come into this covenant, fince it is a covenant on a facrifice. It is an awful thought for a fenfible guilty creature to enter into a covenant with a holy jealous God. Our God is a confuming fire; how then can we ftand before him, and not be confumed? The fa crifice being interpofed we are fafe, Chrift going between mediating the peace with his atoning blood, wrath is turned away, and the finner received into favour and friendship. I proceed now to, DOCT. II. Those who now gather unto Chrift, pern fonally and fincerely entering into his covenant of grace offered to them in the gospel, while others flight him and bis covenant, fhall at the last day be joyfully gathered to bim in the air, to receive their welcome to the kingdom of heaven, while others shall be left on the earth to receive their doom from him, to be driven to the pit. IN difcourfing from this doctrine, I fhall, I. Premife fome things on this point in the general. II. Confider finners fincere perfonal entering into Chrift's covenant of grace now, that will fecure their joyful gathering to him at the last day. III. Laftly, Make improvement. I. I SHALL premife fome things on this point in the general. 1. All mankind were by Adam's fall feparated and fcattered from God, as fheep gone aftray, i Pet.ii.ult. Mankind was at first joined to God in the bond of the firft covenant, and fo they were his family about his hand, headed by him, and enjoying his favour. But by fin they broke away from him, and being gone from him the centre of unity, they were feparated in affection one from another, Tit. iii. 3. And in this state they remain while out of Chrift, scattered and wandering on the mountains of vanity. 2. To bring fcattered finners to God again, Chrift was appointed the head to whom their gathering fhould be, 1 Pet. ii. ult. "For ye were as fheep going Cc 2 aftray; aftray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your fouls." Chap. iii. 18. "Chrift hath once fuffered for fins, the juft for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." The first Adam was the head under whom they went away, and he left them wandering, a ready prey for the devourer; the fecond Adam is the head for their return, by whom they may be brought back unto God, and put up in fafety with him for ever, John xi. 52. He is the great Shepherd, intrufted by his Father for gathering the ftrays of mankind, into one flock and fold. 3. There is a double gathering of fcattered finners to Chrift. The one is now a doing, has been from the beginning, and will be to the end of the world; and that is a gathering of finners by the gospel to him into the bond of the covenant of grace, Gen. xlix. 10. The other is to come certainly at the world's end, and that is a gathering of them by the angels to meet him in the air, never to fet their foot more on the cursed earth, but to go away with him to heaven. And that will be a gathering quickly dispatched, as appears from the text. 4. There are many who will not be gathered to Christ now, whatever pains he is at to gather them, Mat. xxiii. 37.-"How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" He fets up his ftandard among them, he calls to them to come in to him; but they get away from him. They love better to wander on, than to return; they prefer a vain world, and their deceitful lufts, to Chrift; and they love rather to be at their liberty, than to be brought into the bond of his covenant. They cannot endure to be fo hedged pp, Pf. ii. 3. So they refuse to gather to him. 5. Yet there are still some who with heart and good will gather to him, and willingly come into the bond of his covenant. Efficacious grace makes them willing, Pf. cx. 3. They are weary of their distance from God, and and their wandering life, feeing how in that case they are exposed to the utmost danger, and are in no safety from the roaring lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour; and fo they willingly gather to Chrift, and come into the bond of his covenant, as their only safety. Laftly, At the end of the world, whatever separation there is between these parties now, the wanderers and those within the bond of the covenant, there will be a greater then. The wanderers and the gathered being both raised out of their graves at the found of the last trumpet; all those gathered within the bond of the covenant, fhall be gathered together to Christ in the air, to go with him, and be ever with the Lord; and the wanderers will be brought together on the earth before him, receive their dreadful sentence to depart from him; and then they going away, the earth will be fet on fire, I SHALL confider finners fincere perfoual entering into Christ's covenant of grace now, that will secure their joyful gathering to him at the last day. And here three things are to be distinguished. 