpetua quaedam servitus, In matrimony there is a perpetual kind of servitude; a Woman which hath an husband, is bound by the law to her husband as long as he liveth, Rom. 7.2. and David puts all his hope in the Covenant, 2 Sam. 23.5. his happiness consisted in it, and all his joy and delight, his soul did run out upon this Covenant, and from hence all his joy came in. There are in Scripture several ways of sinning against this Covenant; (1) There is transgressing the Covenant like Adam: Hos. 6.7. There have they dealt treacherously against me, &c. which is taken Two ways, either as Adam, they have broken the Covenant in which they bound themselves, or else (as Tremellius hath it) they have broken the Covenant, as if it were the Covenant of a man, and as if they had to do with man in it, and not with God. (2) It is rejecting the Covenant, 2 King. 17.15. to despise it as a poor and unworthy thing, not to be regarded by them. (3) There is forsaking the Covenant, as a thing that they are not bound by, neither will they be bound by any longer. And then (4) there is corrupting the Covenant, and profaning it, They have corrupted the Covenant of Levi, that is the Covenant of life and peace, which God made with him; they have corrupted the Law, and they have profaned the Covenant, as if it were a common and ordinary thing; for to profane, is to make a thing common. (5) There is a dealing falsely in the Covenant, Psal. 44.17. which signifies, to lie to a man, and deal treacherously with him in a Covenant made, when a man pretends fair, and doth the quite contrary, there is no trust to him, no hold upon him. (6) There is, Deut. 4.23. forgeting the Covenant, Take heed, says Moses, lest you forget the Covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you: Now when a man in Scripture is said to forget a thing, Verba sensus significant cum affectu & effectu, The words of sense signify affects and effects: God is said to forget men, when he doth not appear for their help. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, and hide thy face from my troubles? We are said to forget God, when we do not honor him as God, and are not affected towards him as becomes a God; and so men are said to forget the Covenant of God, when they have not those affections as so great an engagement doth require, do not know and improve their interest in it as they ought to do, do not make it (as David did) all their salvation and all their delight; and therefore 'tis said, Psal. 10.5. he is always mindful of his Covenant, that is, though he may sometimes defer the promises of the Covenant, yet he is always mindful of it, so as to perform it unto the heirs of promise in all generations, not only to one age, but to another, unto a thousand generations. Ut omnes posteri illius gratiae fierent participes, Moller. he remembers it so, as no Son of the Covenant shall go without his share in the grace of the Covenant, and this is termed, 1 Chron. 16.15. Be ye always mindful of the Covenant; as he is always mindful to give unto the heirs of promise the mercies of the Covenant and to improve all the grace of it for them, and for their good, so be ye mindful to perform the duty, and to improve the interest you have in the Covenant, that there may be nothing in it promised, but that to you it may be accomplished; as he waits that he may be gracious to you, he takes his time to give you all the mercies of the Covenant in the season of it; so do you perform the duties of the Covenant in the season of it also; that as he is willing to give you the fruits of the Covenant, so you may be willing to receive all the fruits of it, and not undervalue them in the least measure; he waits, therefore do you wait for him; he is mindful, therefore be you mindful also; for all Covenant-engagements are mutual, and do equally oblige both parties; and as you expect God being in Covenant with you, should out of his faithfulness perform his engagement; so he does expect that by reason of the same Covenant you should perform yours also.

Now the improvement of the Covenant is twofold, (1) In reference to yourselves, (2) In reference to the Lord: for there should be an improvement on both parts. 1. In reference to yourselves, remember the Covenant and improve it, and that in these particulars.

1. Consider the matter of the Covenant; in it you do give unto God your persons, and your services; (1) Your persons, 2 Cor. 8.5. they gave themselves unto the Lord; and also, Isaiah 63.19. We are thine; and Esa. 44.5. One shall say I am the Lord's, and another shall subscribe with his hand to the Lord; here is a full resignation of themselves; and so doth the Church, Cant. 6.3. I am my Beloveds, and my Beloved is mine: and in a special manner the heart is to be given to the Lord: my Son give me thy heart, for where the heart is there is the man. So then a man in Covenant is to say, I am at liberty and at my own dispose, the propriety is in another, he has possession of me, and dominion over me, I am lost in myself forever: God hath separated to himself the man that is Godly, he has set him apart, and he lays claim to him as his portion; and there is no man can claim God for his portion, that is not willing to give up himself to obey the Lord, and to be his portion also: so that when sin and Satan shall come and claim a share, the soul assures him, I am not mine own, I am married already, and therefore out of mine own power, the vows of God are upon me, sin and Satan did not make me; as I am wholly the Lord's by creation, so I am his by stipulation, and my engagement binds me to him; so Rom. 8.12. We are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh. I conceive it's spoken in reference unto our redemption by Christ, and all the benefits thereof, you are not your own, you are bought with a price, &c. but all the benefits of our redemption are founded in the Covenant; and therefore the great ground of the debt lies in this, we are debtors to God, because engaged in Covenant, but we are not debtors unto the flesh, because we are not in Covenant with it.

2. As we owe our persons so also all our services unto God, and that by this Covenant: for it is answerable unto the electing love of God, he hath chosen us to be vessels of mercy for the Masters use, we may no more rob God of our services than we may of ourselves, Hos. 3.3. the Lord says, thou shalt not be unto another, so will I also be unto thee. And they are either in matters of necessity or expediency, [1] Of necessity, and so all the duties that the Lord requires in the word, that we should have respect unto all the Commandments, this our Covenant binds upon us, and this we should enforce upon ourselves. Quaedam suut, quae etiam non volentes debemus. August. Josh. 24.22, 24. Ye have chosen the Lord to serve him; and they said, the Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey: and David hath sworn to keep thy tried Judgments. Psal. 119.106. and so N • hem. 10.29. they did enter into a curse to walk in the law of the Lord, and to observe and do all his Commandments: So that what was a duty before, they did by Covenant bind upon themselves, and by the improvement of this Covenant a man having so bound himself, he should enforce it upon himself, because his services are not his own, he belongs to another Lord, and hath given his hand unto another. [2] In things of expediency, the thing being in a man's own power; for in such cases the Covenant must be free and possible, as Jonadab the son of Rechab did draw his posterity into a Covenant, and they did promise him not to drink Wine, nor to build Houses, but to dwell in Tents, &c. Jer. 35.6, 7. Interpreters conceive that these Rechabites were the posterity of Jethro, Moses his Father-in-law, who did come to dwell with Israel in the Land of Canaan, and that this was the same Jonadab, who was a man of great wealth and authority in Israel, and of noted integrity when Jehu being King made him ride with him, and asked him, is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart? and this same Jonadab did bind his posterity, and they looked upon it though in a matter of expediency only, as obligatory and binding in the sight of God; partly that they might show themselves to be strangers in the land of Israel, and that they did not incorporate with them for secular but for spiritual benefits; and therefore they did not desire to encroach upon their outward comforts; and partly, that they might be the better fitted to bear the affliction in the captivity which was ere long to come upon them, &c. So also it was lawful for Paul to have taken wages, but yet he did engage himself not to do it, that he might cut off from them that desired occasion, 2 Cor. 11.7. and that he might not be burdensome to the Churches: so Jacob, he engaged himself to God in his journey, if thou wilt bring me unto my Fathers house in safety, thou shalt be my God, and of all my goods I will give the tenth to thee, and this stone shall be God's house, and I will build here an Altar, Gen. 28.22. and this vow Jacob had forgotten at his return, and the Lord sent affliction upon him to mind him of his vow, the ravishing of Dinah and the horrible rage committed upon the Shechemites, and yet Jacob still forgot it, but the Lord in mercy put him in mind of it; Arise Jacob and go to Bethel, and build an Altar unto the God that appeared unto thee when thou fledst from the face of thy Brother Esau, Gen. 35.1. And it was usual with the people of God of old, when they did pray for mercy, to vow duty, Psal. 116.12, 13. What shall I render unto the Lord? I will take the cup of salvation: so it was in their Feasts, and sacrifices of Thanksgiving, they had a cup of salvation, a grace-cup; and I will pay my vows unto the Lord that I spake with my mouth when I was in trouble; and so Hannah, 1 Sam. 1. 11. If thou wilt look upon the affliction of thine Hand-maid and remember me, and give me a man-child, then will I give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no Rasor come upon his head; and she did fulfill her vow: the Lord hath heard my petition I asked of him, and his name was called Samuel, asked of God, therefore I lent him (or returned him) to the Lord as long as he lived.

