is not only unthankfulness, but folly to make a forfeiture of mercies, and to put God by our breach of covenant with him, to break his with us too, Jer. ii. 5-7. 31. Numb. xiv. 34.

(3.) By consideration of our baptism and the tenour thereof, wherein we solemnly promise to keep a good conscience, and to "observe all things whatsoever Christ commandeth us," 1 Pet. iii. 21. Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. from which engagement we cannot recede without the note and infamy of greater perfidiousness. To take Christ's pay, and do sin service, to be a subject unto Michael, and a pensioner unto the dragon, to wear the livery of one master, and do the work of another; to be an Israelite in title, and a Samaritan in truth, this is either to forget or to deride our baptism, 2 Pet. i. 9. for therein we did, as it were, subscribe our names, and list ourselves in the register of Sion; and as it is a high honour to be enrolled in the genealogies of the church, so it is a great dishonour to be expunged from thence, and to be written in the earth, and have our names with our bodies putrify in perpetual oblivion, Jer. xvii. 13. Neh. vii. 64, 65.

(4.) Consider the seal and witnesses whereby this covenant hath been confirmed. Sealed in our own consciences by the seal of faith, believing the holiness of God's ways, and the excellency of his rewards, for "he that believeth hath set to his seal," John iii. 33. mutually attested by our spirits, feeling the sweetness of duty, and by God's Spirit revealing the certainty of reward, Rom. i. 16. and this in the presence of angels and saints, into whose communion we are admitted, 1 Cor. xi. 10. Heb. xii. 22. so that we cannot depart from this covenant, without shaming ourselves to God, to angels, to men, and to our own consciences. Yea, the font where we were baptized, and the table where

we have sacramentally eaten and drank the body and blood of Christ, and the very seats where we have sat attending unto his voice, like Joshua's stone, ch. xxii. 24. 27. will be witnesses against us if we deny our covenant, though there be no need of witnesses against those who have to do with the Searcher of hearts, and the Judge of consciences, that consuming fire whom no lead, no dross, no reprobate silver, no false metal, can endure or deceive, no Ananias or Sapphira lie unto, without their own undoing.

Lastly, let us consider the estate which these covenants do refer unto, and our tenure whereunto these services are annexed, which is eternal life. After we have had patience to keep our short promises of doing God's will, he will perform his eternal promises of giving himself unto us. And who would forfeit an inheritance for not payment of a small homage or quit-rent reserved upon it? If we expect eternal life from him, there is great reason we should dedicate a mortal life unto him. Let us not pay our service in dross, when we expect our wages in gold.

SERMON III.

SO WILL WE RENDER THE CALVES OF OUR LIPS. ASSHUR SHALL NOT SAVE US; WE WILL NOT RIDE UPON HORSES: NEITHER WILL WE SAY ANY MORE TO THE WORKS OF OUR HANDS, YE ARE OUR GODS, &c.—HOSEA XIV. 2, 3.

HAVING handled the general doctrine of our entering into covenant with God, I shall now proceed unto the particulars which they here engage themselves unto, whereof the first is a solemn thanksgiving; “We will render the calves of our lips." All the sacrifices of the Jews were of two sorts. Some were ilastical, propitiatory, or expiatory, for pardon of sin, or impetration of favour: others were eucharistical sacrifices of praise (as the peace-offerings, Lev. vii. 12.) for mercies obtained, Psal. cvii. 22. With relation unto these, the church here, having prayed for forgiveness of sin, and for the obtaining of blessings, doth hereupon, for the farther enforcement of those petitions, promise to offer the peace-offerings of praise, not in the naked and empty ceremony, but with the spiritual life and substance, namely, the calves of their lips, which are moved by the inward principles of hearty sincerity and thanksgiving.

From hence we learn, that sound conversion and repentance enlargeth the heart in thankfulness towards God, and disposeth it to offer up the sacrifice of praise. And this duty here promised, cometh in

this place under several considerations, for we may consider it,

I. As the matter of a covenant or compact, which we promise to render unto God in acknowledgment of his great mercy in answering the prayers which we put up unto him for pardon and grace. It is observable that most of those psalms wherein David imploreth help from God, are closed with thanksgiving unto him, as Psa. vii. 17. xiii. 6. lvi. 12, 13. lvii. 7-11. &c. David thus by a holy commerce insinuating into God's favour, and driving a trade between earth and heaven, receiving and returning, importing one commodity, and transporting another, letting God know that his mercies shall not be lost, that as he bestows the comforts of them upon him, so he would return the praises of them unto Heaven again. Those countries that have rich and staple commodities to exchange and return unto others, have usually the freest and fullest traffic and resort of trade made unto them. Now there is no such rich return from earth to heaven

as praise. This is indeed the only tribute we can pay unto God, to value, and to celebrate his goodness towards us. As in the flux and reflux of the sea; the water that in the one comes from the sea unto the shore, doth in the other but run back into itself again so praises are as it were the return of mercies unto themselves, or into that bosom and fountain of God's love from whence they flowed. And therefore the richer any heart is in praises, the more speedy and copious are the returns of mercy unto it. God hath so ordered the creatures amongst themselves, that there is a kind of natural confederacy and mutual negotiation amongst them, each one receiving and returning, deriving unto others, and drawing from others what serves most for the conservation of them

all, and every thing by various interchanges and vicissitudes flowing back into the original from whence it came: thereby teaching the souls of men to maintain the like spiritual commerce and confederacy with Heaven, to have all the passages between them and it open and unobstructed, that the mercies which they receive from thence, may not be kept under, and im- | prisoned in unthankfulness, but may have a free way in daily praises to return to their fountain again. Thus Noah, after his deliverance from the flood, built an altar, on which to sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving; that as his family by the ark was preserved from perishing, so the memory of so great a mercy might in like manner by the altar be preserved too, Gen. viii. 20. So Abraham, after a weary journey being comforted with God's gracious appearing and manifestation of himself unto him, built an altar, and "called on the name of the Lord,” Gen. xii. 7. and after another journey out of Egypt, was not forgetful to return unto that place again, Gen. xiii. 4. God's presence drawing forth his praises, as the return of the sun in spring and summer, causeth the earth to thrust forth her fruits and flowers, that they may as it were meet and do homage to the fountain of their beauty. If Hezekiah may be delivered from death, Isa. xxxviii. 20. if David from guilt, Psa. li. 14. they promise to sing aloud of so great a mercy, and totake others into the concert, "I will teach transgressors thy way and we will sing upon the stringed instruments." Guilt stops the mouth, and makes it speechless, Matt. xxii. 12. that it cannot answer for one of a thousand sins, nor acknowledge one of a thousand mercies. When Jacob begged God's blessing on him in his journey, he vowed a vow of obedience and thankfulness to the Lord, seconding God's promises