God who was pleased to clear up the innocency of Mordecai and the Jews,
against all the malicious aspersions of wicked Haman to his and their
sovereign, so as all his plotting produced but this effect, that (Esther
ix.) "When the king's commandments and decree drew near to be put in
execution, and the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, it
was turned to the contrary, and the Jews had rule over them that hated
them, and laid hands on such as sought their hurt, so as no man could
withstand them;" and that same God, who, but even as yesterday
vouchsafed to disperse and scatter those dark clouds and fogs, which
overshadowed that loyal and religious kingdom of Scotland, and to make
their righteousness to shine as clear as the sun at noon-day, in the
very eyes of their greatest enemies, will doubtlessly stand by all those
who, with singleness of heart, and a due sense of their own sins, and a
necessity of reformation, shall now enter into an everlasting covenant
with the Lord, never to be forgotten, to put an end to all those unhappy
and unnatural breaches between the king and such as are faithful in the
land; causing their "righteousness and praise to spring forth before all
the nations," to the terror and confusion of those men of blood, the
confederate enemies of God and the king, who have long combined, and
have now raked together the dregs and scum of many kingdoms, to bury all
the glory, honour and liberty of this nation in the eternal grave of
dishonour and destruction.
THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT.
SERMON AT LONDON.
_BY EDMOND CALAMY._[14]
"Truce-breakers (or covenant-breakers)."--2 _Tim._ iii. 3.
In the beginning of the chapter, the apostle tells us the condition that
the church of God should be in, in the last days. "This know also, that
in the last days perilous times shall come." In the second verse, he
tells us the reason why these times should be such hard and dangerous
times; "for men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous," &c. The reason
is not drawn from the miseries and calamities of the last times, but
from the sins and iniquities of the last times. It is sin and iniquity
that make times truly perilous. Sin, and sin only, takes away God's love
and favour from a nation, and makes God turn an enemy to it. Sin causeth
God to take away the purity and power of His ordinances from a nation.
Sin makes all the creatures to be armed against us, and makes our own
consciences to fight against us. Sin is the cause of all the causes of
perilous times. Sin is the cause of our civil wars. Sin is the cause of
our divisions. Sin is the cause why men fall into such dangerous errors.
Sin brings such kinds of judgments, which no other thing can bring. Sin
brings invisible, spiritual, and eternal judgments. It is sin that makes
God give over a nation to a reprobate sense. Sin makes all times
dangerous. Let the times be never so prosperous, yet if they be sinful
times, they are times truly dangerous. And if they be not sinful, they
are not dangerous, though never so miserable. It is sin that makes
afflictions to be the fruits of God's avenging wrath, part of the curse
due to sin, and a beginning of hell. It is sin, and sin only, that
embitters every affliction. Let us for ever look upon sin through these
scripture spectacles.
The apostle, in four verses, reckons up nineteen sins, as the causes of
the miseries of the last days. I may truly call these nineteen sins,
England's looking-glass, wherein we may see what are the clouds that
eclipse God's countenance from shining upon us; the mountains that lie
in the way to hinder the settlement of church-discipline: even these
nineteen sins, which are as an iron-whip of nineteen strings, with which
God is whipping England at this day; which are as nineteen faggots, with
which God is burning and devouring England. My purpose is not to speak
of all these sins; only let me propound a divine project, how to make
the times happy for soul and body. And that is to strike at the root of
all misery, which is sin and iniquity: to repent for and from all these
nineteen sins, which are as the oil that feeds and increases the flame
that is now consuming of us. For, because men are lovers of themselves,
_usque ad contemptum Dei et republicæ_; because men drive their own
designs, not only to the neglect, but contempt of God and the
commonwealth. Because men are covetous, lovers of the world, more than
lovers of God. Because they are proud in head, heart, looks and apparel.
Because they are unthankful, turning the mercies of God into
instruments of sin, and making darts with God's blessings to shoot
against God. Because men are unholy and heady, and make many covenants,
and keep none. Because they are (as the Greek word _diaboloi_
signifieth) devils, acting the devil's part, in accusing the brethren,
and in bearing false witness one against another. Because they have a
"form of godliness, denying the power thereof." Hence it is that these
times are so sad and bloody. These are thy enemies, O England, that have
brought thee into this desolate condition! If ever God lead us back into
the wilderness, it will be because of these sins. And therefore, if ever
ye would have blessed days, you must make it your great business to
remove these nineteen mountains, and repent of these land-devouring and
soul-destroying abominations.
