mercy, secured by a covenant, and a firm covenant secured by an oath"; that we, who, like Gideon, are apt to call for sign upon sign, and to stagger and be disheartened, if we have not double security from God; we, whose doubting calls for promise upon promise, as our ignorance doth for precept upon precept, may, by "two immutable things, wherein it is impossible for God to lie, have strong consolation." Now if God, whose gifts are free, bind himself to bestow them by his promise; if God, whose promises are sure, bind himself to perform them by his oath: how much more are we bound to tie ourselves by covenant unto God, to do those things which are our duty to do; unto the doing whereof we have such infirm principles, as are a mutable will, and an unsteadfast heart.

For the latter, our relation unto him, we are his, not only by a property founded in his sovereign power and dominion over us, as our Maker, Lord, and Saviour; but by a property growing out of our own voluntary consent, whereby we surrender, and yield, and give up ourselves unto God. We are not only his people, but his willing people, by the intervention of our own consent. 'We give him our hand' (as the expression is ) which is an allusion to the manner of covenants or engagements. We offer up ourselves as a free oblation, and are thereupon called " a kind of first-fruits "." We are his; the wife is her husband's . Now such an interest as this, ever presupposeth a contract. As in ancient forms of stipulation, there was asking and answering, "Spondes? Spondeo. Promittis? Promitto. Dabis? Dabo :"—as in contract of marriage, the mutual consent is asked and given; so is it here between God and the soul; the covenant is mutual. He promiseth mercy to be "our exceeding great reward;" and we promise obedience, to be his "willing people;" and usually according as is the proportion of

u Deut. vii. 12. Luke i, 72, 73. Heb. vi. 17, 18. * Psalm c. 3. 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. y Rom. vi. 19. 2 Cor. viii. 5. z Psalm cx. 3. a 2 Chron. xxx. 8. b Emittere manum est cautionem sive chirographum dare: ff. de probat. et presumpt. 1. 15.-Junge ergo manus, et concipe fœdus: Statius.Heus ubi pacta fides, commissa que dextera dextræ? Ovid.-Justinian. Institut. de verborum obligat. Sect. 1. 1. 3. ff. de Obligat. et Action. Sect. 2.-Prov. vi. 1, 17, 18. Ezek. xvii. 18. c Rom. xv. 16. d James i. 18. e Hos. ii. 19. Ezek. xvi. 8. f Gen. xxiv. 58. g Gen. xvii. 2.

strength in our faith to believe God's promises of mercy to us, such is also the proportion of care in our obedience to perform our promises of duty unto him.

SECT. 5. II. From ourselves. And here covenants are needful in two respects. 1. In regard of the falseness and deceitfulness of our corrupt hearts in all spiritual duties. The more cunning a sophister is to evade an argument, the more close and pressing we frame it :-the more vigilant a prisoner to make an escape, the stronger guard we keep upon him. Our hearts are exceeding apt to be false with God: one while, they melt into promises and resolutions of obedience, as Pharaoh and Israel did; and presently forget and harden again. Lot's wife goes out of Sodom for fear of the judgements, but quickly looks back again, out of love to the place, or some other curiosity and distemper of mind. Saul relents towards David, and quickly after persecutes him again. This is the true picture of man's heart i under a strong conviction, or in a pang of devotion, or in time either of sickness, or some pressing affliction: on the rack, in the furnace, under the rod, nothing then but vows of better obedience; all which do oftentimes dry suddenly away like a morning dew, and wither away like Jonah's gourd. Therefore, both to acknowledge, and prevent this miserable perfidiousness of such revolting hearts, it is very needful to bind them unto God with renewed covenants: and since they are so apt, with Jonah, to run away, and start aside, to neglect Nineveh, and to flee to Tarshish, necessary is it to find them out, and to bring them home, and, as David did, to fix and fasten them to their business, that they may not run away any more.

