SERMON ward Divine Power on the Soul, is called

8.

X...

the Covenant of Grace: " By Grace are we Ephef. ii. faved thro' Faith, and that not of our"felves, it is the Gift of God." Thus, as Johni.17. the outward "Law was given by Mofes, fo "Grace and Truth [in the inward Parts] "came by Jefus Chrift." This Covenant of Grace which bringeth Salvation, mis spoken of by the Prophet in the Text, as Heb. viii. a Difpenfation then future; and St. Paul

8.

a

calls it the New Covenant: But both the one and the other fpeak thus only with regard to its Accomplishment and Ratification by the Blood of Chrift the Mediator of it, and as it was not made known in other Ages to the Sons of Men as it is now made known, either in Clearness of Revel lation, Extent of Promulgation, or the Measure of its Vouchfafements: But with respect to its Virtue and Efficacy it was not new at the Time they fpake of, but more ancient than the Law, nay prior to the Expulfion of our firft Parents from the Garden of Eden: And therefore it will be needful to go back to this early Period, in order to form a right Judgment of the Co venant of Grace, and fo to confider it in its threefold Difpenfation.

belFirst, As it was given to Adam and SERMON

Eve

Secondly, As it was confirmed with Abraham:

Thirdly, As it received its full Accom

plishment under the Gospel.

To the Divine Prohibition given to Adam concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was annexed the Denunciation of the fatal Confequence of Difobedi→ ence In the Day that thou eateft thereof thou shalt furely dye. But Adam and Eve did eat thereof, and in that Day they did furely dye; for they not only became mor→ tal or fubject to a bodily Death, but they actually suffered a spiritual Death, by the Lofs of that holy, heavenly Life and Nature, in which confifted the Happiness and Perfection of their State. In the Image of God created He Man, as a creatural Reprefentation of the glorious and ever bleffed Deity: But Man divided his Will from God, caft his Imagination and Defire into a State of Self-dependence, and led by a fatal Curiosity became miferably wife, thro' a distinct Knowledge of the Good he had loft, and a fad Experience of that Evil into which he had plunged himself. Nor

was

X.

SERMON Was it only in a dreadful. Separation from X. God that the human Nature stood in the

Hour of its Apoftacy, but the wicked-feducing Spirit alfo entered into it, and infected it with the Poison of his own hellish Nature, and fo it became Enmity against God. From the Time of this woful Covenant entered into by our firft Parents with Sin and Death; from this unnatural Agreement with Hell and Hoftility against Heaven, we date the Origin of Satan's Access to the Souls of Men, and lament, among other difmal Effects of the Fall, the many deplorable Inftances of Perfons poffeffed of Devils instead of being Temples of the Holy Ghoft, an Habitation of God thro the Spirit.

In order to refcue the human Race from this infernal Bondage, this Dominion of Sin and Satan, the fecond Perfon in the facred Trinity gave Himself into our Na ture to be the Redeemer and Regenerator of it, "that as in Adam all died, even fo in Chrift "fhould all be made alive." He that gave the Promife of the Covenant-That, the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head, did at that Inftant infpeak, the Grace of the Covenant into the Hearts of

Adam

X.

Adam and Eve, and it became in them the SERMON ingrafted Word, able to fave their Souls." Here, O Man! commenced the hidden Mystery of thy Salvation, to be revealed outwardly afterwards in the Fullness of Time: Now the declared Enmity betwixt the Seed of the Woman and that of the Serpent began to fhew itself, each striving for thy Soul and to erect its Kingdom within thee. Thefe are the two Masters which folicit thy Obedience; and one of them thou muft ferve, both of them thou canft not-Look well then to thy Choice, for thou chufeft for Eternity; and look well to thy Recompence, "for the Wages of "Sin is Death, but the Gift of God is "eternal Life thro' Jefus Christ our Lord." Behold! Thou ftandeft betwixt Heaven and Hell, as the great important Prize for which the Powers of both contend; the whole Creation is the Scene of this wonderful Difpute, the Universe is in Sufpence, and Time only lafts till it is finished. And canft thou, O Man! who art the Subject of this mighty Transaction, be alone indifferent about the Event? For is it not for thy Life, even the Life of thy Soul? Canft thou be content to caft away this precious

X.

SERMON Gift of Grace, in which is contained thy Glory, thy Bleffednefs, and that for Tris fles light as Air, nay, for that which will prove thine everlasting Shame and Tor ment? Hear a God exclaiming at fuch un natural Stupidity: My People have Jer. ii. 11,"changed their Glory for that which doth not profit: They have committed two

&c.

Evils: They have forfaken me the "Fountain of living Waters, and hewed ❝ them out Cifterns, broken Cisterns that can hold no Water: Be aftonished, Oye "Heavens, at this!"

c

After what has been obferved concerning Chrift the Seed that should bruise the Ser pent's Head, even that incorruptible Seed or Divine Nature which is alfo called the Eternal Word or Son of God, who was afterwards made of a Woman made un "der the Law, to redeem them that were "under the Law," it is in our Way to offer to your Confideration the following Particulars relating to the Nature of the Coyenant of Grace.

And firft, it was the free Gift of God, and therefore, as fuch, does not answer to the Nature of thofe Covenants or Stipula tions betwixt Man and Man, which fuppofe a Power