the vengeance of heaven, and the fury of earth shall in vade and encompass thee, I will keep and preserve thee, and make all these red-seas to divide and make way for thee to pass through triumphantly.

The fourth piece of the indenture is in the words of our text, and it is one of the great and glorious things he says to Christ; "I will give thee for a covenant of the people, a light to the Gentiles," &c. Whatever be their malady, I will give thee to be a suitable remedy. Have they broken covenant? I will give thee to be a better covenant, But what of that, while they are ig norant? Why then, "I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles." But what though they have light, if they have not sight too; for a blind man hath no benefit of the sun; why then, "I will give thee to open the blind eyes." But what though they have both light and sight, if they be still in a dark prison, bound and fettered there? Why, I will give thee for this end, "To bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house." O but these are sweet promises made to Christ, and in him to us; and the leading one, that comprehends the rest, is in these words, "I will give thee for a covenant of the people." Where without critical division, you may notice these two things. 1. The gracious designation and title that Christ bears, a covenant of the people. 2. His glorious ordinance and appointment thereto, I will give thee for that end.

1. The glorious designation and title of honour that he bears: he is called, a covenant of the people: and here he is described by his relation to the covenant, and by his relation to us by this means. His relation to the covenant is such, that he is designed, the covenant itself; he is the head and heart of the covenant; he is the foundation and cap-stone of the covenant: the bottom and top of the covenant; the Alpha and Omega of the covenant; the first and last letter of the covenant; the all in all of the covenant. The first covenant-head brake and fell; and he falling, all his seed fell. The second covenant-head stands; and he standing all his seed stand in him; " My covenant shall stand fast in

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him."-Again, his relation to us by this means. To whom is he a covenant? Even a covenant of the people, of the Gentiles. O good news to us poor Gentiles!

2. His glorious ordination and appointment unto this business; "I will give thee:" and here also every word hath some glory in it. Here is the glorious person ordaining him, in the pronoun I; 1JEHOVAH do it: here is the glorious person ordained, in the pronoun THEE ; "I will give THEE:" here is the glorious manner of the ordination, it is by way of free and gratuitous gift; "I will GIVE thee: and here is the glorious reason and moving cause of the whole, even the sovereign will of God; "I WILL give thee." But the further explication of these particulars, I refer to the prosecution of the doc

trine.

OBSERV. That, by divine ordination, Christ is the covenant of the people.

The only scripture I name for the confirmation, is Isa. xlix. 8. "Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable time have I heard thee; and in a day of salvation have 1 helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages." Where you see the vision is doubled, because it is true.

The method I would endeavour, through grace, to follow, is,

I. To offer some remarks concerning the covenant in general.

II. Shew how Christ is the covenant, and in what respects he bears that name.

III. Enquire for whose benefit he is so; and thus shew that he is the covenant of the people.

IV. By whose authority he is so; and here speak of his divine ordination, and being given of God for

that end.

V. Offer some reasons of the doctrine, why he is given to be a covenant, and why a covenant of the people.

VI. Draw some inferences for application.

1. The first thing is, To offer some remarks concern. ing the covenant in general; and I confine them to these four, which are imported in the text and doctrine.

1. The first remarkable thing imported in the text, is, That the covenant of works is broken, and cannot 'save us; and we are broken, and cannot save ourselves.' There was a covenant of works made with the first Adam and his seed, before the fall; and therein God was upon these terms with man, do and live; and if you do not, you shall die. In this law of works, there was a precept, and a sanction, The precept is, Do this; that is, perform perfect and personal obedience; the sanction is, If thou do not, thou shalt die;' importing that the reward of obedience was eternal life; "The man that doth these things, shall live in them :" and that the punishment of disobedience was eternal death; "The soul that sinneth shall die," Gen. ii. 17. Now, as by the fall of mankind, the precept of doing is broken, and the penalty of dying is incurred, and eternal life forfeited; so our salvation is impossible without a perfect righteousness; a righteousness of obedience, performing the precept of the law, and so entitling to live; a righteousness to satisfaction, undergoing the penalty of the law, and so delivering from death. The former is impossible for us; for, we are dead in sins and trespasses, and so can never perform any duty acceptable to God, far less complete and perfect obedience. The latter is impossible; for being both finite and sinful creatures, we can never give infinite and sinless satisfaction; and so we are broken and lost by the breach of this covenant. There are four things upon this particularly, that I presume, you all profess to know; namely, 1. The tenor of the covenant of works, That, when God created man, he en- ́ 'tered into a covenant of life, or works, with him, upon "condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat. ' of the tree of knowledge of good and evil upon the 'pain of death.' 2. The breach of this covenant, That our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God,' and particularly, by eating the forbidden fruit.', 3. Our concern in this original apos

