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been ftrengthened, when ready to faint under doubts and difcouragements. Therefore, O young communicants, as ye regard the well-being of your precious and immortal fouls for ever, look well to yourfelves at this time; if matters be right with you now, they will never be altogether wrong afterwards. Labour to get fome diftinct uptakings of the covenant of grace, and of the nature, ends, and uses of this folemn ordinance, which is the compend and feal of it, before your first partaking; pray fervently for knowledge and fpiritual illumination; apply to Jefus Chrift, your great Prophet, for this, and fee to improve the means and helps which he is pleafed to afford you for it. Retire for meditation and reading of the bible; read and meditate much on the fufferings of Chrift; read our Confeffion of Faith; Vincent's Catechifm, Guthrie's Trial of a faving intereft in Chrift, Doolittle, and other good books on the facrament, that ye may attain to fome right impreffions of the covenant, and the Lord's fupper; and particularly, of the obligations you already lie under by the first feal of baptifm; and then, under a humble fenfe of guilt, and with a hopeful view of the gospel offer, go. with all ferioufnefs and folemnity, and renew those engagements; enter into covenant with God, and next come to his table, to get the transaction fealed and ratified, by getting the other feal of heaven appended to it.

And now, young people, I put it to your choice, as Joshua did to the Ifraelites, Jof. xxiv. 15. "Choose you this day whom you will ferve." Make choice at this time whom ye will be faved by, and whom ye will obey. Whom will you have for your mafter, whether Chrift or the devil? Both are courting your hearts; which of them will you yield to? Lay your hands on your hearts, and fee whether you will grant Chrift's or the devil's defire? Whether fhall the devil have you, foul and body, to all eternity, or fhall Chrift have you? Oh, will any be fo foolish as halt betwixt two opinions in this cafe; any fo mad as ftand in doubt whether to be faved or damned, whether to live with Chrift or the devil for ever? Now Michael and his angels, and the Dragon and

his angels are fighting about your hearts; the devil is holding, and a dying Saviour is drawing: O, will you not be on Chrift's fide, and with Michael may prevail, that the red dragon's head may be broken, that the devil may get a total defeat, and that Chrift may get your hearts for ever? Remember, Chrift will have none but willing fervants, Pfal. cx. 3. none but those who fredlý offer themselves unto the Lord. Amaziah the son of Zichri, is recorded with great honour, 2 Chron. xvii. 16. because he willingly offered himself unto the Lord.” O for many Amaziahs, many fuch free will offerings, among young communicants. It would be a moft pleafant fight to God and minifters, to faints and angels, whofe eyes are upon you. The first-fruits under the

law were to be offered to the Lord. "The kindness of youth is much remembred by him," Jer. ii. Young folks praying, repenting, and covenanting, are moft melodious mufic in his ears. O, give Chrift the first and beft of your days, for he well deferves this. Make earneft of covenanting-work in fecret, that the communion day may be a day of your espousal to the Lord Jefus, and the marriage-knot may be caft so fure at this table, that death nor heil may never be able to loose it.

Need I use any motives to prefs you to make this bargain, which is so advantageous for your fouls? God invites you to treat with him, nay, he fummons you to do it, 2 Chron. xxx. 8. " Yield yourselves to the Lord," ftrike hands with God, fubmit to his mercy, accept of the terms of grace. O, that God himself would found an alarm in your ears, and shew you the misery of an unconverted ftate!

1. While you are in this ftate, you have no interest in Chrift, no fhare in his blood or purchase; you have neither art nor part in the God of Ifrael, Eph. ii. 12.

2. You are under a covenant of works, and the power, terror, threatning, and curfes of a broken law. The fentence of death is pronounced against you, and you may look for the execution of it every moment.

3. While you are out of the covenant, you have no right to any mercy, and all the mercies you receive are Vol. I.

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curfed to you, and you know not how foon God may ftrip you of all you have.

4. Confider what a fad ftroke death gives to an uncovenanted foul. It deprives him of all mercies, temporal, fpiritual, and eternal, at one blow; and fets him agoing for ever. And whither can you flee in the day of vifitation, when nothing but grim horror and defpair do ftare you in the face? When the body is on the brink of the grave, and the foul is on the brink of hell, how will you have confidence to cry to an uncovenanted God, to whom you have been ftrangers all your days? Muft it not be terrible for an uncovenanted foul to think, I am going to appear before that God I do not know, have no intereft in, nor acquaintance with Can I look for friendship from him now, fince I never fought after it before? But, on the contrary, how pleafant then will it be for a covenanted foul to look death in the face, who can fay, I know whom I have believed, and I know whither I am going: The place I know, the way I know, and the God of that land I know? Why fhould I be backward to go to my covenanted friend, with whom I have oft converfed, been long acquainted, and in whole prefence I have placed my happinefs?

