We have not behaved our selves frowardly in thy Covenant.

THe Persons are now the first Branch of our Discourse, We and Thee, say they, We have not, and Not in Thy Covenant. In the Name of God then, Who are these? who are They that speak this? And who is He to whom they speak it.

We.

FOr the Speakers, whosoever they prove to be, this you shall find of them, They are the same all the Psalm through. They very first word is, We have heard, vers. 1. And so it goes on, We overthrow our Enemies, vers. 6. and, Thou savest Us, vers. 8. and, We make our boast, vers 9. And there ends the first part of the Psalm: And that's all Eucharistical, an oblation of thanks and praise, for all Blessings, Old and New.

Then begins the second part of the Psalm; and that's a Solemn Lamentation, Humbling themselves lowly under the rod. And still it holds on in the same Persons, Thou makest Us to be a by-word, ver. 15. and, Yet We do not forget Thee, ver. 18. and, Thou hast covered Us with the shaow of Death, ver. 20. and, We are counted as sheep to be slain, ver. 22.

[Page vii] And there comes in the last part of the Psalm, A holy Letany or Supplication, that all of them make for favour and mercy, Be not absent from Us for ever, ver. 23. and Why forgettest Thou Our misery? ver. 24. and Our soul is brought low, ver. 25. and Arise and help Us, ver. 26. But all the way you see, singing their Praises, or making their Submis­sion, or sending up their Petitions, still it is, We, and Us, and Our, They are all the same still.

Very well then. But yet, How shall we find it, Who they are? Surely the Psalm it self, though they be no where named there, yet has enough in it, unless I be deceived, to tell us the name of them: For will you be pleased but to mark it, that howe're the Persons be still the same, yet now and then the Number is changed for a touch or two, and then they fall in again, as before: Tis, Thou art My King O God, ver. 5. Not Our King, but My King, as if it were of One in the Singular. And tis, I will not trust in My Bow, it is not My Sword that shall save Me, ver. 7. These are in the Thanksgiving part. And so 'tis again in the Humiliation part; We, and We, and Our, and Us a great while, and then on a sudden, My confusion is daily before Me, and the shame of My Face hath covered Me, ver. 16.

Perceive you nothing then? Oh, tis plain by this, that the Church of God is the Speaker in all this Psalm, and so it comes to be We and I; First [Page viii] We in the name of all particular Persons, as so many Saints and Servants of God, and yet I, in the name of the whole Corporation, the Holy Church: As One and All; one Catholick Body, by the band of the Holy Spirit comprehending them all.

And wondrous wisely dealt they in it. They knew, they should be the welcomer to God for this: In such a multitude, and yet in such an Unity, Ecce quam bonum! Psal. 133. to be sure God would never fail them: No, says David, For there the Lord had promised his Blessing, ver 4. But what talk we of promise? Though that be e­nough for us, yet God counts it too little for Him; the word therefore indeed is, Ibi praecepit Dominus; God hath commanded his Blessings, all the Bles­sings of Life and Goodness, to attend ith' end up­on such sacred Assemblies. This for the Speakers.

Thy Covenant.

THere's no stop at all then to be made neither about the t'other Person, In pacto Tuo, who it is, that is spoken to; For the whole address (we see) is unto God; He is named at the very first; We have heard with our Ears O God, ver. 1. and afterward He is spoken to, as God, ver 5. and, as our God, ver. 21. and, as Lord, ver. 23. And had He not been named at all, yet it could be no other. For, to whom the Church makes [Page ix] her Prayers; to whom she sends up praises; to whom she ascribes the guidance of the world; under whose Hand she humbles her self; upon whose mercy she relies for help and deliverance; It can be none but God, God all in all. So now 'tis the Church of God that sayes this; And 'tis God to whom she saith it; And tis the Covenant of God of which she saith it, Neither have we beha­ved our selves frowardly in Thy Covenant.

If there be any thing then to be stood upon here, it must be but to find, which of Gods Co­venants they mean: For God, we shall find, had more Covenants then one; In several Respects, se­veral Covenants.

Pactum Providentiae.

IN respect of his Providence and the Govern­ment of the whole world: This very natural course of Day and Night, God himself calls it His Covenant of the day, and His Covenant of the night, Jerem. 33. 20 We may remember also he calls it His Covenant, the saving of Noah in the Ark, Gen. 6. 18. and That the Earth should never be de­stroyed with a Floud any more, Gen. 9. 9.

From these Generals, come we down to these in the Text, To the seed of Abraham; And very that, we shall find, is the Covenant of God: First, That Abraham should have such a seed; Five several times God terms it His Covenant, Gen. 17. [Page x] 2, 4. His everlasting Covenant, ver. 7. 19, 21.

Secondly, That this seed should inherit the Land of Canaan, that's His Covenant too, Gen. 15. 18. And not to stay there, These are the Covenants which He renewed with Isaac, Lev. 26. 45. and appoint­ed the same to Jacob for a Law, and to Israel for an ever­lasting Covenant, Psal. 105. 10.

But now, if we weigh it well, none of all these could be the Covenant of our Text; for they were not liable to the Lies and distortions of Per­verse men: 'Twas not in them, in no mans pow­er, to run counter therein, were they never so froward; no body could set themselves against those Covenants.

Leaving therefore His Covenants of this sort, which concerned God's Power alone, and His free conveyance of secular Blessings upon Men; we must look at that sort of these Covenants, that con­cerned God's Worship also, and so had a respect to the Duties, which God required His Church should perform to Him. It was possible indeed for Men to be men, and to be perverse enough in these; Of these therefore they must be under­stood to speak, when they profess on this Fashi­on, That They have not dealt perversly in His Cove­nant.

Now I might easily here enlarge again about the Particulars that were of this kind. For Co­venants he had bound them to, before Moses re­ceived [Page xi] his Law; To the Covenant of Circumcision, Gen. 17. 10. and the not observing of it was the breach of Gods Covenant, ver. 14. The Sabbath also they had before they came at Horeb, Exod. 16. 29. and it alone by it self was a perpetual Covenant to the Children of Israel, Exod. 31. 16.

Pactum Religionis.

BUt then at Sinai, when the Law came, that took in all, Sabbath, and Circumcision, and all other duties; And by this means that, above all, (especially as comprehending the Ten Com­mandments, which by themselves have the Title of His Covenant, Exod. 34. 28.) carried a­way the Name of the Covenant of God. There­fore the book of it was called the Book of the Cove­nant, Exod. 24. 7. and the very bloud that Moses sprinkled the Book with, call'd the Blood of the Covenant, ver. 8. And their walking contrary to it was made the Quarrel of avenging Gods Cove­nant, Lev. 26. 25.

