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

by Unknown

First, Labour to come to this service with much soul-affliction for former violation of the covenant, either in refusing, or profaning, or breaking thereof: the foundations must be laid low, where we would build for many generations. In what deep sorrows had you need to lay the foundations of this covenant, which you would have stand to eternity, that it may be "an everlasting covenant." This you have in the text; "they shall seek the Lord, going and weeping;" weeping in the sense of their former rebellions and apostasies, whereby they forfeited their faith, and brake their covenant with the Lord their God; and it was no ordinary slight business they made of it. "A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplication." They were not a few silent tears: no, they "lift up their voices and wept," as was said of Esau. They cried so loud, that they were heard a great way off. "A voice was heard upon the mountains;" and it was as bitter, as it was loud; "a great mourning, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon," when all Judah, Jerusalem, Jeremiah the prophet, and all the singers, bewailed the death of their good king Josiah, with a grievous lamentation, "and made it an ordinance forever." Oh! that as we have their service in hand, so we had their heads and their hearts, to manage it with rivers of tears, for our former vileness: that we could weep this day together, and afterward apart, as it is prophesied, "Every family apart, and our wives apart;" yea, and every soul apart, that we have dealt so evilly with so good a God, so unfaithfully with so faithful a God; that we could put our mouths in the dust, and smite upon our thigh, and be ashamed and confounded, for all the wickedness we have committed against God and His covenant, in any, or all these ways. Such a posture God will see us in, before He will shew us "the way to Zion;" before He will reveal to us the model and platform of reformation; for so was His charge to Ezekiel, "If they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the forms of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof, and write it in their sight." Surely, this blessed prophecy hath an eye upon our times, for this is one of those days, as I told you before, wherein God will make good these gracious words unto His people; and God hath called together His Ezekiels, His ministers, to "shew the house," i.e., the form and pattern of the evangelical house or church, unto the house of England and Scotland. "Shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed." That is, shew them the outside thereof, shew them "that there is such a house," which they never yet beheld with their eyes, that they may be humbled and ashamed of their former idolatries. And thus do our Ezekiels tell us, there is a way of gospel government, of such beauty and excellency, as our eyes never yet beheld, nor the eyes of our forefathers; to the end, that we may be ashamed of all our former idolatries and superstitions, our monstrous mixtures of popery and will-worship in the ordinances of Christ; and that we have not sooner inquired after the mind of Christ, how He will be worshipped in His house; but now, unless we be ashamed, i.e., deeply and thoroughly humbled, for all that we have done unworthy of Christ and His worship, and the covenant of our God, we shall never see the inside, that is, the laws and the ordinances, and the forms of this house, which are both various and curious; for so the variety and repetition of the words imply. The prophets are not to reveal these unto us, unless we be ashamed; God will either withdraw them from us, or, which is worse, withdraw Himself from them; so that our eyes shall never behold the Lord in the beauty of holiness; we shall not be admitted to see the beauty and glory of such a reformation, as our souls long for. And as God will see us in this posture, before He reveal to us the model and platform of reformation; so also, till we be in such a posture of deep humiliation, for our former abominations, we shall never be stedfast and faithful in the covenant of God. Till our hearts be throughly broken for covenant-breach, we will not pass much for breaking covenant, upon every fresh temptation. Yea, till that time we be humbled, not for a day only, and so forth: but unless we labour to maintain an habitual frame of godly sorrow upon our hearts for our covenant-violations, shall we ever be to purpose conscientious of our covenant? A sad remembrance of old sins is a special means to prevent new. When every solemn remembrance of former vileness, can fetch tears from our eyes, and blood from our hearts, and fill our faces with an holy shame, the soul will be holily shy of the like abominations, and of all occasions and tendencies thereunto: "Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled within me." When old sins cost dear, new sins will not find an easy entertainment. When old sins are new afflictions, when the remembrance of them is as wormwood and gall, the soul will not easily be bewitched to drink a new draught of that poisoned cup any more. Christian, believe me, or thou mayest find it by experience too true, when thou hast forgot old sins, or canst remember them without new affliction of soul, thou art near a fall; look to thyself, and cry to God for preventing grace. There will be great hopes we shall be faithful in our new covenant, when we come with a godly sense and sorrow for our abuse of old, and labour to maintain it upon our spirits.

