far as they know it: Psalm cxix. 5, "O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!" There is in them a fixed principle, which lies the same way with the holy law; bending away from what the law forbids, and towards what the law directs unto. True, there is a contrary principle in them too, which fights against it; but so do they against that contrary principle, breathing, longing and lusting for the complete victory over it, and for full conformity to the holy law, Gal. v. 17. This is a new set of heart given in the new birth; exerting itself, not in lazy wishes for conformity to the law, but in a resolute struggle for it, enduring to the end. Hence, 3. They will habitually endeavour to conform in their practice to the whole law, so far as they know: Psalm cxix. 6, "Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments." If the law is written in one's heart, he will write it out again in his conversation: and a sanctified heart will certainly make a holy life; Matt. vi. 22, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Where is the efficacy of the holy covenant, if men may be within the covenant, and yet live like those that are without it? Nay, but to whomsoever the grace of God hath effectually appeared, it will have taught them effectually to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, Tit. ii. 11, 12. If the grace of the covenant bring you not to duties of piety towards God, you have no saving part in it. If you are brought unto these, but withal left at liberty from the duties of righteousness toward your neighbour, that you do not loath, but dare to be unjust in smaller or greater matters; you are yet" in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity :" Luke xvi. 11, "If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" If you are brought forward unto both these, and yet not sober, but left slaves to your sensual appetites and fleshly affections, you are no better: for "they that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts," Gal. v. 24. But whoso have fled to the covenant of grace in Christ for life and salvation, and withal are honestly endeavouring conformity to the whole law in their practice, they, how beit in many things they miss their mark, do shew themselves to be within the bond of the holy covenant, and ought to take the comfort thereof, as the divine allowance to them: 2 Cor. i. 12, "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." 4. Lastly, Their souls lie open to what of the laws of the covenant they know not. They are content to know them, desirous to be taught them, that they may conform unto them: Psalm cxix. 26, "Teach me thy statutes.' There are many sins of ours hid unto us; because there is much of the laws of the covenant we do not discern. And hypocrites do not desire to know the whole law : they are willingly ignorant of some things thereof, because they have no inclination to entertain them. But the sincere, being content to part with every false way, and to take upon them the whole yoke of Christ, hating sin as contrary to God's nature and will, and loving duty as agreeable thereto, do of course lie open to the further discoveries of sin and duty: they come to the light, John iii. 21. They say, "That which I see not, teach thou me," Job xxxiv. 32, 66 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting," Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24. And this much shall suffice to have spoken on the fifth head, namely, The trial of a saving personal inbeing in the covenant of grace. HEAD VI. THE WAY OF INSTATING SINNERS PERSONALLY AND SAVINGLY IN THE COVENANT OF GRACE. By the marks and characters given, it appears, that they are but few who are personally and savingly instated in the covenant of grace, in comparison of those who are strangers to it: but we are allowed to offer it to strangers; to invite and call them who are without the covenant, to come into it, and so to compel them to come in, Luke xiv. 23. Here then are the glad tidings of the gospel there is a covenant, which was entered into from eternity between God and Christ the second Adam; a covenant of grace, made in favour of sinners of Adam's race, ruined by the breach of the covenant of works. In it there is full provision for your salvation; to relieve you from all the ruining effects of the broken first covenant, and to render you completely happy. The condition of this covenant is indeed high; being screwed up to a pitch by the demands of the law and justice: yet there is nothing on that part to discourage you from the covenant; for your inability being foreseen from eternity, it was laid upon one that is mighty, to perform it; and now it is already performed and fulfilled to your hand by that mighty one, Christ Jesus. Only, the promises remain to be fulfilled. So the burden of the condition is over without you; and ye are called to the benefit of the promises. And that ye may have the more clear access thereto, the administration of the covenant is put into the hand of the same Christ Jesus; and he is intrusted with all the promises, to fulfil them to sinners. He hath begun to fulfil them to all who have taken hold of the covenant; and is ready to fulfil them to all who yet shall take hold thereof. For that end he hath made his testament of these promises, and constituted sinners of mankind his legatees; that whosoever of them will, may come, claim, and take the water of life freely, Rev. xxii. 17. The whole of the covenant is in him. In him is God, the party-contractor on heaven's side, 2 Cor. v. 19. He himself is the party-contractor on man's side: and in him are all believers really, and all the elect legally and representatively. In him is the condition of the covenant, and that as fulfilled he is the Lord our righteousness, Jer. xxiii. 