A solemn discourse vpon the sacred league and covenant of both kingdomes, opening the divinity and policy of it: / by John Saltmarsh, Master of Arts, and late pastor of Hesterton in Yorkshire. Saltmarsh, John, d. 1647. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A93705 of text R210075 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason E253_7). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 31 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A93705 Wing S502 Thomason E253_7 ESTC R210075 99868906 99868906 159150 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A93705) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 159150) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 43:E253[7]) A solemn discourse vpon the sacred league and covenant of both kingdomes, opening the divinity and policy of it: / by John Saltmarsh, Master of Arts, and late pastor of Hesterton in Yorkshire. Saltmarsh, John, d. 1647. 8 p. Printed for Lawrence Blaiklock, London, : 1644. Caption title. Annotation on Thomason copy: "March 21. 1643"; the final 4 in imprint date crossed out. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Solemn League and Covenant (1643). -- Early works to 1800. Great Britain -- Church history -- 17th century -- Early works to 1800. A93705 R210075 (Thomason E253_7). civilwar no A solemn discourse vpon the sacred league and covenant of both kingdomes,: opening the divinity and policy of it: / by John Saltmarsh, Mast Saltmarsh, John 1644 5396 9 0 0 0 0 0 17 C The rate of 17 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2007-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-07 Angela Berkley Sampled and proofread 2007-07 Angela Berkley Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SOLEMN DISCOVRSE Vpon the Sacred League and Covenant of both Kingdomes , Opening The DIVINITY and POLICY of it : By John Saltmarsh , Master of Arts , and late Pastor of Heslerton in Yorkshire . London , Printed for Laurence Blaiklock 1644. To the Worthy COVENANTER . I Could have given more , and more easie and common Observations ; but these times call for Di courses that work higher , and more quaintly ; I say not this to force any reputation upon the notions . This Covenant is the most glorious rise of a Reformation in any age ; mighty and powerfull are the Principles of it ; and though this season of our Solemnity be cloudie , and our evening bloodie , yet it is our Saviours Interpretation ; When it is evening , you say it will be fair weather , for the skie is red . COVENANT . The Holy Obligatory Principles . In Praeamb. Having before our eyes the glory of God . And each one of us for himselfe , with our hands lifted up to the most high God . Artic. 6. And this Covenant we do make in the presence of Almighty God , the searcher of all hearts , As we shall answer at that great day , when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed . THE DISCOVRSE . The Power and Excellencie of this COVENANT . A Covenat is the last resort of the godly and wise Christian ; and with this , he draws himself neerer Heaven , and closer to that glorious Essence , and the immediate flowings and emanation of an Almighty power : A Covenant is such an Obligation , as sayes an ingagement upon the soule ; and as in tossings and storms at Sea , the Marriners find out no safer course then by casting out Cords and Anchors , to hold them at some Period ; so in civill waves and spirituall fluctuations , there cannot be a more secure experiment , then this of Covenanting , which is like the casting out our Coards and Anchors , as they did in St. Pauls storm , Vndergirding the ship and casting out four Anchors . Covenants , they are Divine Engines , which the godly have found out to winde up their soules from irregular wandrings and strayings , into heavenly heights and stations , the only remedy , and preventive against relapses & Apostasies ; and those vertues and operations the Saints have ever found in Covenants : for such resolutions of soul , are but the finer cordage , which the Spirit spins out , and twists from the substance of its own essence ; and now God and his Angels have something to hold our souls by , even the operations and effluxes of our own spirits : and though God need none of those , but is able to keep us up by the immediate and indistant workings of his holy Spirit , yet he is a God that is pleased to take us at our own rebound , and to admit us into that holy consociation , Wee as workers together with him . He that covenants with God , by that very act doth carry up himself unto Gods Throne , and cites his soul to his Tribunall , and then the Majesty of God looks on him with a fuller gleam ; and so long as that glorious interview continues , or any sparkling or raying of it , man is awed from sinning , and stands trembling like the people of Israel , while God appear'd upon the Mount . And thus