up, if you do not reject the counfel of God against yourfelves. Would you wish to be free of all that deadnefs, hardness, blindness, ftupidity, and enmity, which you reckon make you unfit, and unprepared for coming to Chrift, and taking this covenant? Why, this covenant is adapted for curing thefe plagues; and when you take this covenant, you take it as a cure for all thefe difeafes, which never can be cured till you take this remedy: for to cure yourfelves, and then come to this covenant, is impoffible; but to come to this covenant, and get the cure of all maladies that aff &t you, is God's inftituted means of falvation. Would you wish to be free of that temptation, that you are no ele? Accept of this bleffed bargain, and your election is fure. Who dare fay that you are a reprobate? Poor worm of yesterday's date, will you fpeak as if you had been upon the privycouncil of heaven from all eternity? Will you rather beguile the devil, by faying, Whatever I be, this covenant conftitutes my duty, and therefore I will venture upon the covenant at the call of God? But, if I be not an elect, I will not get grace to venture, or grace to believe. What mean you, man, by grace to believe? Is not grace to believe conveyed by fuch a call as this? And therefore, if you flight this call, you flight the grace that would make you believe; and therefore, O let not the devil make a fool of you.-Would you wish to be free of that temptation, that you have finned the fin againft the Holy Ghoft, and that there is no mercy for you? Why, if you embrace this offer this day, you may be fure you was never guilty, nor ever fhall. Tell me the claufe of the text that fecludes you from meddling with this covenant;: and why will ye debar yourfelves? What is the cafe that this covenant cannot answer? Are there any here that hath falfe and unconflant hearts, that break all bonds? O here is a fuitable covenant for you. If you cannot keep the covenant, the covenant will keep you. baftard-covenants of your own making will not keep. you, but this covenant will, Jer. xxxii. 40. Are there any here that want through-bearing in the world, and are, feared from firaits, and even temporal difficulties ? Here is a covenant that fays, " Bread fhall be given thee,

P 3

The

and

and thy water fhall be fure; yea, verily thou fhalt be feci; and in the day of famine thall be fatisfied." Are there any here that cannot get reft among all the creatures? Here is a covenant that fays, "Come to me, all ye that areweary. and heavy laden, and I will give you reft." Are there any here, that think themfelves poor, abject creatures, faying, O I am but a burden to myfelf, and a burden to all that are about me; no body cares for me, and, 1 fear God cares not for me either; I am caft out at all hands? O here is a covenant that fays, "He will gather together the outcafts of Ifrael." Is there any here afraid of death, and knows not how to get through that dark trance! O here is a covenant fit for you, that fays, "O death, I will be thy plague; and death fhall be fwallowed up in victory." Are there any here labouring under defertion? Here is a covenant that fays, "I will lead the blind in a way they know not. I will never leave you, nor forfake you." Are ye for this covenant? Is there any labouring under temptations? Here is a covenant that fays, "The God of peace will bruife Satan under your feet fhortly; and my grace fhall be fufficient for thee." Is there any here labouring under the power of fin and corruption? Here is a covenant that fays, "I will put my Spirit within you, and caufe you to walk in my flatutes; I will fubdue your iniquity:" yea, he who is the covenant fays, "For your fake I fanctify myfelf, that you alfo might be fanctified. And again, The water that I fhall give him, fhall be in him a well of water fpringing up to eternal life." Is there any here faying, I am a loft creature? The covenant is faying, "I come to feek and to fave that which was loft." Is there any here faying, OIhave finned to the uttermoft? This covenant fays, "He is able to fave to the uttermoft." If you fay, you cannot believe; the covenant fays, Chrift, who is the ALL of the covenant, is the Author of faith; and the Spirit of faith is given when the covenant is given; all grace is given when it is given. Are you content to take this covenant, and all the grace of it? If you fay, you cannot repent, the covenant fays, "Him hath God exalted with his right-hand, to give repentance." What is the cafe that the covenant. cannot answer? Why, fay you, you are calling us all,