6. In him are all the promises yea, and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20, all meeting in him, as lines of a circle in their centre; and sure and stedfast, nowise liable to misgive, as did the promise of the covenant of works in the first Adam. And he as a king hath emitted his royal proclamations, bearing, that whosoever will come into him, and unite with him as head of the covenant, shall be taken into it, and have a right to all the privileges thereof in him, and through him. Thus the covenant is brought to you, aud set before you in the gospel; so that ye must needs be either receivers or refusers of it. Refuse it not that is dangerous beyond expression. Take hold of it; for it is your life. Sinners, ye are under the covenant of works, where there is no life, no salvation for you: but the door of the new covenant is opened unto you: come, enter into it without delay. Flee, and make your escape out of the dominion of the law, the covenant of works, ye were born under, and are living under : and that can in no wise be done, but by your accepting and embracing this covenant offered to you in the gospel; to the instating of you personally in it, to all the purposes of life and salvation. Sinners instated in the covenant by faith or believing. To clear your way into the covenant, it is necessary to shew, by what means it is that a sinner embraceth and is instated in it, effectually unto salvation. And this, in one word, is by faith, or believing on Jesus Christ: Acts xvi. 31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." The covenant of grace is held forth unto you: God saith to every one of you, "I will make an : everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David:" and to close the bargain with you, and state you personally in it, to all intents and purposes of salvation, all that is required of you is to hear, that is, to believe; "Hear, and your soul shall live," Isa. lv. 3. He that believeth, is within the covenant of grace personally and savingly he that believeth not, is still under the covenant of works, where the first Adam left him. Faith is the hand whereby one taketh hold of the covenant, signs it for himself, and closeth the bargain for his own salvation. It is the mouth whereby sinners consent to the covenant, that God becomes their God, and they his people. Although while ye are without the covenant, the working of perfect obedience under the pain of the curse is required of you; and more than that, suffering also, even to the satisfaction of justice; and both these, in virtue of the broken first covenant: and when ye are once brought within the covenant, obedience to all the ten commandments, and suffering of the discipline of the covenant in case of your failures, are required of you, in virtue of the new covenant ye are entered into: yet to enter you into the covenant, and instate you in it unto salvation, nothing is required of you, but that ye believe on Christ. Only believe, Mark v. 36, is the constant doctrine of the gospel in this point. Do what you will, and believe not, you remain in a state of damnation: whatever is done, or not done by you, believe, and you are in a state of salvation. If you should say it with your lips a thousand times over, that you accept of the covenant; if you should come under the most solemn and awful bond and engagement to be the Lord's, expressly taking the same upon you in prayer, or otherwise; if you should write your covenant, and subscribe it with your hand; and should take the sacrament of Christ's body and blood upon it, to confirm all: yet if you do not with the heart believe on Jesus Christ, you embrace not the covenant, you miss the saving hold of it, and remain without the saving bond of it. And if you should this moment with the heart believe on Christ, having no access to speak, pray, write, or communicate yet the moment you believe, you are personally and savingly instated in the covenant, never to fall out of it through the ages of eternity; God is your God, and all the promises of the covenant are yours: though you had missed the gripe of the covenant ten thousand times before: in that case you have it firm and sure: Mark xvi. 16, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: he that believeth not, shall be damned." : And that believing on Christ should be the appointed means of entering sinners into the covenant of grace, is very agreeable to the nature and end of that great transaction. The which appears by these two considerations following. 1. Hereby the grace of the covenant is preserved entire in the dispensation of the covenant; and by that means the promise is made sure to all the seed, Rom. iv. 16. Faith is contradistinguished to works, as grace is to debt, chap. iv. 4, 5. If any work or doing of ours were that upon which we were instated in the covenant, and got the right in the promises; then the covenant and benefit thereof would be of debt to us, contrary to the declared end and design of that method of salvation, which is to exalt the free grace of God, and to cut off all boasting from us, Eph. ii. 8, 9. But the nature of faith's efficacy in the business is adapted to that end and design of the covenant; in as much as it is a grace, not giving, but purely receiving; taking all freely from Christ, without money, and without price, laying the stress of the soul's acceptance with God wholly on what Christ hath done and suffered; and entirely renouncing all doings and sufferings of our own in that point. And thus the promise is sure to us for whereas the plea of any work of ours would be a very uncertain one; faith's plea is ever sure and stedfast, as grounded allenarly on what Christ hath wrought. 2. Hereby the sinner's entering into the covenant is by uniting with Christ the representative, with whom it was made as partycontractor; which is the Scipture-account of the matter, John x. 9, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall he saved:" and so the unity of the covenant, and the representation in it, are preserved. If men entered into the covenant some other way, as by their accepting properly called terms to them proposed, and promising for themselves the performance of them in that case the representation in the covenant is marred; and there would be in effect as many covenants of grace as there are persons embracing it at different times; at least, Christ's covenant would be one, and ours another distinct therefrom; the contrary of which is before evinced from the Scripture. But the covenant of grace being made with Christ as second Adam, in the name of all such as should be his; it plainly follows, that the only way of one's entering personally into it, must be by becoming his, standing related to the head of the covenant as our head: aud it is by faith, and no work, nor consent of ours differing from faith, that we are united to him, and become members of his body, Eph. iii. 17. How do we all enter personally into the covenant of works, so as to partake of the curse in it? Is it not through our becoming, by natural generation, branches of the first Adam, the representative in that covenant? Hereby every one of us is personally entered, and instated in that covenant, before we are capable to approve or disapprove of the same, to consent to it, or dissent from it. Even so we enter personally into the |