OBJ. But I am not worthy that ever God rible is it when but a spark of God's wrath should admit me into covenant.

with God's leave, not with his love. But union between Christ and the saints being so such as are in covenant have their mercies inseparable, it can never be dissolved, or the sweetened with God's love, and they swim covenant made void; you may die with to them in the blood of Christ. As Naaman comfort. said to Gehazi, 2 Kings v. 23, "Take two talents," so saith God to such as are in covenant, take two talents,-take health, and take Christ with it, take riches, and take my love with them,-take the venison, and take the blessing with it,-take two talents. 3. You may upon all occasions plead the covenant. If you are haunted with temptations, plead the covenant: Lord, thou hast promised to bruise Satan under my feet shortly, wilt thou suffer thy child to be thus worried? take off the roaring lion. If in want, plead the covenant: Lord, thou hast said, “I shall want no good thing," wilt thou save me from hell, and not from want? wilt thou give me a kingdom, and deny me daily bread?

6. Thou art in covenant with God, and thou art going to thy God: behold a deathbed cordial; death breaks the union between the body and the soul, but perfects the union between Christ and the soul. This hath made the saints desire death as the bride the wedding-day: Phil. i. 23, cupio dissolvi. "Lead me, Lord, to that glory," (said one) "a glimpse whereof I have seen as in a glass darkly."

Use 5. Of direction: to show how you should walk who have tasted of covenantmercy-Live as a people in covenant with God. As you differ from others in respect of dignity, so you must in point of carriage. 1st. You must love this God. God's love 4. If in covenant with God, all things to you calls for love. 1. It is amor gratiatus, shall co-operate for your good: etiam mala—a free love. Why should God pass by cidunt in bonum, Ps. xxv. 10. Not only others and take you into a league of friendgolden paths, but his bloody paths. Every ship with himself? In the law, God passed wind of providence shall blow them nearer by the lion and eagle, and chose the dove: heaven. Affliction shall humble and purify, so he passes by the noble and mighty. 2. It Heb. xii. 10. Out of the bitterest drug God is amor plenus,—a full love. When God distils your salvation. Afflictions add to the takes you into covenant, you are his Hephsaints' glory. The more the diamond is cut, zibah, Isa. lxii. 5; his delight is in you; he the more it sparkles; the heavier the saints' gives you the key of all his treasure, he heaps cross is, the heavier shall be their crown. pearls upon you, he settles heaven and earth upon you, he gives you a bunch of grapes by the way, and saith, Son, all I have is thine.' And doth not all this call for love? Who can tread upon these hot coals, and his heart not burn in love to God?

5. If thou art in covenant once, then for ever in covenant. The text calls it, an everlasting covenant.' Such as are in covenant are elected; God's electing love is unchangeable, Jer. xxxii. 40, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them; but I will put my fear in their heart, that they shall not depart from me." God will so love the saints, that he will not forsake them; and the saints shall so fear God, that they shall not forsake him. "Tis a covenant of eternity. It must be so; for who is this covenant made with? Is it not with believers? and have not they coalition and union with Christ? Christ is the head, they are the body, Eph. i. 23. This is a near union, much like that union between God the Father and Christ, John xvii. 21, “As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be One in us." Now the

2dly. Walk holily. The covenant hath made you a royal nation, therefore be a holy people. Shine as lights in the world; live as earthly angels. God hath taken you into covenant, that you and he may have communion together; and what is it keeps up your communion with God, but holiness?

3dly. Walk thankfully, Ps. ciii. 1. God is your God in covenant, he hath done more for you than if he had made you ride upon the high places of the earth, and given you crowns and sceptres. O take the cup of salvation, and bless the Lord! Eternity will be little enough to praise him. Musicians love to play on their music where

there is the loudest sound; and God loves | reward, do angels' work. Begin that work to bestow his mercies where he may have of praise here, which you hope to be always the loudest praises. You that have angels' doing in heaven.

CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE COVENANT.

HEB. xii. 24. Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, &c.

JESUS CHRIST is the sum and quintessence | Sion." Some understand it of Cyrus, others of the gospel, the wonder of angels, the joy of an angel; but the most ancient Jewish docand triumph of saints. The name of Christ tors understood it of Christ, the Redeemer is sweet, it is as music in the ear, honey in of the elect: Job xix. 23, "My Redeemer the mouth, and a cordial at the heart.-I liveth." The Hebrew word for Redeemer, shall wave the context, and only speak of signifies such a one as is near a-kin, and that which concerns our present purpose: hath right to redeem a mortgage; so Christ having discoursed of the covenant of grace, I shall speak now of the Mediator of the covenant, and the restorer of lapsed sinners, 'Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant.'