What shall we need more? I should but trouble your memories, and tire you out, if I should draw you here to the several parcels of Moses Law? To shew you, that the Shewbread it self bare that stile of an everlasting Covenant, Lev 24. 8. and the very Salt of their Sacrifices termed the Salt of the Covenant of their God, Lev. 2. 13. So was the Priests portion, A Covenant of Salt for ever [Page xii] before the Lord, Numb. 18. 19. Beside the Additio­nal granted to Phineas and those after him, as a perpetual Covenant, Numb. 25. 12.

But all this may be spared; the Point we are in yet (you know) is but, what they took here for granted: And having proved, that it is the Church of God, that sayes this, of necessity it must be granted, That they had the Right worship of God among them, (Other Church there was none then in the world, and nothing could make it a right Church but that;) They had both the Rule, and the exercise of the Service of God, as he by His Law had Covenanted it with them.

Their Protestation

ANd in that, They had no way carried themselves perversely, that's now the next Part; And tis the main Drift of all the Text aymes at, the Prote­station, that Gods Church here makes.

Of which this would be noted at first, They make it not to men; Men by men may be fouly deceived, But to God himself tis made, Non in Tuo, tis to the Knower of all Hearts, and to the Judg of all men. As much as to say, Thou O God knowest that we lye not, there hath been no falshood, no frowardness in us; We have been true in, and to thy Covenant.

So, to that we come now; yet alwayes re­membring, that the Sermon now is to us, and [Page xiii] not to God: Not to tell him, what he knows so well; But to tell you from him, what he hath taught us of this matter. That so, If you find them that say it, true, By their Line you may level your selves: If wrong, yet you may see by them, where and how to mend it.

For us then, the prime Enquiry will be, For the Matter of Law; That we be not fooled with Fancies in our Religion, nor led by the nose with every false Semblance; But that out of the Laws of God we may be truly informed, what it is to be True or false in Gods Covenant.

Matter of Law.

I Pray therefore mark it, In Gods Covenant, I say onely, I do not say in any Covenant: No-tis out of our Quest that; For, such as the Cove­nant may be, The forwarder in it, the worse, and the frowarder, the better, the further from mis­chief. I know they have used a great while to tell you of a Solemn League and Covenant, as though the Name of that should carry it. Alas, poor Souls! The Solemner the League is, the Cove­nant's the more damnable, Unless it be a right, and a lawfull Covenant.

'Tis not the Name therefore that warrants a­ny thing; Nothing more usual then wrong Names and false Titles; But they must be sure the thing it self be without exception, if they [Page xiv] look to have the Name of it without Question.

Otherwise, Do not we know, that there were Covenants with Devils, such as went for the Gods of the Heathen! Exod. 23. 32. And the Prophet tells us of a Covenant with Death and Hell. Esa. 28. 15. And such Covenants as these, the frowarder in them, & the further off them, happier man be his dole, ever. As 'tis in some Diseases, the less yield­ing, the better sign, and the more peevish, the more hope of life: So to fly off from such Cove­nants with all the speed we may, is to fly from Destruction; And the sooner they are broken and quite abandoned, the sooner is our return back into Gods Covenant, and the safer we by so much; The shorter our Sin, and the surer our Salvation.

Now the word that the Holy Spirit here hath chosen, comes of Shakar, and the Hebrews by that signifie all manner of Lying and Prevaricati­on. Our search therefore here must be, whether men in the Covenant of God, that is, in their Reli­gion, or in any part of it, carry themselves thwart and contrary to it, as far as they can make a lye their Refuge, or can shelter their foul Carriage under any false pretence in it. Let it offend no body this Language, for tis not mine, but the Prophets own description, in terminis, Esay. 28. 15.

And he has another Question about it also, that would be a little thought on, Is there not a [Page xv] Lie in my Right Hand? says he, Esay 44. 20. A lie there? What means He by that? Why, because it was a Jewish Ceremony in their Covenants and Oathes, to lift up the Right Hand, by that he expresses his mind; And these false dealers in their Religion, He saith, they had so beguiled themselves, that 'twas not possible for them to free their Souls. Now God forbid: Why not? Because they never would think with themselves, Is there not a lie in my Right Hand?

A Lie then to be sure there may be there, that's once; Satanas ad dextram, as Davids curse goes, Satan at a mans right hand, Psal 109. 5. The De­vil standing there, not onely to resist the man, (as he stood by the High Priest, till the Angel took his room, Zech. 3. 1.) but to entice him, and win him to himself: And wo is me, for such poor men, so willingly bewitcht by him, as that they could ever think they did best, when that they did was but to make good a lie for him, and by making so foul a lie in their Religion, to snake hands with the Devil!

But I am onely now to lay the Law to them: The Church of the Jews, that appeals here to God against perverseness in His Covenant, does it for that, for a Legal Justification of her self from all Ly­ing, (we must use that word which the Spirit hath used) that is, from Hypocrisie and Dissem­bling, and any false carriage in the practise of their Religion. [Page xvi] Now the By-ways of that, they are many; as many almost as men; For several men have se­veral devices, to cloak their maliciousness, ever, and to put a Vizard of Godliness upon all that they do: But we must now hold to the Text onely, and not lose our selves on the By.

The High Road-ways, or (as I may say) the common Church-ways, such as a whole Church are likely to take for perverseness in their Covenant with God, that is in their Religion, are principally two: Either disclaiming the Old, and pretend­ing to another: Or, still pretending to the Old, and yet practising another.

Apostacy.

'TWas come to that pass in the Ten Tribes, when after the Calves had been up a while, Elias for evidence of their open Apostacy, charges them with these two particulars, That they had thrown down Gods Altars, and had destroyed His Pro­phets: And by these He makes his proof ('twas the Law, that he laid against them,) That they had quite forsaken the Covenant of God, 1 Reg. 19 14.

He thought indeed, that they had destroyed not the Prophets alone, but the true Professors al­so, all but Himself: Till, God told him, No; He had yet seven thousand among them, that continued stedfast in His Covenant, do they what they could. But the generalty indeed was [Page xvii] gone, carried away quite with their new Devi­ces, their New Feasts, that Moses ne're knew of, and their New Priests, no Sons of Aaron, and had all Covenanted like men, with the Calves in Bethel and Dan, 1 Reg. 12. 29.

After this, we meet with a dismal Curse also laid upon Judah, Esay 24. 6. And why? Because they also had broken the Covenant. What Covenant? The everlasting Covenant he calls it, yet meaning that of their Religion, which God expected they ne­ver should have started from. But how was that? By transgressing the Laws, says he, and changing the Ordinances. The Ordinances indeed they had a long while preserved; this therefore was down­right now, Shakar to some purpose, They of themselves to change all.

