venant. The
scope and argument of the reasons adduced as motives to the duty of
covenanting was to this effect:--

1. The turning away of the Lord's wrath and anger from a land, or
people, which covenant-breaking hath deserved, may be a motive to
renewing covenant with God; this was the motive that prompted the good
reforming King Hezekiah to make a covenant with the Lord, 2 Chron. xxix.
10--"Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of
Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us." And Nehemiah, with
the returned captives, Neh. ix. 38--"And because of all this, we make a
sure covenant."

2. Reviving and advancement in reformation, being the ordinary
consequent and effect of upright covenanting with the Lord, may be
another motive and inducement thereunto; this appears both in personal
and national covenanting--In personal, Psal. cxix. 106--"I have sworn,
and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments." The
Psalmist's having sworn, was a very quickening consideration to excite
him to the performance of his duty. In national covenanting, we always
find, after the people of Israel and Judah had covenanted with the Lord,
they made progress in reformation, and the land was purged of
abominations and idols. Thus it was in Asa's covenant, 2 Chron. xv. 12
to 19; for there, the people have entered into a covenant with the Lord,
"and sworn with all their soul, and with all their heart," the Lord was
found of them; and Asa removed his mother, Maachah, from her royal
dignity, and stamped the idol which she had made, and burnt it at the
brook Kidron; and he brought into the house of the Lord the things that
his father and himself had dedicated. Thus it was also in Jehoiada's
covenant, which he made "between the Lord, and the king, and the people,
that they should be the Lord's people," 2 Kings xi. 17, 18, 20; for,
immediately after the making of his covenant, "all the people of the
land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down--his altars, and his
images brake they in pieces thoroughly; and the priest appointed
officers over the house of the Lord;" and they slew Athaliah with the
sword. The like is evident in Hezekiah's covenanting, 2 Chron. xxxiv.,
xxxv. chapters.

3. This upright renewing of covenant with the Lord is a way and mean to
procure many mercies, both spiritual and temporal, from the hand of the
Lord; which should be a strong inducement and motive to engage us
thereun