There are several names and titles in scripture given to Christ, as the great restorer of mankind: 1. Sometimes he is called a Saviour, Matt. i. 21. His name shall be called Jesus. The Hebrew word for Jesus, signifies a Saviour, and whom he saves from hell, he saves from sin: where Christ is a Saviour, he is a sanctifier, Matt. i. 21, " He shall save his people from their sins." There is no other Saviour, Acts iv. 12, "Neither is there salvation in any other." As there was but one ark to save the world from drowning, so there is but one Jesus to save sinners from damning. As Naomi said to her daughtersin-law, Ruth i. 11, "Are there yet any more sons in my womb?" So hath God any other sons in the womb of his eternal decree, to be saviours to us, besides Christ? Job xxviii. 12, "Where shall wisdom be found? the depth saith, it is not in me; and the sea saith, it is not in me." Let me allude, Where shall salvation be found? The angel saith, it is not in me; mortality saith it is not in me; the ordinance saith it is not in me, Christ alone is the well-spring of life; the ordinance is the conduit-pipe that conveys salvation, but Christ is the spring that feeds it. "Neither is there salvation in any other."

2. Sometimes Christ is called a Redeemer: Isa. lix. 20, "The Redeemer shall come to

is near of kin to us, being our elder brother, therefore hath the best right to redeem us.

3. Christ is called a Mediator in the text, "Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." The Greek word for Mediator, signifies a middle person, one that doth make up the breach between two disagreeing parties. God and we were at variance by sin, now Christ doth mediate and umpire between us, he reconciles us to God through his blood, therefore he is called the Mediator of the new covenant. There is no way of communion and intercourse between God and man, but in and through a Mediator; Christ takes away the enmity in us, and the wrath of God, and so makes peace. Nor is Christ only a Mediator of reconciliation, but intercession, Heb. ix. 24, "Christ is entered, not into the holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." The priest, when he had slain the sacrifice, was to go with the blood before the altar and mercy-seat, and show it to the Lord. Now, in Christ our blessed Mediator, consider two things. 1st. His person. 2d. His graces. I. His person. His person is amiable; he is all made up of love and beauty. He is the effigies of his Father, Heb. i. 3, "The express image of his person." Consider,

1st. Christ's person in two natures. 2d. His two natures in one person. 1st. Christ's person in two natures. 1. Look upon his human nature as incarnate.

The Valentinians deny his human nature; but John i. 14, "The Word was made flesh." It is spoken of Christ the promised Messiah. Christ took our flesh, that the same nature which sinned might suffer; and "the Word was made flesh," that through the glass of his human nature we might look upon God.

Christ as God was then in heaven, when as man he was upon the earth.

QUEST. Is God eternal?

ANS. Christ is the everlasting Father, Isa. ix. 6, which scripture may be urged against the Corinthian heretics, who denied the preexistency of Christ's Godhead, and held that Christ had no being till he derived it from the Virgin Mary.

QUEST. Why is Christ called the Word? ANS. Because, as a word is the interpreter 4. Doth divine worship belong to the first of the mind, and reveals what is in a man's person in the Trinity? so it doth to Christ, breast, so Jesus Christ reveals his Father's John v. 23, Heb. i. 6, "Let all the angels of mind to us concerning the great matters of God worship him."-5. Is creation proper to our salvation, John i. 18. Were it not for the Deity? this is a flower of Christ's crown, Christ's manhood, the sight of the Godhead Col. i. 16, "By him were all things created." would be formidable to us; but through 6. Is invocation proper to the Deity; this Christ's flesh we may look upon God with-is given to Christ, Acts vii. 59, “Lord Jesus out terror. And Christ took our flesh, that receive my spirit."-7. Is recumbency and he might know how to pity us; he knows trust peculiar to God the Father? this is what it is to be faint, sorrowful, tempted, given to Christ, John xiv. 1, “Ye believe in Ps. ciii. 14, "He knows our frame." And God, believe also in me." Christ must needs he took our flesh, that he might, as Austin | be God, not only that the divine nature might saith, ennoble our human nature with honour. support the human from sinking under God's Christ having married our flesh, hath exalted wrath, but also to give value and weight to his sufferings.

it above the angelical nature.

Christ being God, his death and passion is meritorious; Christ's blood is called sanguis Dei,-the blood of God, Acts xx. 28, because the person who was offered in sacrifice was God as well as man. This is an invincible support to believers; it was God who was offended, and it was God who satis

2. Look upon Christ's divine nature. Christ may be fitly compared to Jacob's ladder, Gen. xxviii. 12, which reacheth from earth to heaven. Christ's human nature was the foot of the ladder which stood upon earth; his divine nature the top of the ladder which reacheth to heaven. This being a grand article of our faith, I shall amplify. Ified. Thus Christ's person in two natures. know the Arians, Socinians, Ebionites would rob Christ of the best jewel of his crown,his Godhead; but the Apostolical, Nicene, fest in the flesh." Christ had a twofold Athanasian creeds, affirm Christ's Deity; to substance, divine and human; yet not a twothis the churches of Helvetia, Bohemia, Wit-fold subsistence, both natures make but one temberg, Transylvania, &c. give their full consent; and the scripture is clear for it. He is called the mighty God,' Isa. ix. 6, "And in him dwells the fulness of the Godhead," Col. ii. 9. He is of the same nature and essence with the Father. So Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom; 1. Is God the Father called Almighty? so is Christ, Rev. i. 8, "The Almighty."-2. Is God the Father, the heart-searcher? so is Christ, John ii: 25, "He knew their thoughts?"-3. Is God the Father omnipresent? So is Christ, John iii. 13, "The Son of Man which is in heaven."

