2. Not the alteration of the national affairs to the better, but the alteration of men's hearts to the worse, made covenanting with God to be fo contemned at the Refloration and Revolution.

III. That these folemn and religious covenants with God, in which all grofs herefy, blafphemy, idolatry, Popery, and other abominations have been repeatedly abjured, bind not only the immediate fwearers or fubfcribers, but all their pofterity and other reprefentees in all generations following, to a faithful performance of every thing engaged, muft now be demonftrated.

1. That which is engaged in thefe covenants, being moral duty, commanded by the law of God, is of perpetual obligation. The whole faith and practice to which we therein engage are fttated from the oracles of God, in our excellent Standards. If the matter in itself, were contrary to God's law, no human covenant could bind us, or any represented by us to it for a moment. We can have no power from God to bind ourselves or others to any thing finful, 2. Cor. xiii. 8. Nor can any human deed be valid in oppofition to his fupreme authority.-If the matter were indifferent, no vow or promiffory oath could lawfully conftitute a perpetual obligation, as the alteration of circumftances might render it very unexpedient and unedifying, 1 Cor. vi.. 12. & x. 23. & xvi. 14. Rom. xiv. 19. But if that which is engaged be precifely, what every perfon, in every age or circumftance, is bound to, by the antecedent tie of the law of God, no man can be, in the leaft, abridged of any lawful liberty, by being brought under the moft folemn obligation of an oath or vow. -The ftricteft fulfilment of it cannot but tend to the real profit of every one concerned, both in his perfonal and his focial capacity. Pfal. xix. 11. 1. Cor. xv. 58. Ifa. iii. 10. Proverbs xiv. 34. Rom. ii.

1-10. It is therefore for the advantage of us and our pofterity, to be hedged in, and bound up to the moft exact conformity to God's law, by every mean which he requires or allows, in his word,-even as it is for our advantage to have our liberty bounded by the ledges of bridges.The law of God requires us to do every thing which is calculated to promote or fecure our own or our children's walking in the truth, Gen. xvii. 7. Pfal. xlv. 17. & lxxviii. 1-9. Ifa. xxxviii. 19. 3 John ver. 4.-It reprefents folemn vows as a mean moft effectual to answer this purpose, Pfal. cxix. 106. & lxxvi. 11. & 1. 14. & Ivi. 12. & lxvi. 13, 14. & lxi. 8. & cxvi. 12--19. & cxxxii. 1-5. Gen. xxviii. 20. Deut. v. xxix Joh. xxiv. 15, 24, 25. 2 Chron. xv. xxiii. 16, 17. & xxix. 10. & xxxiv. 30-32. Ezra x. 3. Nch. ix. x. Ifa. xix. 18, 21. & xliv. 3-5. & xlv. 23, 24. Jer. 1. 4, 5. 2 Cor. viii. 5.

2. &

12. &

2. By the repeated judicial acts of both Church and State, approving and impofing thefe covenants, they were conftituted the adopted laws of both, proper to be acknowledged and fubmitted to, by all their members, in the moft folemn manner, which their circumftances permitted. Several of these acts, as well as the best duties of Chriftians, had their finful infirmities, particularly on the head of penalties, which I mean not to defend. But in fo far as these acts approved and authorized these cove nants, which bound men to receive and hold faft fuch temporal and fpiritual privileges, as God had given them, and thankfully improve them to his glory, and required a Christian, regular, and sea fonable taking of them, they were certainly good and valid. Being good in themfelves, and the exact performance of them calculated to promote the glory of God, and eminent welfare of both Church and State, these covenants, if once regularO

ly adopted as laws, muft remain obligatory upon the adopting focieties, while they exift. Civil rulers being ordained minifters of God for good to men, Rom. xiii. 14. and Church officers appointed by Christ for the edifying of his body, Eph. iv. 11,--14. have no power against the truth, but for the truth, Corinth. xiii. 8, 10. and so can no more repeal a law, which promotes only that which is morally good, any more than they can give validity to a finful one.- -These covenants must therefore, in the view of God and confcience, continue binding, as laws divinely ratified, upon us, as fubjects, and as Chriftians. But it is their much more folemn obligation as public Vows and Covenants with God, which I mean to establish, particularly with reference to Scotland.