Secondly, If you would have this covenant to be a perpetual covenant, labour to see old scores crossed; do not only mourn for thy covenant-unfaithfulness; but labour to get thy pardon written and sealed to thee in the blood of the covenant. There is virtue enough in the blood of the covenant, to expiate the guilt of thy sins against the covenant. "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you." Their sins of idolatry, were sins especially against their covenant; idolatry being the violation of the marriage-knot, between God and a people; yet even from them doth God promise to cleanse them, upon their repentance and conversion. The blood of the covenant, compared to water for the cleansing virtue thereof, should cleanse them from their covenant defilements. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." "Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet, return again to me, saith the Lord." It is a mighty encouragement to renew our covenants with God, that He is so ready to pardon the breach of old; and the sense of this pardon is a mighty engagement and strengthening, to keep our new covenants. Oh! for God to say to a poor soul, "be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee." "And I have blotted out thy sins as a cloud, and thy transgressions as a thick cloud." All thy unkindnesses and unfaithfulnesses, thy treacherous dealings against the covenant, shall be forgotten; they shall do thee no harm. This will mightily strengthen the hands, and fortify the heart, and even make it impenetrable and impregnable against all the solicitations and importunities of old temptations: see a notable instance of this, "I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him." "I will be as the dew to Israel." "His branches shall spread." "They that dwell under His shadow shall return." What follows these gracious promises? Why, Ephraim shall say, "What have I to do any more with idols?" He that before was so inseparably joined to idols, that he could not be divorced from them; "Ephraim is joined to idols." All the blows that God gave him, tho' God should have beaten him to pieces, as he himself afterward confessed, could not beat him off from his idols; insomuch, that God at length gave him over, as an hopeless child. "Ephraim is joined to idols, let him lone." Yet, no sooner doth this Ephraim hear of a pardon, and of the love of God to him, but the bonds between him and his idols are dissolved, and away he thrusts them with indignation. Ephraim shall say, "What have I to do with idols?" Or as the prophet Isaiah expresseth it, "Ye shall defile the covering of the graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold; thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth, thou shalt say unto it, get thee hence." And thus it is with a people, or a person, when once "God sheds abroad His Spirit in their hearts," and makes them "hear joy and gladness," in speaking, or sealing, a pardon upon their souls; they that before were joined to their idols, drunkenness, uncleanness, covetousness, pride, ways of false worship, old superstitious customs, and ceremonies, and the like; so that there was no parting of them; or those who had long been grappling and conflicting with their strong corruptions and old temptations, and in those conflicts had received many a foil, and got many a fall to the wounding of their consciences, and cutting deep gashes upon their souls; now they stand up with a kind of omnipotence among them, no temptation is able to stand before them; they say to their idols, whether sinful company, or sinful customs, "get ye hence, and what have I to do any more with idols?" What have I to do with such and such base company? What have I to do with such base filthy lusts? "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." Christ is mine, and I am His. The reason of it is, because pardon begets love; "she loved much, because much was forgiven her." And love begets strength: "for love is as strong as death": yea, stronger than sin or death; "They loved not their lives to the death," and "I count not my life dear," says Paul, when once the man had tasted of the free grace of God in the pardon of his sins, "who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious." He could find in his heart, not only to lay down a lust, but to lay down his life too for Jesus Christ: "for whose sake, (saith he), I have suffered the loss of all things; and I count not my life dear, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

My beloved Christians, if you would be faithful in the covenant of God, into which you are now entering, sue out your pardon for what is past; yea, entreat the Lord, not only to give a pardon, but to speak a pardon, and seal a pardon upon your hearts; and never give the Lord rest, till the Lord have given rest to your souls. "The joy of the Lord is your strength."