Divine Covenants , as they exalt and situate a soul in more glory then before , even in the glorious face of God , so they are the spirituall stayes and supports and strengthnings of a soule . God himself first drew forth his own essence into this course of Covenants to Abraham and Moses , and Joshua , and his people ; and from that Covenant he went higher , to one of grace , besides the particular obligations of his , to Noah and other Saints , not as if he received any consolidation or conformation by it , or any such act of covenanting that he had not before ; not as if he begun to react upon himself in any new operation ( far be it from his immutable essence ) he was as firm and unchangeable in the eternall immanencie of his own before ever hee passed himself abroad into any such act of paction : and therefore he could not shew himself to man in the likenesse of any other notion , than , I am . Only hee was pleased to light us by a beam of his own nature , into this duty of holy confederation , and to shew us a new way of spirituall advancement and establishment : How sacred then ? and how inviolable ought these to be ? which are made with a most high God ; when even pactions and promises , and Covenants in friendships and lower confederations , are reputed holy . Thus far of the power of the Covenant upon the soul in that grand and heavenly ingagement ; now there is a power reflexive , and that is a return it makes from Heaven , and in that return it brings with it something of God ; for the soul going up thither by a spirituall might and holy violence , brings away from thence graces and blessings , and the resort of many temporall mercies , as when Moses had been looking God in the face , he brought a divine lustre upon his own , home with him . We see Nehemiah's Covenant had excellent concomitances , the dedication was kept with gladnesse , and singing and Psalteries , and the people offered themselves willingly , and the businesse at Jerusalem , and all the affairs of Gods House went better on in all the particulars , Nehem. 11. 3. 12. 27. The Covenant of Judah drew along with it the like blessings ; the Lord was found of them and gave them rest ; and one more superlative blessing , not inconsistent with our calamity , Maachah was removed from being Queen , because she had made an Idoll in a Grove , 2 Chron. 5. 25 , 26. And for this Covenant of ours I am bold to say , it hath been in heaven already ; it came not only from thence in its first inspiration , but it hath had a return back , and by the power of that reflexive act , it hath brought down with it cheerfull concurrences and contributions in both Kingdoms , and there are divine stirrings , and movings , and aspirations in the people of late : and as in the Pool of Bethesda the stirrings and troubles in the waters were the only signe of the Angels coming down : So these waters in both Kingdoms , which in the holy Spirits language are people , do stir and move more of late , not only in their highest and supreme representative , but in their own places , which is an indication of some divine vertue , descended and co-operating . COVENANT . The Reformation Principles . In Praeamb. 1. To indeavour the advancement of the Kingdome of Iesus Christ . Artic. 1. The Reformation of Religion in Doctrine , Worship , and Discipline , according to the Word of God , and the Example of the best Churches . Artic. 6. The unfeigned desire to be humbled for our sins , and the sins of these Kingdomes . DISCOVRSE . THese are such Maxims as will make a Kingdome holy and happy , for holiness is the foundation and basis to all other blessings , and hath a perpetuating quality , and it is such a condition as God takes in at the felicitating of a person or people : Seek first the Kingdome of God , and all things shall be added unto you . The advancement of Gods Kingdom , was alwayes the advancement of the kingdom of Israel ; and the glory of the one declined and set in the declination of the other : for the Ark and the Glory departed together , and both expired at once in a dolefull Ichab●d . The advancement of Christs Kingdom hath been the designe of God from all eternity , and it is the designe of the godly too : God revealeth his secrets to his servants , and we have the minde of Christ . Now knowing so much of the counsels , and designes , and secrets , and minde of God , we are carried on by the same Spirit to be aiding to that designe : now though the Kingdom of Christ be such a name as imports glory and dominion , yet it is not a glory of this world , but a spirituall glory , seated in bare and simple administrations ; such as are foolishnesse to the Greek , and to the Iews a Rock of offence : and this Kingdom of Christ , like other Monarchies , hath its rise and growth , its ages and improvements according to the propheticall latitude , being at no fulness nor perfectnesse , til the rest of the Monarchies be conf●●med before it : this is that small excrescencie advancing out of the Mountain , and by a power insensible exalting it self through al oppositions , working through Atheisms , Paganisms , Idolatries , Superstitions , Persecutions , and all the carnall machinations into a lustre glorious , in the judgement of those only , who can spiritually discerne : the advancement of this Kingdome is only attainable by a Reformation to the Word of God ; and here wee shall take occasion to part with all the Models and Idea's which are not to be found in holy Scriptures ; it is markt there as a grand transgression to walk after the imagination of our own hearts : and that was said to Ieroboams charge , That his Priests & Sabbaths , and worship , were such as he devised is his own heart : God will indure no such rivallity nor conjunctures with himself : it , is an incompleating the work of God , to build his House with our own timber : and as he made this world at first only after the pattern of his own counsels , so in this second work of the setting up a spirituall struct●●e for his glory , God thinks none worthy of co-ordination , in those things wherein his glory shall be sure to suffer in a distribution with his creatures , and his own Image hath ever pleased him best , and therefore he made the best piece of his creation according to it . And where this Kingdome of Christ is , there is holinesse of Doctrine , holinesse of Government , holinesse of Ordinances , holinesse of Life ; God hath had a people at first whom he made his own , by speciall adoption , by eminent priviledges , by rare providences , by Lawes and Institutions , by Worship and Administrations . And now because darknesse in part is hapned to Israel , God will still have a people that shall be his , and have their lawes and usages and formes from him ; their guidance and providences from him . This Kingdome of Christ is a company of godly gathered by his owne Spirit , having their Lord and Saviour in the midst , confederated by an holy and sacramentall paction , ruled by the law of his Will and Spirit ; obeying his commands , whither in silent inspirations , or louder exhortations , either by a word behind us , and a saying , Seek ye my face ; or by outward intimations and interpretations of his Will , from such wayes of distribution and administration as he hath ordained ; studying what will adorne the Gospel of Iesus Christ , and those that walk in the light and glory of it , Being transformed from glory to glory , as by the Spirit of the Lord . Now these Principles , viz. The advancement of Christs Kingdome , and humiliation for sins , are such as will bring God into this Kingdom , and seat him , and determine his presence , as the Tabernacle , and Ark , and Temple , were the ingagements and inthronizations of , and mysterious fixations of Gods Divinity . They are likewise an advancement of the Nation too , setting it higher then other Nations , that was the preferment of the Jewes That to them the Oracles of God were committed . Therefore they were said to dwell in the light , when other Nations sate in the Region and shadow of death . And that Principle of Reformation according to the Word of God , and the best Reformed Churches , brings us closer to God , and consociates us with heaven , and makes us arrive at the highest mysterie , even the deniall of our selves , our own inventions , wil-worship , and superstitions ; pulling down at once all our relations to Rome and Popery , and working to he pattern ; so , That things which shall be seen , shall not be made of things which do appear : wee shall likewise be associated to the Church of Christ , and so incorporated more clearly and purely , and mystically , into the body of Christ , we shall be now in a capacity with them , to partake equally of graces and priviledges : and thus the Kingdome of Christ gathers power and latitude , and stretches to the bredth of that Prophecie , Of the fulness of the Gentiles , and gathers strength too against the present Antichristian Monarchie ; and by that other Principle of humiliation , we obtain the qualification and condition for mercie and peace , we approach into terms of reconciliation with God ; if the wicked forsake his way , and the unrighteous man his thoughts , God will forgive , and abundantly pardon . What is it that thickens the cloud over us , but the evaporation & exhalation of our sins and iniquities , For our iniquities have turned away these things , and your sins have with-held good things from you . COVENANT . The Principle of Extirpation . In Praeamb. Calling to minde the treacherous and bloody plots , conspirarcies , attempts and practices of the Enemies of God . Artic. 