2. In respect of the relation which this Covenant doth bring upon you, and in regard of the duties of this Relation. Now there is a fourfold relation which is the necessary result of this Covenant. (1) Hereby Christ becomes your Father, and therefore he is called the everlasting Father, and Heb. 2. we are said to be his children, and he is said, to see his seed and prolong his days upon earth: Now Christ becomes your Father as he is the second Adam, and that is by Covenant, as well as by an Image, and therefore this Covenant binds you to honor him in this relation, Mal. 1.6. If I be your Father, where is my honor? Where is mine Image you ought to bear upon you? What impression of my likeness is there upon you? What beam of glory do you carry about you in all your conversation? Are you denominated by the world to have my holiness upon you, to be merciful as I am merciful, to be conformable to my law in all things? (2) It is a matrimonial Covenant, I will betroth thee unto me forever, and the Lord Jesus becomes your Husband, and his Church is therefore called his Spouse, the Lambs Wife, and he requires faithfulness and fruitfulness, that you should be unto him and to none other; for the Lord will have no Harlot nor barren Spouse, she must not lift up her Eyes upon any other in any wanton love, her desire must be to him alone. (3) It is a Covenant of Friendship, and so by this Covenant Abraham was taken into friendship with God, and is called by God himself Abraham my friend; and Christ saith, I have not called you servants, but I have called you friends; for I have shown you all things that I have received of my Father: now if thou hast a friend, thou must behave thyself friendly, thou must impart thy heart and thy secrets, and have no reserves from thy friend, thou must have the same friends and the same enemies with him, else never pretend friendship, if any other person come at any time in competition with thy friend, thou must be his at all times. In foederibus eosdem amicos & inimicos habere solent foederati, In Covenants the Federates have the same friends and enemies: Friendship is offensive and defensive, &c. we have the greatest obligation to God, and 'tis our duty to stick close to him at all times, and this friendship is in a special manner tried in adversity; When he is a bundle of myrrh, he shall lie all night between my breasts, Cant. 1.13. and our choice should be the reproaches of Christ, and the waters that do quench other fire do by an antiperistasis become oil to this, and make it to flame the more; it is Coals of Juniper which do burn the hottest; the opposition that a Saint meets with in the world doth but raise his love to Christ the higher. (4) It is a Covenant in which Christ becomes our Lord and we his servants; for he is the Lord that bought us; and therefore it is Paul's honor to be called the servant of Jesus Christ: as by the Covenant that Christ made with his Father he is become the Fathers servant, though he be the man God's fellow, or Deo proximus, next to God; so we also by our Covenant are become servants of Christ, therefore say, I must do his work only, and be only at his command, no man can serve two Masters, much less may he serve Christ and divers Lusts and pleasures; it is an abominable thing for a man to take wages of Christ and do the work of his enemy Satan; for no man can serve two Masters, therefore from him I am to receive directions, and mine eyes are to be upon him, as the Eye of a Servant is unto the hand of his Master, and of a Maiden to the hand of her Mistress; a man's guidance is from him, and to him, a man must give an account, and from him receive wages and expect a probation, and therefore servants nihil suum habere possunt. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Aristot. Saluti dominorum non debent suam anteponere, says the Law, servants have nothing of their own, and therefore must make their Masters will theirs. Herodot. has a story of the servants of Xerxes, qui exorta tempestate in mare desiliunt ut domini sui saluti consulant, who in a tempest leaped into the Sea to save their Master, &c. Malo in nos murmur hominum, quàm in Deum, I had rather men's murmurs should be against us than against the Lord, said devout Bernard. It was Luther's meat and drink, his constant diet to be reproached for Christ. All these relations are the immediate result of the Covenant, and a man should improve the Covenant to enforce upon himself the duties that this relation brings with it; what should keep a woman true to her Husband but this, The Covenant of God is upon me? and what should keep the Nazarites from cutting their hair, and drinking of wine, but the vow of God upon them, and they would not break it? So that the Covenant should be the great engagement unto duty.

3. Your hearts should be always in such a frame as to receive the mercies of the Covenant, for the Lord doth betroth the soul to him in righteousness and in mercy. Mercy indeed hath a double rise, either it is the issue of providence, or else of promise: now mercies that are the fruit and birth of the promises are the sweetest, for they are children of the promise, that are children of the Covenant; and the promise of God doth as well travel with mercy, as the threatenings of God travel with judgment; seek the Lord before the decree bring forth; it is not to be understood de decreto Dei occulto sed promulgato, of the secret decree, but of the sentence declared in God's word, as Calv. observes, and so do the promises bring forth also; now a man that is an heir of promise, should walk in the expectation of it, that his heart may be fit to receive it continually, and that God may perform unto him all that he hath spoken; obey my voice, do all that I command you, that I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your Fathers. The true reason why we many times fail of the mercy is, because we are not prepared for it, and our heart is not in a frame for Covenant-mercies; and therefore doth the Lord defer them, and wait to be gracious, Isaiah 30. for mercy is like unto cordials given unto foul stomachs, which do but increase the peccant humor; sometimes Deus non exaudit propitius, God doth not hear in mercy, and sometimes exaudit iratus, he hears in wrath, &c. it will not be given in mercy, but in judgment, if unto a heart unprepared; for then duty becomes duty to us, when our hearts are prepared to receive the command, and a man can say, O Lord, my heart is ready; and then mercy doth become mercy, when the heart is prepared to receive it before the mercy come: and the mercy of the Covenant doth consist in both giving the mercy, and preparing the heart to receive it, fitting the vessel and then filling it. Now a frame of heart fit to receive mercies consists in these particulars.

(1.) A believing heart relying upon the grace of the Covenant, notwithstanding all seeming impossibilities: and so Abraham, though his body was dry, and Sarah's womb dead, yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he did not dispute and reason the case pro and con, and looked not at the probability of the thing, but at the grace of the Covenant, and the love and power of God therein; so David, many bulls are come about me, they compass me in on every side, but they are extinct, as the fire among thorns, for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them, &c. and I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. As Luther, when all the world was up in arms against him, as it were odium & impetum totius orbis sustinuit; yet he saith, vincet mea audacia in Christo ultimum illorum, & jam pallentem furorem; brevi efficiam ut anathema sit esse papistam, My confidence in Christ shall overcome their fury: they be men that are fit to enter into Canaan, and to receive the promise of the Covenant, that can say of the sons of Anak and the Cities walled up to Heaven, we can overcome them, they be bread for us, their defense is departed from them, their Rock is not as our Rock, &c.

(2.) When a soul is kept watchful and in a continual expectation of the promise; I watch for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning; he did expect God should come; and therefore though he did tarry, yet he would watch for him; and he doth set himself upon his watch tower; and this is for a man to stand having his loins girt and his lamp burning, as one that expects the return of his Lord from the marriage, and he opens to him immediately. Surely it is such a soul that God will pour out the mercies of the Covenant upon, he will make him sit down to meat, and gird himself, and serve him, &c. Whereas we go without mercies many times, because mercy is offered, and we are not ready to receive it, the Lord knocks and goes away again, the soul doth not open; a man cannot say my heart is prepared, looking for, and hastening to the coming of the day of the Lord, 2 Pet. 3.13.

(3.) When a man's heart, though in expectation of the mercy, yet is weaned from it, and resigns it unto the will of God, whether he will bestow it or no, whether in this life he shall have the mercy he desires, or whether he will pay him all in the life to come: if he have the mercy now, he does not look upon it as his portion, but only as solatium a solace, a viatick for his way; as if he be deprived of them, fit exercitium justi, injusti supplicium, Prosper de vit. contempl. He has the exercise of the just, and punishment of the unjust. And so David was in expectation of the Kingdom, for it was one of the sure mercies of David, yet it is said, Psal. 131.1, 2. His heart was as a weaned child, to prepare him for that mercy: God had weaned him from it, before ever he should enjoy it: and it is a noble frame of heart to be always in a readiness to resign a mercy, before a man has the possession of it, and to be contented to let God take as well as give, what his soul waits upon him for.

(4). When a man desires a mercy no further than it may make him holy; for the Covenant of God is a holy Covenant, Luk. 1.72. and the mercies of the Covenant are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Act. 13.34. which is the word that the Septuagint doth use, Isaiah 55.3. and Luke renders it according to the translation and not according to the Hebrew, that which in the Hebrew is mercies, they render holy things, and indeed mercies they cannot be, unless they tend to promoting holiness in the soul; and when a man with Agur fears mercies, lest they should draw away his heart; give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient; he feared the snare that is in prosperity, the hook that is in the bait, with which many a man is taken, and thereby drawn away from the things of God; and few are as Jehoshaphat, who had Silver and Gold in abundance, and his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord, his heart was encouraged the more in a way of holiness; and when a man desires mercies, quae nos ornare possunt pariter & munire, which may as well fortify as adorn us, Prosper. The soul of a child of God desires he may have mercies that may be his defense, as well as his ornament: there are mercies that do adorn men, but they do also ensnare them, and betray them to the enemy; nay such a soul desires Heaven not so much for the perfection of his happiness, as for the perfection of his holiness, which nothing can perfect but the beatifical vision; when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; answerable to our vision of him, such will be our conformity to him. Mercies unto wicked men are suitable to their services, they give to God unsanctified services, and God does give them unsanctified rewards; and their services are seemingly services, but really sins; so are the mercies that God gives them seeming blessings, but really curses; they are indeed blessings in the thing, but as they draw out their corruptions so they are curses unto the men. So Iratus dat amanti quod male amat, as Austin says, God gives it in wrath, as he did to them Quails, &c. and though they were fed to the full, yet he sends • anness into their souls, he gave them their hearts desire in wrath.

(5). By this Covenant you do engage yourselves, that whatever God bestows in mercy, you will return again in duty; that you may enjoy nothing apart from God; but as the Lord saith of his people in Covenant, they are his portion, so you also say of God, he is your God; and as all that is in him is made over unto you, so you will be his people, and all that is in you shall be made over unto him, and should be laid out, or laid down for him, and you shall resign to him whatever he shall call for; and this is for a man to hate Father and Mother, and his own life, and acknowledge as David did, of thine own have we given thee; God gave it unto them, and they do return it willingly unto God again; that which is a Samuel, asked of God, shall be also lent unto the Lord; and the soul never desires or expects good from any mercy, from which God hath no glory; for a man is a servant to God, and it is all the Master's that the servant hath of gains; as the Law saith, Servi sunt res Domini, & quicquid acquirunt, acquirunt domino, &c. Solomon had a Vineyard and he let it out to keepers, and he expected the fruits thereof, even a thousand pieces of Silver; and of the Husbandmen to whom the Vineyard was committed the Lord expected fruits, &c. a soul is never so well pleased as when it brings forth fruit for God, and lays out his strength to the uttermost, that he may bring in a revenue of glory to the Lord his God.

(6) When all the duties of the Covenant are performed by us in the fittest time, and in the highest and the best manner. [1] In the fittest time; as the Lord takes the fittest time to show us mercy, so should we also take the fittest time to perform our duty to him; and it's a great matter to know the season, there is an accepted time, there is a day of salvation. [2] And also we must perform it in the highest manner, as David said, It is for the Lord, and therefore the house must be magnificent; this have I done out of my poverty, though he offered the wealth of a kingdom. And the Lord says to Israel, Wouldest thou offer this to thy prince? I am a great king: God expects we should perform all our duties with that reverence and exactness, as we do, when we offer any gift or present to a Ruler over us.

