AN ABANDONING OF THE Scotish Covenant BY MATTHEW the Lord Bishop of ELY.  
LONDON, Printed by D. Maxwell for Timothy Garthwait at the King's Head in S. Paul's Churchyard, 1662.   

A BRIEF THEOLOGICAL TREATISE, Touching that UNLAWFUL SCOTISH COVENANT, Which was In the late ungracious times (with fraud enough, and force,) obtruded upon the PEOPLE of ENGLAND.  
WRITTEN FIRST, Upon Sundry private Occasions, in Prison, BY MATTHEW the Lord Bishop of ELY, After the manner of a Sermon, upon these Words, PSALM 44. 18. Nor behave ourselves frowardly in Thy Covenant.  
BUT Now thought fit to be published by Him, for the present use of his DIOCESE: The readilyer to prepare all therein, (Divines, and others,) for that due Abrenunciation of the said COVENANT, WHICH They are (out of hand) to make, by virtue of the ACT for UNIFORMITY.  Ju●●. 5. 31. Sic pereant Inimici Tui, Domine; Qui autem diligunt Te, sint sicut Sol in ortu suo.  
PSALM. 44. 18 Nor behave ourselves frowardly in thy Covenant. 
THe words are the last part of that verse: The whole verse is, And though all this be come upon us, yet do we not forget Thee, nor behave ourselves frowardly in Thy Covenant. Of this therefore now we are to treat.  
But no; that we may be more than sure, if more may be, Pray let's look on it once again. Yet do we not forget Thee, nor behave ourselves frowardly in thy Covenant; So goes our Old Translation, That's sure. But then, Yet have we not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant, our new Translation goes so; And here is some difference in words But howsoever these differing couples, Have not and Do not, Deal and Behave ourselves, Frowardly and Falsely; in effect they come both to one, and so all is the same: And 'tis no other, I assure you, in the Latin and the Greek, and the Hebrew. So that by the grace of God we are cock sure of the Text itself, every way.  
And 'tis well we are, That we have a sufficient warrant by that; Otherwise perhaps we might be to seek, How to bring both ends together▪ What? As the times long have gone, to be in a Covenant, and yet not to behave ourselves perversely? To have any Engagement upon us, and yet not to deal falsely? Out alas, 'tmust be the clean contrary, As frowardly then, as you will: Be it never so perversely, nay, nothing but falsely: And all the better, because of the Covenant. Haec est Lex Adami! Is it not? God knows, 'tis not to be denied; This hath been the manner of men lately, whatsoever is to come of it now.  
Well, If it must be so, So be it: yet 'tis but hard luck though, to be brought now to an after reckoning! But who can help that? The tother might have been helped, when time was. But Spiritus spirat, ubi, & quando vult; And seeing God's Spirit hath set it down so, All we cannot balk it, i'th' end.  
On we must go therefore, and hear, what the holy Spirit saith. And the sum of it, if I apprehend it right, will consist of three particulars, One, is presupposed; Another, is now professed; A third, is after aimed at.  
That in a Covenant they were, That's it they take for granted, and that's the first.  
Next, That in that Covenant their Demeanour ever was without Coven or Collusion; neither Falsehood, nor Perverseness in the carriage of it; of thus much they now make a solemn Profession; And that's the second.  
Lastly, That God in his good Time will rescue and deliver them, that's to be inferred here, and 'tis expressed in the close of the Psalm; And that's the third.  
Now in the foremost of these will come to be considered the Persons; First, who they are that pretend to this Covenant, Nos, We. And then with whom this Covenant is, In Tuo, In Thy Covenant. And that's as much as we shall need. For the knowing of these Two will make the Covenant itself known. So we shall not be to seek in that neither.  
The next part will be the harder of the Two; But yet in that we shall have Two chief points to guide us.  
The first, Matter of Law, what it is to be perverse, to be false and froward in such a Case: And therein, no less than the Law itself, yea no other than the Lawgiver, God himself, will be for our Rule. So we need not fear the frauds of a bold pleader, to make a nose of wax of it: Nor the flaunts of a Rude Hackster, to hew out his own pleasure in it. No: Annuntiabunt caeli justitiam ejus; Quoniam Deus Judex ipse, Psal. 50. 6. There's our security, That Ipse, 'tis God himself must be the Judge in it.  
The t'other point will be the Matter of Fact; whither guilty they, or not guilty of such Perverseness. And the Trial therein we all know how it lies: By God and the Country. An excellent way surely! though not for some men's turns.  
Trial by the Country, in this? How? Upon that Evidence, that all the Vicenage will bring in, Nay, that all the world can give of it. I warrant you, the Covenant of God shall be no preface to the first Psalm, shall not be at the pleasure of a Council of the ungodly, (They have learned now to call it A Council of War,) Nor of the common Way of Sinners, (in a paltry packed Committee:) Nor of the seat of the scornful (their High Court of Injustice:) Else, you might be sure, what would become of it: Any of their own Fellows should ne'er be a Thief, But who they would, should be a Grand Malignant, and hurried away to the Block: And where these rule the roast, it is necessary indeed it should be so, 'Twould not be perverse enough, else: But you see, It will be otherwise.  
The second part of the Trial is, By God; And that, At both his own Barrs: For the present, first, At that of the Conscience, That's here, The Common Pleas; In which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Heb. 4. 13. All is barefaced, yea chined down the back, an you will; that is, so laid open, so displayed, that sure we are, there can be no Juggling there.  
And there shall be another hereafter, The great Assizes, At the King's High Bench, Christ's own Tribunal: At which all shall appear; All Persons: 2 Cor. 5. 10. and all Things, For all Books and Records shall be opened: Apoc. 10. 12. And what can be more?  
But that's to come. In the mean while, The Hope and Assurance is, that God will at last rouse up himself. [Up Lord, why sleepest Thou? ver. 23.] (Their foes indeed made no other Account, but that they had lulled him fast enough:) And, that remembering well, what they yet suffer, Why forgettest thou our misery? ver. 24. He will set up his Mercy again, and help and deliver them, ver. 26. And that's in brief the aim of all this Profession and Supplication. So you have now the Contents of the Text.  
And now of these, That I may be able to speak and you to hear, to the Discharge of our Duties, and to the Instruction of our Souls, and all to the Glory of Almighty God, I am to beseech and require you all, to join with me in Humble prayer to Him, to the Glorious and Blessed Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the Assistance of the Holy Spirit unto us, and for the gift of all Divine Graces upon us. And that not upon us alone, but upon his Holy Catholic Church, etc.  

