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der the penalty of the covenant of works, by your not fulfilling the condition of it, but transgressing the covenant. Live no more unconcerned about it, but sist your guilty consciences in this point particularly before the Lord; and let that fear and sorrow work in your souls on this head, that ought to be in the case of sins committed by you in your own persons. I shall enforce this with some motives.

MOTIVE 1. Consider that it is really your sin, by which you have offended God, broken his covenant, and made yourselves liable to eternal wrath. And shall it not lie heavy on your spirits, that you have thus sinned? Rom. v. 19. If it be really your sin, your debt ye are involved in by the mismanagement of your first father; can it be safe to be unconcerned about it, while a holy just God is the party ye have to do with ?

MOT. 2. It is the fountain of all the sins and miseries that ever have been found with you. Ye are guilty before God of sins of heart, lip and life these must sometime be a terror to the soul. But whence did all this flow, but from your corrupt nature, averse to all good, and prone to all evil? And whence had you that nature, but from the guilt of this sin lying on you? Ye have been plunged in a gulf of miseries; even from the womb to this day, the clouds have been returning after the rain. Trace them to the spring-head, and you will find they all issue from this sin. And what sin can ye truly mourn over to purpose, if ye do not mourn over the fountain of all? What calls more loudly for repenting and mourning than this leading sin?

Mor. 3. While the guilt of this sin lies upon you ye lose all your labour in striving to get the guilt of other sins removed, or to get your lives reformed. That is but to shut the door while the grand thief is in the house; to labour to dry up the streams, while ye are at no pains to get the poisonous fountain stopt; the which is labour in vain. And it is the overlooking of this that is the cause of the apostacy of many who sometimes have made such a fair appearance; and is also the cause of the prevalence of a legal disposition that is so much at this day among professors.

MOT. 4. Lastly, If ye get not the pardon of it, it will ruin you for ever, Rom. v. 18. Hereby ye are condemned; and a pardon only can reverse the sentence. Ye must then sue out the pardon of it; and if you come to God on that errand, be sure your souls will be humbled and broken within you for it.

And if ye would have your hearts duly affected with this sin, (1.) Labour to lay aside your carnal reasonings, and believe God's word as the word of truth and righteousness, which fixes this guilt on all mankind, and particularly on you. These reasonings in this matter VOL. XI.

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are dangerous, and can tend to nothing but hardening the heart, and casting dishonour on God. (2.) How ye naturally trace the steps of Adam in his breaking of the covenant, so bearing fallen Adam's image most lively, as I showed elsewhere.* The consideration of this may serve to prove the fact upon us, while we do so readily fall into the same way again, as far as we have occasion. (3.) Consider the righteousness of Christ, which is to be the same way imputed to all believers, and shall be imputed to you on your believing. There is a gift of righteousness to be imputed, as well as that debt of sin is charged upon you.

Lastly, Let this stir you up to quit your hold of the first Adam and his covenant, and flee for life and salvation to the second Adam in the second covenant, uniting with him by faith. The offer of the gospel is made to you: the Lord has made a grant of his son as a quickening head to poor sinners. Believe it, embrace the offer, accept heaven's gift; otherwise ye will be ruined, not only by the breach of the first covenant, but by despising of the second.

If ye be of those to whom that iniquity is forgiven, ye will highly prize the second Adam; for " unto them that believe he is precious," 1 Pet. ii. 7. Ye will be holy and tender in your walk, the power of sin being broken where the guilt is removed, Rom. viii. 1. Ye will be dead to the law, and denied to your own righteousness, making Christ's fulfilling of the covenant your only plea for life and salvation, Matth. v. 3, Phil. iii. 3.

Thus far of the breach of the covenant of works, and the extent of it.

*See "Fourfold State," State ii. Head 1. under the title, corrupted."

"that man's nature is

PART IV.

THE CONDITION OF MEN WHEN UNDER THE BROKEN COVENANT OF WORKS; AND THEIR DREADFUL STATE UNDER THE CURSE.

SECT. I.

THE STATE OF MANY MEN UNDER THE BROKEN COVENANT OF WORKS; WHO THEY ARE; THE EFFECT OF THAT COVENANT UPON THEM; AND THE REASONS WHY SO MANY CONTINUE UNDER IT.