But then among them of Judah also, those few that were no such Changelings, What became of them? Oh! He became a Saviour to them! For he bears them that witness, They were children yet that would not lie, lo Ieshakar, Esay. 63. 8. that is, How ere they sinned else, very grievously, Yet they would not fail in the main of all, not forgoe the Covenant of God; God therefore is pleased to put his requital in the same phrase; Because He had promised it at first to David, lo ashaker, therefore, sayes He I will be true to them and never fail them, Psal. 89 33. How ere I shall punish them for their sins, yet Never will I break my Covenant, nor [Page xviii] change the thing that's gone out of my Lips, ver. 34. But 'tis so plain a Case this, that we need no more in it.

Hypocrisie.

THe tother is far the worse, as having the more danger in it; When they carry the lye o'that fashion; Pretend nothing but Zeal for the right Covenant of God, and yet pra­ctise nought but villany against it! And that this is it he principally aymes at, the Psalmist in­deed shews, Because withall he moves that Que­stion, If they do so, shall not God search it out? ver. 21.

Yes, to be sure, He will: Carry they it never so craftily, Do what they can, all the great Mas­ters of this Holy Lie, put what colours they list upon their Covenants, all's in vain! For yet, ther's light enough in Gods Word to discover their Hypocrisie, and Law enough there also, unless God give them Repentance, to cast them all down into the pit of Hell for it.

What a notable Precedent for this have ye in the Prophet Jeremy? God foresaw these cunning tricks in the men of Judah, and to be sure to meet with them i'th'end, He begins with them in it; He calls to the Prophet to proclaim to them Dibre haberith, the words of the Covenant, Jer. 11. 2. and to lay his Curse upon them that keep it not, ver. 3. That done, He makes him proclaim it [Page xix] over again, ver. 6. and shew them How He had plagued their Fathers for not keeping it, ver. 8.

How then? Little dream't they, that God did all this, to discover their Craft: Therefore they presently (very Holy men!) put on a good face, and combine most Religiously together, And now All as One man, They are for the Covenant, yea mary are they; So that the Prophet himself (a man rightly meaning) thought, all would have been well.

But then he presently tells us, God call'd a­gain unto Him, and told Him, They deceived Him, what ere they pretended, this of theirs was none of His Covenant, 'Twas all but Kesher, this, vers. 9. A strong Conspiracy between the Two Houses. They had indeed now subtilly made a Solemn League between those two King­domes; But the Rebellion was the greater for that, Because it carried away the poor people of God with that pretence; And thereby His Covenant, the right and true Covenant of God, was the more foully broken by them, vers. 10. So that He flatly commands the Prophet, (and that not once, but twice) Not so much as once to pray for them, vers. 14.

And how think you of this now? But this is onely to shew, how such Cases stand in Law; That's our Point; And here God himself was the Judge in it, the Prophet makes but the Re­port [Page xx] of it: But it comes home so close to us, that I doubt, all the cunning 'twixt Orkney and Silley will be able to make no other Issue in it.

For if they think to tell us, There indeed it could be other then so, not but a shameful Lie, and a very damnable Case, because all their con­spiring then was in truth, to promote the Wor­ship of Baal vers. 17. But how can that be the Case now among us? Alas, how easily is this put by? For, in competition with the Covenant of God, every thing that is not it, is Baal; Let them call it the Covenant, as much as they will, An Ingagement, or what they will nick-name it; yet 'tis an Idol; and all the Worship they give it, is flat Idolatry; no better then the Worshipping of Baal: For why? Is it not set up against God? Does it not shoulder His Covenant? sits cheek by joll with it? Yea, 'tis the thing, that's alone and principally intended by them: So they make a very Baal of it.

Let me tell them therefore, there are in the World more Baal, then one; An 'twere but a wisp, yet when they joyn it with that which belongs unto God, and couple it with His Cove­nant, Their God they make it, 'tis a Baal to them. It is not for nothing therefore, that the Scripture so often makes that word Plural; We are told of leaving God, and serving Baalim, Judg 2. 11. that is, Any thing else (that's in Divine [Page xxi] esteem with men) but God; Any thing by them set up with God, To them, that's their Baal, a privy Idol in their budget: So, that d'off will no way help them.

Of all the rest not in this matter of Covenant­ing; For howsoever they have gone to work too now, to make a wretched People willing to be cheated by them; let me give them this gift, The first Idolatry, that the People of God ever committed with any Baal, was in reference to a Covenant.

And how say you then? Does this suit right? Take another. The first Covenant that ever Gods People made (of their own heads, without Gods Deputy to lead them,) was a Covenant with Baal. And now I hope they will thank me, for I am come close home to them.

But I will not fail to make it good; For the Word of God is express in it: When Gideon was dead, they went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal Berith their God Judg. 8. 33. Baal Berith a God? Now a' Gods name, what's that? Why in plain English, 'tis the Idol of a Covenant; so Berith sig­nifies. So that for all brave Covenanters here you see, Baal is their Chief, The very first that e're twang'd that way, to be entertain'd by the Peo­ple, and to Covenant with them.

And yet for the while then, who but He? Lord! such a Racket! In all hast there must be [Page xxii] an House made for Him (a Temple forsooth, for a God) by the wise Lords of Sichem, Judg. 9. 4. And there he must have his Exchequer, to receive what came in upon the Publick Faith: And then presently upon that score, brave and jolly men, they make themselves, no less then King-makers, and out of their Treasury, they assign him an Allowance of Seventy pieces of Sil­ver for the States service. What to do? A Holy Work, you may be sure: To hire vagring Vil­lains, to go and murther seventy of his Fathers Sons, that He onely may be their King, ver. 5.

And for a few years this held on bravely; Till at last, God in Vengeance upon them all, sent an Evil Spirit between Him and his Makers, His great Masters: And what was the Issue? First, He destroyed Them and their City, ver. 45. and at once burnt the House of their God Berith, as great a God as he was, He and his Covenant went to the Fire, (who but their new General against it more then any?) and a Thousand of the chief Covenanters roasted together with it, vers. 49. And within a while after, this King of theirs had his own brains beaten out, vers. 53. and yet as short a time as he had, to make it more remarkable, he murthered himself also, by making his own Man to be his Murtherer, vers. 54 This is the Account, which the Spirit of God gives you of that Solemn League and Covenant, the first of the kind!

[Page xxiii] The Result whereof is this, That in point of Law the word it self works just nothing: To talk therefore now of a Covenant, and to look, that alone should do it, alas, 'tis but a poor piece of Sophistry; none but S. Pauls Galatians will be bewitch't by the bare Name of it; For sacred it may be, and it may be abominable. Do you not see, how the Holy Spirit used it, even when the Name of God is joyned to it? mentioning the Covenant of God, He meant the true God; But yet naming it so, The God of their Covenant, He meant a Filthy Idol.