We have not behaved ourselves 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 overthrew our Enemies, verse. 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 byword, 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.  
And there comes in the last part of the Psalm, A holy Litany 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 itself, 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'er 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 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 Catholic 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 i'th' 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 her Prayers; to whom she sends up praises; to whom she ascribes the guidance of the world; under whose Hand she humbles herself; 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 says this; And 'tis God to whom she saith it; And 'tis the Covenant of God of which she saith it, Neither have we behaved ourselves frowardly in Thy Covenant.  
If there be any thing then to be stood upon here, it must be but to find, which of God's Covenants they mean: For God, we shall find, had more Covenants than 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 Flood 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. 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, Leu. 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 man's 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 perversely 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 his Law; To the Covenant of Circumcision, Gen. 17. 10. and the not observing of it was the breach of God's Covenant, ver. 14. The Sabbath also they had before they came at Horeb, Exod. 16. 29. and it alone by itself 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 blood that Moses sprinkled the Book with, called the Blood of the Covenant, ver. 8. And their walking contrary to it was made the Quarrel of avenging Gods Covenant, Leu. 26. 25.  
What shall we need more? I should but trouble your memories, and tyre you out, if I should draw you here to the several parcels of Moses Law? To show you, that the Shewbread itself bore 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, Leu. 2. 13. So was the Priest's portion, A Covenant of Salt for ever 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 says 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 aims at, the Protestation, that God's Church here makes.  
Of which this would be noted at first, They make it not to men; Men by men may be foully deceived, But to God himself 'tis made, Non in Tuo, 'tis to the Knower of all Hearts, and to the Judge of all men. As much as to say, Thou O God knowest that we lie not, there hath been no falsehood, no frowardness in us; We have been true in, and to thy Covenant.  
So, to that we come now; yet always remembering, that the Sermon now is to us, and 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 levelly yourselves: 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 God's Covenant.   

Matter of Law.  
I Pray therefore mark it, In God's Covenant, I say only, 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 lawful Covenant.  
'Tis not the Name therefore that warrants any thing; Nothing more usual than wrong Names and false Titles; But they must be sure the thing itself be without exception, if they 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 God's 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 signify 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 lie 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 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 Oaths, 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 David's curse goes, Satan at a man's right hand, Psal 109. 5. The Devil standing there, not only 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 woe is me, for such poor men, so willingly bewitched 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 only 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 herself from all Lying, (we must use that word which the Spirit hath used) that is, from Hypocrisy and Dissembling, and any false carriage in the practice of their Religion. Now the Byways 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 only, and not lose ourselves 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.   

