Returning unto God the great concernment of a covenant people. Or A sermon preached…

Answ. And is the Old-Testament become Apocrypha in these days? Men consider not, that by this Objection they strike at the Foundation of all these Churches, & introduce a principle, that is destructive to the very Form and being of a Congregational Church. Where doth the New-Testament in so many express words speak of any explicit Church Covenant? The New Testament is more sparing, as to the mentioning of things, abundantly insisted on in the Old-Testament. When the Anabaptists object, that the New-Testament faith nothing of Children's right to the Seal of the Covenant; do we not rightly answer them, but their right thereunto is plainly asserted in the Old-Testament, and no where repealed in the New? even so, we have Examples for Renovation of Covenant in the Old Testament, and it is no where condemned in the New. But as the Judgements which befell the Lords people of old were recorded for our Admonition, so the course which they took, in order to Reformation, is written for our Instruction and Imitation, 1 Cor. 10. 11. It is a great Truth, that practices mentioned in the Old Testament, not peculiar to that Poedagogi, but of moral and perpetual Equity, do bind men in the days of the Gospel; and of this sort, is the Renovation of Covenant, with the Lord our God. Nor must it be granted that the New-Testament is a stranger to any such practice. For the Jews that we read of in the second Chapter of the Acts, were in Covenant with God, before the Time of Reformation came, as the Apostle speaketh, Heb. 9. 10. yet it is past doubt, that when three thousand were added to them, (i. e. to the Church at Jerusalem) they renewed their Covenant with God, and with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would desire those that make this Objection, to give us an Instance of any Gospel Church which being under spiritual declensions, was recovered from their ⟨p. 18⟩backslidings, without Renewing their Covenant. When the Churches in Asia, (some of them) had fallen by their Iniquity, the Lord Jesus called upon them to Repent and Return, and that implieth that they ought to attend Scripture expedients for Reformation; of which this Renovation of Covenant is none of the least.

Answ. And is the Old-Testament become Apocrypha in these dayes? Men consider not, that by this Objection they strike at the Foundation of all these Churches, & introduce a principle, that is destructive to the very Form and being of a Congregational Church. Where doth the New-Testament in so many express words speak of any explicite Church Covenant? The New Testament is more sparing, as to the mentioning of things, abundantly insisted on in the Old-Testament. When the Anabaptists object, that the New-Testament faith nothing of Childrens right to the Seal of the Covenant; do we not rightly answer them, but their right thereunto is plainly asserted in the Old-Testament, and no where repealed in the New? even so, we have Examples for Renovation of Covenant in the Old Testament, and it is no where condemned in the New. But as the Judgements which befel the Lords people of old were recorded for our Admonition, so the course which they took, in order to Reformation, is written for our Instruction and Imitation,