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tasy and fall in Adam That the covenant being made ⚫ with him, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression; "For by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon • all men, for that all have sinned," or, in whom all have sinned.' 4. The fatal, woful effects of this fall and breach of the covenant of works; namely, That by this means we have fallen into a state of sin and misery; that our state is a sinful state, we being guilty ⚫ of Adam's first sin, wanting original righteousness, and ⚫ our whole nature being corrupted, whence proceeds all ' our actual sin; and that our state is a miserable state, having lost communion with God, being under his 'wrath and curse, liable to all the miseries of this life, 'to death itself, and the pains of hell for ever. Why? The wages of sin is death, and we are children of wrath; ⚫ and cursed is every one that continueth not in all things • written in the book of the law, to do them.' It may be, it is long since ye knew these things in your catechisms: but, O, how long is it since you believed them? or, do you believe them yet? Have you seen your fall in Adam, and your woful, sinful, miserable state by nature, through the breach of the covenant of works? If you were convinced of this, surely the news of another covenant would be welcome to you. But then, 2. The second remarkable thing, imported in the text, is, That there is a covenant of grace provided, ⚫ for the recovery of some, by Jesus Christ, from a state ' of sin and death to a state of righteousness and eter'nal life; or, you may take it thus, God having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected • some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of ' grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a redeemer. Hence such spiritual expressions as these, By grace are ye saved; not by works of righteousness that we have done; for if there had been a law, [namely, of works] which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law," Gal. iii. 21.

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Now, this covenant of grace may be considered, either in its original transaction from eternity, or in its actual manifestation in time.

(1.) Consider it in its original transaction from eternity betwixt the Father and the Son. God having in his eternal decree of permitting the fall, foreseen the ruin of mankind by the breach and violation of the covenant of works, graciously purposed not to proceed against all mankind, according to the demerit of their transgression, in the execution of that death upon them which that covenant threatened; and therefore a council of peace is called from eternity, and the proposal made concerning the shewing mercy to an elect number, in a way that should be to the honour and glory of God's holiness, which says, They must do perfectly; and of God's justice, which says, They must die eternally. Well, none in all the creation of men and angels were able to satisfy this proposal: then says Christ, "Lol come," Psal. xl. 8. I offer myself to be their surety, to give a perfect obedience to the law, which was the condition of the covenant of works, and to give infinite satisfaction to offended justice, in answer to the penalty incurred through the breach and violation of that covenant, "Lo, I come;" since the law cannot be fulfilled without doing, nor justice satisfied without doing, Lo, I come to do both; and seeing this undertaking must be accomplished by one, who is both finite, that he may die; and infinite, that he may conquer death and wrath; I offer to do it in their nature, and by an unspeakable mystery to become flesh: "Lo, I come;" let the impannelled criminal go free. The Father being infinitely well-pleased with this consent, encourages his eternal Son, enters into a covenant with him, calls him, qualifies him, promises to uphold him in the whole work, and to give him for a covenant of the people; and that, for making his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed, and see the travail of his soul and be satisfied, Isa. liii. 11. This is called by-many, "The covenant of redemption:" not that it is another covenant of grace, but I take it as another consideration of the same covenant. It was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his