2. We are to improve the Covenant in reference unto God, for the obtaining all the mercies of the Covenant, because therein the Lord hath in faithfulness engaged himself; Debita reddit nulli debens, &c. God pays debts, and yet is debtor to none but to his own faithfulness. So do they, Isa. 63.18, 19. The Lord was departed, and had sold them into the hand of strangers, and they possessed their Land, they pray, Return for thy servants sake, the tribes of thy inheritance, the people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while, we are thine, thou never barest rule over them, and thy name was never called upon them, they were never a people whom thou tookest into Covenant, as thou hast done unto us. And so Isa. 63.9. Be not wroth very sore, nor remember our iniquity forever; behold, I beseech thee, we are all thy people. Jer. 14.8, 9. O thou the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in the time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, why shouldest thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? if thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name? Thy name is called upon us, we are thy people in Covenant, The Lord's portion, the lot of his inheritance; for God is always mindful of his Covenant; and in pursuance thereof he doth whatever he doth in the world; if he give Christ, it is with respect to the Covenant; he hath raised up an horn of salvation, that is, a strong and powerful Savior; for he has laid help upon one that is mighty: And all is, that he might perform his Covenant unto our fathers, and to remember his holy Covenant. Christ and all the mercies by him, which are given to us, are a fruit of the Covenant that was made with Christ before the world was: Lev. 26.41, 42. if their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they accept the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember my Covenant with Jacob, and with Isaac, and with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

Now, How should a man improve his Covenant in reference unto God?

1. Consider rightly the latitude of Covenant mercies, and the greatness of them; for it is in this Covenant that all your salvation lies, that your hearts may be carried out answerable to the vastness of the loving-kindness of God, and that no mercy of the Covenant may be left unconsidered, and untasted of, but that you may have a taste that the Lord is gracious in everyone of them; and that a man may see, that it is the weakness of his heart, and the lowness of his spirit, that he doth not press towards them all; for the Apostle, 2 Cor. 5.9. He labors whether present or absent, &c. habet & sapientia sui generis superbiam, and therefore a godly man is not willing to leave out anything, either of the graces or the privileges of the Covenant; for they are Covenant mercies, that are the precious mercies of your lives; the flower of all the mercies of a man's life: it is therefore said to be a Covenant stablished upon better promises; the first Covenant did promise life forever in Heaven, as it did threaten death forever in Hell; but yet there are better promises: as he said, Est aliud in Christo, formosius salvatore; There is something in Christ more beautiful than a Savior; so there is something in the Covenant, that is better than Heaven. (1) The Lord hath made over himself to us in this Covenant, He is not ashamed to be called our God, to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee; And this is the Covenant that I will make with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people: And what it is for to have Jehovah for your God: The happiness of it you have heard, that as you are wholly his, so he also is become wholly yours; all that is within you is for God, and all that is in God is for you, and for your good. And he is your God, as he is Christ's God; for there the Covenant-right doth first begin; he is my father, and your father; my God, and your God, &c. (2) He doth in this Covenant take you to be unto himself a peculiar people, whom he hath separated unto himself above all people, to be unto him for a name, and for a praise throughout the earth, as Exod. 19.5. You shall be unto me a peculiar treasure above all the people of the earth; and he doth say they are his portion, the Lord's portion is his people, and Israel is the lot of his inheritance; though all the earth be his, yet he hath set his heart upon them, and they are dear and precious ones. (3) By this Covenant the earth stands, that all the creatures may serve the Saints, those that are in Covenant with the Lord; it is the curse of the first Covenant, that shall set on fire the whole frame of the world, at the last and great day; all the creatures serve the Saints, as they do serve God; for Christ hath bought the services of all the creatures, and he hath in his house vessels of dishonor as well as for honor, and even the Devils and wicked men bow to him, and they shall worship one day at the Saints feet, and shall know that God loves them, and God makes use of these vessels of dishonor to fan and purify his people, 2 King. 21.13. I will wipe them as a man doth a dish: and I will shave them with a razor, that is hired, even the King of Assyria: And some vessels of honor God uses for the good of his Saints; and so do the Angels as well as all other creatures serve their graces or their necessities, they are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. (4) By this Covenant all their sins are pardoned, and God remembers them no more: the foundation of pardon is not only laid in the satisfaction of Christ, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , price, that he hath laid down, but also in the free grace of God in making of the Covenant, and in the gracious acceptation of the payment of the surety, for you see that God is in Christ reconciling the world, there is Covenant grace that runs along with all the fruits of the death of Christ; so that even, Meritum Christi habet in se gratiam invisceratam, The merit of Christ hath grace imbowelled it. (5) It is a Covenant of Communion; for it is conjugal, and in it is the nearest Union and Communion that can be between creatures; it's a Covenant of friendship, and the proper effect of friendship is fellowship, 2 Cor 6.16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I will dwell in them; and walk amongst them, which is a high degree of condescension. There are two ways of God's communicating himself, the one is infinite, and to us inconceivable, so God doth in the mystery of his eternal generation communicate himself unto his son; and as the Godhead doth communicate itself unto the man Christ Jesus in a personal union, so there is a communication of himself unto the Saints, and the highest communication that is, is in a Covenant way; there is but little that God doth impart of himself unto all the creatures, in comparison of what God doth unto his Saints: there is more of his wisdom, holiness, goodness, and all his attributes that is to be seen in these, than in all the world besides; 'tis the Saints alone that can show forth the virtues of him that hath called them. (6) By this Covenant he doth dispense Grace, and Glory; [1] For Grace, To make room for that in the Soul, He will take away the heart of stone, and he will put his law into their hearts, Jer. 31.33. And that grace shall teach them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, &c. And [2] for Glory hereafter, that also is dispensed by this Covenant; for the inheritance is not by the Law, not by the first, but by the second Covenant; they only that are heirs of promise, are the persons that are ordained to Glory, and they only are the sons of the Resurrection, their services only are accepted of God, and all the glory that he hath in this inferior world comes in by them, and it is whatever they do, even the meanest services, not only their religious works, but their civil and natural works, which they do out of necessity of nature, yet having a tincture of the blood of this Covenant upon them, they are in order to an eternal reward; and whereas to all other men may be said, to what purpose is the multitude of your services? I accept them not, Mal. 2.3. I will spread dung upon your faces, that is, the dung of your fasts, and of your solemn services, they shall make you but the more hateful and abominable and vile, and become a dunghill before God; that's all the fruit you shall have of your religious duties: But now men that are in Covenant, they can say, We will be abundant in the work of the Lord, for we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. 15. last.

2. Have an eye unto the stability of the Covenant; it is a Covenant of Salt; Sal est duraturae amicitiae symbolum, Salt is a symbol of lasting friendship; and signifies here, that the Lord will never turn away from them to do them good; it is a Covenant that we can never break, because the righteousness thereof can never be spent. And the stability of the Covenant lies not only in the love and mercy of God that made it, but (1) in the faithfulness of God who is engaged, and cannot go back; for he is not as man, that he should repent; and therefore in the Scripture he is everywhere styled, the faithful God, that keeps Covenant and mercy forever; and the Apostle says, God is not unfaithful to forget your work and labor of love; God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins; for God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able: It is said, Mic. 7. last, He will perform his mercy to Abraham, and his truth to Jacob; and he is engaged by a double Oath, That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong consolation. [1] By an oath to Christ; for he is made a Priest by an oath. [2] By an oath unto us; and therefore it is easier for the Mountains to remove out of their place, and to stay the Sun in its course, to change the Ordinances of Heaven, than for the Covenant of peace to be broken with his people. (2) Unto the surety of the Covenant: for though we fail, yet he does not fail; he did undertake under the first Covenant to pay all the debt we owe, and it is his righteousness alone by which we stand righteous before God; and in the second Covenant he hath undertaken to present us without spot, and to make all our services acceptable and well pleasing in his sight; and the argument is a good one that Moses uses in behalf of the people of Israel, pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of thy mercy, as thou hast forgiven them from Egypt even until now, for the sins of men cannot make void the faithfulness of God.

3. Rejoice in the Covenant, and make it the matter of your delight, even Covenant-mercies; for 2 Sam. 23.5. This is all my salvation, and all my delight, that the Lord hath made an everlasting Covenant with me in all things ordered and sure: the sweetness doth not lie so much in the mercy, as in the tenure by which we hold it; it is in the Covenant; and this is the only true ground of all a Christians joy, it is his whole salvation, and therefore should be all his delight. Exod. 24.7, 8, 9. the people of Israel did enter into Covenant with God, Moses read the book of the Covenant to them, and they consented, and said, all that the Lord hath said, we will do; and then the glory of the Lord appeared, and they • awe the God of Israel, not as we shall see him in Heaven face to face, but some visible manifestation of his presence amongst them there was; and he laid not his hands upon them, that is, he did not destroy them, but they saw God, and did eat and drink, that is, they rejoiced in the Covenant that they had made with God, and they saw that God did manifest unto them the signs of acceptance in this Covenant; and therefore they kept a holy feast, and did rejoice exceedingly before the Lord; and when they entered into Covenant • n the time of Asa, 2 Chron. 15.15. all the people rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart, and they sought God with their whole desire, and he was found of them: it is that which the Lord expects, that men should glory in him and make their • oast of him, that he is pleased to be confederate with them.

4. Plead your interest in Covenant mercies; for it is in the Covenant that the power of all your prayers does lie. God is not indebted unto any men in the world, but the children of the Covenant; or not so much unto them as to his own promise: dignaris eis quibus • mnia debita dimittis, etiam promissionibus tuis debitor fieri: and therefore the Lord saith, • ut me in remembrance, plead thou, &c. you that are the Lord's remembrancers keep not si • ence; have respect unto the Covenant, for all the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty: there is all manner of cruelty executed, and yet men hide it under • ir and specious pretences, and these latibula impiorum, lurking places of wicked men are • alled the dark places of the earth, &c. Now in such a time as this, when there was nothing • ut cruelty executed, the enemies did roar in their Congregations, and did triumph in their wickedness; and the more spoil any of them could make upon the Temple, the more famous he was; it was when Jerusalem was taken: now what have the poor people of God to look upon? nothing but put God in remembrance of his Covenant, have respect unto thy Covenant; and so should all the Saints do in their prayers, go to God and plead the uprightness of thy heart, in the middle of all thy failings; Lord, though thou hast smitten us in the place of Dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death, yet have we not gone back from thee; and so doth Hezekiah when he comes to die, remember Lord, that I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart; and it is this that is the condition that thou hast made of the Covenant of Grace, not a perfect way, but a heart perfect with God; and therefore men in Covenant are said to plead with God for themselves, and for the Churches, because they only have an interest in him, and they can by grace claim mercies from God, but other men cannot: and so doth Christ manifest his desires to the Father according to the Covenant, Zech. 1. And the Lord answered the Angel with good and comfortable words: and so a poor soul shall find the Lord will do with him also, in all his supplications to God and pleadings with God. He will answer him according to his hearts desire.