Will you any more? Is not, I pray, the same term of Covenanting given in Scripture to the vi­lest of all Gods Enemies? The Edomites and Isma­elites, the Moabites and Hagarens; Gebal, and Am­mon, and Amalek, the Philistins, with them that dwell at Tyre; Assur also is joyned unto them. A desperate Crew! Rake all the world, and not find a worse! And now what of them? As we read it, it is, They have cast their Heads together and are confederate against Thee. Psal. 83. 5. Confederate! A word ve­ry unadvisedly (by their good leaves) here u­sed; Else, why was it then at the Reformation, turn'd out of Latin? Confederate is meerly La­tine.

But this very Berith is the word in the Psalm, They have all entered into a Covenant against Thee. You see therefore, what a goodly race of Cove­nanters [Page xxiv] then there was, and of what Date they originally be. And this above all, Baal Beri­thans they were all, The Servants of Baalim, of Idols and Devils; All in a solemn Covenant against the true God: And therefore the Spirit of God would not omit, there to set down their proper Motto also, The Sum of their Resolution what it was, Let us take to our selves the Houses of God in possession, vers. 12▪

Well then, The Law proving to be this, That Covenant there is none justifiable and good, with no Person, no People, no Nations, that is ever warrantable, unless we can truly tell God the Covenant is His, that it is Pactum Tuum, such as is in a fair Order to Him, for the true Drift of it, and for the chief right in it, and such, as He will surely own it,

Therefore, to put upon Him that, that's none of His; Or under pretence of His better Wor­ship, and purer Service, to combine for ought, that's quite contrary to His Will, But onely, because they say it is His, they will force it upon others, so to be taken, and so to be done, That this is Sheker in every degree of it, very Froward, Lying, and false dealing with God, a perverse and wicked course in all of them, opposite (less or more) to the true Covenant of God, and that the Vengeance of God will at last seize on all, that have any hand in it,

[Page xxv] The Tryal will now be no long labour; to find, for Matter of Fact, Whether their Plea here in the Psalm be true or no: Whither they for any froward carriage toward the Covenant of their God, will be found to stand Not Guilty.

But it will be a longer business though, then we can hope to end it, before the usual limitation of our Hour be ended. For be the Evidence, that will be brought, never so clear, yet they must have Time to hear it all, and liberty to ex­cept, what they can against it; They must also be heard at large, What they have to say for them­selves: God forbid else.

For any man to be accused, and he cannot tell by whom; To be impeached, and he knows not of what; Condemned, and he never heard Why, nor ever was heard, what he could say; If there be any Law to warrant such proceedings, it must be fetcht out of Scythia; If any Religion can suit with it, 'tis onely that of the Sichemites God, ycle­ped Baal Berith, The Lord of the New Covenant.

By your good leaves therefore, we will not huddle it, nor shall our Defendants in the Text be pinch't at all in Time; Here therefore wee'l now adjourn, till God give the next leisure.

Nor behave our selves frowardly, &c.

WE are now to suppose the Court set a­gain, That of our Conscience, first; And now let's but see, how the Evi­dence comes trowling in.

First, False Rumours raised; Scandals divul­ged; Jealousies fomented; Gods Anointed in his Footsteps standered.

Then, Routs approved of; Arms taken up; VVars levied; Gods VVord rejected; Gods Sword resisted.

After that, Mens properties invaded; their Persons destroyed; The Lords Vineyard rooted up; All Rights baffled; Laws supprest; The Ordinances all changed. To go no higher yet then this; Though this be far the least part of the publick outrages rushing in with a Cove­nant.

Then for a Personal Charge upon Men. Such a one (not to name him now; though who knows not many thousand such Ones?) That he might share in the booty, and patch up a mean Fortune in a few Moneths: Another, That he might save his own stake, and be out of the lash of the Common Scourge: A third, That he might curry but favour enough, to get a little Release of the Curses upon him, To comply [Page xxx] with the Times, and run along as the stream goes, [As our Psalmist elsewhere has it, With the froward to learn frowardness, Psal. 18. But their Guides from Rome, I understand, could play the good Fellows, and make a case of Conscience of it, and termed it, submitting to the present Au­thority, under whose Protection they lived;] All this, and more, abundantly proved, And yet now in a Tryal of Frowardness, will it be pos­sible for such Covenant-mongers not to be found Guilty?

But for a Defence in their Covenant, we must not but hear, what Plea they would use. For they alledge, That they had good Law for that they did: Have they not clear Precedents from Gods People of old, as so many ruled Cases, practised by Them, and never reproved by God? Well then, Christians therefore now are to do the like, for the due preserving of their Religion.

And somewhat of this they say, hath truth enough in it; There are store of Examples from Time to time in Scripture, of the Covenant of God renewed among His People. But then I must tell them, Such Examples they are all, every one of them, as if the Proceedings of our Times be applied to them, there shall need no other Judgment. 'Twill prove as vast a difference, and as vile, set them once together, as is the Picture of a Dog to the Image of a Man; Can they not [Page xxxi] relish this? Then, as is the shape of a foul Fiend to the Pourtraiture of a Blessed Angel.

1. Nothing added to Gods Covenant.

This for First, That from the first to the last, there's nothing Covenanted for in Scripture, but what was ordain'd for them from the beginning; From the beginning of their Law, which God gave them in Horeb, That was for his Worship, and all relating thereunto; and from the begin­ning of their Kingdom, unto which God had after brought them, That was for the whole Ci­vil Government; But 'twas one and the same Covenant still; None but the first, No new tricks, foisted in at pleasure with the very Ordinance of God, upon any specious pretences whatsoever.

Onely there's one Story indeed; If they mean that for their Pattern, worth our looking at it. It was of the new Samaritans, that were placed in the Room of the Captivated Israelites; The Lyons had taught them to be very godly, and so they got them a Priest, and of him they learned, how they should fear the Lord, 2 Reg. 17. 18. This was very well, was it not? Arrant Assirians of a sudden to become so very holy? And how then? So they feared the Lord, sayes that Text, ver. 32. That is, They used the right worship of the true God. But how though did they it? Here comes in the point.

Not without tricks enough of their own, with [Page xxxii] it, First, They themselves became Priest-makers: And next, 'Twas no matter Who, the meanest a­mong them would serve, and was set up to do the Sacrifice.

Well: Yet once again the Text there strikes upon the former string, and tells▪ us, that They worshipped the Lord, ver. 33. Did they so? And what would we more? Nothing: Did it not tells us withal, that there was more; For they served their own Gods too. Oh, is that it? Tis plain therefore the Holy Ghost hath set it down this, but by way of an Irony, as an Holy Scoffe upon them, Excellent worshippers of God these, That worship Him, How they list, and whom they list with Him!

