4. They have fomething of a foul affecting view of the new covenant, and the new way and method of falvation contained therein. They fee there is no righte ousness of man or angel that can justify them, none but the righteoufnefs of Chrift alone, nothing but an infinite fatisfaction can do their turn; and it is their cry, None but Chrift.

5. They are fully refolved on a rupture and breach with all the enemies of God, and to break all leagues and covenants with fin, satan, and the world; and that they will never be flaves to them as formerly: They heartily agree with the Pfalmift, Pfal. cxix. 115. " Depart from me, ye evil doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God."

6. They are fenfible of, and humbled for, the former treachery and falfe-dealing of their hearts with God. Are there not many who have formerly entered into covenant with God, have fworn allegiance to him as their Sovereign, and that not only at baptifm, but have renewed this deed at the Lord's fupper? But may not the Lord take up the fame complaint against them, as against Ifrael? Pfal. lxxviii. 36. 37. "They lied to him with their tongues; for their hearts were not right with him, neither were they ftedfaft in his covenant." Well, if you be deeply affected on this account, the Lord will not reject you.

7. They fincerely accept of Chrift as their Surety and Cautioner before God; they esteem him altogether lovely, and infinitely precious. They renounce their own righteoufness in juftification, and their own ftrength in fanctification, and look to Chrift for both, faying, as thofe, Ifa. xlv. 24. "In the Lord have I righteousness and ftrength." I have not fufficiency of myfelf, either to make or keep covenant with God, but my confidence is entirely in Chrift my all-fufficient Surety.

8. They are content to give themselves to the Lord, and all they are and have. Faith hath two hands; by the one it receives Jefus Chrift, and by the other it gives the foul to him. Now, if your faith want either of thefe, it is lame.

9. They feel in-dwelling fin as a grievous clog; they defire

defire heart-holiness more than any earthly thing, and refolve, through grace, upon more care and watchfulness against fin than formerly.

Now, try your fincerity in covenanting with God by thefe marks, and if you can lay claim to one or more of them, then you are not hypocrites, nor of the number of those who give God the hand without the heart; who pretend to make a covenant with God, and yet keep a fecret league with the devil, the world, and the flesh, who profefs a great outward refpect to God and his ways, and yet keep a fecret antipathy to Godliness, as, alas, many do, who come to the Lord's table.

And, if you would manage this weighty tranfaction aright, you must be very deliberate in it: Take many a view of the nature and frame of the covenant of grace, and confider what God offers and promifes therein, and what he doth require of us; and endeavour to get your hearts wrought up to a chearful compliance therewith. Your fouls are at the ftake, and a mistake here ruins you eternally; but, if once it be well done, it is done. for ever, This bargain is not for a fhort term, but for life, nay, for eternity; and therefore you should count the cost of it, and confider it duly; and be refolved, whatever trouble or perfecution fhall arife, or whatever temptation you may meet with to leave Chrift, to fay to them, like Ruth to Naomi, when she was ftedfastly refolved to go with her, Ruth i. 16. Intreat me not to leave Chrift; for where he goes, I will follow him, though it were into banishment: Where be lodges, I will lodge, though it were in a prifon : For neither death nor life shall part Chrift and me.

And, again, beware of delays of making or entering into covenant with God. It is a work for eternity, and therefore requires prefent dispatch. The time of youth is a rare feafon for this work, and ought carefully to be improven, and no time loft. And here I fhall addrefs myfelf to the young.

O young people, and ye that never communicated before, fet about this work of perfonal covenanting, before you approach to the Lord's table. Do not delay or put off to another year, or till old age or fickness

come

come on For, what do you know but God may be provoked to harden your hearts fo in old age (though ye fhould live till that time) that ye fhall have no liking to religion and the ways of God? Muft it not be highly difpleafing to God, to referve for him the refuse and dregs of your strength and time? Will you give your Creator and Redeemer only so much of your time and ftrength as the devil and the world have left? O, what is this, but to offer the blind and the lame of the flock in facrifice to God, Malachi i. 7. which is an abomina tion !