5. Expect that God shall deal with thee according unto this Covenant, and so thou mayest judge of all his ways towards thee; for God does always dispense himself unto a person according to the Covenant under which he stands: and this is that which deceives most men in the Church, because they hear of the Covenant of Grace, and do live under the outward privileges thereof; though for the state of their persons they be under the Covenant of works, yet they expect that God's dealing should be to them according to the tenor of the second Covenant; and therefore if they do sin and afterwards ask pardon, they conclude that God will give pardon and grace, and that what services they do, find acceptance with him, and shall have from him a reward. It is true, with them that are in the Covenant of grace it is so, but this is the great deceit, when a man doth transire de genere in genus, and from the privileges of the one Covenant, apply them unto a person that is under the other Covenant. If thou sin thou mayest expect pardon, and if thou do duty, thou that art under the second Covenant mayest expect acceptance, and if thou be afflicted, thou must look upon it as an act of the Fathers love; whom I love I rebuke and chasten; and if thou dost sin look that God should visit thy offenses with a rod, for God in faithfulness doth afflict his own children, and if the frowardness of thy heart be not overcome by it, he will put forth an almighty power of loving kindness to draw thy heart to him with the cords of thy love; I have seen thy ways and I will heal thee. Some promises of the Covenant are absolute, the immediate fruits of free grace; and the soul may expect these without preparation or condition: but some promises are only upon condition; now in the Covenant thou hast no ground to expect them without the condition be performed.

[Use 4] §. 4. Having given up our names to God in this Covenant, given the hand to the Lord, it is a duty often to renew it, and to repeat unto a man's soul the same obligation; and here I will show, (1) That it is not enough that a man do enter into Covenant with the Lord, but that he renew it often. (2) I will give you the grounds why a man should renew his Covenant. (3) Shew the times when in a special manner the Lord expects it, and when it is a way to find mercy with the Lord. (4) Show you the manner how it is to be done. (5) I will press it by setting before you the great benefits and fruits that do flow from a renewed Covenant with the Lord.

1. A man being once entered into Covenant with God, is held and obliged by that Covenant forever; as we see the Devils entered into Covenant, and this Covenant they have broken in respect of the precept, yet they are all still under the curse of it, and shall be forever, and that curse the chains of darkness in which they are held; so man being once engaged is forever engaged; therefore it's his duty often to renew his Covenant: and that will appear in these particulars.

1. The Lord hath often renewed his Covenant with his people; he made a Covenant with Abraham, Gen. 15.18. and yet he renews his Covenant again, Gen. 17.2, 4, 7. So the Lord did take Israel into Covenant with himself, and his name was called upon them, he doth take them into their Fathers Covenant, he remembered his Covenant with Abraham and Isaac, and he saith, I will take you unto me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, &c. and yet this Covenant he renews in a public and solemn manner upon Mount Sinai, when out of his mouth went a fiery law, Deut. 5.2, 3. He made a Covenant with us in Horeb; he made not this Covenant with our Fathers; some refer it unto all the Patriachs from Adam, and so the Covenant was the same; for they entered into Abraham's Covenant; but it is spoken in regard of the public and glorious way of revealing it to them, beyond what it was to their Fathers, which was not revealed with that solemnity, and speaking with, and seeing God face to face: or else by the Fathers some do understand those that died in Egypt, and in the Wilderness, who had forgotten the Covenant of their Fathers, and the Lord did not renew it with them; and yet afterwards, Exod. 24.7, 8, 10. Moses takes the book of the Covenant, and reads it in the audience of the people, and they engaged themselves to do all that the Lord had said, and be obedient to his requirings, and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the people, and said, This is the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you, and v. 11. They did eat and drink before the Lord, and see the glory of the God of Israel, and upon the people he laid not his hand, &c. and yet this is not enough, but the Lord renews his Covenant again, Deut. 29.1. The words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses, to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab; besides the Covenant that he made with them in Horeb; and v. 10. & 12. You stand before the Lord this day, that you should enter into Covenant with the Lord, and into the oath which the Lord made with thee, to establish thee this day for a people to himself, that he might be unto thee a God as he hath sworn unto thy Fathers, &c. thus you see the Lord has often renewed his Covenant with his people.

2. The people of God have often renewed their Covenant also with him; it was not enough that they had in Moses time been taken into Covenant so often, but before he died he renewed the Covenant with them, and they did solemnly engage themselves, The Lord will we serve, and his voice will we obey; and he set up a Stone under an Oak for a witness against them, if they should hereafter deny the Lord their God. And this Covenant was renewed in the days of King Asa, and Hezekiah, and Josiah: and Ezra 10.3. and Nehemiah 9.38. therefore renewing of the Covenant is a duty that we owe unto the Lord, and that engagement must be reiterated, &c.

2. But seeing that a Covenant once made doth always bind a man and the force of it continues, distance of time doth not wear it out, why should it be needful for men to renew their Covenant so often? The grounds of it are these. 1. Because of the unbelief of our spirits, and from the infirmity of our faith; for the confirmation of our faith in the mercy and grace of the Covenant. Therefore David made it the matter and ground of all his delight, and his thoughts were wholly upon it. Why did God renew the Covenant so often with Abraham, but to strengthen and confirm his faith therein that it was a sure Covenant, and should never be forgotten? The mercies of the Covenant are great, and the heart of man would fail and his spirit sink in the expectation of them; but then he calls to mind his Covenant, and renews his Covenant-engagements with them; and for this cause we receive the seals of the Covenant often, and every time we do so, we renew the Covenant between God and us; God's seals are set to our seals, that this may be like unto Joshua 's stones, a testimony that we have entered into Covenant with the Lord.

2. To manifest the sincerity of our hearts, that though we fail in the duty of it, yet our hearts still stand to it, we delight in the Law according to our inward man; though we fall every day, yet says a soul in Covenant with God, I love to think of renewing the engagement that is between God and me; as a loving and tender Wife loves often to renew her engagement to her Husband, and to have it much in her mind, that she may not forget the Covenant of her God, so to show that a man doth not repent, but his engagement • s still pleasing to him, he renews it often; and if it were to do again and again, a man would do the same thing, if it were every hour, to let the world see he is not turned back from the Covenant of his God, Phil. 3.9. says the Apostle, I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them dung, &c. I have not repented of it, I am of the same mind still, there is not in me a principle to draw back, and to depart from the living God; I am willing to renew this • ngagement still. When there is an error in the contract that a man makes with another, then • f it were to do again the soul would not do it; so there is many a man that goes back from •• is engagement to God long, and per poenitentiae poenitentiam Diabolo satisfaciet, By repenting • f his repentance he will satisfy the Devil. But a heart that is sincere with God will renew • t again, and he would not have his engagement broken, he still cries out, Lord, I am thine, and thou art the Lord my God; surely thou art our Father, and thy compassion does not fail, but thou renewest it upon us every moment: Therefore I come again to give the hand to the Lord and renew my Covenant with him.

3. By reason of the falseness of our hearts; there is so much treachery of spirit, that we are not easily kept within bounds, our purposes are easily broken, and men draw back from the Lord by reason of the falseness of their hearts, and the treachery that is in them, Ezech. 16.30. How weak is thy heart? unstable as water; and it is said, that water hardly contains itself within its own bounds. And therefore it was Chrysostom's complaint once, and since it has been the complaint of many others after him, That a Minister did never find his • ork as he left it; and so does a Christian complain, he does seldom find his heart as he left 〈◊〉 . Now that a man's heart may be fixed, therefore the Lord takes his people into Cove • ant with himself, and they bind themselves much in Covenants.

4. They renew their Covenant, that by often repeating and renewing it, it may be set on upon their spirits the more, and lay the greater engagement upon them; for surely the more frequently we bind ourselves, the faster we are bound, and every renewal of our Covenant doth intend and strengthen the obligation, and makes the deeper impression upon the heart; and therefore Deut. 6.7. the Lord commands Israel, to teach them diligently unto their children: the word in the Hebrew is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that is to sharpen them, as you do a Knife, saepius ad cotem impellendum, the way to make it take the deepest impression upon the soul is to set it on by often and frequent repetitions; because of the deadness of our hearts, and inadvertence of spirit, we are apt to forget the Covenant of the Lord; and when men are apt to forget a thing, they had need have it repeated often to them.