Apostasy.  
'TWas come to that pass in the Ten Tribes, when after the Calves had been up a while, Elias for evidence of their open Apostasy, charges them with these two particulars, That they had thrown down God's 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 steadfast in His Covenant, do they what they could. But the generalty indeed was gone, carried away quite with their new Devices, their New Feasts, that Moses ne'er 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 jeshakar, Esay. 63. 8. that is, How ere they sinned else, very grievously, Yet they would not fail in the main of all, not forgo 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, says 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 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.   

Hypocrisy.  
THe tother is far the worse, as having the more danger in it; When they carry the lie of'at fashion; Pretend nothing but Zeal for the right Covenant of God, and yet practise nought but villainy against it! And that this is it he principally aims at, the Psalmist indeed shows, Because withal 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, there's light enough in God's Word to discover their Hypocrisy, 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 over again, ver. 6. and show them How He had plagued their Fathers for not keeping it, ver. 8.  
How then? Little dreamt 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 marry are they; So that the Prophet himself (a man rightly meaning) thought, all would have been well.  
But then he presently tells us, God called 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 subtly made a Solemn League between those two Kingdoms; 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 only to show, 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 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 than 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 Engagement, or what they will nickname it; yet 'tis an Idol; and all the Worship they give it, is flat Idolatry; no better than the Worshipping of Baal: For why? Is it not set up against God? Does it not shoulder His Covenant? sits cheek by jowl 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, than one; An 'twere but a wisp, yet when they join 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, Judge 2. 11. that is, Any thing else (that's in Divine 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 God's People made (of their own heads, without God's 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 o' God's 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'er twanged that way, to be entertained by the People, and to Covenant with them.  
And yet for the while then, who but He? Lord! such a Racket! In all haste there must be 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 Public Faith: And then presently upon that score, brave and jolly men, they make themselves, no less than King-makers, and out of their Treasury, they assign him an Allowance of Seventy pieces of Silver for the State's service. What to do? A Holy Work, you may be sure: To hire vagring Villains, to go and murder seventy of his Father's Sons, that He only 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 than 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 murdered himself also, by making his own Man to be his Murderer, vers. 54 This is the Account, which the Spirit of God gives you of that Solemn League and Covenant, the first of the kind!  
The Result whereof is this, That in point of Law the word itself 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. Paul's Galatians will be bewitched 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 joined 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 God's Enemies? The Edomites and Ismaelites, the Moabites and Hagarens; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines, with them that dwell at Tyre; Assur also is joined 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, turned out of Latin? Confederate is merely Latin.  
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 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 ourselves the Houses of God in possession, verse. 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 aught, that's quite contrary to His Will, But only, 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,  
The Trial 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, than 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 fetched out of Scythia; If any Religion can suit with it, 'tis only that of the Sichemites God, cleped 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 pinched at all in Time; Here therefore we'll now adjourn, till God give the next leisure.    

The Second PART.  
Nor behaved ourselves frowardly in Thy Covenant.  
HEre's one thing supposed in this Text; That Covenanters these men were, comprised in a Covenant with Him whom they treat with.  
And within the Verge of that, there are three particulars. First, that 'tis the Church of the Jews that are the Persons now treating. Secondly, That God Himself is the Person to whom they make this Address: And lastly, That the Business is to clear themselves, as to His Covenant, from frowardness, perverseness, and Lying in all their Deportment.  
And all this, by the Blessing of God, hath been formerly unfolded by us.  
We than fell upon a Distinction also, as touching God's Covenant. That here is not meant the Providential parts thereof; At first, provided for Adam, in God's Blessings of Nature, by the Revolution of the Day and the Night; Nor the second, vouchsafed to Noah, for the world's security against any new Deluge; Nor yet a third, by His Blessings upon Abraham, to give him an Holy seed, and so continued to Isaac and Jacob, to settle that Seed in the Land of Promise.  
None of these proved to be God's Covenant here in the Text. But 'tis the Conditional part of it that they now aim at; At the Rule, that God of old had prescribed to them, for the worshipping of Him as God, and at those Duties, that they were by His Covenant bound to, for the observing of His Holy Law: The general Heads whereof we found to be these two, Their Religion, and their Allegiance.  
So there came in their Protestation (and that's made to God himself,) of their Integrity, That they were all true men to this Covenant, ever had been, and still were forward and ready and upright in their Duties, free from all untowardness and frowardness, from all perverseness, lying, and dissembling, in the whole managery of it.  
So, that then led us necessarily to go and argue the Point a while; And first, For Matter of Law, To define, what it is to be false in God's Covenant.  
And by that we found, That the bare Name of a Covenant works nothing, but that the solemner a League is, the more damnable the Covenant may be, and so may oblige men the straightlier to a speedy breaking of it, and to an utter abandoning of it.  
The Matter therefore of the Covenant was only to be looked to, to see, Wither they did not, either disclaim the old One, (the true one) and pretend to another; Or if not so palpably cross, yet (which has more danger in it;) Wither pretending still to the old, they did not practise another.  
For if so, if either of these, then by the Law, that proved an Abominable Lie, no less than the setting up of an Idol, 'twas the Worshipping of Baal more than God. And this was at large exemplified by their Baal Berith, the God (forsooth) of their Covenant; That proved to be the first Idolatry that ever God's People committed with any Baal; And so, the first Covenant that the People took upon them to bring in, was a Covenant with Baal, which the more they termed it God's Covenant, the fouler was the Lie, and the fiercer it'h end was the Vengeance of God upon it.  
And thus far now, we went before. But then being come to the next Point, The Matter of Fact, to examine their Plea of Not Guilty, and finding that, a larger business by far, than the Time would then admit, there we adjourned. Therefore now by god's Providence being brought upon it again, there we are now to set in anew, and so to proceed in it, as God shall enable us.  
Join you therefore with me, I beseech you, in Humble Prayer to Him for His blessed Assistance, etc.  