1. The propofal of the covenant. 2. The finner's entering into it in a faving manner, so as to fecure his gathering to Chrift at the last day. 3. The profeffion and declaration of that entering into it, by fome fit fign. FIRST, The propofal of the covenant. It must be proposed to us, before we can enter into it; and fo it is indeed proposed to us to be entered into. Firft, Confider how it can be proposed or offered to us. The covenant of grace being determined to be Christ's covenant, made and concluded from eternity betwixt his Father and him, and its conditions perfectly fulfilled already by Christ, and all its promises made to him; it is a difficulty with fome, how that covenant already concluded can be propofed or offered to us to be entered into. But, 1. Suppofe one in a town makes a bargain with the Cc 3 master master in his own name, and the name of his neighbours there, fulfils the condition, and the benefit only remains to be received; and all this is done without advifing with them, or their knowledge of it; may not that man when he comes home offer that covenant to his neighbours, and they enter into it just by acquiefcing in it? If any of them will not, it will not be forced on them; but if they acquiefce and accept, it is as good and valid as if they had been at the making of it. So it is in this cafe. 2. Adam's covenant was alfo made without us in the name of mankind, and broken too while we were not; yet by our very defcending from him by natural generation, we are perfonally inftated in it to our condemnation; and this without waiting our acquiefcing or confent to that covenant. How much more may the fecond Adam's covenant be offered to us, and we inftated in it to our falvation, by our exprefs approbation and acceptance? Secondly, Confider how it is actually propofed and offered to us. It is propofed and offered to us in the gofpel, by Jefus Chrift in his own and his Father's name; therefore he is called, "the Meffenger of the covenant," Mal. iii. 1. who came from heaven, and proclaims and offers the covenant to finners. Now it is offered to us in the gospel. 1. At large, in its several articles and clauses, both the conditionary part as fulfilled, Rom. i. 17. and the promiffory part to be fulfilled, Heb. viii. 10, 11, 12. Ezek. xxxvi. 25. and downwards, and so the reft of it promises to be found through the whole Bible. All are propofed and offered under the name of the covenant at large, Ifa. lx. 3. "Hear and your foul fhall live, and I will make an everlafting covenant with you," which takes in all the promises. 2. In compend, in the offer of Christ himself the head of the covenant. Say not, How fhall we take up the covenant that is fuch a large and ample tranfaction, and entering into Chrift's Covenant. 311 and withal the parts thereof scattered through the whole Bible! It is fet before you abridged, viz. in Jefus Chrift, to be taken up with one glance of your eye, Ifa. xlix. 8. "I will give thee for a covenant of the people." The offer of Chrift to you is the offer of the covenant; even as if a father who has made a beneficial bargain for his family, fhould offer to adopt you; that offer of himself for a father to you, would be the offer of that bargain. Now you have this offer of the covenant. (1.) Under Chrift's hand in his written word, which ye have in the fcripture. A wife man will make no offer in writing to one, but what he minds to perform; his hand-writing will bind him, if it is accepted. And may not the offer of the covenant made you in writing, under the hand of the great God our Saviour, fatisfy you in that point? Take heed then, left when "God has written to you the great things of his law, ye count them as a strange thing," Hof. viii. 12. (2.) By public proclamation in his name, by the voice of the minifters of the gofpel, his criers appointed for that effect, Prov. ix. 3. If a prince proclaims an offer of indemnity to rebel-fubjects, may not that fatisfy them as to the reality of the offer! And should not this offer actually proclaimed to you finners, in the gofpel, by Christ's ambaffadors, fully fatisfy you as to the reality thereof? Object. Minifters are but fallible men. Anfw. True; but their commiffion is infallible; and fo far as they stick by that, which they do in offering the covenant to finners, you have an infallible ground of faith in what they fay. And as the crier's voice in a proclamation is in effect the king's, fo is theirs in this cafe. Hence the apostle fays, Heb. xii. 25. "See that ye refufe not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refuseth him that spake on earth, much more fhall not we escape, if we turn away from him that fpeaketh from heaven." And fays our |