2dly, To those who had put their hands to many sinful covenants in opposition to this covenant, and such as being in a natural and unrenewed state, in league with sin and Satan, and in covenant with hell and death. Those he advised and earnestly obtested to break all their sinful covenants, to loathe and abhor them, and be humbled for them: and to come and fall in with this covenant, to say in sincerity that whereas other lords have had too long dominion over them, henceforth they would make mention only of the name of the Lord as their Lord; and that their name should henceforth be _Jacob_, and their sirname _Israel_, and to sign and seal the same with their oath and subscription. This exhortation he enforced by the several calls to the work mentioned before, and by the two following motives: 1st, Because right entering into, and steadfast keeping of this covenant is the way to a holy life, and a holy life tends to make a holy nation; for, if we would observe this covenant sincerely, uniformly, and constantly, we could never be an unholy, and consequently, never an unhappy people; but it should be written as a motto upon our walls and gates, JEHOVAH SHAMMAI, _the Lord is there._ 2d, Because the entering rightly into and due observance of this covenant would be our strength in the midst of all perplexing thoughts, whether arising from inward corruptions, or from outward temptations or dangers; the covenant yielded more satisfaction to David when dying than a royal diadem, a melodious harp, a puissant army, strong cities, a numerous offspring, or any earthly comforts could do, when, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, he supports himself with this, That "though his house was not so with God," yet He had made with him "an everlasting covenant, well-ordered in all things, and sure." The keeping of this covenant had been to our nation a Samson's lock, whereby we should have been able to oppose all our enemies; whereas the breach of it hath opened a door to all sorts of enemies to creep in amongst us, and hence is verified that which the Lord has threatened his people with for their breach of covenant, Deut. xxviii. 44, that the enemy shall be the head, and his people the tail. Sermon being closed by prayer, the Acknowledgment of Sins was again read, as preparative to the engaging part; and the minister, in the first place, admonished all such as were guilty of such public steps of defection as are confessed in the Acknowledgment, to make full and free confession thereof before the congregation, with such a due sense of, and sorrow for these public sins, as might evidence a hearty design of abandoning them and of adhering more closely to covenanted duties, which accordingly many did, both with respect to the perjurious oaths of the late times and defections of the present.