A78965:39
The great danger of covenant-refusing, and covenant-breaking. Presented in a sermon preached before the…
The great danger of covenant-refusing, and covenant-breaking. Presented in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable Thomas Adams Lord Mayor, and the Right Worshipful the sheriffs, and the aldermen his brethren, and the rest of the Common-council of the famous City of London, Jan. 14. 1645. Upon which day the solemn League and Covenant was renewed by them and their officers with prayer and fasting at Michael Basinshaw, London. / By Edmund Calamy, B.D. and pastor of Aldermanbury London.The great danger of covenant-refusing, and covenant-breaking. Presented in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable Thomas Adams Lord Mayor, and the Right Worshipfull the sheriffes, and the aldermen his brethren, and the rest of the Common-councell of the famous City of London, Jan. 14. 1645. Upon which day the solemne League and Covenant was renued by them and their officers with prayer and fasting at Michael Basinshaw, London. / By Edmund Calamy, B.D. and pastor of Aldermanbury London.
London: printed by M.F. for Christopher Meredith, 1646
The great danger of Covenant-refusing, and Covenant-breaking.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Doctrine the first.1 That to be a Covenant-refuser, is a sin that makes the times perilous. To be foederis nescius, or infoedederabilis. 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 23. 12. and Isaiah 28. 15. such as the holy league (as it was unjustly called) in France against the Hugonites, and that of our Gun-powder ⟨p. 7⟩Traitors in England: such are our Oxford Covenants for the destruction of the Parliament, and godly party. Now to refuse to take such Covenants, is not to make the times perilous, but the taking of them makes the times perilous. Secondly, there are godly and religious Covenants; such as Job 31. 1. I have made a Covenant with mine eyes, why then should I think upon a maid? Such as Psal. 119. I have sworn I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgements; such as 2 Chron. 15. 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 give 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 the joints of his loins 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 long stand. Now then for a man to be an Anticovenanter, and to be such a Covenant-refuser, it must needs be a sin that makes the times perilous.