2. In regard of the natural sluggishness, which is in us, unto duty. We are apt to faint and be weary, when we meet with any unexpected difficulties in God's service; to esteem the wilderness as bad as Egypt; to sit down as Hagar did, and cry, to think that half-way to Heaven is far enough, and almost a Christian progress enough; that baking on one side will make the cake good enough; that God will

Psalm lxxviii. 34, 37. h1 Sam. xxiv. 17, 19. i Inversâ occasione, ebullire saniem quæ latebat in ulcere, et excisam, non extirpatam, arborem in sylvam pullulare videas densiorem. Bern. Serm. 2. in Assump. Mariæ. Psalm lvii. 7.

m

accept of bankrupt-payment, a noble in the pound, part of our hearts and duties for all. We must sometimes venture to leap the hedge, for there is "a lion in the way." Now to correct this torpor, this acedia, and ỏxıyoşuxla, as the apostle calls it1; this pusillanimity and faint-heartedness in God's service, we must bind them on ourselves with renewed covenants, and put the more strength because of the bluntness of the iron ". A covenant doth, as it were, twist the cords of the law, and double the precept upon the soul. When it is only a precept, then God alone commands it: but when I have made it a promise, then I command it, and bind it upon myself. The more feeble our hands and knees are, the more care we should have to bind and strengthen them, that we may lift them up speedily, and keep them straight and the way hereunto is to come to David's resolution, "I have purposed, that my mouth shall not transgress P." Empty velleities, wishings, and wouldings will not keep weak faculties together. Broken bones must have strong hands to close them fast again. A crazy piece of building must be cramped with iron bars, to keep it from tottering. So if we would indeed cleave to the Lord, we must bring purposes of heart, and strong resolutions to enable us thereunto 9. Cleaving will call for swearing'. As it should be our prayer, so also our purpose, to have hearts "united to fear God's names:" whence the phrases of" preparing, fixing, confirming, establishing, rooting, grounding," and other like, so frequently occurring in the Scripture'.

:

SECT. 6. III. From our brethren, that by an holy association and spiritual confederacy in heavenly resolutions, every man's example may quicken his brother, and so duties be performed with more vigour and fervency, and return with the greater blessings. If fire be in a whole pile of wood, every stick will burn the brighter; the greenest wood that is, will take fire in so general a flame. Men usually have more courage in the body of an army, where concurrent shoutings and encouragements do, as it were, infuse mutual

1 Masora sepes legi: decimæ divitiis; vota sanctimoniæ: silentium sapientiæ. n Eccles. x. 10. r Deut. x. 20.

Pirke Aboth.

P Psalm xvii. 3.

m 1 Thes. v. 14.

t2 Chron. xxx. 19.

q Acts xi. 23.

• Heb. xii. 12, 13. Psalm lxxxvi. 11.

1 Chron. xxix. 18. Ephes. iii. 17. Heb. xii. 9. James v. 8.

spirits into one another, than when they are alone by themselves. David rejoiced in but recounting the companies and armies of God's people, when they went up to Jerusalem in their solemn feasts ". And therefore most covenants in 'scripture were general and public, solemnly entered into by a great body of people, as that of Asa, Josiah, and Nehemiah; the forwardness of every man whetting the face of his neighbour *.

y

SECT. 7. IV. From the multitudes, strength, vigilancy, malice, assiduous attempts of our spiritual enemies, which call upon us for the stronger and more united resolutions. For common adversaries usually gain more by our faintness and divisions, than by their own strength. Therefore soldiers use to take an oath of fidelity towards their country and service. And Hannibal's father made him take a solemn oath, to maintain perpetual hostility with Rome. Such an oath have all Christ's soldiers taken ; and do, at the Lord's supper and in solemu humiliations, virtually renew the same, never to hold intelligence or correspondence with any of his enemies.

The first thing in a Christian man's armour, mentioned by the apostle, Ephes. vi. 14, is "the girdle," that which binds on all the other armour (for so we read of girding on armour ), and that there is "truth" which we may understand either doctrinally, for steadfastness and stability of judgement in the doctrine of Christ, which we profess; not being "carried about with every wind of doctrine, but holding fast the form of sound words, knowing whom we

* Prov. xxvii. 17.