3. The matter of thefe vows being morally good, calculated to promote the holiness and happiness of every person in every age, the immediate covenanters were fuch as laid every poffible foundation of tranfmitting the obligation of their vow to the whole Church and nation, to all generations. The REPRESENTATIVES of both Church and State,-the MAJORITY of the Society, and our own PARENTS, in their respective stations, took these covenants. What could tranfmit and extend an obligation to pofterity, if all this did not? You cannot but allow, that even in private civil deeds, the obligation is extended far beyond the immediate engagers. In bonds, refpe&ting money or fervice, men bind not only themselves, but their fucceffors, and affigns, efpecially, if they have the continued right to, or poffeffion of that fund or property from which that money or fervice natively arifeth. The obligations contained in a call to a minifter, fix on the whole congregation, if fubfcrbed by the majority, without any regular diffent,

and on fuch as afterwards

accede to it. The treaties of peace, traffick, &c. contracted by Kings, Parliaments, Magiftrates, are held binding on their fubjects, and even on their pofterity. They, who accede to any fociety, fall under the binding force of its focial engagements for debt, duty, &c. If bonds and covenants did only bind immediate contractors, nothing but the wildeft diforder would enfue. If the immediate engagers, quickly after died, they who trufted to their engagement, might be totally ruined. A minority, who had been filent during the tranfaction, might, in a few days, overturn a bond or contract of the majority. Subjects might, at their pleasure, render void the contracts and treaties of their rulers. To pretend, that men may not use the fame freedom, in binding their reprefentees and posterity to God, as in binding them to men, is highly abfurd and shocking, as it reprefents God as more dangerous, and lefs honourable and useful to be dealt with, than the very worst of men. Why may not a parent, in offering his child to God in baptifm, take hold of God to be his God, and the God of his feed after him to all generations,--and dedicate not only that child, but all his pofterity to God, as his. honoured vaffals and fervants. Gen. xvii. 7. A&s ii. 39. Is this lefs dutiful, safe, or honourable, than to infeft himself and them in fome earthly property, and bind them as poffeffors of it, to be the vaffals of fome finful fuperior?--If the majority of a fociety, especially in diftrefs, may put the whole under the authority and protection of a man who is a great finner, why muft they act either wickedly or foolishly, if, by a folemn dedication, they put it under the efpecial care and protection of the Great. GOD our Saviour? Rev. xi. 15. Pfal. ii. 12. & xxii. 27. If the reprefentatives of a people, may bind them to live peaceably and trade honeftly with earth

ly neighbours; or may, in fome cafes, fubject them to the power, laws, or exactions of other earthly fuperiors, why allow them no power to bind them to ftudy peace with God, and to follow peace with all men and holiness?—No power to furrender them to God, to be ruled by his law,—and to render him his due revenues of honour ?-Hath not God an original and fupreme right to all men as his creatures, fubjects, and children? Are they not all bound by his law to the whole of that duty, to which, we contend, any man ought to be bound by a vow of perpetual obligation ? Is it not inexpreffibly honourable, fafe and profitable to ftand under the fpecial care of, and in relation to God in Chrift, Deut. iv. 7. & xxxiii. 29.? Why then more shy of devoting pofterity, or other reprefentees to him, than to a finful man and his fervice?

In covenants with men, a proper and timely diffent may frequently be well founded; and may effectually divert this obligation from the diffenters. But how there could be a lawful diffent from an engagement carefully to keep all the commandments of God and nothing elfe, I know not. Had the whole, or even the body of the Hebrew nation, timely and regularly diffented from the treaty made by their princes with the Gibeonites, it might have diverted its obligation from them.-Inftead of this, they appear to have agreed to the final flating of it, without a fingle murmur, Jofh. ix. But, if thefe princes had, by covenant, devoted themselves and their tribes to a careful keeping of God's commandments, I know not how the people's diffent could have diverted the obligation from themselves.

In covenants with men, the nonfulfilment of fome condition or fome difpenfation or remiflion may weaken, if not perfectly annul, the obligation. But none can difpenfe with, or grant remiflions,