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beloved and this is our Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." And shall we
not rejoice? Shall we not walk cheerfully? Tho' there be nothing but
trouble before our eyes, yet our hearts should live in those upper
regions, which are above storms and tempests, above rain and winds,
above the noise and confusions of the world. Why should sorrow sit
clouded in our faces, or any darkness be in our hearts, while we are in
the shine and light of God's countenance? It is said, "That all Judah
rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart:" If we
have sworn heartily, we shall rejoice heartily. And for ever banish base
fears, and killing sorrows from our hearts; and wipe them from our
faces. They, who have unworthy fears in their hearts, give too fair an
evidence that they did not swear with their hearts.

5. Walk humbly and dependently; rejoice, but be not secure. Trust to God
in covenant, not to your covenant. Make not your covenant your Christ;
no, not for this temporal salvation. As a horse trusted to, is a vain
thing to save a man, so likewise is a covenant trusted to; neither can
it deliver a nation by its great strength: tho' indeed the strength of
it be greater than the strength of many horses. "In vain is salvation
hoped for from this hill, or from a multitude of mountains," heaped up
and joined in one by the bond of this covenant. Surely in the Lord our
God, our God in covenant, is the salvation of England. We cannot trust
too much in God, nor too little in the creature; there is nothing breaks
the staff of our help, but our leaning upon it. If we trust in our
covenant, we have not made it with God, but we have made it a god; and
every god of man's making, is an idol, and so nothing in the world: you
see, pride in, or trust to this covenant will make it an idol, and then
in doing all this, we have done nothing; for "an idol is nothing in the
world." And of nothing, comes nothing. By overlooking to the means, we
lose all; and by all our travail shall bring forth nothing but wind: it
will not work any deliverance in the land. Wherefore, "rest not in the
thing done, but get up, and be doing," which is the last point, and my
last motion about your walking in covenant.

6. Walk industriously and diligently in this covenant. You were
counselled before to stand to the covenant, but take heed of standing in
it. Stand, as that is opposed to defection; but if you stand as that is
opposed to action, you are at the n