At this time, I shall pick out the first and tenth sin to speak on. The
first is, _Self-love;_ which is placed in the forefront, as the cause of
all the rest. Self-love is not only a sin that makes the times perilous,
but it is the cause of all these sins that make the times perilous; for,
because men are lovers of themselves, therefore they are covetous,
proud, unholy. The tenth sin is, _Truce-breakers_, and, for fear lest
the time should prevent me, I shall begin with this sin first.
The tenth sin then is truce-breakers; or, as Rom. i. 31.,
"Covenant-breakers." The Greek word is _aspondoi_, which signifieth
three things; _First_, Such as are _foederis nescii_, as Beza renders it;
or, as others, _infoederabilis_; that is, such as refuse to enter into
covenant. Or, _Secondly_, Such as are _foedifragi, qui pacta non
servant_, as Estius hath it, or _sine fide_, as Ambrose; that is, such
as break faith and covenant. Or, _Thirdly_, Such as are _implacabilis_;
or, as others, _sine pace_; that is, such as are implacable, and haters
of peace. According to this threefold sense of the word, I shall gather
these three observations.
Doctrine 1. That to be a covenant-refuser is a sin that makes the times
perilous.
Doct. 2. That to be a covenant-breaker is a sin that makes the times
perilous.
Doct. 3. That to be a peace-hater, or a truce-hater, is a sin that makes
the times perilous.
Doct. 4. That to be a covenant refuser is a sin that makes the times
perilous; to be _foederis nescius_, or _infoederabilis_. For the
understanding of this, you must know that there are two sorts of
covenants, there are devilish and hellish covenants, and there are godly
and religious covenants. First, There are devilish covenants, such as
Acts xxiii. 12, and Isa. xxviii. 15, such as the holy league, as it was
unjustly called in France, against the Huguenots, and that of our
gun-powder traitors in England. Now, to refuse to make such covenants is
not to make the times perilous, but the taking of them makes the times
perilous. Secondly, There are godly covenants, as Psal. cxix. 106, and
as 2 Chron. xv. 14: and such as this is which you are met to take this
day. For you are to swear to such things which you are bound to
endeavour after, though you did not swear. Your swearing is not _solum
vinculum_, but _novum vinculum_, is not the only, but only a new and
another bond to tie you to the obedience of the things you swear unto;
which are so excellent and so glorious, that if God gave those that take
it a heart to keep it, it will make these three kingdoms the glory of
the world. And as one of the reverend commissioners of Scotland said,
when it was first taken in a most solemn manner at Westminster, by the
parliament and the assembly, "That if the pope should have this covenant
written upon a wall over against him sitting in his chair, it would be
unto him like the hand-writing to Belshazzar, causing his joints to
loose, and his knees to smite one against another." And I may add, that
if it be faithfully and fully kept, it will make all the devils in hell
to tremble, as fearing lest their kingdom should not stand long. Now
then, for a man to be an anti-covenanter, and to be such a
covenant-refuser, it must needs be a sin that makes the times perilous.
And the reasons are, 1. Because you shall find in scripture, That when
any nation did enter into a solemn religious covenant, God did
exceedingly bless and prosper that nation after that time, as "That thou
shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, that He may
establish thee to-day for a people to Himself, and that He may be unto
thee a God." And therefore to be a covenant-refuser, is to make our
miseries perpetual. 2. Because it is the highest act of God's love to
man, to vouchsafe to engage Himself by oath and covenant to be his God;
so it is the highest demonstration of man's love to God, to bind himself
by oath and covenant to be God's. There is nothing obligeth God more to
us, than to see us willing to tie and bind ourselves unto His service:
and therefore, they that in this sense are anti-covenanters are sons of
Belial, that refuse the yoke of the Lord, that say, "Let us break His
bands asunder, and cast away His cords, from us;" such as _oderunt
vincula pietatis_, which is a soul-destroying, and a land-destroying
sin. 3. Because that the union of England, Scotland and Ireland, into
one covenant, is the chief, if not the only preservative of them at this
time. You find in our English chronicles, that England was never
destroyed, but when divided within itself. Our civil divisions brought
in the Romans, the Saxons, Danes and Normans; but now the
anti-covenanters divide the parliament within itself, and the city
within itself, and England against itself; they are as stones separated
from the building, which are of no use to itself, and threaten the ruin
of the building. Jesus Christ is called in Scripture, the
"Corner-stone," which is a stone that unites the two ends of the
building together. Jesus Christ is a stone of union: and therefore they
that sow division, and study unjust separation, have little of Jesus
Christ in them. When the ten tribes began to divide from the other two
tribes, they presently began to war one against another, and to ruin one
another: the anti-covenanter, he divides and separates and disunites.