2. That wee shall in like manner indeavour without respect of persons , the extirpation of Popery and Prelacie . DISCOVRSE . HEre lies the Propheticall power of it against the Church of Rome , or Antichristian Monarchy , and the bloody plots and conspiracies are such fresh remembrances , as seal us to strong and perpetuall endeavours , we can read in the leaves of our former Ages , their conspiracies still in red Letters , and at this day we have a succession of their bloody Designes , and I conceive the rise we take from their own foundations in blood , is but in holy paralell to him , into whose remembrance great Babylon came to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fiercenesse of wrath ; and to his own peoples resolution , Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us ; and the treacheries and tyrannies of Gods enemies have ever drawn along with them this resolution in Gods people ; Amaleck and Asbur , and Egypt , are standing examples of Divine revenge . And for Extirpation ▪ it is but a retaliation to their own just cruelty , who would raze out the name of Israel , that it should be no more in remembrance . And what hath their endeavour in our Kingdome of Ireland been , but an eradication of our memories . And our confederations now , cannot but be powerful in the very notion ; Nationall Leagues have brought forth great effects in Stats & kingdoms , in the mutual aydings & assistings ; and therfore Israel sent to Syria , & Judah to Assyria , and Iudah to Israel and other Kingdoms have sought to one another for such combinations , in any grand Enterprise ; That famous Design of Christendome , which was such a universall confederation against the Turk , onely it was a Designe in a wrong channell ; Therefore the more spirituall that Leagues are , the more powerfull ; that which made Israel so famous in their conquests to Canaan , was the Association of the Tribes , and the Arke of God amongst them , therefore the Philistims cryed out , Woe unto us , the Arke of God is in the Campe of the Hebrewes ; and when they marched with the Arke amongst them , Iordan was driven back , and the mountains and little hills were removed , the walls of Iericho fell ; And certainely this grand and blessed Association of the three Kingdoms , is a glorious portent to the destruction of Rome it selfe , carrying amongst them such an Arke and Gospel ; this is the first time that ever the Sun saw such a Triple Confederation against the Triple Crown , so many States , so solemnly combined against the Popish Hierarchy ; this is the time the Spirit of God hath set up a Standard ; this is a faire rise , and improvement to the Prophecie , When the Princes of the earth shall gather themselvs together , and shall agree to make her desolate . I know there hath beene many confederations , but they were narrower than this , and so , opposings , and strong ones too , and by confederacies too ; yet those were but single to this , when our Princes in their eyes appeared in their graduall Extirpations , our Henry , and Edward , and Elizabeth , when in Scotland , they against the French power and Idolatry , ayded by a power from this Kingdom : yet these were not from such strong resolutions , such able Principles , such a Sacred Covenant ; they were but ordinary and civill contributions , and weak strivings , and so had shorter extirpations , and relapses , and had little more of Religion , then brought them into the fields , and enabled them to break down Images : The Confederations and Covenants in Germany , so many Princes and States entring into a solemn Protestation upon Luthers discoveries ; The Confederations of those in Holland , and those States in the Netherlands ; The Confederation of those Princes in France ; But these had their ebbings and flowings . But now , as if this were the Antichristian crisis , and as if the Reformation had recovered the Period of declination , three kingdoms strike into a Sacred League ; And now me thinks I hear the Angell saying to us , The Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty dayes , but loe , Michael one of your chiefe Princes came in to help me , and now I am come to make you understand what shall befall in the latter daies ; now me thinks the set time to favour Sion is come , her servants take pleasure in her stones . And for the Extirpation of Prelacie , though it be a government rivetted into our Laws and usages ; and into the judgements , and Consciences of some , through a mistaken and colluding Divinity , yet let us not like the Jewes , lose our Gospell , with holding our Laws too fast ; I know this Kingdom hath ever been a retentive nation of Customes , and old Constitutions , and it parted but sadly with its old Paganisme , and with its latter Antichristianisme , in the desolation of Abbies and Priories ; And hence it is that Reformations in this Nation , hath been with such little power and duration , for we have ever easily gone back with a new successour , never taking in so much of the power of godlinesse , as