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the bottle with water, and gave the lad to drink, Gen. xxi. 15-19. What a moving representation this, and how picturesque of their deplorable case who are under the covenant of works! As the water was spent in the bottle, so all the bounties of common providence will be of none avail, when eternity is in view. All the streams of earthly comfort will then be dried up. Hagar abandoned her son in the day of distress, as unable to yield him any assistance, and so in effect will the covenant of works, all who put their trust in it. The corn, and wine, and oil, and a train of legal works, miserable comforters shall they be all; and perish ye must, unless the angel of the covenant interpose in your behalf. The water in the bottle will soon be spent, and except your eyes be opened, and ye be led to the fountain of living waters, ye are undone for ever. Be convinced of this, O sinners, ere it be too late. For as the Lord liveth, there is but a step between you and eternal death.

2dly, Convinced of your sin and misery, flee unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Children as ye are of the bond woman, yet by faith in Christ Jesus, ye shall all become the children of God, Gal. iii. 26. As many as receive him, to them will he give the inestimable privilege to become the sons of God, even to them that believe. on his name, John i. 12. To you he is freely offered in the gospel, and it is at your peril if you reject him. Better you had never heard of his name. Let none say,

we cannot receive him, and why be doomed to more awful destruction for not doing what we cannot do? It is not yours to cavil, but to obey. Your impotence is moral, i. e. you cannot receive Christ, because you will not: just as Joseph's brethren could not speak peaceably to him, so much did they hate him, Ĝen. Xxxvii. 4.; or as the adulterer's eyes cannot cease from sin, so much is he under the power of his own lusts, 2 Pet. ii. 14. Were sinners unable to come to Christ, though ever so willing, they would be objects of pity, not of blame. But it is far far otherwise. They wil not come unto him that they may have life, John v. 40

Acts xiii. 46. Plead not your inability as a pillow for your indolence. But up and be doing. If you can truly say, you are willing to receive the Saviour, we are warranted to assure you of ability and success. Never was a sinner willing to receive him, but could not. Arise, therefore, O sinners, and flee as for your lives; there is room in Abraham's covenant, and in Abraham's bosom for you. Dispute not yourselves into double destruction. Let every man say for himself, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. There are promises lodged as in the bosom of the church, and in every age they have been fulfilled, viz. that God will take a way the stony heart, and give a heart of flesh, Ezek. Xxxvi. 26. Plead that so he may do to you. Say not, that perhaps these promises are not made to you. God himself only knows to whom they appertain, that is a secret into which you must not pry. Made they are to some, and who can tell, but unto each of you who are now before me? In scripture they stand that they may be pleaded. And why put them far from you, when ye know not but that to you, as well as unto others, they were made? Surely, if ever there was a lawful prayer, this is, Lord take away the stony heart, and give me an heart of flesh. A prayer this, which an all-gracious God will not despise. Say not, that ye dare not pray till ye know ye are converted, inasmuch as the prayer of the wicked is sin, Prov. xxi. 27. By such a resolution ye would be held faster in Satan's snare than ever. For if resolved never to pray, till certain of your being born again, you shall go down prayerless to the house appointed for all living. Not pray till ye know that ye have got spiritual life! How awful! How absurd! Simon the sorcerer was bid pray to God, if perhaps the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him, Acts viii.

22.

In saying you will not pray till certain that you are regenerate, you may say with equal grace, you will not believe, nor repent till ye know you have undergone that happy change. How can you know that you have got spiritual life, but by its effects in you? You cannot know it in itself. And can these effects

be discerned before there be a disposition to pray Surely not. The above resolution therefore amounts to this, That you will not exercise the spiritual life till you know you have it, and yet that knowledge you cannot attain but by the said exercise. Arise, therefore, O sinners! away to God and his Christ. Sit not entangling yourselves faster and faster as in the snare of the fowler. The Lord open your eyes, touch your hearts, loose your bands, draw you to himself, and then you shall willingly run. Amen and amen.

ON THE

COVENANTS OF WORKS AND GRACE

PART II.

GAL. iv. 24.

For these are the two covenants, &c.

THE second general head of discourse was to shew what are meant by the two covenants mentioned in the text. Our apostle having spoken of the two typical women, the bond and the free, adds, that these women (a) are the two covenants, i. e. types, figures or representations of them. After the same manner of speaking, the seven kine in Pharaoh's dream are called seven years, Gen. xli. 26. These are, i. e. these signify the two covenants. But what these two covenants are, is the question. Some, adhering to the marginal reading of the text, understand the two Testaments, or the old and the new dispensations of grace, so beautifully contrasted in the epistle to the Hebrews: the one taking place from Adam to Christ, the other from Christ till the end of the world*. Others understand the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, or what is called in the epistle to the Romans, the law

* So Cocceius Summa Theol. p. 596. Witsius Miscell. vol. 2. p. 161, 162. Pool's Contin Henry's Contin. Ridgley's Body of Divin. p. 361, 362. Doddridge in his Fam. Expos. Ostervald's Compend. p. 50,

of works, and the law of faith, chap. iii. 27t. After pay ing all the attention to the subject of which I am capable, it appears to me with convincing evidence, that the two covenants mentioned here, are not the Old and New Testaments, but the covenants of works and of grace.

The

Before I offer any arguments in proof of this position, permit me to observe, 1st. That nothing for or against this opinion, can be drawn from the original word diana, used by the apostle: translated covenants in the text, and testaments in the margin. It is used in holy scripture, either for a mutual compact between two parties, or for a testamentary deed, wherein legacies are gratuitously bequeathed. Seventy use it to express the covenant between Abraham and Abimelech, Gen. 21, 32.; between Laban and Jacob, Gen. xxxi. 44.; between Nahash and the men of Jabesh-Gilead, 1 Sam. xi. 1.; between the Lord, and the king and the people, 2 Kings xi. 17.; between Asa and Benhadad, 2 Chron. xvi. 3.; and between the rulers of Israel and death, Isa. xxviii. 15. In all which pas, sages nothing of a testamentary nature can be conceived: nothing but a compact purely mutual.

The Hebrew word n which the Seventy translate by the original word used in our text, dann, and which in our version is rendered covenant, does not always signify an absolute promise, or a deed of a testamentary nature. Witness Deut. xxix. 21. The Lord shall separate

+ So the Dutch Annotations, Calvin and Beza in Loc. Turret. Institut. Theol Loc. 12. Quest. 1. Thes. 5. Quest. 8. Thes. 12. Quest. 12. Thes. 7. De Satisfac. p. 222. Pictet. Theol. Chret. vol, 1. p. 521. Placette de Justif. p. 68. Pemble's Works, p. 216. Reynold's Works p. 145, 146, 261, 262, 278, 315. Dr. Preston's New Covenant, p. 315. Flavel's Works, vol. 2. p. 432. Burkit, Guyse, and Boston on the place. Brown's Causa Dei, vol. 1. p. 634. vol. 2. p. 119. Gillespie's Ark of the Testament, p. 157, 181. Boston on the Covenant of Grace, p. 27. Willison, Flint, and M'Claren quoted by him in his notes on the Marrow, p. 52, 53. Burgher's Cat. p. 144. Mastricht. Theor. Prac. Theol. p. 420, 421. William Strong, Minister of the Abbey at Westminster, in a Sermon on Gal. iv. 24. expresses himself in the following words, "Some Interpreters I know, say, that these two covenants are not two in substance, but that it is meant of the covenant of grace diversely administered under the Old Testament and under the New: in the one they were under tutors and governors, and so in bon dage till the time of liberty came appointed by the Father.

Mr

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