O young folk, can you difpofe of yourselves better in the days of your youth, than give up yourselves to the Lord? When you are ready to chufe callings and fettlements in the world, can ye take a wifer course, than first chuse a settlement in Christ's family, which would make all other conditions and circumstances of life the more comfortable to you? Now, the way to be made a member of this family, is by the covenanting with God: Without this, you have no right to the childrens bread, nor the feals of the covenant. It is not enough that you were baptized, and are Chriftians by your parents dedication, unless you be Christians by your own free choice and confent. Remember, you are now to enter into the state of adult church membership, and to be admitted to share of the childrens privileges fealed to you in baptifm; and, therefore, now ye muft act as rational men and women, and make a choice for yourselves: You ought perfonally and explicitly to renew your baptifmal covenant, and ratifying your parents deed, now when you are of age; otherwife your baptifm and parents dedication will not profit you. I call you to engage to no more here, than what you are already obliged to by your baptifm; for it is just the fame covenant you are to enter into now, that ye have already confented to by your baptifm: Only, by your perfonal refignation, voluntary confent, and taking the fecond feal of the covenant, you are to bind yourselves the faster to it; the which if you neglect to do, your baptism will be fo far from profiting you, that it will be a witness against you, and cry for vengeance on you, and you will

be

in no better condition than the heathens that never were baptized.

O young communicants, take heed to your first communicating; for very much doth depend upon it. You are now as it were to lay the foundation-ftone of your falvation-work, and this ought to be done with much fpiritual skill and knowledge, if you would have a fure building. O then dig deep, and found your houfe, your falvation, your hopes of heaven, upon the rock Chrift, by perfonal covenanting, and exprefs clofing with him upon the terms of grace: For if you do it not, but approach to the Lord's table in ignorance, unbelief, or hardness of heart, you may provoke God to fmite you with judicial blindnefs and obduration, and give you up to fuch heart-hardness and formality in duty, as may cleave to you all your lives long, and fo you are ruined for ever. The time of your first communicating, is a moft critical juncture for your fouls; for, according to the state, frame, and difpofition of peoples fouls, at their first communicating, fo it very often fares with them in some measure at all the reft of the communions they partake of. Many have found this, fome to their fweet, others to their fad experience. Some, by their careless approach at first, and neglecting exprefsly to covenant with God, have drawn down the plagues of heart-hare-ness and formality upon themselves, and provoked God to leave them to wander in the dark all their days, without any folid affurance, or comfortable view of their intereft in Chrift and the covenant of grace. But others, by means of their fincere preparation and covenanting with God at this time, have got a feal of their converfion, and a view of their intereft in Chrift, which hath proven very useful and comfortable to them all the rest of their lives, and especially in the time of diftrefs, and when on a death-bed. Then they have remembered, how that at fuch a time and place they joined themselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant, and then and there God fpake with them, intimated their pardon, and owned them as his covenanted children. As their fouls were helped to fay to the Lord, Thou art my God: So God faid to them, I am your salvation. And hereby many have

been

been strengthened, when ready to faint under doubts and difcouragements. Therefore, O young communicants, as ye regard the well being of your precious and immortal fouls for ever, look well to yourfelves at this time; if matters be right with you now, they will never be altogether wrong afterwards. Labour to get fome diftinct uptakings of the covenant of grace, and of the nature, ends, and uses of this folemn ordinance, which is the compend and feal of it, before your first partaking; pray fervently for knowledge and fpiritual illumination; apply to Jefus Chrift, your great Prophet, for this, and fee to improve the means and helps which he is pleafed to afford you for it. Retire for meditation and reading of the bible; read and meditate much on the fufferings of Chrift; read our Confeffion of Faith; Vincent's Catechifm, Guthrie's Trial of a faving intereft in Chrift, Doolittle, and other good books on the facrament, that ye may attain to fome right impreffions of the covenant, and the Lord's fupper; and particularly, of the obligations you already lie under by the first feal of baptifm; and then, under a humble fense of guilt, and with a hopeful view of the gofpel-offer, go with all ferioufnefs and folemnity, and renew thofe engagements; enter into covenant with God, and next come to his table, to get the tranfaction fealed and ratified, by getting the other feal of heaven appended to it.

And now, young people, I put it to your choice, as Jofhua did to the Ifraelites, Jof. xxiv. 15. " Choofe you this day whom you will ferve." Make choice at this time whom ye will be faved by, and whom ye will obey. Whom will you have for your mafter, whether Chrift or the devil? Both are courting your hearts; which of them will you yield to? Lay your hands on your hearts, and fee whether you will grant Chrift's or the devil's defire? Whether fhall the devil have you, foul and body, to all eternity, or fhall Chrift have you? Oh, will any be fo foolish as halt betwixt two opinions in this cafe; any fo mad as ftand in doubt whether to be faved or damned, whether to live with Chrift or the devil for ever? Now Michael and his angels, and the Dragon and