covenant of grace, so as to partake of the benefits in it, by our becoming branches of the second Adam the representative therein : and that is through faith, in subjects capable of actual believing. It is by being ingrafted into Christ we come to partake of the covenant and benefits thereof. And hence it is, that infants, not capable of actual believing, nor of knowing what the covenant is, yet having the Spirit of faith, are personally entered into it, and instated in it; forasmuch as that Spirit of faith is effectual in them, to a real uniting them with Christ. Hereunto agrees God's giving Christ for a covenant; that in him people may have the covenant, and all the benefits thereof. As God, in making the covenant, took Christ for all, for the condition, and for the parties to receive the promises; he being the second Adam: so sinners, in accepting and embracing of the covenant, are to take him for all; the whole of the covenant, the parties and parts of it too being in him, forasmuch as he is God as well as man, second Adam.

And thus it appears, that uniting with Christ the head of the covenant, is a sinner's formal entering into the covenant: the which uniting with him being by faith on him, it is evident that it is by believing on Christ a sinner embraceth, enters into, and is instated in the covenant unto salvation. Wherefore reach Christ by faith, and ye reach the covenant: if ye miss him, ye miss the covenant, in point of life and salvation. But here ariseth a weighty question, to wit,

QUEST. What is that believing, by which one unites with Jesus Christ, and so enters into the covenant of grace? ANSW. The clearing of this point being so necessary to direct sinners in their way into the covenant, for their eternal salvation; we shall, for what now remains, address ourselves to the consideration thereof only.

And to begin with the word, by which the Holy Ghost expresseth what we call believing, whether in the Old or New Testament; whosoever shall duly consider the import of it, in the scripture-use thereof, will find, that it is just trusting, trusting a word, person, or thing. And hence the scripture-phrases of believing to, and believing in, that is, trusting to, and trusting in; the former, phrases, however unusual with us in conversation, yet ordinary, both in the Old and New Testament, according to the originals. It is the trusting a word, as to a report, Isa. liii. 1. In his words, Psalm cvi. 12. It is the trusting a person; so, in the style of the Holy Ghost, the Israelites believed in the Lord, and in Moses his servant, Exod. xiv. 31. He believed not in his servants, Job iv. 18, that is, as we read it, he put no trust in them. And it is the trusting a thing too: so, in the same style, Job xxxix. 12, "Wilt thou believe in him," to

wit, the unicorn, "that he will bring home thy seed?" i. e. Wilt thou trust in him, that he will do it? Deut. xxviii. 66, "Thou shalt not believe in thy life;" that is, as we read it, Thou shalt have none assurance of thy life; no trust in it, because no certainty about it. The phraseology is the same in the New Testament, as being brought into it from the Old, only in a different language. And taking the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this matter, from the words which he teacheth, as we are directed, 1 Cor. ii. 13, we conclude, That faith or believing, so expressed by him in the Scripture, is, in the general, trusting, the trusting of a word, and of a person, and thing, held forth in that word.

Now, there is a twofold word to be believed or trusted of all those who would enter into the covenant of grace in a saving manner; namely, the word of the law, and the word of the gospel. The believing of the former is a faith of the law; the believing of the latter, a faith of the gospel of which in order.

A faith of the Law preparatory for the covenant.

The faith of the law is not indeed saving faith: for the law is the word and ministration of condemnation, and not of righteousness; as speaking nothing of a Saviour, an atonement, or an imputed righteousness, 2 Cor. iii. 9. Nevertheless, it is a necessary antecedent thereof, according to the stated order of the dispensation of the covenant. The faith of the law is like the hearing of the strong wind, the feeling of the earthquake, and seeing of the fire; in which though the Lord was not, yet they served to prepare for hearkening to "the still small voice," in which he was, 1 Kings xix. 11, 12. Accordingly, the faith of the law is the work of the Spirit of God, as well as the saving faith of the gospel; though wrought in a different manner. The former he works as a Spirit of bondage, convincing of sin and misery, by the law, Rom. viii. 15, with John xvi. 8. The latter he works as a quickening Spirit, enlightening the soul in the knowledge of Christ, by the gospel, 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18.

Whosoever then would enter into the covenant of grace, must in the first place have a faith of the law for which cause, it is necessary, that the law, as well as the gospel be preached unto sinners. And that faith of the law consists in a belief of these three things.

1. By it a man believes that he is a sinner. The holy law pronounceth him guilty: and he believes the report of the law concerning himself in particular; his heavy and sorrowful heart, by this faith, echoing to the voice of the law, guilty, guilty! Rom. iii. 19. The which faith rests not on the testimony of man, whether spoken or written; but is a divine faith, founded upon the testimony

of God, in his holy law, demonstrated by the Spirit of bondage, to be the voice of the eternal God, and the voice of that God to him in particular. And thus he believes, (1.) That his life and conversation is sinful, displeasing and hateful in the sight of a holy God, according to the divine testimony, Rom. iii. 12, "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doth good, no not one." He is convinced, that he is gone out of the way of God, and walking in the way of destruction; that the number of his errors of omission and commission he cannot understand; and that all his righteousness, as well as his unrighteousness, are as filthy rags before the Lord. (2.) That his heart is full of mischief and iniquity, according to the divine testimony, Jer. xvii. 9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." The law shining into the heart, discovers divers lusts there, which he little noticed before; and pressing the unholy heart, irritates them and thus such a mystery of iniquity within his breast opens to his view, as he could never before believe to have been there. Rom. vii. 3, "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." (3.) That his nature is quite corrupted, as one dead in trespasses and sins, according to the divine testimony, Eph. ii. 1. To the verdict of the law, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" Job xiv. 4, his soul, by this faith, echoes back, unclean, unclean! "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." He is convinced his disease is hereditary and natural: and that therefore his nature must be renewed that otherwise, he not only does no good, but can do no good. In all these respects, he believes himself to be an object loathsome in the sight of God; loathsome in his nature, heart, and life.