So for a Conclusion in the verse follow­ing, the Holy Spirit deals plain and down right with them. They feared not the Lord, ver. 34. But is not this strange? Twice afore They feared the Lord, and now flatly, They feared not the Lord. How must this be unriddled? Tis done to our hands; The Reason follows there. Because they did it not, According to the Statutes, and Ordinances, and Law, that God had commanded at first, But be­sides the Right Covenant, ver. 38, they had thrust in what pleased them, into the new Model of their Religion. And you see how well God likes of that.

And that's the first Exception here, A Covenant [Page xxxiii] for the Religion loudly cried up, but yet suffici­ently powdered with Additionals, of Hypocri­sie, Perjury, Violence, Treason, Rebellion; And yet still must go for the Covenant of God. Find they any such medlies in Scripture, but of their good Brethren, the Samaritans?

The sway of this Point therefore still lies in Tuo. For Tuum it cannot, it will not be, none of Gods Covenant, lift they their hands ne're so high, unless the Contents of it be taken out of His will alone, He the onely Author and Dicta­tor of it, and no Compeers with Him (North, or South) in it to mingle their good pleasures with it.

The Greek word [...] also implies as much. Other words there are that do indifferently signi­fie Agreements, and Compacts, Leagues also, and Conspiracies. But Berith is never construed by these. To tell us, That Gods Covenant with us, must still be [...]. The New Testament, and the Old Testament bear no other Name but that. And therefore it is not Tuum, unless it may stand for Testamentum also. 'Tis none of that which is rightly called Gods Covenant, Psal. 105. 9. unless it may be added, that 'tis His Law, and His Everlasting Testament, vers. 10 that is, His own known Will and Testament, devised and esta­blished by Himself alone, and no sprinklings in it, cogg'd by others and foisted in for His; Much [Page xxxiv] less ever borrowed you wot where, and then obtruded, and forced upon Him, that it shall be His, whether he will or no.

2. No Covenant without Gods Deputy.

YEt there's a second Exception, worse then the first: Because, but by means of the second, the first could never be. And the ground of that is this.

In S. Scripture, there's not one of those Cove­nants to which they pretend, but was of Gods onely making and moving. As he had begun it in Horeb, there by Himself first, with his own Voice from Heaven, He gave them the Ten Commandements; And then for all the other parts of his covenant, and of the Religion, to which He bound Them, He sent it all to them by His Deputy, Moses; 'Twas He, Gods Vice­gerent, (and in place of King to them, Deut. 33. 5.) that ordered all their Covenanting with God: And so it held on in all [...]ges, No Covenant then ever heard of, but what the King, who stood above them all, as in Gods place, or who by Reason of His Absence or Age, was appointed by the Law of God to stand in the Kings place, prescribed it unto them, or imposed it upon them.

Howe're the people then had a part in the Covenant, because it was for them, and with [Page xxxv] them, yet it was but the Obeying part, mean­ing the Duty required of Them, as one told them, Vobis obsequii gloria relicta est, That was all that the people had to do with it; Upon them it was laid to see it performed; But as for the Legisla­tive part, the Authority in calling them to a Cove­nant, and in designing, what the Tenor of that Covenant (this, or that part of the Law) then should be, Mandata mea mihi, was Gods Rule ever, All the thousands of Israel had nothing to do in that part, nor were ever to meddle with it: It was Holy to the Lord that, and wholly apper­tained to the Supreme under Him.

To hear therefore now of a Covenant for Religi­on without Gods Deputy to lead it; How much more, to have it hammer'd of purpose, not one­ly against his Leading or Medling in it, but also by a Hellish Device (yet because of their Use, allowed to be Holy, and very Divine) to frame such a blessed Distinction in it, as safely thereby to commit an Horrible Rape in the presence of God, and by force to snatch from Him His Royal Authority, and to Arm His Subjects with it against His Person, and so, They to lead Him to what they list, and (at last) to the very block,) and yet must this be countenanced out of Gods Word? And must it go for His Covenant, that is so flatly against Him? Gods Covenant point blank against Gods Anointed? Blessed Lord! What Logick call they This?

[Page xxxvi] I must deal plainly. It can grow no where, but where this Covenant it self grew; There in­deed it has ever been found, what Reason soe're, and proof to the contrary, yet all the Reason, when they are at a pinch, that they regard to go by, is, It is so, Because it is so. And therefore they must, and will have it so, If a Bible in Hand, with Powder, and Shot will do it.

But you shall not trust me alone in this point. Use your own Eyes, I beseech you, while I shall bestow so much Time upon them, as to point a finger to all their Examples.

The first, I can meet with, was in Moab, more then 40. years after that in Horeb, when all the first Breed was dead, Deut. 31. 9. and then Moses in stead of God (there you have the Doer of it) He manages the business, and engages the Chil­dren, as at first he had done their Fathers, to the observing the Law of their God. There you have the Matter of it.

2. In Sechem, the same was done again, much after such a distance of Time, but the difference else, in the main, none. For the same Law it was, and 'twas Joshua now that did it. Josh. 24. 25.

3. After that, I do not light upon another, but what I acquainted you with, of Baal Be­rith, till the Covenant made in Hebron, and that seems to have been onely about the Temporal [Page xxxvii] Government; 'Twas in effect, but an Oath of Allegiance, taken in the presence of God, and David the King Himself He takes it of them, 2 Sam. 5▪

4. The next was at Jerusalem, and it was one­ly about the Religion; At which they were all to swear solemnly, To seek the Lord, that was, To worship Him onely, upon pain of Death, as the Law of old was: But Asa the King He renewed it now, and put it upon them, 2 Par. 15. 9.

5 Another after it there was at Jerusalem, and it was of both, both for the Religion, for the An­cient Worship of God, (for Baals Religion had been interloping) and for their Obedience to their true King Joash; He was but a Child indeed, not seven years old, and Athaliah had usurped the Throne; But yet all was now in his Name, and his Right, and done all by Jehoiada his Uncle, who was the High-Priest, and the Kings High Pro­tector, 2 Reg. 11. 17.

6, Hezekiah's Covenant followed next. And to that the King first assembles all the Priests and the Levites, and gives them in charge to sanctifie themselves, and to purge the Temple, (for much pollution there had been) and to set all things right there, for the right Service of God. And the Reason he gives them is, For it is in my heart to make the Covenant for the Lord, 2 Par. 29. 10. And to that purpose he calls the whole Kingdome to­gether. 2 Par. 30. 1.

