oving sacrilegious, robbing God of
that worship and service, which they have sworn to give Him.

The Fifth reason why this sin makes the times perilous, is; Because
covenant-breakers are reckoned amongst the number of those that have the
mark of reprobation upon them. I do not say that they are all
reprobates, yet I say, that the apostle makes it to be one of those sins
which are committed by those that are given up "to a reprobate mind."
The words are spoken of the heathen, and are to be understood of
covenants made between man and man; and then the argument will hold _a
fortiori_. If it be the brand of a reprobate to break covenant with man,
much more a covenant made with the great Jehovah by the lifting up of
our hands to heaven.

The Last reason is, because it is a sin against such infinite mercy. It
is said, "Which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto
them;" that is, although I had chosen them for my spouse, and married
myself unto them with an everlasting covenant of mercy, and entailed
heaven unto them, yet they have broken my covenant. This was a great
provocation. Thus, "When thou wast in thy blood, and no eye pitied thee,
to have compassion upon thee, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy
blood, Live: Yea, I said unto thee, Live." It is twice repeated. As if
God should say, "Mark it, O Israel, when no eye regarded thee, then I
said unto thee, Live." Behold, saith God, "Thy time was the time of
love." Behold, and wonder at it. "And I spread my skirt over thee, and
covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into covenant
with thee, saith the Lord, and thou becamest Mine." And yet for all
this, thou has sinned grievously against Me. "Wo, wo unto thee, saith
the Lord God."

There is a fivefold mercy in the covenant, especially in the covenant of
grace, that makes the sin of covenant-breaking to be so odious.

1. It is a mercy that the great God will vouchsafe to enter into
covenant with dust and ashes. As David saith in another case, "Is it a
light thing to be the son-in-law of a king?" So may I say, "Is it a
light matter for the Lord of heaven and earth to condescend so far as to
covenant with His poor creatures, and thereby to become their debtors,
and to make them, as it were, His equals?" When Jonathan and David
entered into a covenant of friendship, though one was a king's son, the
other a poor shepherd, yet there was a kind of equality between them.
But this must be und