Nor behave ourselves frowardly, etc.  
WE are now to suppose the Court set again, That of our Conscience, first; And now let's but see, how the Evidence comes trolling in.  
First, False Rumours raised; Scandals divulged; Jealousies fomented; Gods Anointed in his Footsteps slandered.  
Then, Routs approved of; Arms taken up; Wars levied; God's Word rejected; God's Sword resisted.  
After that, men's properties invaded; their Persons destroyed; The Lord's Vineyard rooted up; All Rights baffled; Laws suppressed; The Ordinances all changed. To go no higher yet than this; Though this be far the least part of the public 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 Months: 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 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 Trial 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 allege, That they had good Law for that they did: Have they not clear Precedents from God's 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 Judgement. '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 relish this? Then, as is the shape of a foul Fiend to the Portraiture of a Blessed Angel.   

1. Nothing added to God's Covenant.  
This for First, That from the first to the last, there's nothing Covenanted for in Scripture, but what was ordained 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.  
Only 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 Lions 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 Assyrians of a sudden to become so very holy? And how then? So they feared the Lord, says 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 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 Scoff 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 for the Religion loudly cried up, but yet sufficiently powdered with Additionals, of Hypocrisy, Perjury, Violence, Treason, Rebellion; And yet still must go for the Covenant of God. Find they any such medleys 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 God's Covenant, lift they their hands ne'er so high, unless the Contents of it be taken out of His will alone, He the only 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 signify Agreements, and Compacts, Leagues also, and Conspiracies. But Berith is never construed by these. To tell us, That God's 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 God's Covenant, Psal. 105. 9 unless it may be added, that 'tis His Law, and His Everlasting Testament, verse. 10 that is, His own known Will and Testament, devised and established by Himself alone, and no sprinklings in it, cogged by others and foisted in for His; Much 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 God's Deputy.  
YEt there's a second Exception, worse than 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 only 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 Commandments; 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, God's 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 age's, No Covenant then ever heard of, but what the King, who stood above them all, as in God's place, or who by Reason of His Absence or Age, was appointed by the Law of God to stand in the King's place, prescribed it unto them, or imposed it upon them.  
Howe'er the people than had a part in the Covenant, because it was for them, and with 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 God's 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 God's Deputy to lead it; How much more, to have it hammered of purpose, not only against his Leading or Meddling 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 God's Word? And must it go for His Covenant, that is so flatly against Him? God's Covenant point blank against Gods Anointed? Blessed Lord! What Logic call they This?  
I must deal plainly. It can grow no where, but where this Covenant itself grew; There indeed it has ever been found, what Reason soe'er, 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 than 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 only about the Temporal 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 only about the Religion; At which they were all to swear solemnly, To seek the Lord, that was, To worship Him only, 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 Baal's 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 Highpriest, and the King's 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 sanctify 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 Kingdom together. 2 Par. 30. 1.  
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 Babylon, 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 Author 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 lawful 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 courageous 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 Supreme Governor 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 show 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 abhors, so flat against Godliness, Loyalty, Justice, and Truth?  
Was God also at the making of it? Which of them sat at the Tables head for Him: Who was God's 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 things, are in S. Scripture styled, 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 God's score?  
And the Truth is, this they say, hath not a little truth in it. For that Covenant which Jonathan and David entered into 1 Sam. 18. 3, David himself says, '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 God's 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 Jews, God owns 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, says the Lord, my Oath, which he hath despised, and my Covenant which he hath broken, (Mine, and Mine, All now was Gods,) will I recompense upon his own Head.] Ezech. 17. 19  
By the way then upon this, shall we not desire, that our godly Brethren would show us, whether he be the same God, still? If he be, Then how go they to work with this God, or what order have they taken with him, about their Oaths 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 persuade 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 itself Just and Lawful, (In Re Licitâ, So Lawful, 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 only a Branch of the Law of God, as a Quill 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 ere it be, or wheresoever it be driven, be it but in a Scrivener's shop, nay under a Hedge, (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 ' o'th' 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'er hope for't, there's no beguiling of him, all the Combining in the world cannot make God their Pander. 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 Shooter's Hill; No circumstances of Time, or Place, or Persons, or Manner, or any thing else, can hollow it.  
But then over and above all this, 'Tis another thing quite, when 'tis ordained to carry a Solemnity between God, and men, aiming at any Public 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 (woe 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 man's 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 Falsely, more than 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 falsely, says 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 looked to. For 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 bend upon it, that we need not fear to appeal unto God about it.  
Much more than savours it of extreme untowardness, to seek excuses, or delays 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 falsely, this the Prophet calls, Judgement springing up as Hemlock, Host 10. 4. And his meaning is, No Venom so abominable, and gross as this, So that 'twill be impossible to escape the Judgement.   