Psal. lxxxiv. 7, * Μήτε ἀπολείψειν τὰ σημεῖα, μήτε άλλο πράξαι μηδὲν ἐναντίον τῷ δημῷ. Dionys. Halicarnas. 1. 10. Ποιήσειν τὸ προσταττόμενον ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀρχόντων κατὰ δύναμιν. Polyb. 6. Vid. Veget. de Re Milit. lib. 2.-Tertul. de Corona Mil. c. 11. 1. 2.-ff. de his qui notantur infamia; Sect. Miles;' et notas Gothofridi in 1. 2. ff. de Veteranis. Lipsii not. ad lib. 15. Annal. Tacit.-Præmia nunc alia atque alia emolumenta notemus Sacramentorum: Juvenal. Satir. 16.-Lips. -de Milit. Rom. lib. 1. Dialog. 6. z Liv. lib. 35.-Appian. in Iberico et Libyco.-Polyb. 1. 3.-Tertul. Apolog. c. 8.-FloTus, lib. 4. a Vid. Tertul. de Coron. Milit, cap. 11. b'Cingere' est 'militare,' apud Plautum : omnes qui militant, cincti sunt. Servius in 1. 8. Æneid. Unde cingulum Marti sacrum, teste Homero, Iliad. 2.-Et 'stare discinctum erat pœnæ militaris genus. Sueton. in Aug.—Vid. 1. 25. 38. et 43. ff. de Testamento miLitis Suid. Ζώννυσθαι est καθοπλίζεσθαι et Ζὼν δύναμις : unde dicitur Deus • Balteam regum dissolvere,' Job xii. 18.-Vid. Stuck. Antiq. Conviv.l. 2. c. 19. et Pined. in Job xii. 18.-Tolet. Annot. 62. in Luc. 12. c Judg. xyiii. 11. 1 Kings xx. 11.

believe, and having certainty of the things wherein we have been instructed;"-or else morally and practically, for steadfastness of heart, in the faithful discharge of those promises which we have made unto God (for so faithfulness is compared to a girdle ), whereby we are preserved from shrinking and tergiversation,-in times of trial, and in our spiritual warfare. And this faithfulness, the more it is in solemn covenants renewed, the stronger it must needs be, and the better able to bind all our other arms upon. Christ's enemies will enter into covenants and combinations against him and his church. And our own lusts within us, will, many times, draw from us oaths and obligations to the fulfilling of them, and make them vincula iniquitatis,' contrary to the nature of an oath h. How much more careful should we be to bind ourselves unto God, that our resolutions may be the stronger and more united, against so many and confederate enemies!

SECT. 8. This point serveth, First, For a just reproof of those, who are so far from entering into covenant with God, that indeed they make covenants with Satan, his greatest enemy; and do in their conversations, as it were, abuse those promises, and blot out that subscription, and tear off that seal of solemn profession, which they had so often set unto the covenant of obedience. Such as those, who, in the prophet's time, were "at an agreement with hell and the grave." Men are apt to think, that none but witches are in covenant with the devil; because such are, in the scripture, said to "consult familiar spirits." But as Samuel said to Saul, "Rebellion is as witchcraft';" every stubborn and presumptuous sinner hath so much of witchcraft in him, as to hold a kind of spiritual compact with the devil. We read of the serpent and

d Ephes. iv. 14. 2 Tim. i. 12, 13. Luke i. 4. e Isai. xi. 5. f Psalm ii. 2. lxiv. 5, 6. lxxxiii. 5, 8. Acts xxiii. 12. Jer. xi. 9. • Καὶ τούς γε πρώτους αὐτῶν δυνατωτάτους ἐς ἀθεμίτων ὁρκωμοσιῶν ἀναγκὴν προσήγαγε. παῖδα γάρ τινα καταθύσας, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν σπλάγχνων αὐτοῦ τὰ ὅρκια ποιήσας, ἔπειτα koπλáyxvevσev avtà μetà tôv ăλλwv. Dion. de Catilina 1. 37.-Ita se ad Romanæ sedis obedientiam obligant Archiepiscopi, cum pallium accipiunt. Decret. Greg. de election. c. 1. et ad Consilii Tridentini doctrinam Jesuitæ in voto Professionis Hopinian. Hist. Jesuit. fol. 57.—Et Hubaldus quidam apud Augustinum juravit -se nec matri nec fratribus necessaria subministraturum; c. 12. quæst. 4. c.—Inter cætera vid. Eus. Hist. Eccles. 1. 6. c. 8. h1 Kings xix 2. Mark vi. 23. 11 Sam. xv. 53.

i Isai. xxviii. 15.

* Deut. xviii. 11.