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 thereunto. Spiritual mercies are entailed upon it, Deut. xxix. 12, 13. "That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: that he may establish thee to-day for a people to himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Temporal mercies are also promised to this upright renewing and keeping covenant, Deut. xxix. 9--"Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do." And, it is remarked, 2 Chron. xv. 15, that after Asa's covenant, "the Lord gave them rest round about." 4. The malice and opposition of the Popish, Prelatical, and malignant party against the covenants, and their doing what in them lies, to make their obligation void and null, may be a motive and argument for the people of God so much the more to avouch their respect to them by a public adherence, especially after long continued breaches.