been seasonable preventings and quickenings now and then when the soul was like to fail; Psal. xxi. 3. For thou preventest me with the blessings of thy goodness." Psal. xciv. 18, 19. When I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul. There. sfore let none say, that there is no fruit following, and let none shift their duty upon the unjust and groundless complaints of others.

CHAP. VI.

Of covenanting with God.

OBJECT. Although I judge it my duty to close with God's device in the covenant, I am in the dark how to manage that duty; for sometimes God doth offer to be our God without any mention of Christ, and sometimes saith that he will betrothe us unto him; and in other places of scripture we are called to come to Christ, and he is the bridegroom. Again, God sometimes speaketh of himself as a father to men, sometimes as a husband; Christ is sometimes called the husband, and sometimes a brother; which relations seem inconsistent, and do much put me in the dark how to apprehend God when my heart would agree with him and close with him,

ANSW. It may be very well said, that men do come to God, or close with him, and yet they come to Christ, and close with him. They may be said to come under a marriage relation unto God, and unto Christ also, who is husband, father, brother, &c. to them, and there is no such mystery here as some do conceive..

For the better understanding of it, consider

these few things, 1st, Although God made man perfect at the beginning, and put him in some capacity of transacting with him immediately; Eccles. vii. 29. "God hath made man upright." Gen. ii. 16, 17. "And the Lord God com. manded the man, saying, of every tree of the gar den thou mayest freely eat," &c. yet man by his fall did put himself at a perfect distance with God, and in an utter incapacity to bargain or deal any more with him immediately. 2dly, The Lord did, after Adam's fall, make manifest the new covenant, in which he did signify he was content to transact with man again, in and through a Mediator; and so did appoint men to come to him through Christ; Heb. vii. 25. "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him; and to look for accep. tation only in him; Eph. 1. 6. "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved;" ordaining men to hear Christ, he being the only party in whom God was well pleased; Matth. xvii. 5. "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him."

3dly. This matter is so clear, and supposed to be so plain in the scripture, and so manifest to all who are under the ordinances, that the Lord doth often speak of transacting with himself, not making mention of the mediator, because it is supposed that every one in the church knoweth that now there is no dealing with God, except by and through Christ Jesus the mediator.

4thly. Consider that Christ Jesus, God-man, is not only a fit place for God and men to meet in, and a fit spokesman to treat between the par

ties now at variance: 2 Cor. v. 19. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself;" but we may say also, he is immediate bridegroom; and so our closing or transacting with God may be justly called the marriage of the king's son, and the elect may be called the Lamb's wife; Christ Jesus being as it were, the hand which God holdeth out unto men, and on which they lay hold when they deal with God, and so, through and by Christ we close with God, as our God on whom our soul doth terminate lastly and ultimately through Christ; 1 Peter i. 21. "Who by him do believe in God that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God."

5thly. Consider that the divers relations mentioned in scripture are set down, to signify the sure and indissoluble union and communion between God and his people. Whatsoever nearness is between head and members, root and branches, king and subjects, shepherd and flock, father and children, brother and brother, husband and wife, &c. all is here; John xvii. 21, 22, 23. 26. "And they all shall be one, as thou, Father art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hath loved them, as thou hast loved me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou

hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.?? So that whatsoever be spoken in scripture, peo ple may be clear that God scalleth them to be reconciled unto him through Christ, and doth offer himself to be their God and husband in him alone; and men are to accept God to be their God in Christ, choosing that way of relief for poor man, and to give up themselves into God in Christ in whom alone they can be accepted. And they who close with Christ, they do close with God in him," who is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself," 2 Cor. v. 19. John xiv. 8, 9, 10, 11. And we are not to dip further into the divers relations mentioned in scripture between God, or Christ, and men, than as they may point out union and communion, or nearness with God through Christ Jesus, and our advans tage thereby.

These things being clear, we will not multiply words: but since to believe on Christ is the great duty required of all that hear this gospel, we beseech every one in the Lord's name, to whom the report of this shall come, that without delay, they take to heart their lost condition in themselves; and that they lay to heart the relief which God hath provided by Jesus Christ, whereof he hath made a free offer unto all who will be content with the same, and to be saved that way; and that they lay to heart, that there is no other way of escape from the wrath that is to come, because of which men would be glad, at the last day, to run into a lake of melted lead, to be hid from the face of the lamb, whom they do here despise; we say we beseech all, in the consideration of these things, to work up their

hearts to this business, and to lay themselves open for God, and to receive him through Christ in the offers of the gospel, acquiescing in him as the only desirable and satisfying good, that so they may secure themselves. Go speedily and search for his offers of peace and salvation in the scripture, and work up your heart and soul to close with them, and with Christ in them, and with God in Christ; and do it so, as you may have this to say, that you were serious, and in earnest, and cordial here, as ever you were in any thing to your apprehension: and, for ought you know, Christ is the choice of your heart, at least you neither know nor allow any thing to the contrary; whereupon your heart doth appeal unto God to search and try if there be ought amiss, to rectify it, and lead into the right way.

Now, this cleaving of the heart unto him, and casting itself upon him, to be saved in his way, is believing; which doth indeed secure a man from the wrath that is to come, because now he hath received Christ, and believeth on him, and so shall not enter into condemnation, as saith the scripture.

1 OBJECT. When I hear what it is to believe on Christ Jesus, I think sometimes I have faith; for I dare say, to my apprehension, I am pleased with the invention of saving sinners by Christ Jesus; my heart goeth out after him, and doth terminate upon him as a satisfying treasure; and I am glad to accept God to be my God in him; but I often do question if ever I have done so, and so am, for the most part, kept hesitating and doubting if I do believe or be savingly in covenant with God.