GALATIANS iii. 10,

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

HAVING discoursed of the breaking of the covenant of works by all mankind in Adam, we are next to inquire into the state and case of sinners under that broken covenant. And that the text shews to be a very lamentable and dangerous one. In a shipwreck, when the ship is dashed in pieces upon a rock, how heavy is the case of the crew among the raging waves? The ship can no more carry them to the harbour, but failing them, leaves them to the mercy of the waves. If one can get a broken plank to hold by, that is the greatest safety there; but that doth often but hold in their miserable lives for a little, till the passengers are swallowed up. Such, and unspeakably worse, is the case of sinners under the broken covenant of works, which leaves them under the curse, as we see in the text. In which we have,

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1. The covenant-state of some of mankind, yea, of many of them. They are of the works of the law;" it is the same thing as to be of the law of works; that is, to be under the covenant of works. So the works of the law" are opposed to "the hearing of faith," Gal. iii. 2, that is, the law to the gospel, the covenant of works to the covenant of grace. But the apostle in our text intimates their covenant-state by a phrase which, in the first place, designs their habitual course and practice, viz. to seek life and salvation by the works of the law; but, in the next place, designs the covenant they are under, whereof their practice is a plain evidence. They are opposed to those who are of faith, who, being under the covenant of grace, by faith look for life and salvation by Christ's works.

The phrase," As many as are of the works of the law," imports, that there are others who are not under that covenant. In the

scripture we read of "two covenants," Gal. iv. 24. Each of these have their children; and so the world is divided into two sorts of men; some under the covenant of grace, others still remaining under the covenant of works; which the phrase "under the curse,' doth also bear; for since they are under the curse of the law, or covenant of works, they are surely under the law or covenant itself; for whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the the law," Rom. iii. 19.

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2. The state and case of men under that covenant; they are under the curse." The covenant is broken, and so they are fallen under the penalty; the duty of the covenant is neglected and cast off; and so they are under the curse of the covenant. As the blessing or promise, which they have lost, comprehends all good for time and eternity, soul and body; so the curse comprehends all evil on soul and body, for time and eternity. To be under the curse is to be by the law's sentence separated and destined to evil, according to the threatening, Gen. ii. 17, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."

3. The proof and evidence of this their miserable state and case; "For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." There is an extract of the sentence of the law which is standing against them, Deut. xxvii. 26, “ Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." That sets the matter in full light, from whence the conscience of every man under that covenant may conclude him under the curse.

The two following doctrines comprehend the full scope of the words, namely,

DocT. I. There are some, yea, many, of mankind, who are still under the broken Covenant of Works.

DocT. II. Man in his natural state, being under the broken covenant of works, is under the curse.

DocT. I. There are some, yea, many, of mankind, who are still under the broken Covenant of Works.

In the prosecution of this subject. I shall,

I. Evince the truth of the doctrine, that there are some, yea many, of mankind, who are still under the broken covenant of works.

II. Describe who they are that are under this broken covenant. III. Shew what is the effect of the broken covenant of works upon them.

IV. Shew why so many remain still under this broken covenant. V. Lastly, Apply the subject.

Proof of the doctrine that many persons still continue under the broken covenant of works.

I. I shall evince the truth of this doctrine, that there are some, yea, many of mankind, who are still under the broken covenant of works. This will clearly appear, if ye consider,

1. That there are but "few that shall be saved," Matth. vii. 14. Christ's flock is but a very little flock, Luke xii. 32. But all who are brought from under the covenant of works, are brought into the covenant of grace; Rom. vi. 14, they are not under the law but under grace; and all who are within the bond of the covenant of grace, are of Christ's flock, and shall be saved, Heb. viii. 10. Hence it follows that the most part of mankind are left under the covenant of works. The truth is, all men by nature are under it, and so are born under the curse, Eph. ii. 3. And many live and die under it; and therefore the sentence against the whole wretched herd of the condemned world runs in these terms, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," &c.

2. The scripture is plain on this head. The apostle tells us that there are some under the law, Rom. iii. 19, to whom the law doth say what it says, for conviction and condemnation; and that is under the law as a covenant of works, for otherwise all are under it as a rule of life. It curseth and condemneth many; Gal. iii. 10, "Cursed is every one," viz., who is under the law; for its curse cannot reach others, there being "no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," Rom. viii. 1. It condemns all unbelievers; John iii. 18, "He that believeth not is condemned already," viz., by the sentence of the law as the covenant of works; for the covenant of grace condemus no man, John v. 45, said our Lord to the Jews, "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust." Chap. xii. 47, " And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world but to save the world."

3. As all men in Adam were taken into the covenant of works, so no man can be freed from the obligation of it, but they who are discharged from it by God who was man's party in it. This is evident from the general nature of contracts. And none are discharged from it but on a full answering of all it could demand of them, Matth. v. 18. For said our Lord, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." This no man can attain unto but by faith in Jesus Christ, whereby the soul appropriates and applies to itself Christ's obedience and satisfaction offered in the gospel; and so pleading these gets up the discharge; "For being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1. But certain it is that

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