terms, therefore it is called a covenant of free grace, and all
that God requires of us is to take hold of this covenant; to receive
this gift of righteousness; to take all Christ, as He is tendered in the
covenant; and, that which is the greatest consolation of all, God hath
promised in His covenant to do our part for us. Therefore it is called a
testament, rather than a covenant. In the New Testament, the word
_diatheke_, is always used by the apostle, and not _syntheke_. Heaven is
conveyed into the elect by way of legacy. It is part of God's testament,
to write His law in our hearts, and to cause us to walk in His ways. Put
these together, seeing there is such infinite mercy in the covenant. A
mercy, for God to enter into covenant with us, to do it with us, and not
the angels; with us fallen, with us upon, such easy terms, and to make
such a covenant that contains so many, and not only so but all blessings
here and hereafter, in the womb of it. It must needs be a
land-destroying, and soul-destroying sin, to be a covenant-breaker.

The use and application of this doctrine is fourfold. 1. Of information.
If it be such a land-destroying sin to be a covenant-breaker, let us
from hence learn the true cause of all the miseries that have happened
unto England in these late years. The womb out of which all our
calamities are come--England hath broken covenant with God, and now God
is breaking England in pieces, even as a potter breaks a vessel in
pieces. "God hath sent His sword to avenge the quarrel of His covenant,"
as Christ whipped the buyers and sellers out of the temple, with whips
made of the cords which they had brought to tie their oxen and sheep
withal. A covenant is a cord to tie us to God; and now God hath made an
iron whip of that covenant which we have broken asunder, to whip us
withal.

We are a nation in covenant with God, we have the books of the covenant,
the Old and New Testament; we have the seals of the covenant, baptism,
and the Lord's supper; we have the messengers of the covenant, the
ministers of the Gospel; we have the angel of the covenant, the Lord
Jesus Christ, fully, freely, and clearly set out before us in the
ministry of the word: but alas! are not these blessings amongst us, as
the ark was amongst the Philistines, rather as prisoners, than as
privileges, rather _in testimonium et ruinam, quam in salutem_; rather
for our ruin, than for our happiness? May it not be said of us, as
reverend Mul