[Page xxxviii] 7. Shall we need any more? There's one Example yet, in a Time none of the orderlyest, when Jerusalem was beset with the Army of Ba­bilon, Jer. 34. 7. and what was that? A Cove­nant, as the present occasion then gave them, of renewing one point of their Law long disused, and Zedekiah the King was he that did it ver. 8.

8. And one more yet: For after the return from Captivity, there's an Oath made by all Is­rael, for performance of another particular, then most necessary: And who was the Authour of that? The people, if ever, now surely. No; 'Twas Ezra the Priest, but as a Commissioner, come into the Land, with Authority from Ar­taxerxes the great King, and so he takes it in hand, when Shecaniah, a Prince of the blood Royal, (but, in no Commission) by moving him earnestly to it, acknowledges, That it was not lawfull for any of them, for all of them, to set upon it without Him: [ Arise, saith he, because this matter belongs to thee, and we are to be ordered by thee; But be thou couragious and do it.] Ezra. 10. 3. & 4.

9. And that I may not seem to balk any, Take one more yet, that has not the word of a Cove­nant in it, but in Truth it amounts to no less, an Oath with a Curse upon them all, if they do not the Law, that God had prescribed them, Nehem. 10. 29. wherein He as the Tirshatha (the Su­pream [Page xxxix] Governour in Commission) is the Leader of all. ver. 1.

And now, I think, I have left out none: Let this Covenanting Generation come now, and bring out their Baal Berith, that Idol Covenant; And say, which of these is the Copy they pretend to go by, for an Example in S. Scripture.

Will they be able to shew you, they have put nothing in their Covenant, but what was there of old, to be readily found in the Word and Will of God? Or rather, clean contrary, very much of it, such as God abhorrs, so flat against God­liness, Loyalty, Justice, and Truth?

Was God also at the making of it? Which of them sate at the Tables head for Him: Who was Gods Deputy in it? What was His Name, that had power to call them to it, and to require it of them? Well! Let them look to their Copy a little better; For Covenant of God it will never be, whose soever it proves to be, unless these two Conditions, The plain Will of God, and the Right Officer under God, both be clearly in it.

3. All honest Covenants, are Gods.

Though I do not look, such Zelots as they are, should leave clamouring still for their Covenant, in that I spy another starting hole they have yet. For Agreements between man and man, private Covenants, touching Ordinary [Page xl] things, are in S. Scripture stiled, The Covenant of God. And shall not then a consent of all the People be Sacred? The Resolution of whole Nations much more be counted so, and without any Question be set upon Gods score?

And the Truth is, this they say, hath not a little truth in it. For that Covenant which Jona­than and David entred into 1 Sam. 18. 3, David himself sayes, 'twas the Covenant of the Lord, 1 Sam. 20. 8. The Ordinary Contract also, which every Wife made with her Husband, (who is to the Wife ever in Gods stead,) 'twas the Covenant of her God, Prov. 2. 17.

Nay, we will come home to them; A League, that the men of Tyre, Heathen men, (mark that;) had made with the Jewes, God ownes it so, that he acknowledges it for a Brotherly Cove­nant, (lo ye there) and will avenge the breach of it, Amos 2, 9. And that Oath which the King of Babylon had put upon the King of Judah, of Fealty to Him, when he revolted from it, God was so highly displeased, that He (to make it surer) took His Oath, [ As I live, sayes the Lord, my Oath, which he hath despised, and my Covenant which he hath broken, (Mine, and Mine, All now was Gods,) will I recompence upon his own Head.] Ezech. 17. 19.

By the way then upon this, shall we not de­sire, that our godly Brethren would shew us, whether he be the same God, still? If he be, [Page xli] Then how go they to work with this God, or what order have they taken with him, about their Oathes of Supremacy, and of Allegiance, of Cano­nical Obedience also, and sundry other Bonds they were in by Local Statutes upon those Prefer­ments, and Offices, that he had brought them to? I but ask them this by the way.

Now the Reason of all this, what is it, but thus? Because every Covenant, be it but pri­vate, between man and man, be it also with whom it will be (with a Jew, or a Turk; that's all one, by all their leaves, that would perswade you otherwise, both at Rome and here;) Yet if it be broken, there lies a Complaint to God about it, Psal. 55. 21. For supposing the thing agreed upon to be in it self Just and Law­full, (In Re Licitâ, So Lawfull, as that Well and Rightly it may be done; How much more, if it be Res Debita, So Due, as that of Right it ought to be done!) 'Tis not onely a Branch of the Law of God, as a Quil out of that wing, and in that Rela­tion entitles God to it;

But also, seeing the Parties were agreed to call God to it, (and call him they did at the making of it,) both as a witness in it, and as the Judge of it, and also as th' Avenger for it, thus all honest Covenants come to be Gods; Let but the matter be Justifiable and Due, have Truth and Honesty in it▪ and whose bargain so e're it be, or where­soe're [Page xlii] it be driven, be it but in a Scriveners shop, nay under a Hedg, (as Jonathan's and David's was little other, 1 Sam. 23. 16.) yet it binds, because of the Power and Presence of God.

But 'oth' tother side, if the matter agreed up­on be naught and Illegal, carry it any Iniquity folded up in it, 'tis never good then from the beginning, far enough from having any Interest in God, ne're hope for't, there's no beguiling of him, all the Combining in the world cannot make God their Pandar. No, All in that kind is but Vinculum Iniquitatis, and the more So­lemnity or Admixture of Holy Forms, the worse the business ever, and the sooner must men re­pent, and utterly forsake it. For 'tis no better then, then what's usually to be found in Stan­gate-hole, or on Shooters Hill; No circumstan­ces of Time, or Place, or Persons, or Manner, or a­ny thing else, can hallow it.

But then over and above all this, 'Tis another thing quite, when tis ordained to carry a So­lemnity between God, and men, ayming at any Publick Obligement of themselves unto God. For there, be they never so many, the People are all but one Party still, there's but one side, yet; So all this while tis a Covenant with no Body, till God make himself a Party; Some body therefore must be there for Him, for God.

And then, for the best of our Brethren (wo [Page xliii] is me for them; They are indeed Hail fellow with God in too many things;) to make ac­count, that they have him at a whistle, and can force God, to make one at it, whether He will or no, or when they would have Him, if they do but hold up a finger; By their good leaves, this falls under that of David, The Fool said in his heart, Non Deus. Psal. 14. 1. 'Tis to make Him their Drudge, and not their God; No God, such a one, be bold on't, but a Servant, so mean and vile a servant, that an honest mans slave would be loath to change with him.

Make no other Account therefore, but that the Verdict here must needs go against them; 'Twill be found Frowardly and Falsly, more then enough, and cast they will be (all the sort of them) for perverse carriage in the Covenant of God.

