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nant. But, fay you, muft I not firft clofe with Chrift before I can claim the Lord as my God. answer to close with Chrift is nothing elfe but to take a God in Christ as thy own God, by virtue of the covenant of grace and promife wherein his faithfulness is more deeply engaged, than ever it was in God's covenant with Noah, whereof the rainbow is a perpetual and ftanding fign. But O, fay you, I am afraid it will be prefumption for me to claim a God in Chrift for my God, upon the covenantgrant, I will be their God. I answer it is fo far from being prefumption, that it is rebellion against the authority of the great God interpofed in the very firft command of the moral law, not to know and acknowledge him, and trust in him as God and as thy own God; and till thou take him as thy God in Christ, thou art living in open rebellion against the authority of heaven; and wilt thou adventure to be a rebel against God to avoid the danger of prefumption, and so rush upon the thick bosses of heaven's buckler. O that I could perfuade you to obey the first command of the moral law, as it ftands in a fubferviency to the covenant of grace, contained in the preface of the ten commandments, which teaches us to believe that he is the Lord our God and redeemer, upon the ground of his own faithfulness pledged in these words, I am the Lord thy God. O firs, if you can but find in your hearts through grace to obey the first command in the law, you will find it easy to obey the reft; and if you can but find in your hearts through grace to believe this first and leading promife of the covenant of grace, I am the Lord thy God, you will find it easy to lay claim by faith to all the fubfequent promifes of the covenant; for it should be remembered, that the

first promise of the covenant, and the first command of the moral law, are infeparably linked together. 2. Take hold of the covenant, and come within the arch of this bleffed bow that goes round about the throne, and there thou fhalt find a fealed pardon of fin, an indemnity, an act of oblivion for all thy fins, though they be innumerable as the stars, and great and heinous like the lofty mountains. Heb. viii. 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness : Their fins and iniquities will I remember no more. So Jer. xxxi. 34. View him that fits upon the throne within the rainbow, and thou wilt hear him faying, I even I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities for my own name's fake, and will remember thy fins no more. O condemned finner, trust a God in Christ for this, by virtue of his covenant, or by virtue of his promife: For the ftrength of Ifrael will not lie nor repent.

3. Thou art by nature an alien, a stranger, a foreigner, a child of hell, would thou fain come back again to God's family, and have a God in Christ as thy father? Well, view the rainbow come within the circuit of it, and there thou shalt find this; I will be to them a father, and they shall be my fons and daughters, faith the Lord Almighty. To as many as received him, by virtue of this covenant-grant, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe in his name, John i. 12.

4. Wants thou a principle of fpiritual life, who art by nature dead in fins and trefpaffes? Well, believe in the Son of God, by virtue of the covenant, and thou shalt have it: For, fays Chrift, John xi. 25. he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet hall be live. Would thou have thy fpiritual life more abundant? New quicknings under the languishings

guishings of grace? Well, this is within the rainbow of the covenant. Thy life is hid with Chrift in God; and he has faid that thou shalt revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.

Again wants thou to have thy heart fprinkled from an evil confcience? Here it is to be had, Ezek. xxxvi. 25. I will fprinkle them with clean water, from all their idols and filthiness will I cleanse them.

Would you have the power of fin broken in thy foul? Take hold of God's covenant, or believe in Christ by virtue of the covenant, and thou fhalt have this alfo. Micah vii. 19. I will fubdue their iniquities. Rom. vi. 14. Sin fhall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace.

Would thou have thy ftony heart foftened, and turned into a heart of flefh? This alfo lies within the rainbow of the covenant. Ezek. xxxvi. 26. A new heart alfo will I give them, a new spirit will I put within them; I will take away the ftony heart out of your heart, and give you a heart of flesh.

Would you have the fpirit of God within you as a spirit of wisdom and revelation, as a quickning, guiding and fanctifying fpirit? Well, this is within the covenant also. Exek xxxvi. 27. I will put my fpirit within them, and cause them to walk in my Statutes.

Would you have protection against all enemies and dangers? This alfo is to be had within the circuit of this rainbow. The man Chrift, who fits up on the throne, is a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempeft.

Would thou have ftrength to encounter thy enemy, ftrength to grapple with difficulties and to manage thy work and warfare? This is within the

rainbow

rainbow of the covenant, Zech. x. 12. And I will Strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in my name, faith the Lord. Ifa. xli. 10. I will frengthen them, I will help and uphold them with the right hand of my righteousness.

Laftly, Would thou have grace to keep in the Lord's way to the end, till the good work be perfected? Well, this is in the covenant. The righteous fhall bold on their way, and be that hath clean hands fhall wax fironger and fronger. He that hath begun the good work in you, will perform it to the day of Jefus Christ. All these and innumerable other bleffings lie within the circuit of this rainbow, which about the throne of grace.

goes round

The fourth thing propofed was to enquire, who are they that may warrantably come within the compafs of this rainbow? Who are they that may take hold of God's covenant? An anfwer to this question is the more neceffary, that it is one of the main engines whereby the devil keeps finners under the power of unbelief, to tell them that God's covenant and promife belong to others and not to them. Will the poor finner be ready to fay, Indeed if I were a believer, I might confidently come within this rainbow, and intermeddle with Chrift and the bleffings of his covenant: But till then I must not prefume to meddle; and thus I fay finners are many times difcouraged from coming to Chrift to take hold of his covenant. But, firs, allow me to tell you, that none are excluded from coming within this rainbow, or from coming to Chrift who fits on the throne of grace by virtue of this covenant of grace, but only they who exclude themselves by their unbelief. Every one hath free liberty to look VOL. II. M m

to the natural rainbow, and improve the faithfulness of God in his promife as a fecurity against an univerfal deluge; fo every foul that hears the gospel is allowed to look to the rainbow of the covenant of grace, and improve it as a fecurity thro' the fatiffaction of Chrift against the deluge of divine wrath due to him for fin.

Queft. What is it that may warrant and encourage a loft finner by faith to lay hold on the faithfulness of God engaged in his rainbow of the covenant that is about his throne?

Anf. God commands you to lay hold on his covenant, John iii. 23. This is his commandment, that you believe in the name of his fon Jefus Chrift. Now when God bids you believe in Chrift he bids you believe in him by virtue of the covenant of grace, or by virtue of the free promise of life thro' Chrift to perishing finners. O effay it in the strength of him that commands you; the very first command, as I was faying, warrants you, yea, obligeth you to have a God in Chrift, and none other, as your God. Now this command is to all and every one, and if it were not fo, it would needs follow that there are fome, in whom unbelief were no fin; for where there is no law, there can be no tranfgreffion: But depend upon it, firs, that unbelief is your fin, and the great fin upon which the fentence of condemnation will run against you at the great day; and if unbelief be your fin, then it is your indifpenfible duty by the command of God to believe in Chrift, or to trust in him for falvation, by virtue of his faithfulness engaged in the bow of the covenant that is about the throne of grace.