a share in this covenant of grace, is to renounce the covenant of works.

Then go to Christ as the Mediator of the covenant, and desire him to put you into this covenant; he struck the covenant with God the Father at the first, and he must put you into this covenant, for he is the Mediator of the covenant; go then to him, as to the Mediator of the covenant, to put you into covenant.

Then leave the weight and stress of your guilty soul upon this covenant of grace, bear upon this stream of grace, here lay the weight of all, for the promise is made ours by resting on it; and what is this covenant, but an absolute promise? there then rest, and leave the weight of your souls.

And to say no more but this; then go unto the Lord, and give your hand unto God, and yourself up to God, as one willing to be led by him into all the things that the covenant shall require. In the times of the old testament when they made a covenant, they struck hands together. In Ezra x. 19., it is said they "gave their hands" to put away their wives; and in the former verse, they made a covenant to do it," They rose and made a covenant to put away their wives" and we find in 1 Chronicles, that when David was dead, that all the people came together, (xxiv. 24.) "And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king;" the word in the Hebrew is, They gave the hand under king Solomon; they gave their hand by way of covenant, and they gave their hand under king Solomon in a way of submission. So when we enter into covenant with the Lord, we give our hand under God and therefore if you desire to get into covenant do these things.

Well, but suppose I be in covenant with God, as I hope I am, what should I do that I may walk as becometh one that

is in covenant with the great God?

I answer, If you be in covenant indeed with the Lord, then God hath honoured you, he hath exalted you, and honoured you greatly; and if God have honoured you, why should not you honour God?

Now the more you fall down at the feet of the fulness of Christ, in the sense of your own unworthiness, inability and insufficiency, the more you honour God: "There is one

(saith John) who is mightier than I, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose."

The more you cry up those ordinances and ways of God that are decried by the world, the more you honour God. The more you keep close to God in deciining times, the more you honour God.

The more you trust God at a dead lift, when all means fail, and when a sentence of death is upon all the means, the more you honour God.

The more you serve God, contrary to your own disposition, and reach the services of God over the head of your own dispositions, the more you honour God.

And the more that you do prefer the things of God in time of competition above other things, the more you honour God.

And the more you part with your much for God's lesser, the more you honour God. What is honour? Honour is a testimony of another's excellency. Now when I can part with my much for God's little, his little truths and things, I do testify an excellency in God. I say, the more you can part with your much for God's little, the more you honour God.

And the more you do keep close to the name and faith of God in Christ, even where Satan's throne is, the more you honour God. Now then hath the Lord honoured you, and taken you into covenant with himself? then surely it is your duty for to honour God, and by these several particulars you may honour God.

If the Lord have made and stricken a covenant with you, then, friends, give me leave to say to you, Why should you be solicitous for your own things? If you be in covenant with the Lord, and God in covenant with you, God will take care of your things; therefore why should you be solicitous about your own things? God is in covenant with you, he will take care of

yours.

And upon this account, in case there be any loss upon the things of God, why should you not be as much affected for that loss as for your own losses? For if you be in covenant with God, and God with you, God's things are your's, and your things are God's. God's things are your's: why then should you not be as much touched with the loss of any

thing that concerns God, as with any thing that concerns yourselves?

Yea, why should not God have the use of all your's? God is in covenant with you, and you have the use of God's things, his wisdom, his power, his mercy; why? because he is in covenant with you, and you are in covenant with him. Why then should not God have the use of your things also, your name and your estate and your body and your time? If you be in covenant with God, and God be in covenant with you, your's are God's and God's are your's; why should not God have the use of your's, as you think to have the use of God's.

If God be in covenant with you, and you be in covenant with God, then why should you not live at an higher rate than the best of the Jews did? You are in a better covenant than the Jews were, though for substance the same, as you heard, yet you are in a better covenant, and shall not your lives be better?

You have a better Mediator, and shall not your lives be better?

You have better promises, and shall not your lives be better?

Your state now is called grace to that! "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth comes by Christ," John i. Look therefore upon the Jews, look into the Old Testament, and look upon the best of them, and think with yourselves, Am I in a better covenant? oh then, how am I engaged to live better. Oh, that our lives were more exalted upon this account. Why should not our lives be better, and we live at a higher rate?

If you be in covenant with the Lord, and the Lord in covenant with you, then be sure of this, that you be true to God, be true to God in the matter of his worship. The covenant stricken between God and you is a conjugal covenant. A woman, though she will admit another man into the house with her husband, yet she will not admit him into the bed, that is a breach of covenant. Now the worship of God is the bed wherein Christ doth bed with a soul; and therefore if you look into the Old Testament, you shall find that idolatry is accounted adultery and harlotry: why? because they took idols and men into the bed with God.

Would you walk then as those that are in covenant with the Lord, away with every thing of man's out of Christ's bed. Remember it is a conjugal covenant. Whatsoever is of man's coming unto the worship of the Lord, which is the Lord's bed, is against your covenant. When God speaks of a covenant, he saith, "Thou shalt be for me, and I will be for thee," Hos. iii.

And to conclude all, if you be in covenant with the Lord, and the Lord with you indeed, go away and walk humbly and be very thankful. When the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, Abtaham, saith he, go throughout the land, and behold it in the breadth thereof, and in the length thereof: so say I, Hath the Lord entered into covenant with you, go into the land of the covenant, behold the length thereof and the breadth thereof; and what God hath promised in that covenant, behold it in the length thereof and the breadth thereof; and thus will your heart be affected and raised to thankfulness. Thus David's heart was raised, for, saith he, "Lord, though thou makest not my house to grow, this is my salvation;" I am in covenant with thee. And so you may say, Lord, thou makest not my family to grow, I have never a child; this is my salvation, I am in covenant with thee: though thou makest not my house to grow, but I am poor, and my house is pulled down or burnt down; this is my salvation, the Lord be praised, the Lord is in covenant with me. Thus do and you shall be thankful.

And this is the last thing, If you be in covenant with the Lord, go away, walk humbly, and be thankful that God should ever enter into this great covenant, this covenant of grace with you, even with you.

And so now I have done with the first argument, that there is a covenant stricken with the children of men: the second follows, Jesus is the Mediator of this covenant.

SERMON IV.

CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT.

"And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."-Heb. xii. 24.

I SHALL NOW come unto the second observation raised from the words, namely,

Observation II, That Jesus is the Mediator of the new

covenant.

For the opening and prosecuting whereof,

First, We must inquire what is the proper work of a mediator, that is, a mediator between God and us.

Secondly, I shall labour to she w you that Jesus was and is the fittest person in the world to meditate between God and us. Thirdly, That Jesus hath undertaken this work of mediation, and will certainly carry it on unto due perfection.

Fourthly, How and in what respects Jesus is said to be the Mediator of the New Covenant.

Fifthly, What are the benefits that we do gain by Jesus his being Mediator of the new covenant.

Sixthly, Give you some doctrinal corollaries and practical duties that do flow from hence.

First. If you ask what is the proper work of a Mediator, that is, a Mediator between God and us,

I answer, It is to make peace and reconciliation between. God and us. At the first, in the state of innocency, there was peace and friendship between God and man, there was no enmity in God's heart towards his creature, nor no enmity in man's heart towards his Creator; but upon the fall, a breach or separation was made between God and us, insomuch as we are all by nature the children of wrath, God is angry, and an enmity is in us towards God. "The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God," saith the apostle. Now, therefore, the work of a Mediator is to reconcile God to us, and to reconcile us unto God, both which you have in 2 Cor. v. 18, 19." All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the