5. By reason of the forgetfulness of the heart; there is nothing that the ungodliness of a man's heart is more prone to than to forget his engagement unto God; and therefore was that strict charge laid upon them, Deut. 4.23. Take heed to yourselves lest you forget the Covenant which the Lord your God made with you, and make you a graven Image, &c. The happiness of the Angels lies in this, that they both know all the duties of their Covenant, and have them always in mind; for where there is no sinfulness, there is no forgetfulness; but the misery of man lies in this, as to the engagement of this Covenant in many things he is ignorant of it, so also is he unmindful of it; and thence the Apostle saith, Heb. 2.1, 2. Lest we prove leaking vessels, &c. or as some will derive the word, charta bibula quae Scripturam non been continet, the word is written there as in sinking paper, and the Ink runs abroad, that afterwards when you have writ it, you cannot read it: now things that we are willing to remember we repeat them often, and do thereby keep them in mind; as the remembrance of the creation, the mercy the Lord would not have forgotten; and for this cause he has appointed a weekly remembrance; and the death of Christ he would not have to be forgotten, and therefore he appoints us to remember it often; do this in remembrance of me; because it would else quickly wear out of our minds; mercies and duties being for the most part written in our hearts as letters written upon the water, no sooner in, but out: and therefore we read in Isaiah 48.8. when the Lord would have a thing take deep impression upon them, he bids them to remember it, yea bring it again to mind: O ye transgressors, not only remember it once, but often bring it again to mind, &c. Now there is a double curse upon the memory of man. (1) There is a natural weakness, that it is like a Sieve that lets pass all the Corn, and retains nothing but the Chaff. (2) There is a weakness that is below nature: As there is a strength unto good that is supernatural, when a man is immediately acted by the Spirit of God, that there is in him more than the strength of a man; so there is also in ways of sin, when a man hath an immediate concurrence of the spirit of the Devil, Joh. 8.44. Ye are of your Father the Devil, and his lusts ye will do: and the Devil shall cast some of you into prison, that is, wicked men acted by the spirit of the Devil; and so Rev. 12.11. the Dragon is the Heathen Roman Emperors, but it is as they are acted by Satan; and therefore it is said to be the old Serpent and Satan in them; for the Devil hath not in himself ten horns, it is the Devil working in them and acting them; so there is also a weakness below nature, men are apt to forget the word, and their duty which they learn out of it, but Satan comes and as an Harpy snatcheth away the word, that is, he adds a weakness below the nature, men are apt to forget it sooner than otherwise they would have done, by putting into the heart contrary impressions: the things that we regard and take care of, we are apt to remember, but the things that we care not for, we are apt to forget; quae curant senes meminerunt, old men remember what they care for. Now the heart of man is least set upon Covenant duties of anything, and therefore had need to have its memory helped with continual and frequent repetitions of them.

6. By reason of the ignorance and blindness of the mind of man, we had need to be remembered of our Covenant, and to renew it often: we are all narrow mouthed vessels, and receive all things from God but by drops, and light comes in upon us but by degrees in several beams, and a man looks often upon it before he can understand it; and therefore the Lord gives unto us line upon line, and precept upon precept, Isaiah 28.10. And thence the Saints of God read over the same things, and be content to hear the same things again, because they have a new view of them, they have a farther light into, and farther discoveries of them; Psal. 25.14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, the word in Hebrew signifies mysterium & arcanum, a secret is something that cannot be known, unless it be by revelation, that a man by all his wisdom and industry could not find out; And what is that secret of the Covenant? The Covenant is the secret, and it is with them that he may make it known unto them, therefore there is a mystery in the duties of the Covenant that is not revealed unto all, but it is unto them that fear him; and the Lord will do it suitably unto our frame; as our grace comes in by constant supplies of the Spirit of God, so doth our knowledge also, and all by a daily increase of light from the Spirit, and this is by a frequent repetition of the same act of faith, and therefore the people of God love to repeat it, and thereby they see farther into these mysteries from day today, and they do the more exceedingly prize the mercy of the Covenant as the greatest mercy they can enjoy.

3. How is this work to be done, and what is it for a man to renew his Covenant? 1. He that will renew his Covenant with God, must be deeply sensible of the breach of Covenant, and of the unfaithfulness of his heart therein. It should deeply humble us to consider that no bonds should hold us. If there were no other tie upon us, but that of our creation, that we had our being from him, and that out of nothing; but when unto this natural and necessary bond, we have added a voluntary, and have consented unto the Lord, yet now for us to forget the Covenant of our God, and prove perfidious to him, and draw back, is this your return unto God, for his Grace in taking you into Covenant, and who doth always remember Covenant mercies for you, even then, when you forget duty to him? Is this your requital of the Lord, who in the performance of the Covenant did not spare his Son, when he cried that he might be saved? God was so resolved upon his Covenant with you, that the death of his Son was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor, and he was delighted in it, in performance of the grace of the Covenant made with you. And also the Lord Christ met with variety of discouragements, not only the weight of sin in the guilt of it, which he complained of as his own, though he knew no sin, but the wrath of the Father, the rage of his enemies, the hour and the power of darkness, the falsehood of his Disciples; and yet when he was tempted to come down from the Cross, he doth hold it out, that he might thereby show that he loved you to the uttermost, and would save you to the utmost. And now for you, after vows to make inquiry, whenas no man doth receed, or go back from the Covenant in which he hath engaged himself, without infamy, and it's as odious as for a man to prove false to his friend, and betray him; and as unfair dealing it is, as for a Servant to run away from his Master, or a Soldier from his Commander, and as David says, by way of reproach, he hath broken his Covenant, and laid his hand upon him that was at peace with him, yea, for the Wife of a man's bosom to betray a man, and to forget the Covenant of her God, for a man to forget his Oath that he took at his Baptism, and as the Jews did labor to make their circumcision uncircumcision, and to do this unto a God, that was never a Wilderness to you, nor ever gives you cause to repent of your engagement; surely hereby you see, not only your perfidiousness and unthankfulness, but also fully to make forfeiture of all Covenant mercies, to bring upon yourselves all the curses of the Covenant, and to put God upon breach of Covenant with you, who have behaved yourselves so unfaithfully towards him; and thereby you acknowledge though you have subscribed your names in the register of Zion, yet you deserve unto your perpetual ignominy, to have them expunged thence, and to be written in the earth, and given up to an everlasting forgetfulness: So it was with Josiah when he made his Covenant, his heart was tender, and he did humble himself before the Lord for their Covenant-breaking: And Ezra 10. it doth follow upon a great humiliation; a man that is not sensible of, and his heart not affected with the breach of Covenant, that man is not fit to renew his Covenant with the Lord.

2. It must be with a resolution of heart to break all other Covenants; men are said, Isa. 28.15. To make a Covenant with death and hell, that is, they were as secure, and as fearless of it, as a man that hath a person in Covenant with him, whom he looks upon as his friend and fears him not; and thus they make a Covenant with sin, and engage themselves to serve other gods: and so when the people renewed the Covenant in Joshua 's time, you see the Command, you have chosen the Lord to serve him, put away therefore your strange gods; and so the command was to put away their strange wives. There are cords of vanity, and there are bonds of iniquity, by which men do bind themselves: Now all these Covenants must be broken, if a man come to renew his Covenant with the Lord; for the answer you must give to the Covenant, must be the answer of a good conscience, and that Conscience that reserves to itself any league with sin unbroken, is not a good conscience before God, a Covenant that is sinful, is in itself void and a nullity, because in every such engagement there is dolus, deceit and error, which are destroying to the nature of a Covenant, which should be free and deliberate; and therefore it is in all such Covenants, as with Herod's Oath, they bind to nothing but repentance, for Juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis; and therefore a man must resolve to break Covenant with all sinful engagements, if he do intend to renew his Covenant with the Lord.

3. A man must know the terms, and read over the Articles of the Covenant anew; for no wise man will set his hand to an obligation, of which he is not well acquainted with the condition; and if there were no other cause nor engagement upon man to know the will of God and their own duty, this were enough, they have bound themselves to serve him, and therefore by the same Covenant they are bound to know the rules by which he will be served; for Deo serviendum non est ex arbitrio sed ex imperio; so doth Josiah, 2 Chron. 34.30. he caused to be read in the ears of the people, all the words of the book of the Covenant, and then he stood up, and made a Covenant before the Lord to perform all the words of the Covenant written in the Book.

4. It must be with a free and full consent of heart; for the Covenant in the renewing of it, must be as voluntary as it was in the making of it; to make fair promises while men are under the rod, as many do in sickness, they promise to lead new lives, but yet return to their old ways, with the Dog, and start aside from these purposes in their prosperity like a broken bow; as when the Goths invaded Rome, the Christians having some mercy granted them, all the Pagans would then become Christians, and after proved persecutors of them.

5. A man must be willing to bind himself in the highest way unto obedience thereunto. When the people did make a Covenant, they did stand up to the Covenant, and said, Amen, Amen, and they swore to it, and that in a public way with a loud voice, with shoutings, and Trumpets; and they did write it down in a Book: and it's a further engagement, to have a man's own hand against him, that is a great witness, and lays him under more guilt than any witness can fasten upon him; and he sets not only his hand, but his seal to, and binds himself with a curse, and by fearful imprecations of vengeance upon himself, if he did not perform it; as they did, Nehem. 10.29. desi • e God to avenge upon themselves their falsehood in breaking of the Covenant, and are content the threatening should take place upon them, if they break it, as well as the promise if they keep it; and thereby they show, that they desire the Covenant should abide firm, as they say, Jer. 50.5. Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant never to be forgot.

6. It must be with an earnest desire to God for grace to keep it, and an acknowledgment of our own weakness and inability to perform anyone of the duties of the Covenant; for Covenants that are made upon any self-dependence do not long continue, as Peters did not, when he said, Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I; and though I die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Our promises of duty must be supported by God's promises of grace, or else we shall soon fail in them; for God must perform the promises of grace, before we can perform our promise of service; for without him we can do nothing, upon him is all our fruit found, Hos. 14.8. and therefore in all our Covenants we should have an eye unto the promise that gives grace, as well as requires service, and say with David, I will run the way of thy Commnadments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart; and with Hezekiah, Lord I am weak, undertake for me. The word in the Hebrew is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and signifies to become a surety; and so should we consider, the new Covenant is in the hand of a surety, and to him we should look for strength; for the grace of the Covenant is laid up in him: so that there is in our Covenant with God, a double bond laid upon us, not only an obligation unto the duty enjoined, but to have recourse unto God for grace to perform it.