both

both wicked and godly, to accept of this covenant: but does not God fay to the wicked, "What halt thou to do to take my covenant in thy mouth, feeing thou hateft inftruction, and cafteft my law behind thy back?" Very true, he fays fo, Pal. 1. 16.: Yea, the voice' of God in the law, fays, Vengeance upon you; and there is no efcaping that vengeance, but by hearing and believing what the voice of God in the gofpel-covenant fays, and by taking it, not in your mouth to abufe it, but in your heart to love and improve it for your fanctification as well as for your juftification, for making you holy as well as happy. God's covenant is a holy covenant, and it works out fin, and advances holiness in all that are under it. What would you have me believe in Chrift before my life be reformed? may fome fay. Yea, I would have you believe in Chrift, in order to reformation; and taking him for a covenant, in order to our fanctification, Why then, fay you, I will take Chrift and my lufts both. I defy you, man: if you take him, you must let thefe go away: yea, it is impoffible to take him, and keep your lufts too; for, whenever the covenant of grace is embraced, the covenant with fin and hell is abandoned. And therefore, if any come to this covenant to feek fhelter to any one luft under it, it is no coming at all; it is no faith, but fancy yea, it is a mocking of God, and his holy covenant, and will bring a curfe upon you infead of a bleffing. To come to this covenant is to come to the Lamb of God, that take away the fins of the world; it is a coming to Jefus to be faved from fin. But O, fay you, I cannot think that the covenant of grace fays a good word to me; I have been making God to ferve with my fins, and have wearied him with mine iniquities. Indeed, the law and covenant of works fays, You are a dead man; The foul that finneth fhall die: but fee what the covenant of grace fays, Ifa. xliii. 24, 25. “I, even I am he that blotteth out thy tranfgreffion for my name's fake." Take this covenant then, and pardon with it, as well as purification.. O! but what fays the covenant to one who hath been neglecting prayer, and forgetting God all my days? Why, there is no word in the law for you but fury; "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen,

22

and on the families that call not on thy name, The wicked fhall be turned into hell, and all the nations that for, get God." But there is a word even for fuch in the new covenant; I am found of them that fought me not. O come and take the treafure you was never seeking after to this day, and it will fweetly determine you to feek his face all the days of your life., O! but what will the covenant fay to fuch whofe cafe you have not touched, and who think their cafe nameless, and that minifters cannot find out a name for them, becaufe they are juft hidden among the mift of the bottomlefs pit, among the fioke of hell, fo as they cannot be found out? Why, the covenant hath a word to you; Ifa. lxii. 12.

Thou shalt be called, Sought out, a city not forsaken;" there is a name for you, thou shalt be called, "Sought out." This covenant is fent this day to feek you out from the bottom of the dark prison that you are in, whatever it be: will you take the benefit of this covenant? Are you for it, man, woman? Will you have a Chrift to be a covenant to you? Young people, will you have him, that you may not live in the devil's fervice? Old people, will you have him, that you may not die with the devil in your arms? Drunkard, will you have him, that you may get a drink of the new wine of confolation? Unclean perfon, will you have him, to wash you, that you may be fitted to walk with him in white? Swearer, will you have him, that your tongue may be fhapped for a hallelujah? Man, woman, who haft feven devil's in you, will you have him, who hath the feven Spirits that are before the throne (that is, the eternal Spirit, with his various operations) that he may put the devil out of you, and put his Spirit within you? Whofoever will, may have a covenant this day, that will make you up for ever.

Is there any here who defpifes all this love, faying, I will keep my lufts and fins fay you what you will; it is but a new scheme, perhaps out of your own head; I have no fancy for that covenant? Say you fo, man! then, as the Lord lives, you have spoken this against your own life. I proteft against you, in the name of God, and fhake the duft off my feet, in witnefs against you, That,

Он

on the nineteenth day of Auguft 1722, at a communion at Dunfermline, Chrift, and in him all the covenant of grace, was offered to you, and you refufed him; and if you live and die in that mind, I fummon you to anfwer for this refufal, before his awful tribunal at the great day.

But, because I am courting a bride for my glorious mafter, I would gladly fpeak her fair on her marriage. day; therefore, Q refufer and defpifer of Chrift, will you bethink yourfelf yet, and take your word again; many a flight have you put upon this glorious Chrift, and yet he is content to take you, for all that; he is loth to take a denial; and therefore I would afk, in his name, before you give him a total refufal, will you tell me, Where will you do better? Will a broken covenant of works be a better bargain for you? or will the black covenant with hell, and with your lufts and idols be a better bargain for you? or is the vain, perifhing world a better bargain? No, no; the devil himself does not think fo, whatever he fuggefts to you.

But again, before you give him a total denial and abfolute refufal, will you tell me, how you will do without him? Or, if you make a fhift while you live, O how will you die without him? and how will you ftand in judgment without him? and death and judgment may be at hand. There are many dead, and away to eternity fince the last communion here; and this may be the laft communion-invitation that ever you will get: if you refuse Chrift now, it may be the laft offer that ever you will get of him; he hath taken many refufals off your hand already.

And finally, my dear friends, before you refufe him wholly, think again what you are refufing: Is Christ a despicable perfon, of no more worth than to be flighted by you, and trampled under your feet? Is he a hateful object, whom yet the tongues of all the glorious feraphims are not worthy to adore? Is the everlafting cove nant a matter of moonshine? Is the love of God, the blood of Chrift, the eternal interefts of your immortal fouls, and the divine glory, all matters of indifferency to you? Is the great JEHOVAH, his giving Chrift to be a