2. By it a man believes, that he is a lost and undone sinner, under the curse of the law; liable to vengeance, according to the divine testimony, Gal. iii. 10, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." He can no more look upon the curse as some strange thing, belonging only to some monsters of wickedness, and not to him: for the Spirit of the Lord, as a Spirit of bondage, applies it closely to him; as if he said, thou art the man. And like one under sentence of death pronounced against him, he groans out his belief of it, under the pressure thereof, Luke xv. 17, I perish.

3 Lastly, By it a man believes his utter inability to recover himself. He believes, that he cannot, by any doings or sufferings of his, remove the curse of the law from off him; according to the divine testimony of our being without strength in that point, Rom.

v. 6 ; nor change his own nature, heart, and life, so as to render them acceptable to God; according to the infallible testimony, Jer xiii. 23, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." He is, in his own eyes, as in the sight of God, a spiritually dead man; legally dead, and morally dead, as the apostle testifies of himself in that case, Rom. vii. 9.

This is the faith of the law. And the effect of it is a legal repentance, whereby a sinner is broken and bruised with fear and terror of the wrath of God; grieves and sorroweth for sin, as a ruining and destructive evil; and therefore really desires to be freed from it; despairs of salvation by himself; and seriously looks out for relief another way, Acts ii. 17, and xvi. 29, 30. Thus the law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ; and the faith of the law, makes way for the faith of the gospel. Not that either this legal faith, or legal repentance, is the condition of our welcome to Christ and the covenant of grace: our access to Christ and the covenant is proclaimed free, without any conditions or qualifications required in us, to warrant us sinners of mankind to believe on Jesus Christ, as was shown before. But they are necessary to move and excite us, to make use of our privilege of free access to Christ and the covenant, insomuch that none will come to Christ, nor embrace the covenant, without them in greater or lesser measure. Even as

if a physician should cause proclaim, that he will freely cure all the sick of such a place, that will employ him: in which case, it is plain, none will employ him, but such as are sensible of some malady they labour under; yet that sense of a malady is not the condition of their welcome to that physician; nor is it requisite for his curing them, but for their employing him.

Now, in calling you to embrace the covenant, ye are called indirectly, and by consequence, to this faith of the law, namely, to believe that ye are sinners in life, heart, and nature; lost and undone, under the curse; and utterly unable to recover yourselves. Yet it is not saving faith, nor doth it instate one in the covenant of grace; that is peculiar to another kind of believing of which in the next place.

The faith of the gospel, instating in the covenant.

Saving faith, which unites to Christ, is the faith of the gospel. For the gospel only is the ministration of righteousness 2 Cor. iii. 9. It is in it that the righteousness, of faith is revealed unto faith, revealed to be believed on, Rom. i. 17. It is the alone word which gives sinners the notice of a Saviour, of the atoning blood, and the

new covenant in that blood; and therefore is the only word by which saving faith is begotten in the heart of a lost sinner. In the word of the gospel, the Lord and Saviour Christ, with all his benefits and covenant, is; and that to be believed on, as appears from Rom x. 6, 7,8,9. So that, the word of the gospel, being received by believing, we have Christ, and his covenant, with all the benefits thereof: saving faith being indeed the echo of the quickened soul, to the word of grace that bringeth salvation; a trusting of the word of the gospel, and the person, to wit, the Saviour, and the thing, therein held forth to us, to be believed on for salvation. Mark. i. 15, "Believe the gospel." Is. liii. 1, "Who hath believed our report?" Gal. iii. 2, "The hearing of faith." This is that believing, by which we are united to Christ, entered into the covenant of grace, and instated therein unto salvation. The which believing may be explained in four particulars; (1.) The faith of Christ's sufficiency; (2.) The faith of the gospel-offer; (3.) The faith of our right to Christ; and, (4.) The faith of particular trust for salvation. So putting the

QUESTION, What is that believing, by which I, a lost sinner, under the curse of the law, may unite with Jesus Christ, and so enter into, and be instated in the covenant of grace, to my eternal salvation? We ANSWER thereto directly in these four particulars, by way of direction in this momentous point, whereon salvation depends.

1. The faith of Christ's Sufficiency.

In the first place, you are to believe, that there is a fulness of salvation in Christ for poor sinners. This is the constant report of the gospel concerning him, Eph. iii. 8, "That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Heb. vii. 25, “He is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him." In the word of the gospel Christ is held forth as an able Saviour; able to save men from their sins, and from the wrath of God. His merit is a sufficient sconce against the tempest of fiery wrath, which incensed justice is ready to cause to fly forth against transgressors: Isa. xxxii. 2," A man shall be a covert from the tempest." His Spirit is sufficient to sanctify the most unholy: 1 Cor. vi. 11, "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." The righteousness he fulfilled as the condition of the covenant, is so valuable in itself, and in the eyes of his Father, that it is sufficient to procure justification, sanctification, and all other saving benefits to sinners, who in themselves deserve death and damnation so that they are happy who are in him; they shall never perish, but have everlasting life, being eternally secure under the VOL. VIII.

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