tendered, speaks thus respecting the
persons. "We noblemen, barons, knights, gentlemen, citizens, burgesses,
ministers of the gospel, and commons, of all sorts, in the kingdom of
England, Scotland, and Ireland." And doth not this indistinctly admit
all, and all, of all sorts? I answer, no. For the words following in
the preface, shew expressly, that only they are called to it, who are of
one reformed religion; which shuts out all papists, till they return.
And the articles pass them through a finer sieve, admitting only such as
promise, yea, and swear, that through the grace of God, they will
sincerely, really, and constantly endeavour the preservation of the
reformed religion, against the common enemy in the one kingdom, the
reformation and extirpation of what is amiss in the other two; as also,
in their own persons, families, and relations. They who do thus, are
choice persons indeed, and they who swear to do thus, are (in charity
and justice) to be reputed so, till their own acts and omissions falsify
their oaths. Thus our covenant makes an equivalent, though not a formal
or nominal election of the persons.

_Second_, There must be a choice of conditions in a covenant; as the
persons obliged, so the matter of the obligation must be distinct. This
is so eminent in the covenant offered, that I may spare my pains in the
clearing of it; every man's pains in reading of it, cannot but satisfy
him, that there are six national conditions about which we make solemn
oath, and one personal, about which we make a most solemn profession and
declaration, before God and the world. And all these are choice
conditions: such as may well be held forth to be (as indeed they are)
the results and issues of many prayers, and serious consultations, in
both the kingdoms of England and Scotland. Conditions they are, in which
holiness and wisdom, piety and policy, zeal for God in purging His
church, and care for man in settling the commonwealth, appear to have
had (in a due subordination) their equal hand and share.

Thus much of a covenant, from the force of the word in the first sense,
leading us to the choice both of persons and conditions.

_Second_, The root signifies, to eat moderately, or so much as breaks
our fast. And this refers also to the nature of a covenant, which is to
draw men into a friendly and holy communion, and converse one with
another. "David describes a familiar friend, in whom he trusted, to be
one, that did eat of