Time was, I find, when the Prophet would have been content, if he might, to have excused such another company of them; But on no side could he look, that it proved not False play, every way: He is forced therefore to give it over, and to find the Bill, Though they swear, The Lord liveth, yet to be sure, they swear falsly, sayes he, Jer. 5. 2. How so? Because what they swear, much of it is that, that is false, the rest, is that they mean to make false.

Howbeit then, afore it come to that, here's a step in the Text, that must well be look't to. For [Page xliv] in any matter of our Duty to God and Man, suppose it our Allegiance, or any other due O­bedience, Know we must, 'tis a spice of Froward­ness, not to be forward, not toward ever, and zealously ready to perform our Duty, so bent upon it, that we need not fear to appeal unto God about it.

Much more then savours it of extreme unto­wardness, to seek excuses, or delayes in it, and to be ready to take any diversions from it, or occa­sions against it: But then, of all the rest, to pre­tend hotly to it, and yet to go quite another way; When they make a Solemn Covenant for it, and needs will pull God in to be a party, then to swear falsly, this the Prophet calls, Judgment spring­ing up as Hemlock, Hos. 10. 4. And his meaning is, No Venome so abominable, and gross as this, So that 'twill be impossible to escape the Judg­ment.

How to be known, this.

BUt how then? Where are we now? Will any plead Ignorance in it? Will they alledge, That that they do in it, being commonly and loudly cry'd up for the Covenant of God, And that, not in the Streets alone by a Rabble, but amidst the Sages, and the Common-Councils; Nay, the very Pulpits of those, that ever bare their Heads for mighty Prophets among them, sound­ing [Page xlv] out nothing else continually, but the Goodness of the Cause, and the Curse upon Meroz, Judg. 5. 23. Damnation to them, that joyned not in such a Duty, How should other Men be able to Judge it? Which way should one of a Thousand a­mong the People be able to tell himself, Whether it were the Covenant of God or no?

All this hath fully been resolved already, by those two infallible Marks, First, If it have any thing else in it, that is not to be had out of the Word and Will of God, by a Clear Consequence from it. Next, if it be a Headless piece, and Gods Vicegerent, His true Deputy, be not the Stipulator for God, and the Leader in it. And though the former of these two may be thought too deep for e'ry one to skill of, yet the second is plain enough, and he that has but half an Eye may easily discover it.

But what shall we need to go further then the Text for it? I pray do but mark that. The care of Gods Church there, is, To clear her self to God, from Perversness, from all that may be called Lying, and froward dealing in His Covenant. Well and good then; If Gods Covenant be such, so pure and holy, that it may not abide any Lying, upon no terms endure any frowardness of ours, or per­verse behaviour in us, so much as to be mingled with it, To build upon it then, absolutely in it self, there can be no such matter, No froward [Page xlvi] dealing must there ever be, no false meaning at all in it, or else Covenant it must be none of Gods.

Put it upon that Issue then, let the good Peo­ple of God look but to that, and go no further; Leaving them all their Sophistry and Pulpit slights, examine you no more but that. Say then, Find you false pretending in it? (You have had it long enough, to know it throughly.) Is any thing said there, in that Covenant, that you see is not, never was, intended? Find you any Lying at all, either in the Device, or in the Carriage of it? Is one thing said, and quite another thing done? Go to then, This is enough. For, if so, then this is Falsly and Frowardly, to be sure : And by this then 'tis clear, that 'tis none of Gods Covenant. Now this every man of you is able to discover, that can but tell Twenty.

I must be bold therefore to tell you; He that sees it not, it is not for want of Eyes, nor for want of Light, (either of these indeed would be some excuse,) but 'tis for want of Will one­ly. As our Saviour hath turned it out of the Prophet, Their Eyes are shut, sayes He, Esay 6. 9. But they themselves have shut them, sayes Christ, Matth. 13. 15. And why? Because the god of this world hath blinded their minds, saith S. Paul, 2 Cor. 4. 4. There's the business; And now, rather then not enjoy this world; that God shall content them, a God he is there called, and now be the [Page xlvii] Covenant what it will be, so that upon any report God be there, They will look for no other God in it, least otherwise the Crosses of this world should betide them for it.

But then, this also is point blank against the Text. For that begins, And though all this be come upon us, yet do we not forget thee, nor behave our selves frowardly in thy Covenant. No play false with God they would not, to ease themselves of any misery that was fallen upon them : Much less, had they already done it, to prevent the coming of it; Least of all, onely for filthy lucres sake, to make themselves gainers and to suck advanta­ges out of the milk of any other Covenant.

Pactum Iuum, therefore they were still able to say to God, and not Pactum Nostrum? They knew no other Covenant, but His. But that, they so well knew to be His, Given by Him alone, and not taken up by men (no new Humane, Forgery shall I call it? or rather idolatry, made, as Idols use ever to be, after some resemblance of Gods Co­venant, and coloured very like it?) that they would be able to give him a true account of His own, and of their upright dealings in it.

Yet I would now pray you, to mark that also, that In Pacto Tuo, is all they say : they pretend to no more; It is no Pharisaical brag of them this, as who should say, their doings were quite without Sin, or, that they would justifie all [Page xlviii] their wayes before God; Far be it from them, to have any such thought▪ No? 'Tis onely in­tended here, as concerning the point of their Al­legiance, and of their Worshipping of God aright.

You may trace it out by this; For nothing carries the Name of God so much, and so kindly, as those two do, The worship of God, and Gods Vice­gerent. Now they presently expound themselves so; That they had not forgotten the Name of their God, ver. 21. Their meaning therefore here must needs be, That to the Rule of his Worship, which was given them in His Name, Or to that Authority, which bare His Name, and had given the Rule, they could never be brought to shew any froward­ness.

And from hence those three Children of God, no doubt, drew their pattern. Charged indeed they were upon grievous pains to forgoe the right Worship of God, and to do as others did, to wor­ship the New Image, that was all of gold, Dan 3. 10. But these golden pretences could not work upon them; Their answer therefore was ready, Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and He will deliver us; That was well, if they were sure of that part: But if not, be it known, we will not worship any new Image, whatsoever come of it. An Holy and a brave Resolution this! But no more then is due from all Gods Servants, in any such tryals, nothing must make them transgress that [Page xlix] Covenant which they were in, for their serving of God; If God by himself, or by his second self the King, call'd for no altering, they were ne­ver to endure any, much less, to induce any.

And what we say of our Religion, must still be taken of our Allegiance also; They ever go toge­ther; And Alterations there may be in both, No body sayes to the contrary. But then, 'tis God alone, and not man, that must alter them. It was for nothing else, that God, after he had changed the Government of Israel from one form to another, till at last he had brought it to Kings, and in that course had once removed it too, from Saul to David, yet then He set up his rest, and to tell them so, He term'd it His Covenant, Psalm. 89. 3. I have made it a Covenant with my servant David, and his seed after him, to last for ever.

