out thefe, in effect leaves out all; for these are the fum of our whole duty, and of all God's commands: If we leave these out of our profeffion, furely it is not the covenant of grace, which we profefs. The Ifraelites when they covenanted with God at Mount Sinai, and faid, when God had declared to them the ten commandments, "All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and "be obedient ;" their promife implied, that as they profiled to know God, they would in works not deny, but own and honour him, and would conform to thofe two great commandments, which are the fum of all the ten, and concerning which God faid, "Thefe words which "I command thee this day, fhall be in thine heart," Deut. vi. 6.--So, when they covenanted on the plains of Moab, they promised to keep and do God's com mands, “with all their heart, and with all their foul," as is very evident by Deut. xxvi. 16, 17. So it was alfo when the people owned their covenant in Afa's time, 2 Chron. xv. 12. sc They entered into a covenant to “feek the Lord God of their fathers, with all their "heart, and with all their foul." We have alfo another remarkable inftance, 2 Kings xxiii. 3. and 2 Chronicles xxxiv. 31.

Now he who is wholly under the power of a carnal mind, which is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be, cannot promise these things without either great deceit, or the moft manifeft and palpable abfurdity. Promifing fuppofes the perfon to be confcious to himself, or perfuaded of himself, that he has fuch an heart in him; for his lips pretend to declare his heart. The nature of a promife implies intention or defign. And proper real intention implies will, difpofition, and compliance of heart. But no natural man is properly willing to do these duties, nor does his heart comply with them: and to make natural men believe otherwife, tends greatly to their hurt. A natural man may be willing, from felflove, and from finifter views, to use means and take pains that he may obtain a willingness or difpofition to these duties: But that is a very different thing from actually

being willing, or truly having a difpofition to them. Sə he may promife, that he will, from fome confiderations or other, take great pains to obtain fuch a heart: But if he does fo, this is not the promise of the covenant of grace. Men may make many religious promifes to God, and many promises fome way relating to the covenant of grace, that are not themselves the promises of that covenant; nor is there any thing of the nature of covenanting in the cafe, because although they should actually fulfil their promises, God is not obliged by promife to them. If a natural man promifes to do all that it is poffible for a natural man to do in religion, and fulfils his promises, God is not obliged, by any covenant that he has entered into with man, to perform any thing at all for him, refpecting his faving benefits. And therefore he that promises these things only, enters into no covenant with God; because the very notion of entering into covenant with any being, is entering into a mutual agreement, doing or engaging that which, if done, the other party becomes engaged on his part. The New Teftament informs us but of one covenant God enters into with mankind through Chrift, and that is the covenant of grace; in which God obliges himself to nothing in us that is exclufive of unfeigned faith, and the spiritual duties that attend it: Therefore if a natural man makes never fo many vows, that he will perform all external duties, and will pray for help to do spiritual duties, and for an ability and will to comply with the covenant of grace, from fuch principles as he has, he does not lay hold of God's covenant, nor properly enter into any covenant with God: For we have no opportunity to covenant with God in any other covenant, than that which he has revealed; he becomes a covenant-party in no other covenant. It is true, every natural man that lives under the gofpel, is obliged to comply with the terms of the covenant of grace; and if he promises to do it, his promise may increase his obligation, though he flattered God with his mouth, and lied to him with his tongue, as the children of Ifrael did in promifing. But it will

not thence follow, that they ought knowingly to make a lying promife, or that minifters and churches fhould countenance them in fo doing.

Indeed there is no natural man but what deceives himself, if he thinks he is truly willing to perform external obedience to God, univerfally and perfeveringly through the various trials of life that he may expect. And therefore in promifing it, he is either very deceitful, or is like the foolish deceived man that undertook to build when he had not wherewith to finish. And if it be known by the church, before whom he promises to build and finish, that at the fame time he does not pretend to have an heart to finish, his promife is worthy of no credit or regard from them, and can make nothing vifible to them but his prefumption.