Thirdly, If you would make an unchangeable covenant, with an unchangeable God, come furnished with and maintain upon your hearts, an abundant measure of self-distrust; labour to be thoroughly convinced of your own nothingness and disability. "By his own strength shall no man prevail." Surely, thine own treachery may inform thee, and thine own backslidings may convince thee, to confess with Jeremiah, "O Lord, I know (I know it by sad experience) the way of man is not in himself: It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Staupitius confessed to Luther, that he thought in his very conscience he had above a thousand times renewed his covenant with God, and as many times broken it: a sad confession, and yet how many among us may take up the like lamentation! Be convinced of it, I beseech you, and maintain the sense of this conviction upon your spirits. Say oft within yourself, I am nothing, worse than nothing. This treacherous heart of mine will betray me into the breach of my covenant, if the Lord leave me to myself, I shall one day fall by the hand of my corruptions. He that walks tremblingly, walks safely.

In the Fourth place, be often renewing your resolutions. It was the exhortation of that good man to the new converts at Antioch, where they were first called Christians, "that they should cleave unto the Lord with full purpose of heart." This covenant, I have shewed you, is the ordinance whereby you cleave unto the Lord, the joining ordinance. Oh! do it with full purpose of heart, and be often putting on fresh and frequent resolutions, not to suffer every base temptation of Satan, every deceitful, or malignant solicitation of the world, every foolish and carnal suggestion of the flesh, to bribe and seduce you from that fidelity which you swear this day to Jesus Christ and the kingdoms. A well grounded resolution is half the work, and the better half too; for he that hath well resolved, hath conquered his will; and he that hath conquered his will, hath overcome the greatest difficulty: no such difficulty in spiritual things, as to prevail with one's own heart. With these cords, therefore, of well bottomed resolutions, be oft binding yourselves to your covenant, as once Ulysses did himself to his mast, that you may not be bewitched by any Syrenian song of the flesh, world, or the devil, to violate your holy covenant, and drown yourselves in a sea of perdition. And to that end, it would not be altogether useless, to fix your covenant in some place of your houses, or bed-chamber, where it may be oftenest in your eyes, to admonish you of your religious and solemn engagements, under which you have brought your own souls. The Jews had their "phylacteries, or borders upon their garments," which they did wear also upon their heads, and upon their arms; which, tho' they abused afterward, not only to pride, making them broader than their first size or pattern, in ostentation and boasting of their holiness, our Saviour condemns in the scribes and pharisees. And to superstition, for they used them as superstitious helps in prayer, which they coloured under a false derivation of the word in the Hebrew, yet God indulged them in this ceremony, as an help for their memories, to put them in remembrance to keep the law of the Lord. And God Himself seems to use this art of memory, as it were, when, comforting His people, He tells them, "behold I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands, thy walls are continually before Me."

I must confess, the nature of man is very prone to abuse and pervert such natural helps to idolatry and superstition. This instance of the Jews, wretchedly improving their phylacteries to superstitious purposes, their idolizing of the brazen serpent; and thereby of a cure, turning it into a plague, a snare, with the like, are sufficient testimonies. And we see how the papists have abused and adulterated the lawful use of natural mediums, to the unlawful use of artificial mediums of their own inventions; images and crucifixes, first to help their memories, and stir up their devotions in their prayers, and then to pray unto them, as mediums of divine worship. The more cautious had Christians need be in the use of those mediums, which either God hath ordained by special command for the help of our memories, and stirring up of our graces, as the visible elements in the sacraments; or such natural advantages, which moral equity allows us for the help of our understandings and memories in spiritual concernments; such is this, we are now speaking of; it being the same with the use of books and tables. Tertullian tells us of a superstitious custom among the ancient Christians, that they were wont to set up images over their doors and chimneys, to keep witches when they came into their houses from bewitching their children; and so by a little kind of witchcraft, prevented witchcraft. But surely, to set up this covenant, where we might often see and read what engagements we have laid upon our souls, (and I could heartily wish Christians would do it at least once a week) it will be an innocent and warrantable spell, to render the witchery of the flesh, world, and devil, fruitless and ineffectual upon our spirits, while the soul may say with David, "Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praise unto Thee."

But Fifthly, consider often and seriously, who it is that must uphold your resolutions; even He that upholds heaven and earth: no less power will do it; "for you are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." It is God that first gives the resolution, and then must uphold, and bring it into act; "It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure," and therefore labour, I beseech you, to do these two things.