4. What are the times and seasons that the people of God have specially observed in renewing of their Covenant with the Lord? that so a man may be able to say, now God calls me unto this duty: For there is a season for every duty, and a godly man is to bring forth his fruit in the season. I find in Scripture, that the seasons of renewing their Covenant were commonly these:

1. When a man hath eminently fallen into any great sin, or hath relapsed into former sins that were repented of, and that we have humbled our souls for; and if being washed, we have again defiled ourselves, and turned again to folly, then is a season in which the Lord calls you to renew your Covenant. Peter committed a very great sin, it being that sin also which he was warned of, and took up great purposes and resolutions against, it was not a bare denial, but, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he denies with an Oath, nay, with cursings and damnings of himself as the word imports, imprecating of the wrath of God, and eternal separation from his presence, if he knew the man; Now how must Peter come from this fall? It's called a conversion, Luk. 22.31. When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren; Recovery out of sin committed, is called a conversion: There is a twofold conversion; (1) from a general state of sin; (2) from a particular way of sin: for the first of these Peter had past, he was converted before, and Christ had given testimony to his faith, that it was true, and that it should not fail; but yet there is a conversion from this particular fall, a renewing of his repentance, and as it were turning unto God again a-new, and that is seen in these two things. [1] In renewed humiliation and godly sorrow. [2] In a renewed Covenant, and a solemn engagement of reformation for the time to come; and this is required in the renewing of a man's repentance after any great and eminent fall. The same course doth Paul take, Rom. 7.16. after his conflict, he doth then renew his Covenant, and saith, I do break the Law, yet my heart doth still cleave to the rule thereof, and acknowledge the goodness of it: and this consent of speaking the same thing that the Law doth, is properly and formally the renewing of a man's Covenant and engagement, and so doth the Church after her great fall and backsliding, Cant. 6.3. I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine, he feedeth among the lilies; which I conceive to be the words of one rejoicing and triumphing in the assurance of his interest in God; but also they are the words of one covenanting and renewing the reconciliation of himself unto the Lord; as when the Lord hath departed from us, through our provocation, when he doth return to his people, he is said to elect them anew: Zach. 1.17. The Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem; his returning is as it were a second election: So when we return to God after a special fall, it is, as it were, a new conversion: and this is a special testimony of the truth of a man's sorrow, that it is according to God.

2. In time of public humiliation; when men would divert and turn away judgment either from a nation or a person, then is the time for them to renew their Covenant; and this was the ground of the Covenant the Hezekiah made: Our fathers have transgressed, and done that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; wherefore the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem, to destroy them, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing; as you see with your eyes, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this; now it is in my heart, to make a Covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. The end of his making the Covenant, was to divert the Judgment. And so we read also in the Book of Nehemiah: and thus gracious is the Lord, that when he doth send judgment for sin, he doth not continue the judgment, but till he doth see an humiliation and reformation in act; let there be but the serious purpose of reformation, and let the Covenant be renewed to engage the soul thereunto, and the Lord doth remove the judgment; and when the will is in his people, he doth accept it for the deed, as David, Psal. 32.5. I said, I will confess my sin unto the Lord, and the Lord forgave me my sin; and the prodigal Son doth but say, I will go to my father, and while he was yet a great way off, the father met him.

3. In a time of public reformation, when the foundations have been destroyed, and all things out of course, and a great deal of difficulty appears, and even impossibility in carrying on the work; yet the people of God looking upon it as a duty, have set upon it with full resolution and purpose of heart, and have covenanted to go through with the work, notwithstanding all opposition. Jehoiada made a Covenant between the Lord, and the King and the people, that they should be the Lord's people; here Religion was corrupted, and Dominion was usurped, and the Lord put it into the heart of Jehoiada the Priest, to endeavor the reformation of both: and therefore he brought forth the Kings Son, to whom the government did rightly belong, and did set him up in the Throne, and deposed Athaliah the usurping Queen; and he doth make a double Covenant, (1) A Covenant between God, and the King and the People; and in this Covenant, the King and the people do make up but one party; and they engage themselves to be God's people, and the King to rule for God, as under him. (2) There is also a Covenant between the King and the People, that he ruling for God, and under God, they will for Conscience sake obey. Now my Covenant with any Magistrate must be understood, as being a second and subordinate Covenant; I am so to keep Covenant with them, that I must also keep my Covenant with the Lord. Wherefore, after they had thus strengthened themselves by a Covenant, in the next verse they set upon the work of reformation effectually; for all the people of the land went into the house of Baal and brake it down. And so did Josiah, he made a Covenant with the Lord, To walk after the Lord, and keep his Commandments with all his heart; and then he commanded them to bring out of the Temple of the Lord, all the Vessels that were made for Baal, &c. and wrought the most glorious reformation that ever 'was by any of the Kings of Judah, having his heart and hands strengthened by a Covenant with the Lord.

4. As a testimony of a man's Thankfulness for any great mercy or special deliverance; or as an argument of faith that a man is to use unto God, when he doth pray for, and expect from God any special mercy. (1) As an argument that a man should use unto God to obtain mercy; it is that artificial way of praying, that the Lord himself teaches his people, Hosea 14.2. Take away our iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips. Assur shall not save us, we will not ride upon Horses, neither will we say anymore to the work of our hands, Ye are our God's; for in thee the fatherless find mercy, &c. And so Jacob also, Gen. 28.20, 22. he begged a blessing in his journey, and he doth follow the prayers he had put up with a vow, if the Lord will be with me, he shall be my God, and if he bring me to my Fathers house, this Stone shall be God's House, and if the Lord bless me with an estate, I will surely return him of his own, I will give the tenth unto thee; so punctual is this holy man to restipulate or return something unto God answerable unto the mercy that he doth beg of God. If Hezekiah may be delivered from death, Isaiah 38.20. and David from guilt, they promise to sing aloud of so great a mercy, and to teach transgressors the way of God, also the Fathers to the Children shall declare his truth. When a man in desiring the mercy doth it with a spiritual eye, and doth not ask amiss, he is truly careful to perform the duty that such a mercy calls for, that he may return as well as receive, for quantum à praeceptis tantum ab auribus Dei sumus, Tertullian. When there is no obedience to God, there must be expected no audience by God. And therefore one special argument that the people of God do use in their prayers to obtain mercy, is a renewing their Covenant. (2) It is to be done in testimony of thankfulness for mercy received: and then doth a man indeed make a right use of a mercy, when he is bound the closer unto God by such cords of Love; and the more the Lord doth engage him, the more he is willing to engage himself to God. A great army of Ethiopians came against the King of Judah with an host of a thousand thousand men, and the Lord delivered them into his hand; now at their return they came to Jerusalem to give God the glory of the victory, and they offered unto him of the spoil which they had taken, and now they enter into Covenant with the Lord to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their hearts, and with all their souls; and so the renewing of the Covenant is their return made unto God for the mercy. And so the Jews at their return out of Babylon, Jer. 50.4, 5. They come with weeping, and seek the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, and they say, Let us bind ourselves unto the Lord by a perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten; so that in receiving and attaining the mercy, God calls for a Covenant, as also in returning the mercy.

5. When a man finds his heart bent to backsliding, and he is unsteady and unstable in any good way: Moses finding the people of Israel a very unsteady people, and whose hearts were not steadfast with the Lord, after that solemn Covenant with them upon Mount Sinai, he renews it again a little before his death, when they were come to the borders of the promised Land, and enforceth it both with the wonders that God wrought upon Pharaoh, and also the great miracles that he had wrought for them, when he led them through the wilderness forty years. And the same thing was the ground of Joshua 's renewing his Covenant, Josh. 24. And Nehemiah finding that many of the Jews loved their strange Wives, and the children that they had by them, and therefore it would be hard to persuade them to put them away, having convinced them of the sin, and obtained of them a promise that they would put them away, he doth bind them by a Covenant, which they subscribe, seal and confirm by an Oath and a curse; for he that will keep Covenant with God may sometimes be smitten in the place of Dragons, and sometimes his Father and his Mother may stand in the way of his duty to God; when he should keep the Covenant, they may persuade him to break it; now this is praise-worthy for a man with Levi to say to his Father and Mother, I have not seen him, not to know his own Brethren, nor his own Children. A man had need have his heart strengthened by all manner of Covenant engagements, or else he will do as the children of Israel did about putting away their servants, Jer. 34.9. go back again and behave himself falsely and unsteadily therein.

6. When a man doth receive the Sacraments, any of the seals of the Covenant, it is his duty to renew the Covenant: as often as we set to the seal anew, we should read over the obligation anew. The Lord made a Covenant with Abraham, but yet Gen. 17.1, 2, &c. the Lord renews the Covenant, and the occasion of it was, v. 10. because the Lord did then institute the Sacrament of Circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of faith, Rom. 4. when the Lord institutes the seal he renews his Covenant, and so should we as often as we set to the seal. So Psal. 50.5. Gather my Saints together to me that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice; there is a double sense given of it, some say it is a description of the people of Israel, whom the Lord owned to be his people, because in Covenant with him by sacrifice: others think it to be spoken by way of opposition to them that did rest only in the outward rites, the Sacrifices that they did offer, and did never look upon them as signs and seals or administering helps to the establishment of God's Covenant; they did only use the sacrifices unto the end for which the Lord appointed, or did look upon them as a renewing of their Covenant with God, and their engagement unto him for their obedience. And so it should be in every ordinance of God; these acts of obedience should lead us unto the Covenant which is the ground of our obligation unto the same obedience; this is true of Baptism also, 1 Pet. 3.21. which I conceive to be an allusion unto John 's Baptism wherein the people first confessed their sins and renounced them, and afterwards inquired into the work that they were to do in promising and engaging themselves unto obedience, and so there was a restipulation on their part unto God again. And so it is true of the Lord's Supper, it is the New-Covenant or Testament in his blood.

Now the fruit and benefits that the people of God have found by the renewing of their Covenant are many.

1. It hath been a testimony to them of the truth of their repentance, Math. 3.8. John calls for fruits meet for repentance; and what is a right fruit of repentance, but to abhor the former evils we have been guilty of, and say, Ashur shall not save us, &c. and to engage to perform the contrary duty; for it is not testimony enough of the truth of a man's repentance, that he doth abstain from the acts of former sins, unless also he has a testimony unto his own soul that he doth endeavor to grow in the contrary graces.

2. It is the foundation of consolation. 2 Chron. 15.14, 15. in the time of Asa the King of Judah, they swore with a loud voice, with Trumpets and Cornets, and all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their hearts. A day of renewing Covenant with the Lord will be a day of great rejoicing and great consolation unto the ssoul; for it's like unto a new Wedding-day, the Covenant with God being a Matrimonial Covenant, and it brings the soul from its wanderings unto God again, and the soul says, I will return to my former Husband, for it was better with me then than now.

