e 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 ser