5. Confider how lamentable your cafe will be for evermore, if you flight the prefent opportunity: The treaty will not always laft with you, nay, the day is not far off when it fhall end, and God will treat with you no longer. The door will be eternally fhut, and God will become inacceffible, inexorable, irreconcileable, for evermore: Chrift, the bleffed Mediator, will become thy implacable Judge; and, how will you look him in the face, when on the throne, whom you fo bafely flighted at a communion-table? What wilt thou do when thou findeft thyfelf fhut up under flaming wrath, without hope? The remembrance of loft opportunies will be as oil to thy flames. Time was, when God treated, and would have made a bargain with me, but I would not; this will be the burden of thy eternal lamentation. O, how will you be able to bear the wrath of an uncovenanted God! Who can dwell with devouring fire? A fmall shower of fire and brimstone lighting on our heads

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now, would be very terrible.. But O, it will be infinitely more fo, when it fhall be poured down in whole ftreams, and that not for a time, but for ever and ever. Will not ten thousand years fuffering do the turn? No, no; it will be eternal. Well, if you be able to dwell with everlafting burnings, you need not treat with God: But O, it is fearful to fall into the hands of the living God, one that lives, and will for ever live, to revenge himself upon you!

Hard muft your hearts be, if they be not moved by thefe threatenings; but yet harder muft they be, if they be not melted by God's condefcending intreaties. Hear him, Ifa. lv. 1. 2. 3. "Ho, every one that thirfteth, Come, &c. Incline your ear, and come unto me; Hear, and your foul fhall live, and I will make an everlafting covenant with you." Is God fo willing to make a covenant with his creature, a flave, a worm; and are you not willing to caft down the weapons of rebellion, and enter into a league with? Is it not a bargain most fuitable for you, and all your circumftances and neceffities? Is it not most glorious and honourable for you to be betrothed to fo great a prince? Hof. ii. 19. Is it not rich and advantageous for you, to be infeft in fo. great an inheritance, and to have a fealed right to fuch bleffed privileges as a free pardon, gracious accefs, covenant-provifion, covenant protection, and covenantcomforts?

Object." Alas, I have made a perfonal covenant be. fore, but have broke it."

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Anf. You have caufe to be humbled for it before God; and if you be not, it is a bad fign indeed. 2. All fenfible and mourning backfliders are invited to return to him, and renew their covenant, Jer. iii. endeavour to make the bargain furer than you did before.

Object. "I am afraid of breaking it over again: And is it not better not to engage?"

Anf. 1. It is good to be jealous of yourselves, and feared for breaking; for, the more you diftrust your own ftrength, the stronger you are.

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2. If you covenant honeftly, you will get covenantgrace and ftrength which thall be fufficient for you; you will get the dominion of fin broke, and power to wrestle against it: And, above all, you will get Chrift engaged for you as your furety; and, to be fure, though you be weak, he is able enough,

DIRECT. XII. Labour for a thorough cleansing of both Heart and Life from Sin, and turn unto the Lord in the ways of new obedience, before you come to the Lord's Table.

ALL that would attend a holy God, and expect a communion with him in this holy ordinance, must fee. to have pure hearts and clean hands, Pfal. xxiv. 3. 4. Jam. iv. 8. What was David's pious refolution, Pfal. xxxvi. 6. ought to be yours at this occafion, "I will wash my hands in innocency, and fo will I compass thine altar, O Lord." He alludes to the ceremony of the priests washing at the brazen laver, before they mi nistered at the altar; to let us fee, that though this. ceremony belonged only to the priests, yet the morality belongs to all; and there is a washing which concerns all before they meddle with holy fervices, and especially fuch as the facrament of the Lord's fupper. There is a double washing required of all communicants: I. A wafhing of yourselves in Chrift's blood by the actings of faith. 2. A washing of yourselves by the exercife of true repentance and reformation, which is an effect of the former; by the one, the guilt of fin is taken away, and by the other, the filth of fin is removed.

Now, this cleansing must be both external and internal, more than the outside of the cup and platter must be washed, for God looks principally to the heart. Obferve thofe parts of the facrifice, that in a fpecial manner behoved to be washed under the law, Lev. i. 9. "But the inwards and his legs fhall he wash in water." Now, why fhould the inwards and legs of the facrifice be washed above all the reft? Because the intrails con

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