VI. I would now proceed to make fome Application of the fubject in thefe four Inferences.

1. Hence fee a mark and character of true believers, that are fit for a communion-table, they are of God's. mind; he hath a respect to the covenant, and they have a refpect unto the covenant; and hence they know what it is to plead with God upon the refpect that he hath to the covenant: they could not do fo, if they had not a high refpect to it themselves; they have fuch a respect to the covenant in kind as God hath.-They have a great refpect to it, fo as they esteem it more than all things in the world; they would not give one promise of it, on which they have been caused to hope, for all the gold of Ophir.-They have a dear and kindly respect to it, as all their falvation and all their defire; yea, and all their delight alfo. The word of grace is fweeter to them than the honey and the honey-comb.-They have a full and univerfal refpe& unto it, and to all the promises of it; they refpect the promife of purity, as well as the promife of pardon; the promife of falvation from fin, as well, and as much as the promise of falvation from hell; the promife of holiness as well as of happiness. As they have a respect to all God's commandments; fo they have a respect to all God's promises; and particularly as David had his golden pfalms, fo they have their golden promifes that they are made to hing upon.-Yea, they have an everlasting refpect to the covenant, and to the promises thereof, even when their frame fails them; when their fweet enjoyments fail them, yet their respect to the covenant remains, and their respect to the Maker of the covenant, to the Mediator of the covenant, to the blood and oath of the covenant, to the Spirit of the covenant, and to the bleffings and benefits of it. They have an everlasting respect to the grace of the covenant of grace; they are adorers and admirers of free grace. They have an everlasting refpect to, and remembrance of the words of the covenant, particularly these words that have been let in with any life and power upon their foul, or that they have been caufed to hope upon; whatever they forget, they can never forget fuch a word, VOL. V. + Gg.

that

"I will never forget thy

that brought life to their fouls; words, fays David; for by them thou haft quickened me." They have fuch an everlasting respect to the covenant, that, when they have nothing in the world to trust to, they will rely on the covenant, and confide in fuch a promile, and plead upon it, faying, Lord, Have refpect

to the covenant.

2. Hence we may fee the mifery of these that are unbelievers, and remain ftrangers to the covenant of promife, and have no respect to the covenant.' It is mifery enough, that God hath no respect to you; no refpect to your perfon or prayers, as it is faid, " To Cain and his offerings God had no refpect," Gen. iv. 5. S, God hath no refpect either to your perfons or performances; they are an abomination to him. Your prayers

to him are but like the howling of a dog, if you have never taken hold of his covenant, nor feen the respect that God hath to the covenant. You have no respect to God, while you have no refpect to that which he refpects fo highly.-And as he hath no refpect to your perfons or performances, fo he hath no respect to your tears; they never flowed from faith's views of a pierced Chrift. He hath no respect to your fouls, the redemption thereof ceafeth for ever, because you have no due refpect to the Redeemer's blood and righteoufnefs.He hath no refpect to your communicating; nay, he difapproves of it, and difcharges you to fit down at his table, on peril of eating and drinking your own damnation. God hath no regard nor refpect to your falvation, because you have no regard nor refpect to the Saviour he hath provided and offered. God thinks as little to damn you, as you think little to difhonour him. God thinks as little of you, as you think little of fin; and he hath as little refpect to you, as you have little respect to Chrift and to the covenant. Wo to you, if you remain in this cafe; for the day is coming, wherein God will, before all the world, fhew no more respect to you, than to fay to you, “ Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlafting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." But,

3. Hence we may fee the happiness of believers, that have fuch a respect to the covenant, as I was speaking of, a great

a great, dear, full, and perpetual refpect to it, and to the Mediator of it, who have taken hold of the covenant through grace, and who knows what it is to take hold of God in the covenant, to take hold of God in a promife, and to hold him by his word, and rely upon him in it, faying, Lord, Have refpect to the covenant; here is your great happiness, God hath a refpect to you: What refpe&t? Even to your perfons and offerings, as it is faid of Abel, Gen. iv. 4. God had a refpect to him and to his offering. Though you be faying in your heart, Oh! how can he have a refpe&t to me, black and vile, and guilty me? Why? not for your fake indeed, be it known unto you, but for his covenant's fake, and his name s fake. Ile hath a refpect to your praying and prailing, and communicating; becaufe he hath a refpect to the covenant.-He hath a refpect to your name: though the name of the wicked fhall rot, your name fhall be in everlasting remembrance; for God hath put his name in you; fomething of Chrift in you, fomething of the covenant in you. Some obferve, when Abram's name was turned to Abraham, that there was fome of the letters of the name JEHOVAH put in Abram's name. Indeed, God gives the believer a new name, that he hath a refpect unto.-He hath a respect to your fuits and fupplications; "I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the fecret places of the flairs; let me hear thy voice, let me fee thy countenance; for fweet is thy voice, and thy countenance iscomely." He hath a refpect to his beloved doves, when pouring out their hearts before him; that voice that the world laughs at, God hath a refpect to it.-He hath a respect to your blood; "Precious in his fight is the blood of his faints."—He hath a respect to your fouls; and hence he gave his blood to be a ranfom for them; and when your fouls languifh, he fends his Spirit to reftore them; and when you die, he will send his angels to bring them to heaven. He hath a refpect to your bodies: you ought, being bought with a price, to glorify him in your fouls and bodies, which are his. When your body goes to the duft, he will take care of that duft, and lofe nothing you, but raife you up at the laft day, and make your Gg 2 vile