And therefore he makes perilous times.
My chief aim is at the second doctrine,
Doctrine 2. That for a covenant-taker to be a covenant-breaker, is a sin
that makes the times perilous. For the opening of this point, I must
distinguish again of covenants. There are civil, and there are religious
covenants; a civil covenant is a covenant between man and man; and of
this the text is primarily, though not only, to be understood. Now, for
a man to break promise and covenant with his brother, is a
land-destroying, and a soul-destroying abomination. We read, 2 Sam.
xxi., that because Saul had broken the covenant that Joshua made with
the Gibeonites, God sent a famine in David's time, of three years'
continuance, to teach us that, if we falsify our word and oath, God will
avenge covenant-breaking, though it be forty years after. Famous is that
text in Jeremiah. Because the princes and the people brake the covenant
which they had made with their servants, though but their servants, God
tells them, "Because ye have not hearkened unto Me, in proclaiming
liberty every one to his brother.... Behold, I proclaim liberty for you,
saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine: and
I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth." We
read also, that God tells Zedekiah, because he brake the covenant he had
made with the king of Babylon, that therefore, "He would recompense upon
his head the oath that he had despised, and the covenant that he had
broken, and would bring him to Babylon, and plead with him there for the
trespass which he had trespassed against the Lord." David tells us, that
it is a sin that shuts a man out of heaven. The Turkish history tells
us of a covenant made between Amurath, that great Turk, and Ladislaus,
king of Hungary, and how the pope absolved Ladislaus from the oath, and
provoked him to renew the war: in which war the Turk, being put to the
worst, and despairing of victory, pulls out a paper which he had in his
bosom, wherein the league was written, and said, "O Thou God of the
Christians, if Thou beest a true God, be avenged of those that have,
without cause, broken the league made by calling upon Thy name." And the
story says, that after he had spoken these words, he had, as it were, "a
new heart, and spirit put into him and his soldiers," and that they
obtained a glorious victory over Ladislaus. Thus God avenged the quarrel
of man's covenant. The like story we read of Rudolphus, duke of Sweden,
who, by the pope's instigation, waged war with Henry IV., emperor of
Germany, to whom he had sworn to the contrary. But, in the fight it
chanced that Rudolphus lost his right hand, and falling sick upon it, he
called for it and said, "Behold this right hand with which I subscribed
to the emperor, with which I have violated my oath, and therefore I am
rightly punished." I will not trouble you with relating that gallant
story of Regulus, that chose rather to expose himself to a cruel death,
than to falsify his oath to the Carthaginians. The sum of all is, if it
be such a crying abomination to break covenant between man and man; and
if such persons are accounted as the off-scouring of men, not worthy to
live in a Christian, no, not in a heathen commonwealth: if it be a sin
that draws down vengeance from heaven; much more for a man to enter into
covenant with the great Jehovah, and to break such a religious
engagement: this must needs be a destroying and soul-damning sin. And of
such religious covenants I am now to speak.
There are two covenants that God made with man, a covenant of nature,
and a covenant of grace. The covenant of nature, or of works, was made
with Adam, and all mankind in him. This covenant Adam broke, and God
presently had a quarrel against him for breaking of it. And, to avenge
the quarrel of the covenant, he was thrust out of paradise, and there
was a sword also placed at the east end of the garden of Eden, to avenge
covenant-breaking. And by nature we are all children of wrath, heirs of
hell, because of the breach of that covenant. And therefore we should
never think of original sin, or of the sinfulness and cursedness of our
natural condition, but we should remember what a grievous sin
covenant-breaking is.
But, after man was fallen, God was pleased to strike a new covenant,
which is usually called a covenant of grace, or of reconciliation. This
was first propounded to Adam by way of promise, "The seed of the woman
shall bruise the serpent's head." And then to Abraham by way of
covenant, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed."