3. It is a means to establish and stay the heart, which is in itself exceeding fickle and uncertain: it's unstable as water. Josh. 24.31. they bound themselves by Covenant, to serve the Lord, and they did it all the days of Joshua, and the Elders that had out-lived him, that had seen the great mercies of God unto them, and their bonds and engagements to God. So Josiah made them all stand to the Covenant, and all his days they departed not from following the Lord the God of their Fathers; for Jer. 13.11. As a girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, that they might be to me for a name, and a praise, and a glory: there is a principle of fixing and establishing in the Covenant, that a man is thereby bound to cleave to God with full purpose of heart, there is no going back, therefore it is called the bond of the Covenant.

4. It's a special means joined with fasting and prayer to prevail with God for mercy, when a man is willing as well to engage himself to duty, as he is to expect mercy from the Lord; they sought the Lord with their whole desire, and he was found of them, and the Lord gave them rest round about: and there is no more effectual way to obtain any blessing or mercy from God, than a renewing of Covenant and engagement of obedience to God. And the reason hereof is this, because the more the will renews its Covenant with God, the more subordinated it is to the Will of God: now God doth in a manner, to speak • ith reverence, submit the liberality of his mercies to a will subordinated to his will. Again, the more we renew our Covenant with God, the more harmony there is between our will and the will of God: and O! what peace ariseth hence? what contentment in • very condition? According to the tenure of the New Covenant a solid full will is accept •• by God for the effect; and therefore the more the will renews its consent to the Cove •• nt, the more it is accepted by God.

5. It doth not only establish the heart, but make it better: as the will becomes good • t first by willing what is good; so it is then best when it most strongly wills what is best: • ow when doth the will more strongly will what is best, than when it doth most firmly re • ew its Covenant with God, its best good? So many grains as there are of a deter • ined will in adhering to God, according to the terms of the Covenant, so many grains •• ere are of saving grace. When the deliberation of a bended will concurs with the re • ewing of our Covenant, it always brings some new addition of grace: for as grace alone 〈◊〉 first bends the will to enter into Covenant with God; so the more frequently we re •• w our Covenant, the more gracious and sanctified the will is. What more efficaciously •• parates, yea rends the heart from beloved lusts? Doth not this most potently break the heart for sin, and thence break it off from sin? Whence ariseth the prevalence of any spir •• ual lust, but from some defect or neglect in the renewing of our Covenant with God? Again, is not the will by such renewed acts of covenanting with Christ, more effectually broken off from self, legal spiritual self, which is the worst enemy Christ has? And O! how much doth the vigor, beauty, growth and perfection of habitual grace depend hereon? May we not justly then interpret that of our Lord, Matth. 7.13, 14. Enter ye in at •• e strait Gate, &c. of this entering into Covenant with God?

6. The frequent renewing of our Covenant which God, is that which fortifies the heart • gainst temptations. For the more we renew our Covenant in an evangelick way, the • ore our hearts are engaged to depend on Christ for grace, in order to the performance of our duty: who more frequently looks up to God for actual grace to perform his duties and avoid the temptations, which may hinder him, than he who by faith frequently renews his Covenant with God? What more effectual course can any take to avoid the crowd of temptations, which in this vain dirty world he is surrounded with, than by giving up his heart entirely to God? And how can this be accomplished, but by frequent renewings of his Covenant with God? Doth not our Lord assure us, Luke 16.13. That the soul which holds to God, will despise the unrighteous Mammon? The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 answers to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and signifies a tenacious and inviolable holding fast of an object, against all those that endeavor to pull it away: How doth the unrighteous Mammon by its heart-bewitching allurements, endeavor to pull off the heart from God? And what doth more confirm the heart in its holdfast of God, than the renewing of its Covenant?

7. Such as oft renew their Covenant with God have a great advantage for the strengthening their union with Christ. Doth not every fresh act of the will in consenting unto Christ as our Lord, bind the heart more firmly to Christ? And is not Christ hereby bound to give forth a fresh Communication of his Spirit to that soul, whereby its union is corroborated? What made David's heart so firmly united to God, but following hard after him by frequent repetitions of his Covenant? So Psal. 63.8. My soul follows hard after thee. The Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies firmly and intimately to adhere to God, as the Husband to the Wife. So the word notes, Gen. 2.24. Deut. 10.20. Job 41.17. Now what gives being and improvement to conjugal union, but the conjugal Covenant? Doth not then the repetition of our conjugal Covenant with Christ greatly strengthen our union with him? So Ephes. 5.31. Shall be joined unto his wife: this is mystically to be understood of the conjugal union between the soul and Christ, as verse. 32. So 1 Cor. 6.17. joined to the Lord, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies to be agglutinated, or joined by glue. Our Covenant is the Glue, whereby our hearts are joined to Christ.

8. The principal part of the souls Communion and walking with God as a friend, consists in this renewing its Covenant with God. The Apostle exhorts us, Col. 2.6. As we have received Christ Jesus, so to walk in him: and what doth he mean hereby? Is it not as if he had said; do you not remember with what a strong inviolable assent and consent, you at first received Christ? What passionate, flaming, deep and pure affections you then had for him? How much you hugged and embraced him in the bent of your wills? What complacence and satisfaction you then took in those mutual embracements between him and you? How ambitious you were of showing all friendly and obsequious deportment towards him? O! then be exhorted to receive him afresh day by day, by repeated consent and Covenant, walk in him in the same manner and with the same repeated acts of election, as you at first received him. Herein the main of Communion lies.

9. The frequent renewing of our Covenant with God is the most sovereign means to prevent or recover the soul out of any course of backsliding. Was not this Peters second conversion, enjoined by our Lord, Luke 22.31. whereby he was recovered out of that dreadful backsliding? How was he again converted, but by putting forth the same acts of closing with Christ in a Covenant-way, which he at first conversion put forth? And is not the soul hereby also preserved from backsliding? Thus the Church, Psal. 44.17, 18. All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant: our heart is not turned back. Neither have we dealt falsely. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies to deal lyingly, treacherously, unfaithfully: and what kept the Church from dealing thus treacherously with her Lord under those sore persecutions, but the frequent minding and repeating her first Covenant? How soon would her heart have started back, if she had not bound it fast to God by her repeated Covenants?

Lastly, It is principium operandi, a ground of working, of reformation and emendation of life. And it is in the strength of their Covenant that they go forth against all self-love of their own hearts, and against all the opposition that they might meet withal from men. So in Nehemiah 's time when they came to put away their Wives and Children, their hearts had need be strengthened unto such a work, and therefore by a Covenant they bind themselves thereunto, and seal and subscribe it, and ratify it by an oath and a curse: and in all their reformation in Asa 's time, and Hezekiah 's, and Josiah 's, the beginning of all their great actions were undertaken by a Covenant, that thereby they might engage themselves unto God, and nothing might divert and turn them back from the work that they had undertaken; and therefore we see it is not in vain for a person or a people to renew their Covenant with the Lord. The Lord grant there may ever be such a frame of heart in us, that we may always live in the comfort of that word, the Lord has made with us an everlasting Covenant in all things ordered and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire; as he said, who was a man after God's own heart; and this is the hope and consolation of all the children of God.

SECT. I. That Children are taken into their Parents Covenant.

§ 1. THE subject we have in hand is the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace, the new and better Covenant; and therein having shown the Person that made the Covenant with man, and spoken of the free Grace of God, which was the Fountain from whence this Covenant of Grace did flow, we came in the next place to consider the Persons with whom this Covenant was made, and they are set down in a threefold subordination: (1) First and immediately with Christ the second Adam: (2) In him with all the Faithful: (3) In them with their Seed. And this last is the head we are now to enter upon, having laid these two grounds: (1) That the Covenant that God made with Abraham is the same Covenant that all the Faithful, whether Jews or Gentiles, stand under to the worlds end; therefore is Abraham called the Father of us all; though of the Gentiles: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . There is cognatio specialis, quae coram Deo locum habet, & Deo nos gratos reddit. Beza. All Believers have a special Cognation to God by virtue of Abraham's Covenant; and this is not barely by imitation of his Faith, which the Apostle Paul asserts ( verse. 12.) of those that walk in the steps of the Faith of Abraham; but there is • blessed resultance from this, that a man is thereby translated into the Covenant of Abra • am; and there is no distinction of persons, for there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond • or free, neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Ad jus adoptionis acquirendum, vel minuendum nullum discrimen; sancta est in Christo aequalitas, quae & unitas, Par. As to the right of Adoption, there is no inequality; all are in Christ equal: All therefore that are Christ's are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the Promise, Gal. 4.28.31. we as Isaac are the children of Promise, we are not the children of the bondwoman but of the free. (2) Though in the manner of the Administration of this Covenant there be a great deal of difference from what it was in ancient times, yet as to the substance of the Covenant, the persons that are foederati in it, are the same, and taken in upon the same grounds, and shall be so to the end of the world; and therefore as the seed were taken into Covenant with their father, the same way will the Lord dispense the Covenant to the end of the world, that if he take the Parent into Covenant he will take the seed with him; and therefore their children are called the Sons of the Covenant; because it's as a Birth-Privilege, and belongs unto them as they are taken into their Fathers Covenant: And this the Lord says shall be the way in which he will dispense his Covenant forever; that no man may say this was a peculiar privilege unto Abraham and his seed only; for Abraham is made the Father of many Nations, the Father of the Circumcision and of the Uncircumcision, and the Promise is to you and your seed, and unto them that are afar off, as Gentiles unconverted are said to be, that are yet strangers unto the Church of God, and the Privileges thereof, even to as many as in all ages the Lord shall call. And these two grounds being laid, this Covenant made with Abraham will give us ground to observe this point: [Doctrine.] That the Children of believing Parents in the Covenant of Grace, are taken into the same Covenant with their Parents; the Covenant is to them and to their seed, and therefore their Posterity may well be styled the Children or Sons of the Covenant.