of

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Vile bodies like unto his glorious body; and fo fhall ye be ever with the Lord. He hath a refpect to yon, fuch a refpect, that he puts honour upon you; "Since thou walt precious in my fight, thou haft been honourable.” He hath made you kings and priefts to your God.Jacob was crowned a prince on the field of battle, the field of prayer, when he wreftled with the Angel and prevailed as a prince. The poor wreftling man is a prince, and the poor wrestling woman a princess, in God's fight; "This is the honour of all the faints." They have power with God, therefore no wonder that they have power over the nations, to rule them with a rod of iron; they judge and torment them that dwell on the earth, even here: And know you not, that here. after the faints fhall judge the world? God hath a respect to you, and he will fhew it in due time, because he hath a refpect to the covenant, and filled your heart with a refpect to it also.

4. Hence fee the duty incumbent upon us in pleading with God for his favour, prefence, and bleffing; let us go to him both in fecret prayer, and in folemn approaches to his table, crying, Lord, Have respect to the Covenant. I know not a cafe you can be in but the covenant exhibites a cure, and you are allowed to plead it, Ezek. xxxvi. 37After many new-covenant promifes, it is faid, "For this will I be enquired of by the honfe of Ifrael, to do it for them:" and how are we to enquire, but by pleading the refpect he hath to the covenant.-Have you a polluted heart with the filth of fin, a polluted confcience with the guilt of fin? Why, here is an article of the coverart; "I will fprinkle clean water upon you, and ye fhall be clean from all your filthinefs, and from all your idols will I cleanfe you," ver. 25. O then, go to God for cleansing, and plead, faying, O Lord, Have refpect to the Covenant.-Have you the old hard ftony heart ftill within you, and would you have it renewed and foftened? Here is an article of the covenant, "A new heart will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you; I will take away the ftony heart cut of your flefh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." O then, go to God, and plead it, faying, Have refpect to the Covenant.-Are you deftitute of the Spirit, fenfual, not having the Spirit? Do you

1

find fuch a want of the Spirit, that you cannot walk in 'God's way? Well, there is an article of the covenant here, ver. 27. "I will put my Spirit within you, and caufe you to walk in my ftatutes." O plead for this great blefling, and fay, Lord, Have respect to the Covenant. In a word, when you confider what kind of a finner you are, confider alfo what kind of a covenant this is; it is enough to fay, that it is a covenant of grace, of all forts of grace, for all forts of finners that are cut of hell. Are you under dreadful guilt? Here is a covenant of pardening grace, faying, "I will blut out thy fin as a cloud, and thy tranfgreffion as a thick cloud: return to me, for I have redeemed thee," Ifa. xliv. 22. O then plead he may have refpect to the covenant.—Are you under fearful pollutions? O here is a covenant of purifying grace, faying, "There is a fountain opened to the houfe of David, and the inhabitants of Jerufalem, for fin and for uncleannefs." O then, plead he may have refpect to the covenant.Are you in darknefs and ignorance, having no knowledge of God? O here is a covenant of enlightening grace, faying,

They fhall be all taught of God." O then plead it, faying, Lord, Have respect to the Covenant.-Are you under deadnefs, and like dead and dry bones? O here is a covenant of quickening grace, faying, "I am come to give life, and to give it more abundantly. The hour cometh, when the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear thall live." O then plead that he may have refpect to the covenant.-Are you in confufion, and know not what way to take? O here is a covenant of directing grace, faying, "I will bring the blind by a way they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darknefs light before them, and crooked things ftraight."Are you under fad plagues and foul-difeafes, over-run with fores from the crown of the head to the fole of the foot? Ohere is a covenant of healing grace, faying, "The Sun of righteoufnefs fhall arife with healing in his wings. I am the Lord that healeth thee.-I will heal your backflidings." O then plead, faying, Lord, Have refpect to the Covenant.-Are you in extreme danger of hell and damnation, becaufe of your fin and guilt? O here is a covenant of delivering grace, faying, "Deliver his foul from going down to the pit, for I have found a ranfom."