And this it was, that made David's great Grand­child Abiah, to chalenge it by the Right of God, as given to David, and to his sons by a Covenant of salt, 2 Par. 13. 5. That Abiah was not ith' right though, and that his Argument held not, it was Because God himself had there made the Division of the Kingdoms, and had sent one Prophet to foretel it, 1 Reg. 11. 35. and another after to warrant it, The thing is done by me, 2 Par. 11. 4.

But otherwise, by man it could never else have been done rightly, nor would it ever have held; No man, not all the men in the Kingdom (what­soever [Page l] is told you of the Power of the People, by those that worship that many headed Monster) had Power or Authority to alter that Covenant of God with David, more then they had to alter his Covenant of the Day and the Night in their Seasons, sayes God himself, if men would believe him, Jerem. 33. 21. They were never to meddle with it, unless God himself gave order expresly in it.

You shall find it so in the forenamed Psalm, There 'tis, My Covenant with David, Psal. 89. 3. and My Covenant shall stand fast with him. ver. 29. and My Covenant will I not break, ver. 34. and who dare now go contrary? And yet at last we hear of him, Thou art displeased at him, and thou hast bro­ken the Covenant of thy Servant, ver. 38. Yes, Thou hast! God may do it, No man denies that; But the men that do it without order from God, Howe'ere they make the Success of their Sin to be a sign of Gods Will, Out alas, 'tis no such mat­ter, 'Tis but a Lie in His Covenant all they do, and the men of Belial they are for it, and God will not suffer them to go unavenged, (first or last,) that do it: No, nor them neither (I fear me) that suffer it, and yield to have other men do it.

And I could now shew you the like of the Ho­ly Priesthood also, For God is in Covenant likewise with them, and His Covenant with them is by Himself (once and again) set in the same equi­page with his Covenant of the Kingdom, and with [Page li] his Covenant of the day and night, Jer. 33. 22. And had it not been ever meant so, it had been but an odd Farewell, that the Blessed Son of God (when he had now altered the Priesthood, as he had Power to do) took off his twelve Apostles; For Loe I am with you alway unto the end of the world, are the last words He sayes to them, Math. 28. 20.

But loe, By your leave, you shall not, Sir, have the brave Baal Berithans, your new Covenan­ters sworn, if men will but rightly conster them : For to be with Them to the end of the world, Christ could not mean it, not with the Apostles them­selves, That was impossible, but in their Succes­sors; And the Successors of the Apostles were those, whom the Apostles themselves called Bi­shops, with whom the Apostles left the Power of Ego mitto Vos, of continuing that Order, or of Subordaining any New. And concerning the Bishops, you know what the Covenanters have sworn, and in very that, have forsworn suffici­ently.

But I make no stay at this, though I thought it not unfit to cast it in, onely by the way, because of their word Covenant, that you might have a taste of all the Covenants of God, and of these mens Counter-Covenanting. But I have another-gates Covenant now to conclude all with.

Full well therefore may this Covenant in the Text be said to concern the King, Gods Secular Mi­nister, [Page lii] and the Priest, Gods Spiritual Minister, when as Christ himself, (the Son of God; He, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, the Author of all our Religion, our great High Priest, and the Bishop or our Souls, the very root there­fore of all Episcopacy, which they shall never be able to root out, howe're they may some­times lopp of His Branches, He that is the Ma­ker of all that are His to be Kings and Priests unto God his Father, Apoc. 1. 6.) is Himself the very Covenant, for all those that belong unto God.

Think not strange of this, I can shew you the very Charter of it, and 'tis worthy your look­ing on. It begins in a most Solemn and Divine Form, Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the Heavens, and stretched them out, that spreadeth forth the Earth, and all that comes out of it; That giveth Breath to all People upon it, and Spirit to all that walk therein; I the Lord have called Thee in Righteousness, and I will take Thee by thy Hand, and will preserve Thee, and will give Thee for a Covenant to the People, for a Light to the Gentiles. Esay 42. 5, 6. And lest that should not stick with them▪ again he is at it, In an acceptable time, and in the day of Salvation, will I give Thee for a Covenant of the People. Esay 49. 8. Now we have S. Pauls warrant, That time was then, when Christ was given, 2 Cor. 6 2.

There are of the succeeding Prophets also ex­press in it. By Jeremy the Record of it is at large [Page liii] set down, under the Title of a New Covenant, Jer: 31. 31. And that he means it all of the New Co­venant Christ, is clear by the Apostles recital of it, Heb. 8. 8. Then, it was a New one : But ever it was to be New, because to last Eternally, never no other Covenant to be after It, after Christ.

And so likewise Ezekiel, after many Heaven­ly Amplifications of it, and exclusive all to the old Covenant, Ezek. 16. 61, He reduces it all in­to this Personal Aphorisme, I will be their God, and they shall be my People, Ezek 37. 27. And that this also is all meant of Christ himself, the same A­postle informs us, 2 Cor. 6. 16.

For the Love of God then, I beseech you all, have some care of your Souls, and be not thus fooled out of them. Away with all other De­vices, All these Baal Beriths, these Idol, new-fan­gled Covenants; Avant All, but the Covenant of Grace in Christ.

And in the Ministration of It, what alterati­ons at any Time are needful, doubt it not, but God is more mindful, then You; and when He sees Time, that God (that when need was, did put it into that way, that so long you had then forgotten, into the Heart of His Deputy the King, and of his Bishops at the Reformation, to do it:) is the same God still, the God of his Church : And needs no Aerian Presbyters now, to lift up a lying Hand▪ because God is asleep, to waken Him. [Page liv] No, God is awake in His Holy Temple, and howe're he seems to wink a while, yet they will find, that He sees through all, Et palpebrae ejus in­terrogant, Psal. 11. 5. His very Eye-lids try the Children of Men.

Hold we onely therefore to this sure Covenant of God, that, in it self (we are sure) is Christ, and as to us, 'tis with Christ, in Christ, and for Christ, and Christ (to be sure) will see well enough to it, without any of these new (bold, and blind,) Seers.

Be we therefore All in All alone for Christ, for our Anointed Lord, and for the Lords Anointed, Ta­king Care for nothing else, but not to behave our selves perversely in this Covenant, no way to be fro­ward and untoward to Him. Of all the rest, not to put such foul scorns upon Him, as if He needed our Lying, and could not well be God any longer, without our abominable Dissembling, which was the Badge that Christ put upon the old Phari­saisme, and is the very Soul of that new Scotish Covenant. [Now God be merciful unto them all, that lie but within the Shadow of it. Amen.