How to be known, this.  
BUt how then? Where are we now? Will any plead Ignorance in it? Will they allege, That that they do in it, being commonly and loudly cried 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 bore their Heads for mighty Prophets among them, sounding out nothing else continually, but the Goodness of the Cause, and the Curse upon Meroz, Judg. 5. 23. Damnation to them, that joined 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 God's 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 ev'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 than the Text for it? I pray do but mark that. The care of God's Church there, is, To clear herself to God, from Perverseness, from all that may be called Lying, and froward dealing in His Covenant. Well and good then; If God's 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 itself, there can be no such matter, No froward 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, than this is Falsely and Frowardly, to be sure: And by this then 'tis clear, that 'tis none of God's 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 only. As our Saviour hath turned it out of the Prophet, Their Eyes are shut, says He, Esay 6. 9 But they themselves have shut them, says 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 than not enjoy this world; that God shall content them, a God he is there called, and now be the Covenant what it will be, so that upon any report God be there, They will look for no other God in it, lest otherwise the Crosses of this world should betid 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 ourselves 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; Lest of all, only for filthy lucre's sake, to make themselves gainers and to suck advantages out of the milk of any other Covenant.  
Pactum juum, 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 God's 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 justify all their ways before God; Far be it from them, to have any such thought▪ No? 'Tis only 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 God's 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 bore His Name, and had given the Rule, they could never be brought to show any frowardness.  
And from hence those three Children of God, no doubt, drew their pattern. Charged indeed they were upon grievous pains to forgo 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 than is due from all God's Servants, in any such trials, nothing must make them transgress that Covenant which they were in, for their serving of God; If God by himself, or by his second self the King, called 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 says 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 than He set up his rest, and to tell them so, He termed 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 challenge 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 i'th' 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 foretell 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 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 than they had to alter his Covenant of the Day and the Night in their Seasons, says God himself, if men would believe him, Jerem. 33. 21. They were never to meddle with it, unless God himself gave order expressly 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 God's 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 show 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 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 Lo I am with you always unto the end of the world, are the last words He says to them, Math. 28. 20.  
But lo, By your leave, you shall not, Sir, have the brave Baal Berithans, your new Covenanters sworn, if men will but rightly construe 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, only by the way, because of their word Covenant, that you might have a taste of all the Covenants of God, and of these men's Counter-Covenanting. But I have anothergates Covenant now to conclude all with.  
Full well therefore may this Covenant in the Text be said to concern the King, God's Secular Minister, and the Priest, God's 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'er they may sometimes lop 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 show 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. Paul's 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 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 Aphorism, 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; Avaunt 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, than 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. No, God is awake in His Holy Temple, and howe'er he seems to wink a while, yet they will find, that He sees through all, Et palpebrae ejus interrogant, Psal. 11. 5. His very Eyelids try the Children of Men.  
Hold we only therefore to this sure Covenant of God, that, in itself (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 ourselves 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.  
FINIS.