should be able to make us live Protestants to another succession ; and especially the superstitions and Idolatries of late , were woven with such strange and plausible insinuations ; Episcopacie was got upon the bottome of mis-interpreted Scriptures ; and the whole Government upon a pretended Antiquity ; and the Innovations upon a spirituall Decencie and Order ; upon an Ecclesiasticall Magistrality , & Reverend Infallibility , and prodigeous Policy ; as if there were no way to bring a Papist to Church , but by going with him to Rome first ; if we consider well we shall finde cause enough to remove these as not consistent with the holy simplicity of the Gospell of Iesus Christ ; nor the spirituall purity ; we were then trading with Popery , when we ignorantly thought , we had not enough to serve us from the Scriptures of God , now we see they are perfect and compleat in Iesus Christ ; let us cast away those weak and beggarly rudiment● , of the which we are now ashamed ; and they do not savour the things of God , who would now ( like Saul at Endor ) raise up Aaron , and the whole Hierarchy , and bring us back againe to the Law , forcing us under that coole shadow of Types and Ceremonies , drawing the curtains of the Law before the light of the Gospel ; we serve now in the newnesse of the spirit , not in the deadnesse of the letter . The next thing I observe , is the Politicall excellency , those sound maximes for the Kingdomes duration , as the preservation of Parliamentary rights , and Nationall rights , and Royall rights , that they exceed not , nor exorbitate , and this is no more then to reduce the Kingdome into its primitive contemperation , and to keep the mixture even : for we see that whilest the power of Monarchy would needs take in such poysoned principles , as the Divines and Privadoes did instill , carrying up the notion of a King into an higher firmament then its owne , the whole State was in a posture of ruine : for nothing hath more betrayed Kingdomes into destructive alterations then exorbitancie of government , and States must respect their fundamentals and originals in their present constitution , for those in●use secret dispositions into all the Orders and subordinations , and that ingagement inables to incline to their own interests , and then in their inclinations and pursuite thither , tumults and stirs are wakened , and there is a noise of some new and treasonable indeavour , when it is but the naturall workings of each degree for its owne preservation , and hence have these late aspersions been born and received , the Princes and people being carried on by the strength and violence of a late predominancie , almost out of sight of their true fundamentalls , till they have forgot their interests , and maligne those that would bring them back : and for the temper of our English Monarchy , I will not say more to the praise of the constitution , ( so many having spoken before me ) than its own duration , breathing to this day , under the succession of so many ages , and never distemper'd , but when the fiduciary power would needs be severer and taller then the rest , and entertaine designes of trying strengths and interests , to see , If the fire out of the bramble would at length come forth , and consume the trees of the Forrest . And whereas there are some other subordinate principles in order to these , as the discovery of Incendiaries and Malignants : certainely they that shall suffer any relations to corrupt them to secrecie , are men of too narrow affections for the latitude of a kingdom , they are only in the reputation of Patriots and Fidelio's to their country , who have such a command of spirit , as they can open and close as the occasion of the State requires . And I do further observe , that we are obliged to a mutuall preservation of the peace of the Kingdomes , and in speciall of the Reformation of the Church in Scotland . For the first , it is bottom'd upon the foundation of our government , which is a concentration of the three estates in one , and there is such a samenesse almost in the fundamentalls of the three , and there is such a Monarchicall onenesse which influences into all , that if any alteration begin in any one of them , it will soone , like an infection ( where there is consanguinity of nature ) spread and make over to the rest , so that there is as much policie in suffering our care and faithfulnesse to enlarge and acquaint it self with the interest of the other Estates , which are in no other sense forraine , than onely in the distance of place . And for the particular preservation of the Church of Scotland , it is as concerning an interest as any of the rest , what godly soule will repine to take up the care of another Church , he was ( we know ) a sanguinary man that replyed , Am I my brothers keeper ? And we may take notice there how God calls for an account of every