is holy; and the commandment holy, and juft, and good. Verfe 14.-But I am carnal. 2. They have an inclination of heart towards the whole law, fo far as they know it: Pfal. cxix. 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy ftatutes! There is in them a fixed principle, which lies the fame 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 fo do they against that contrary principle, breathing, longing, and lufting for the complete victory over it, and for full conformity to the holy law, Gal. v. 17. This is a new fet of heart given in the new birth; exerting itself, not in lazy wishes for conformity to the law, but in a refolute struggle for it, enduring to the end. Hence, 3. They will habitually endeavour to conform in. their practice to the whole law, fo far as they know: Pfal. cxix. 6. Then fball I not be afbamed, when I have refpect unto all thy commandments. If the law is written in one's heart, he will write it out again in his converfation: and a fanctified heart will certainly make a holy life: Matth. vi. 22. If thine eye be fingle, thy whole body fhall 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 whomfoever the grace of God hath effectually appeared, it will have taught them effectually to deny ungodliness, and worldly lufts, and to live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent world, Tit. ii. 11. 12. If the grace of the covenant bring you not to the duties of piety towards God, you have no faving part in it. If you are brought unto thefe, but withal left at liberty from the duties of righteousness toward your neighbour, that you do not loath, but dare to be unjust in fmall er 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 fober, but left llaves to your fenfual appetite and fefbly affections, you are no better: for they that are Chrift's, have crucified the flesh, with the affectians and lufts, Gal. v. 24. But whofo have fled to the covenant of grace in Chrift for life and falvation, and withal are honestly endeavouring conformity to the whole law in their practice, they, howbeit in many things they mifs their mark, do fhew themselves to be within the bond of the holy cove nant, 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 confcience, that in fimplicity and godly fincerity, not with flefbly wif dom, but by the grace of God, we have had our converfation in the world. 4. lastly, Their fouls lie open to what of the laws of the covenant they know not. They are content to know them, defirous to be taught them, that they may conform unto them: Pfal. cxix. 26. Teach me thy ftatutes. There are many fins of ours hid unto us; because there is much of the laws of the covenant we do not difcern. And hypocrites do not defire to know the whole law: they are willingly ig norant of fome things thereof, because they have no inclination to entertain them. But the fincere, being content to part with every falfe way, and to take upon them the whole yoke of Chrift, hating fin as contrary to God's nature and will and loving duty as agreeable thereto, do of courfe lie open to the further difcoveries of fin and duty: they come to the light, John iii. 21. They fay, That which I fee not, "teach thou me, Job xxxiv. 32. Search me, O God, and and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts. And fee if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting, Pfal. cxxxix. 23. 24. And this much fhall fuffice to have fpoken on the fifth head, namely, The trial of a faving perfonal inbeing in the covenant of grace. HEAD VI. The WAY of INSTATING Sinners perJonally and favingly in the Covenant of Grace. BY the marks and characters given, it appears, that they are but few who are perfonally and favingly inftated in the covenant of grace, in comparifon 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 fo to compel them to come in, Luke xiv. 23. Here then are the glad tidings of the gofpel: there is a covenant, which was entered into from eternity be tween GoD and CHRIST the Second Adam; a cove nant of grace, made in favour of finners of Adam's race, ruined by the breach of the covenant of works. In it there is full provifion for your falvation; to relieve you from all the ruining effects of the broken firft covenant, and to render you completely happy. The condition of this covenant is indeed high; being fcrewed up to a pitch by the demands of the law and juftice: yet there is nothing on that part to difcourage you from the covenant; for your inability being forefeen 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 Chrift Lefus. Only, the promifes remain to be ful C filled filled. So the burden of the condition is over without you; and ye are called to the benefit of the promifes. And that ye may have the more clear accefs thereto, the administration of the covenant is put in to the hand of the fame Chrift Jefus and he is intrufted with all the promises, to fulfil them to fin ners. 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 fhall take hold thereof. For that end he hath made his teftament of these promifes, and conftituted finners of mankind his legatees; that whofoever 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 par ty-contractor on Heaven's fide, 2 Cor. v. 19. He himself is the party-contractor on man's fide: and in him are all believers really, and all the elect legally and reprefentatively. In him is the condition of the covenant, and that as fulfilled: he is the Lord our righteoufnefs, Jer. xxiii. 6. In him are all the promifes yea, and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20. all meeting in him, as lines of a circle in their centre; and fure and fed faft, no wife liable to mifgive, as did the promife of the covenant of works in the firft 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, fhall 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, and fet before you in the gofpel; fo that ye muft needs be çither receivers or refufers of it. Refufe it not: that is dangerous beyond expreffion. Take hold of it; for it is your life. Sinners, ye are under the cove nant of works, where there is no life, no falvation for you: but the door of the new covenant is opened unto you; come, enter into it without delay. Flee, and and make your efcape out of the dominion of the law, the covenant of works, ye were born under, and are living under: and that can in no wife be done, but by your acepting and embracing this covenant offer ed to you in the gofpel; to the inftating of you perfonally in it, to all the purposes of life and falvation. Sinners inftated in the covenant by FAITH or BE LIEVING. T clear your way into the covenant, it is necef fary to fhew, by what means it is that a finner embraceth and is inftated in it, effectually unto falr vation. And this, in one word, is by faith, or be keving on Jefus Christ: Acts xvi. 31. Believe on the Lord Jefus Chrift, and thou shalt be faved. The o venant of grace is held forth in the gospel unto you. God faith to every one of you, I will make an everlafting covenant with you, even the fure mercies of David: and to close the bargain with you, and ftate you perfonally init, to all the intents and purposes of falvation, all that is required of you is to bear, that is, to believe; Hear, and your foul ball live, Ifa. lv. 3. He that believeth, is within the covenant of grace perfonally and favingly: he that believeth not, is fill under the covenant of works, where the firft Adam left him. Faith is the hand whereby one taketh hold of the covenant, figns it for himself, and clofeth the bargain for his own falvation. It is the mouth whereby finners confent to the covenant, that God becomes their God, and they his people. Although while ye 4 are without the covenant, the working of perfect abedience under the pain of the curfe is required of you; and more than that fuffering alfo, even to the fatisfaction of justice; and both thefe, in virtue of the broken first covenant: and when ye are once brought within the covenant, obedience to all the ten commandments, and fuffering of the difcipline of the |