"But

A great confirmation of what has been faid under this head of covenanting, is that text, Pfal. 1. 16. "unto the wicked God faith, What haft thou to do, "to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my "covenant in thy mouth?" This term, the wicked, in the more general use of it in Scripture, is applied in that extent as to include all ungodly or gracelefs perfons, all that are under the reigning power of fin, and are the objects of God's anger, or expofed to his eternal vengeance; as might eafily be made to appear by a particular enumeration of texts all over the Bible. All fuch are in Scripture called, workers of iniquity, the children of the wicked one, Matth. xiii. 38. All fuch are faid to be of the devil, 1 John iii. 8. And to be the children of the devil, ver. 10. The righteous and the wicked are in a multitude of places in Scripture put in oppofition; and they are evidently opposed one to the other, and diftinguished one from another in Scripture, as faints and finners, holy and unholy, thofe that fear God and thofe that fear him not, those that love him and thofe that hate him. All mankind are in Scripture divided by these distinctions, and the Bible knows of no neuters or third fort. Indeed those who are really wicked, may be vifibly righteous, righteous in profeffion and out

ward appearance: But a fort of men who have no javing grace, that yet are not really wicked men, are a fort of men of human invention, that the Scripture is entirely ignorant of. It is reasonable to fuppofe, that by wicked men here, in this pfalm, is meant all that hate inftruction, and reject God's word (Pfal. 1. 17.), and not merely fuch wicked men as are guilty of thofe particular crimes mentioned, ver. 17-20. ftealing, adultery, fraud, and backbiting. Though only fome particular ways of wic kedness are mentioned, yet we are not to understand that all others are excluded; yea the words, in the conclufion of the paragraph, are exprefsly applied to all that forget God in fuch a manner as to expofe themselves to be torn in pieces by God's wrath in hell, ver. 22. "Now "confider this, ye that forget God, left I tear you in "pieces, and there be none to deliver." We can no more juftly argue, that because some grofs fins are here fpecified, that no finners are meant but fuch as live in thofe or other grofs fins, than we can argue from Rev. xxii. 14, 15. That none fhall be fhut out of heaven but only those who have lived in the grofs fins there mentioned; "Bleffed are they that do his commandments, that "they may have right to the tree of life, and may en

ter in through the gates into the city: For without "are dogs, and forcerers, and murderers, and idolaters,

and whofoever loveth and maketh a lie." Nothing is more common in Scripture, than in the defcriptions it gives, both of the godly and ungodly, together with their general character, to infert into the defcription fome particular excellent practices of the one which grace tends to, and fome certain grofs fins of the other which there is a foundation for in the reigning corruption in their hearts. So, lying is mentioned as part of the character of all natural men, Pfal. Iviii. 2, 4. (Who are there called wicked men, as in Pfal. 1.) "The wic"ked are estranged from the womb; they go aftray

as foon as they be born, fpeaking lies: Their poison "is like the poison of a serpent," &c. So it is faid of the wicked, Pfal. x. 2, 3, 4. 7. “ His mouth is full of

"curfing and bitternefs." This the Apoftle, Rom. iii. cites as a defcription of all natural men. So it is faid of the wicked, Pfal. cxl. 3. "They have fharpened "their tongues as a ferpent; adder's poifon is under "their lips;" which the fame Apoftle, in the fame place, alfo cites as what is faid of all natural men.

The very

fame grofs fins which are here mentioned in the fiftieth pfalm, are from time to time inferted in Solomon's defcriptions of the wicked man, as oppofed to the righteous, in the Book of Proverbs: Particularly the fins mentioned in the 19th verfe of that pfaim, "Thou giveft thy mouth "to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit;" are thus mentioned, as belonging to the character of the wicked man, Prov. xii. "The thoughts of the righteous are right; but the counfels of the wicked are deceit. "The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood; "but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them." Nevertheless it is plain, that the wife man in this Book, in his diftinction of the righteous and the wicked, means the fame as godly and ungodly. Only reading the two foregoing chapters will be enough to fatisfy any of this. Obferve chap. x. 3. 7. 16. 20, 21. 24. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. and xi. 3. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 11. 18, 19, 20, 21. 23. 30, 31. befides innumerable other like texts all over the Book. In chap. i. 16. it is faid of finners, "Their "feet run to evil, and make hafte to fhed blood." This the Apoftle, in Rom. iii. 15. cites as belonging to the defcription of all natural men. So in the defeription of the wicked, Prov. iv. 14-19. it is faid, that "they fleep not unless they have done mischief; that they "drink the wine of violence," &c. and yet by the wieked there is meant the fame with the graceless man; as appears by the antithefis, there made between him and the juft, or righteous, whofe path is as the fhining light, which fhineth more and more to the perfect day. As a further evidence that by the wicked in this Pfal. 1. 16. is meant the fame as the ungodly or graceless, it is to be observed, here is a pretty manifeft antithefis, or oppofition between the wicked, and the faints, that fhall

66

66

29