2d. Consider Christ's two natures in one person, God-man, 1 Tim. iii. 16, “God mani

Christ. A scion may be grafted into another tree, a pear-tree into an apple,—which, though it bear different fruits, is but one tree; so Christ's manhood is united to the Godhead in an ineffable manner; yet though there are two natures, yet but one person. This union of the two natures in Christ was not by transmutation, the divine nature changed into the human, or the human into the divine,-nor by mixture, the two natures mingled together as wine and water are mixed,—both the natures of Christ remain distinct, yet make not two distinct persons,

but one person; the human nature not God, grace for grace." Set a glass under a still yet one with God.

II. Consider Christ, our Mediator, in his graces: these are the sweet savour of his ointments that make the virgins love him. Christ, our blessed Mediator, is said to be "full of grace and truth," John i. 14. He had the anointing of the Spirit without measure, John iii. 35. Grace in Christ is after a more eminent and glorious manner than it is in any of the saints.

1. Jesus Christ, our Mediator, hath perfection in every grace, Col. i. 19. He is a panoply, magazine, and storehouse of all heavenly treasure, all fulness. This no saint on earth hath; he may excel in one grace, but not in all as Abraham was eminent for faith, Moses for meekness, but Christ excels in every grace.

2. There is a never-failing fulness of grace in Christ; grace in the saints is ebbing and flowing, it is not always in the same degree and proportion; at one time David's faith was strong, at another time so faint and weak that you could hardly feel any pulse, Ps. xxxi. 22, "I said, I am cut off from before thine eyes." But grace in Christ is a never-failing fulness, it did never abate in the least degree, he never lost a drop of his holiness. What was said of Joseph, may more truly be applied to Christ, Gen. xlix. 23, "The archers shot at him, but his bow abode in strength." Men and devils shot at him, but his grace remained in its full vigour and strength,-"his bow abode in strength."

or limbeck, and it receives water from the limbeck drop by drop; so the saints have the drops and influences of Christ's grace distilling upon them. What a rich consolation is this to those who either have no grace, or their stock is but low! They may go to Christ, the Mediator, as a treasury of grace: "Lord, I am indigent, but whither shall I carry my empty vessel, but to a full fountain?" Ps. lxxxvii. 7, "All my springs are in thee;" I am guilty, thou hast blood to pardon me; I am polluted, thou hast grace to cleanse me; I am sick unto death, thou hast the "balm of Gilead, to heal me." Gen. xli. 56. Joseph opened all the storehouses of corn: Christ is our Joseph, that opens all the treasuries and storehouses of grace, and communicates to us. He is not only sweet as the honey-comb, but drops as the honey-comb; this is a great comfort, in Christ our Mediator there is a cornucopia, and fulness of all grace; and Christ is desirous that we should come to him for grace, like the full breast that aches till it be drawn.

Use 1. Admire the glory of this Mediator; he is God-man, he is co-essentially glorious with the Father. All the Jews that saw Christ in the flesh, did not see his Godhead; all that saw the man did not see the Messiah; the temple of Solomon within was embellished with gold; travellers, as they passed along, might see the outside of the temple, but only the priests saw the glory which sparkled within the temple; only believers, who are made priests unto God, Rev. i. 6, see Christ's glorious inside, the Godhead shining through the manhood.

3. Grace in Christ is communicative, his grace is for us; the holy oil of the Spirit was poured on the head of this blessed Aaron Use 2. If Christ be God-man in one that it might run down upon us. The saints have not grace to bestow on others. When person, then look unto Jesus Christ alone the foolish virgins would have bought oil of for salvation. There must be something their neighbour virgins, Matt. xxv. 8, 9, of the Godhead to fasten our hope upon; "Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone in Christ there is Godhead and manhood out," the wise virgins answered, "Not so, hypostatically united. If we could weep lest there be not enough for us and you." rivers of tears,-out-fast Moses on the The saints have no grace to spare to others; mount,-if we were exact moralists, touchbut Christ diffuseth his grace to others; ing the law blameless,-if we could arrive grace in the saints is as water in the vessel, at the highest degree of sanctification in grace in Christ is as water in the spring; this life,-all this would not save us, withJohn i. 16, "Of his fulness have we received out looking to the merits of him who is