First, Put all your resolutions into the hands of prayer: David was a man of an excellent spirit, full of holy resolves. "I will walk in mine integrity," "And I will keep Thy testimonies." And again, "I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep Thy righteous judgments." And yet again, "do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee?" "I hate them with a perfect hatred." A thousand such sweet resolutions doth that precious servant of God breathe out all along the Psalms; and yet so jealous the holy man is of himself, that he never trusts himself with his own resolutions; and therefore shall you find him always clapping a petition upon a resolution, as in the quoted places. "I will walk in mine integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful unto me. I will keep Thy testimonies, oh! forsake me not utterly." Though Thou hast let me fall fearfully, suffer me not to fall finally. And so when he had said, "I have sworn, and will not repent," he presently adds (within a word or two), "quicken me, O Lord, according to Thy word." And again, "accept, I beseech Thee, the free-will offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me Thy judgments." God must teach him, as to make, so to make good the free-will offerings of his mouth, i.e., his promises and vows. And so, when he had made that appeal to God, "do not I hate them that hate Thee, Lord?" he presently betakes himself to his prayers, "search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Mark, I pray, "search me, try me, know my heart, know my thoughts, see whether there be any wicked way, lead me." He will neither trust himself for what he is, nor for what he shall be; "try me," he dares not trust his own trial: "lead me," he dares not trust his own resolutions: such a sweet holy jealousy of himself doth he breathe forth, with all his heavenly purposes and resolutions. Oh! all you that would make an everlasting covenant with God, imitate holy David, upon every holy resolution, clap an earnest petition, say, I will reform my life; oh! redeem me, and be merciful unto me. I will set up Christ in my heart, I will labour to walk worthy of Him in my life: oh! forsake me not utterly, Lord; leave me not to myself, I have sworn, and am utterly purposed in all my duties I owe to God and man, to amend my life, and to go before others in the example of a real reformation. O Lord, teach me Thy judgments: quicken me, O Lord, according to Thy word. Thy vows are upon me, that I will, according to my place and calling, endeavour to preserve reformation in Scotland, to procure reformation in England; that I will in like manner endeavour the extirpation of popery and prelacy; to preserve the rights and liberties of parliaments; discover incendiaries; endeavour the preservation of peace between the two kingdoms; defend all those that enter into this league and covenant, that I will never make defection to the contrary part, or to give myself to a detestable indifferency or neutrality. And this covenant I have made in the presence of Almighty God, the searcher of all hearts, with a true intention to perform the same, as I shall answer at that great day. But now, add with David, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." In a word, put your covenant into frequently renewed resolutions: resolutions into prayer, and prayer, and all into the hands of God. It is God that must gird thee with strength, to perform all thy vows. This, the close of this blessed covenant, into which we enter this day, doth teach us. "Humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by His Spirit; for this end, and to bless our desires and proceedings." And the covenant in the text, was surely inlaid with prayer, while they engage themselves to seek the Lord, not only to shew them the way to Zion, but to give them strength to walk in that way.

Let it be your wisdom and piety, my brethren, to imitate both; oh pray, and be much in prayer, and be often in prayer: pray daily over the covenant; as you this day lift up your hands to swear to the most high God in this covenant, so lift up your hands every day to pray to that God for grace to keep this covenant. Let sense of self-insufficiency keep open the sluice of prayer, that that may let fresh streams of strength every day into your souls, to make good your vows; when you be careless to pray over the covenant, you will be careless to keep the covenant; when you cease to pray, you will cease to pay. If you will be watchful in praying over your vows, prayer will make you watchful in paying your vows. If you will be faithful in crying to God, God will be faithful in hearing and helping. Pray therefore, pray over every good purpose and resolution of heart towards the covenant of God which conscience shall suggest, or the Spirit of God shall breathe into your bosoms, at this present or any time hereafter; as David once prayed over that good frame of spirit, which he observed in his people; what time they offered so willingly and liberally to the preparing for the house of God; "O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob, our fathers, keep this for ever, in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart, and prepare their heart unto Thee." To every command, God is pleased to add a promise; so that what is a command in one place, is a promise in another. "Circumcise the foreskin of your heart." But it is a promise, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord." Again, "make you a new heart." So saith the word of command: "a new heart will I give you:" so speaks the word of promise. Once more, "little children abide in Him," that is the command. Which in the immediate verse before is a gracious promise, "you shall abide in Him." Divers more such instances I could give you; and why thus? Surely, the command teacheth us our duty, the promise our weakness and insufficiency to perform that duty. The command finds us work; the promise finds us strength: the command is to keep us from being idle; the promise to keep us from being discouraged. Well, let us imitate God, and, as He couples a command and a promise, so let us couple a resolution and a petition. As God seconds and backs His command with His promise, so let us second and back our promises with our prayers; the one in sense of our duty, the other in sense of our weakness; by the one, to bring our hearts up to God: by the other, to bring God down to our hearts: resolve and petition, promise and pray, and the Lord "prepare your heart to pray, and cause His ear to hear."