relation at our hands . It was an holy principle that perswaded the Apostle To take care of all the Churches : and the more neare we approach to such endeavours , the more neer we are to the designes and activity of God and Angels , whose businesse and administration is universall ; and especially should our care be for that Church and State , which hath been the conservatory of the Gospell , and kept alive that holy spark , which we in this kingdom do warm our souls by at this day ; she was that Philadelphia who kept the Word of his patience . Nor let any complain of restraints in this our Covenant , as if we multiplyed unnecessary oaths , as if like Sauls oath it had troubled the land , there is no such true Liberty , as in these holy restraints ; nor is it any diminution to our Christian Latitude , that we cannot transgresse nor exceede in this or that ; it is rather the sublimation of our Liberty , and a deliverance into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God ; and as it is the highest perfection , non posse peccare , not to be able to transgresse ; so our estate and condition in this our Covenant , is a degree to that , for God , Angels , and Siants , are not lesse perfect , nor lesse free , because they cannot sin , but is a firmation of soul in the height of holinesse , for as it is the highest aggravation of sinne , not to be able to do good , so it is the highest perfection of goodnesse , not to be able to do ill ; so that I know none that hath a spirituall and discerning soul , that will complain for want of liberty to transgresse ; or that he is in heaven before his time : such chaines are but chaines of gold , nay , but the bracclets of the Spouse , and as it is the devils and reprobates torment and misery to be held in chaines of darknesse , so it is the glory of the blessed Saints and Angels to be held in such chaines of light and holinesse ; and none but Libertines will complaine , that they are walled in , and that their lusts have nor liberty to anger God , and undo their Country . I observe another transcendency in it , there have bin many Covenants taken by the people of God Iosiahs , Iehoshaphats , & Nehemiahs , the Forraign Protestations & those of our own , yet none that hath such a Spirituall and Politicall breadth in it , reaching not onely to Nationals , but al particulars ; and taking in the furthest , and most forraign necessary , and circumstance either in state , or Church . I might take in other particulars , but they are such as cleer up to your first discovery , onely my thoughts have rouled up themselves into this conclusion . Since the Covenant is of this transcendency and excellency , so solemn and sacred , it were fit there were some holy designe , to work it more close to the soules of those that take it , all our happinesse , spirituall and civill , is now in the successe of our confederation with our God , and therefore there would be as much holy art used in preserving the spirits of people in that height of Covenanting , as there was used in the raysing them up ; God himself makes conservation as much his businesse as the creation of the world , and therefore some make it the same act repeated againe . I should think it not unnecessary , that those parts in it which have most of the attestations and invocation , and imprecation , and most of the Politicall and civill advantages , be set on by the ministery in frequent inculcations , even to a Catechising , and by a civil ordinance , or law to that purpose to reminde the ministery ; for we complain of loosness and neglect in former Covenants , and we take no care to enquire into the reasons and remedies , and certainly the sudden laying 〈◊〉 such nationall and obligatory doctrins , and making them but the musick and solemnity of one day , is the only reason of our relaxations , and apostacies , when as having got the Souls of men into a Covenanting station , we should apply our strengths and honest designes to keepe them there . A Divine Rapture upon the COVENANT . CHildren of Sion , rise , and sit not on Those flowry banks of Babylon ; Her streams are muddy & impure , and know Her channel 's bloody where they flow . Oh ▪ let us to a Region , where we may Bathe in pure waters every day , Waters of Life , and happinesse , which have A Chrystall Grace in every wave ; We all make ready to be gone , and mean Never to see those banks again . Oh stay not , til heaven scourge you with a rod Vnto the city of your God● See here a chain of Pearl , and witty dew Wept from the side of God for you ▪ See here a chaine of Rubies from each wound , Let down in purple to the gronnd : Come tye your hearts with ours , to make one Ring And thred them on our golden string : Great God , let down some glorious beame of thine , To winde about his soul and mine , And every ones ; then we shall joyfull be , Made sure to heaven and Thee . FINIS .