The Covenants And The Covenanters / Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation

by Unknown

Secondly, "The beauties of holiness." Consider here that as holiness is necessar for the saints of God, so all God's courtiers they are full of beauty. God Himself is full of beauty, and we have no power, beauty nor holiness but in His power, beauty, and holiness. Holiness, it is the beauty of the Son of God, Jesus Christ; and to Him it is said in Esay, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty": and the Holy Ghost has this style to be called Holy. And the angels in heaven, they are clothed with holiness; and the saints who are in heaven, this is the long white robes wherewith they are clothed. And they who are begun to be sanctified here, they strive to be more and more clad with holiness. Beloved, I would have you to count this to be your beauty, even holiness; for if ye have not this beauty, then all your other beauty will degenerate in a bastard beauty.

Now follows the marvellous multiplication of thir people. "From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth." The words are somewhat obscure even to the learned ear, but look to the 133d Psalm, and there ye will see a place to help to clear them. Always (however) observe here, "from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth," that as in a May morning, when there is no extremity of heat, the dew falls so thick that all the fields are covered with it, and it falls in such a secret manner that none sees it fall, so the Lord, in the day of His power, He sall multiply His people, and He sall multiply them in a secret manner; so that it is marvellous to the world, that once there should seem to be so few or none of them, and then incontinent He should make them to be through all estates.

We have first to learn here, that the Kirk of God, she has a morning; and in the morning the dew falls, and not in the night, nor in the heat of the day. So it is not in the night of defection, nor in the heat of the day of persecution, when the Lord's people are multiplied, but it is in the morning of the day. Beloved, I wish you may be a discerning people, to know the Lord's seasons. Sall we be as those, of whom our Saviour complains, who can discern the face of the sky, but cannot discern the day of the Lord's merciful and gracious visitation towards them? Men indeed may be very learned and know things very well, and yet in the meantime be but ignorant of this; for there are sundry gifts bestowed upon men, and ilk are has not this gift, to discern the Lord's merciful visitation. And therefore happy are ye, albeit ye be not great in other gifts, if so be that ye know this; for the Lord, He has some gifts of His own bestowing allanerly (only), whilk He will bestow upon the meanest, and yet He will deny them to the proudest; even as the tops of the mountains, they will be dry and have no dew, while as the valleys will be wet with it. So those who exalts themselves high, and boasts themselves of their other gifts, of their knowledge, learning, experience, &c., the Lord will, for all that, ofttimes leave them void of saving and sanctifying grace.

"From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth." That is, as the dew is multiplied upon the earth, so sall thy people be. This is are ordinar phrase in Scripture. Hushai says to Absalom, "Convene the people from Dan to Beersheba, and then we sall light upon David as the dew lighteth upon the ground; and then there sall not be left of him and of all the men that are with him so much as one." And this phrase is well set down, Is. liv., "Rejoice, O barren, and thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child; for more are the children of the desolate than the married wife." And therefore He uses this form of speech, v. 2, "Enlarge thy tents, and let them stretch the curtains of thy habitations; lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." And all these things are requisite to be done when the people of God are multiplied thus.

Let us observe here, if the Word of God continue in this land, in the purity thereof, and the sacraments be rightly administrate, the people of God will then multiply exceedingly here. The chiefest city in this land, they are forced to marvel where the people has been in former times that are in it now, so that they cannot get kirks to contain them. And they think, if the gospel continue in the purity thereof, all the kirks that they are building, with the rest, sall have enough ado to contain them. And it is a marvel to consider how the Lord has multiplied His people, at this time. This is not that we are to glory in multitudes, but to let you see the great work of God, Who has multiplied His people thus. And as it was at the beginning of the plantation of the Christian religion, there was three thousand converted at one preaching of the apostle, I will not say that there has been three thousand converted at a preaching here, but I may say this, that at one preaching there has been some thousands wakened up, who had not been so for a long time before. And will it not be a hard matter, seeing that it is so, that Saint Andrews sall be as Gideon's fleece; that all the kingdom about it sall be wet with the dew of heaven, and it sall only be dry? Even so, will it not be a shame, that all others sall be stirred up, and ye not a whit stirred up in this day more than if there were not such a thing? And, therefore, beloved, I would have you to join yourselves with the rest of the people of God in this cause.

"Thy youth." That is, thy young men. Those that are renewed by grace they are called young, albeit they were never so old, because their age is not reckoned by their first, but by their second birth. Ay, moreover, still the older that the children of God grow in years, and the weaker in the world, they grow younger and stronger in grace. Secondly, they are called young, because of the strength that they have to resist temptations. Before they be renewed by grace and born again that way, they are like bairns, that every temptation prevails with them; but then they are as young men, who are able to resist temptations to sin, so that sin gets not liberty to exercise dominion over them. Thirdly, they are called young, because they will contend with all their power and might for the faith. I would have all of you to be young in these respects, and labour to get ane evidence of your new birth by these, that ye are growing in grace, gaining still more strength to resist temptations, and by contending earnestly for the faith; even be bold in this, especially in contending for the truth. Strive for the truth, for, if ye anes lose it, ye will not get it so easily again. And this same is the covenant of truth whilk ye are to swear to; for as our Covenant is renewed, so also it is exponed (explained) according as the exigencies of the time requires, and it is applied to the present purpose.

Beloved, I told you already that ye have no cause of fear, for I avow and attest here before God, that what ye do is not against authority, but for authority, let some men who are wickedly disposed say what they will; but what ye do is for authority. And I told you of the obligations whereby authority are bound to this. And for the words of it, because they are conceived in a terrible manner, ye need not to stand in awe for this; and it were good that ye should read them over again, and think upon this wrath of God whilk we pray for to come upon us, if we do intend anything against authority.

Objection. We have oblished ourselves by our subscription already; what then needs us to obleish ourselves over again by our oath? Ans. It's true, I grant, many of you has subscribed it already, and so ye are bound; but now ye are to swear also, that so through abundance of bands to God ye may know yourselves to be the more bound to Him. David says, I have purposed, I have promised, I have sworn, and I sall perform Thy righteous statutes. There be also here sundry Acts of Parliament, that are all of them made within this same kingdom for the maintainance of the true religion; and for thir, they speak for themselves. And I would have these who say we do anything against law and against our superiors, to see and try if there be anything against them, and not all directly for them.

Beloved, I hope that it will not be necessar for us to spend mickle time with you in removing of scruples. Good things I know has over many objections against them from the devil, the world, and our own ill hearts. And I know some of them who are accounted the learnedst in the land, have assayed their wits and used their pens to object against this. But truly these who are judicious, they have confessed that they have been greatly confirmed by that whilk they have objected; and the reason of it was, because they who were the most learned assayed themselves to see what they could say, and yet when all was done, they had nothing to say that was worth the hearing.

For the first part of this Confession of faith, there is not a word changed in it; and if so be that men had keeped that part of it free of sinistrous glosses, and had applied it according to the meaning of those who were the penners thereof, there needed not to have such a thing ado as there is now; but because they have put sinistrous glosses upon it now and misapplied it, therefore it behoved to be explained and applied to the present time.