Secondly, Since God only must uphold your desires, walk continually as in His presence; stability is only to be found in the presence of God; so far we live an unchangeable life, as we walk and live in the presence of an unchangeable God. The saints in Heaven know no vicissitudes, or changes in their holy frame and temper of spirit, because they are perfected in the beholding of His face; "with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of changing:" and so far as the saints on earth can keep God in their presence so far the presence of God will keep them. "I have set the Lord always before me; and because He is at my right hand, therefore I shall not be moved," sang David of himself literally, and in the person of Christ typically: the privilege was made good to both, so far as either made good the duty. David, according to his degree, and proportion of grace, set God before him, placed Him on his right hand; and so long as he could keep God's presence, the presence of God kept him; it kept him from sin, "I have kept myself from mine iniquity." How so? Why, "I was upright before Him," in the former part of the same verse. So long as he walked before God, in God's presence; so long he walked upright, and kept himself from his iniquity; or rather God's presence kept him: and, as it kept him from sin, so it kept him from fear also; "tho' I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear." Mark what he saith, though he walk, not step; and walk through, not step across; and through, not a dark entry, or a churchyard in the night-time, but a valley, a large, long, vast place; how many miles long I know not; and this not a valley of darkness only, but of death, where he should see nothing but visions of death, and not bare death, but the shadow of death: the shadow is the dark part of the thing; so that the shadow of death, is the darkest side of death; death in its most hideous and horrid representations; and yet behold, when he comes out at the farther end, and a man would have thought to have found him all in a cold sweat, his hair standing upright, his eyes set in his head, and the man beside himself. Behold, I say, he doth not so much as change colour, his hand shakes not, his heart fails not; as he went in, he comes out; and though he should go back again the same way, he tells you, "I will not fear." How comes this to pass? How comes the man to be so undaunted? Why, he will tell you in the very same verse, speaking to God, "For Thou art with me." God's presence kept him from fear, in the midst of death and horror. Thus it was, I say, with David, while he could keep God in his presence, he was immoveable, impregnable; you might as soon have stirred a rock, as stirred him, "I shall not be moved." Indeed, so long as he was upon the rock, he was as immoveable as the rock itself; but alas! sometime he lost the sight of his God, and then he was like other men; "Thou didst hide Thy face from me, and I was troubled." When God hid His face from him, or he hid his eyes from God; then how easily is he moved? Fear breaks in, "I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul." Sin breaks in, yea, one sin upon the heels of another; the adulterous act, upon the adulterous look, and murder upon adultery, as you know in that sad business of Uriah the Hittite; once off from his Rock, and he is as weak as dust, not able to stand before the least temptation of sin or fear; and therefore as soon as he comes to himself again, he cries, "Oh! lead me to the Rock that is higher than I;" to my Rock, Lord, to my Rock. But now, the Lord Jesus, the antitype of David here in this Psalm, because he made good this, (duty shall I call it?) "For in Him dwelt the fulness of the God-head bodily." To Him therefore was this privilege made good perfectly in the highest degree; for tho' He had temptations that never man had, and was to do that which never man did; and to suffer that which never man suffered; the contradiction of sinners; the rage of hell; and the wrath of God: yet, because He set the Lord always at His right hand; yea, indeed was always at the right hand of God; therefore He was not moved, but overcame even by suffering.