A point it is of great concernment, and therefore to be contended earnestly for: 1. As that which doth exceedingly advance the Grace of God unto Parents, and makes much for their Consolation that are Believers, that not only the Lord doth extend mercy to them, but to their seed, as he did here extend it to Abraham's seed, by which God exceedingly exalts his free Grace, and so it's made an argument of special Love unto Parents, Deut. 4.37. Because he loved thy Parents, therefore he chose their seed after them; Mercy unto their Posterity is from the Love of God unto Parents: Now as it is a special Grace of the second Covenant, that wherever Believers come, unto all people where they live they shall be a blessing; the word in the Hebrew is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & esto benedictio, so Montanus; we render it, according to the Septuagint, Thou shalt be a blessing, but, as Ainsworth has well observed, this manner of speaking in the Hebrew is very vehement and emphatical, noting God's commanding the blessing, according to the Expression, Psal. 133.3. For there the Lord commanded the Blessing even life for evermore, &c. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as dew from the Lord, &c. They shall be as dew, the cause of a Nations flourishing; and to a decaying Nation they shall be the root and support, the holy seed shall be the substance thereof; how much more shall the Grace of the Covenant be exalted in reference to their Posterity for their consolation, in that they are nearer, and dearer to them than any other can be, and therefore they shall be a blessing to them; and this will be much heightened unto them by this, that while they were under the Covenant of Works, while unstranslated, they did convey unto them the Curse of the first Covenant, and the Lord doth threaten that he will visit the iniquity of the Parents upon the Children. Now it were a great terror to a man, that while he is under the first Covenant his iniquity shall be visited upon his Children, if when he is translated into the second Covenant, the grace of the Covenant should no way extend unto them; and •• range it were, that all the creatures coming under the Covenant of the Saints, are by t •• s means preserved in their being, and attain many benefits that by reason of the curse of the first Covenant they should never have attained, if amongst all the rest, their children should have no benefit by their fathers Covenant, and they which are nearest to them should only be excluded.

2. This is one of the great Arguments that the Scripture useth to draw men in to Believe, because not only they shall have benefit by it, but their Posterity: there is a double use that I find the Apostle makes of that argument: (1) To the Children as a means to bring them in; repent ye therefore and be converted, for you are the children of the Covenant, which God made with your fathers; there is mercy in a special manner offered to you, and unto you first, because you are the children of the Covenant, and therefore have in a special manner a right to it. (2) To the Parents, Act. 2.38. Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins, for the promise is to you and your children; not only you shall have benefit by it, but your children upon whom you have brought a curse, and therefore were not parents sed peremptores, as Bernard speaks of all men in reference to their children in a state of nature; they also shall have benefit by it, and by your laying hold of the Covenant be brought in under the same Covenant with you; your children, that are now children of the curse, they shall become children of the Covenant. Now as it should be a great argument to keep men from sin, that therein they wrong their Posterity, it's a Treason that taints the blood; so it should be a great engagement unto all Parents to come within the Covenant, that the Grace of the Covenant might also be extended in them unto all their seed.

3. This is the great and only difference that God hath put in his Word between the children of Believers within the Covenant of Grace, and the seed of Strangers who are strangers to the Covenant; that their children belong unto the Family of God, and are owned by God as such in a visible way; whereas all the rest of the Families of the world, that are Unbelievers, belong to the Kingdom of Satan, and are to be looked upon as without; and therefore, Deut. 4.37. the Lord chose their seed after them; it's not spoken of an Election to salvation; but there is an Election to Privileges, as well as to Life, and yet both flow from a special Love; for there is but a twofold Kingdom, of God, and of the World; and of these there is a twofold God, there is Satan the God of this world, and all they that are in this Kingdom have for their God the God of this world; but there is a Kingdom of God, and all that are in that Kingdom the Lord has taken to be his people, and they have in a peculiar manner the Lord for their God, as Israel had the Name of God called upon them, and they only had the means of salvation; for salvation is of the Jews, and the Lord did take them as his peculiar Treasure, and did avouch them to be his people, above all people of the earth, they were under more glorious Administrations, under a peculiar Providence and care above all people of the earth, and yet many of them, nay the greatest part of them wicked, and but a remnant amongst them according to the Election of grace, and it were apparently to put the seed of Abraham's faith into a far worse condition in respect of their posterity, than the seed of Abraham according to the flesh were, when the Apostle, in respect of the adoption, made no difference between Jew and Greek, bond and free. And this also is the only ground (as I may call it, for though there be other arguments given, yet they all have their stress from this, and depend upon it) for applying of Ordinances unto the children of Believers, and therein to put a difference between them and the children of Heathen, and this is not a ground of our making, but of the Lord's; the Lord takes Abraham into Covenant and his seed also, and having taken them into Covenant, he doth command him to apply the seal of the same Covenant unto them, the command of God was the bond of applying the seal, but the ground of the command lay in their interest in the Covenant, being taken in together with their parents; and so whereas it's true, as Tertullian saith, fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani, men are made, not born Christians, it is not a birth-privilege, such as comes upon them by nature, for by nature one man has no more right to an Ordinance than another, for there is no difference, all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God; but what they have not by nature, they may yet receive by grace, as a birth-privilege, to which by their fathers Covenant they were after a sort born, as the posterity of Abraham according to the flesh were.

4. It's the only ground that I know that Believers can have of the salvation of their children, if they die in their infancy; I do not now speak of God's secret counsel; for the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows who are his; and what number he has belonging unto the Election of Grace amongst them that are afar off we know not, secret things belong to God; but we find no promise of salvation made unto any out of the visible Church of God; salvation is of the Jews, and 'tis God's promise that is to be the rule of our faith, and the ground of our hope, and not our counsel. Now if the children of believing parents be not taken into Covenant with their parents, they have no more a promise of salvation than the children of a Pagan. For as I told you, this world is divided into two Kingdoms, either the Kingdom of Christ, or the Kingdom of Satan, He has translated us out of the power of darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son. Now as long as a person is a visible Member of the Kingdom of Christ, and under a promise of salvation that the Lord will be his God, I have no reason or ground out of the Word to question their election or salvation, but rather in the judgment of charity grounded upon the Covenant to hope and believe, or be persuaded of the same, till they visibly manifest the contrary, though there may be some Reprobates amongst them: on the contrary, though we know Christ gathers his Elect out of the Kingdom of Satan, and therefore many of the Elect remain yet under his power, yet I have no ground to hope of any particular person, that he is elected of God, being still under Satan's Kingdom, till he give some testimony of the contrary; for either all infants dying in infancy must be saved, or they must all be damned, or else there must be a difference by grace put between them that are saved, and them that are damned; for in nature there is no difference. Now what difference the Lord may put in his secret counsel we know not, but there is no difference put in his word, but that which is grounded on the Covenant under which they stand, being taken into it together with their parents. What ground had a Jew, if his child died, to hope its salvation, but that God promised to be his God, and the God of his seed also? and the same ground has a Christian to hope the salvation of all his that die in their infancy; because the Covenant is the same with both, and the persons taken into Covenant are the same, Thou and thy seed after thee.

This truth therefore we had need to be carefully instructed in, and which has stirred up those that are faithful unto God and his Truth to contend earnestly for this Doctrine as delivered unto, and this privilege as conferred on the Saints, against those that would put their children into the same condition with those who are farthest off from God; so that though they be the children of their flesh, yet they are not of their Covenant. There has of late years been much written about it, and therefore I shall not enter into the disputation, as that which you may read everywhere, and inform yourselves at leisure about, but barely lay down the truth in a positive way, in which I shall but nakedly represent unto you what I find delivered by those that hold and love the truth herein. I shall first begin with the proof of the Doctrine, That children are taken into their parents Covenant together with themselves, which I shall endeavor to make good to you by these clear and evident Arguments.

1. This ever hath been since the Fall, and ever since the Father has gathered unto the Lord Jesus his Son a Church upon Earth, the way of the Lord's administration of the second Covenant, that whensoever he has taken parents into Covenant with him into his Kingdom and Family, he has taken in their children together with them, and has counted them as part of his Family and Kingdom; therefore they are called the Sons of God, Gen. 6.1. and the children of the Lord your God, Deut. 14.1. and amongst the Gentiles, Gal. 3.26. he saith, That you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; and therefore called the children of the Kingdom: not that they are all born of God, and are inwardly as to the state of their persons the children of God, but Rom. 9.2, 3. Theirs is the Adoption: it is not meant of an inward and spiritual Adoption, but it's meant of an external and visible Adoption, to be separated from all other people, and to be owned by God as his children; Israel is my son, my first-born, Exod. 19.5, 6. yet there were many in Israel that were inwardly and for the state of their persons enemies to God, and the children of the Devil; and so much the Apostle does evidently assert, Rom. 11.21. Here's a twofold Olive-tree, there is the true Olive-tree, and that is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by virtue of their Covenant, and they that were born of them are called the natural branches; and what is the wild Olive? that is all those that were out of the Church of the Jews, that were not visibly taken into Abraham's family and Covenant; so that now there is a threefold Israel of God, (1) There is natural Israel, and they are taken into Covenant for their fathers sake, as they are natural branches growing upon the good Olive-tree. (2) There is surrogated Israel, those that are grafted in, when they were broken off; therefore as the other did grow upon the root of Abraham's Covenant, so do these also, for they were gathered in, Rom. 11.17. that is, as Beza renders it, for those that were broken off; therefore as the others grow upon his root, they and their children, so do these also. (3) The Lord shall return again in mercy to his people Israel, they shall be taken in again for their parents Covenant; for they are beloved for their fathers sake, and they shall be again engrafted into their own Olive-tree; so that it has been the constant way of God's administration of the Covenant of grace, he has taken the parents into Covenant, and they being engrafted into a visible Church of God, they are grafted in as the root, and all their children are as branches growing thereupon.

2. When the parents are disinherited and cast out of the Covenant, so are the children also; therefore when the parents are taken in, the children are taken in, Rom. 11. we read of a breaking off and a grafting in. Now the breaking off and grafting in must answer to and expound one the other: now how were they natural branches? They were so called by reason of their birth, growing naturally upon Abraham the root. How were they broken off? They were rejected from being a visible Church, the Lord called them Loammi, and would own them for his people no more, deprived them of the adoption which did before belong unto them; they were formerly counted the people of God above all Nations under Heaven, but now rejected: and this the Apostle calls wrath come upon them to the uttermost: men that are members of the invisible Church cannot be broken off, their sins, though they may