And then to Moses by way of testament. It is nothing else but the free
and gracious tender of Jesus Christ, and all His rich purchases to all
the lost and undone sons of Adam, that shall believe in Him: or as the
phrase is, "That shall take hold of the covenant." Now you must know
that baptism is a seal of this covenant, and that all that are baptised
do, sacramentally at least, engage themselves to walk before God, and to
be upright; and God likewise engages Himself to be their God. This
covenant is likewise renewed when we come to the Lord's Supper, wherein
we bind ourselves, by a sacramental oath, unto thankfulness to God for
Christ. Add further, that besides this general covenant of grace,
whereof the sacraments are seals, there are particular and personal, and
family and national covenants. Thus, Job had his covenant; and David.
And when he came to be king, he joined in covenant with his people to
serve the Lord. Thus Asa, Jehoiada, Josiah, and others. Thus the people
of Israel had not only a covenant in circumcision, but renewed a
covenant at Horeb and Moab, and did often again and again bind
themselves to God by vow and covenant. And thus the churches of Christ.
Christians, besides the vows in baptism, have many personal and national
engagements unto God by covenant, which are nothing else but the
renovations and particular applications of that first vow in baptism. Of
this nature is that you are to renew this day.
Now give me leave to shew you what a sword-procuring and soul-undoing
sin, this sin of covenant-breaking is; and then the reason of it. Famous
is that text, "And I will send My sword, which shall avenge the quarrel
of My covenant." The words in the Hebrew run thus, "I will avenge the
avengement," which importeth this much, that God is at open war and at
public defiance with those that break His covenant: He is not only angry
with them, but He will be revenged of them. "The Lord hath a controversy
with all covenant-breakers." "The Lord will walk contrary to them."
First, God takes His people into covenant, and then He tells them of the
happy condition they should be in, if they did keep the covenant; but if
they did break covenant, He tells them, "that the Lord will not spare
him; but the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that
man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon
him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven, and the
Lord shall separate him. And when the nation shall say, Wherefore hath
the Lord done thus unto the land? What meaneth the heat of this great
anger? Then shall men say. Because they have forsaken the covenant of
the Lord God of their fathers." This was the sin that caused God to send
His people Israel into captivity, and to remove the candlestick from the
Asian churches. It is for this sin, that the sword is now devouring
Germany, Ireland, and England. God hath sent His sword to avenge the
quarrel of His covenant.
The reasons why this sin is a God-provoking sin, are, First, because
that, to sin against the covenant is a greater sin than to sin against a
commandment of God, or to sin against a promise, or to sin against an
ordinance of God. 1. It is a greater sin than to break a commandment of
God; for the more mercy there is in the thing we sin against, the
greater is the sin. Now there is more mercy in a covenant than in a bare
commandment. The commandment tells us our duty, but gives no power to do
it. But the covenant of grace, gives power to do what it requires to be
done. And therefore, if it be a hell-procuring sin to break the least of
God's commandments, much more to be a covenant breaker. 2. It is a
greater sin than to sin against a promise of God; because a covenant is
a promise joined with an oath. It is a mutual stipulation between God
and us: and therefore, if it be a great sin to break promise, much more
to break covenant. 3. It is a greater sin than to sin against an
ordinance, because the covenant is the root and ground of all the
ordinances. It is by virtue of the covenant that we are made partakers
of the ordinances: the word is the book of the covenant, and the
sacraments are the seals of the covenant. And if it be a sin of an high
nature to sin against the book of the covenant, and the seals of the
covenant, much more against the covenant itself. To break covenant, is a
fundamental sin; it razeth the very foundation of Christianity, because
the covenant is the foundation of all the privileges, and prerogatives,
and hopes of the saints of God: and therefore we read that a stranger
from the covenant is one "without hope." All hope of heaven is cut off,
where the covenant is willingly broken. To break covenant is an
universal sin, it includes all other sins. By virtue of the covenant, we
tie ourselves to the obedience of God's commandments, we give up
ourselves to the guidance of Jesus Christ, we own Him for our Lord and
King; all the promises of this life, and that which is to come, are
contained within the covenant. The ordinances are fruits of the
covenant: and therefore they that forsake the covenant, commit many sins
in one, and bring not only many but all curses upon their heads. The sum
of the first argument is, "If the Lord will avenge the quarrel of his
commandments," if God was avenged upon the stick-gatherer for breaking
the Sabbath, much more will he be avenged upon a covenant-breaker. If
God will avenge the quarrel of an ordinance; if they that reject the
ordinances shall be punished, "of how much sorer punishment shall they
be thought worthy, that trample under their feet the blood of the
covenant?" If God was avenged of those that abused the ark of the
covenant, much more will He punish those that abuse the Angel of the
covenant.