are united to him by faith, John vi. 57. "As the living Father bath fent me, and I live by the Father; fo he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." Now, Chrift is Mediator, not as God only, as fome have afferted; nor yet as man only, as the Papifts generally kold: but he is Mediator as God-man, Acts xx. 28.

The church of God, which he hath purchafed with his blood," Heb. ix 14." Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himfelf without spot to God." The divine and human natures have their diftinét actings, yet a joint operation in this, difcharging the office of a Mediator. This is illuftrated by the fimilitude of a fiery fword, which at once cuts and burns: cutting, it burneth; and burning, it cutteth; the fteel cuts, and the fire burns: Wherefore Chrift, God man, is the ftock, whereof believers are the branches; and they are united to whole Chrift: They are united to him in his human nature, as being members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," Eph. v. 30. and they are united to him in his divine nature; for fo the Apostle fpeaks of this union, Col. i. 27. "Chrift in you the hope of glory." And by him they are united to the Father, and to the Holy Ghoft, 1 John iv. 15. "Whofoever fhall confefs that Jefus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” Faith,. the bond of this union, receives whole Chrift, God-man ; and fo unites us to him as fuch.

Behold here, O believers, your high privilege. Ye were once branches of a degenerate ftock, even as others: but ye are, by grace, become branches of the true Vine, Jobe xv. I.. Ye are cut out of a dead and killing ftock; and ingrafted in the last Adam, who was made a quickning fpirit," 1 Cor. xv, 45. Your lofs by the first Adam is made up, with great advantage, by your union with the second. Adam, at his best eftate, was but a fhrub, in comparison with Christ, the Tree of Life. He was but a fervant, Chrift is the Son, the Heir, and Lord of all things, "the Lord from heaven." It cannot be denied, that grace was fhown in the first covenant: but it is as far exceeded, by the grace of the fecond covenant, as the twilight is by the light of the mid-day.

III. What branches are taken out of the natural ftock, and grafted into this Vine? Anf. These are the elect, and none other They, and they only, are grafted into Chrift; and confequently none but they are cut off from the killing stock. For them alone he intercedes," that they nay be one in him and his Father," John xvii, 9, 23. Faith, the bond of this union, is given to noneelfe: it is the faith of God's elect," Tit. i. 1. The Lord paffes

by many branches growing on the natural flock, and cuts off only here one, and there one, and grafts them into the true Vine, according as free love hath determined. Oft does he pitch upon the moft unlikely branch, leaving the top-boughs; paffing by the mighty, and the noble, and calling the weak, base, and defpifed, I Cor. i, 27. Yea, he often leaves the fair and smooth, and takes the rugged and knotty: "And fuch were fome of you, but ye are washed," 1 Cor. vi. 11. If ye inquire why fo? We find no other reafon, but becaufe they were "chofen in him," Eph. i. 2. "Predeftinated to the adoption of children by Jefus Chrift," ver. 5. Thus are they gathered together in Chrift, while the reft are left growing on their natural stock, to be afterwards, bound up in bundles for the fire. Wherefore, to whomsoever the gofpel may come in vain, it will have a bleft effect on God's elect, Acts xiii. 48. "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Where the Lord has much people, the Gofpel will have much fuccefs, fooner or later: Such as are to be faved, will be added to the myftical body of Christ.

How the Branches are taken out of the natural Stock, and ingrafted into the fupernatural Stock.

IV. I am to fhew how the branches are cut off from the narural stock, the first Adam, and grafted into the true Vine, the Lord Jefus Chrift. Thanks to the husbandman, not to the branch, that it is cut off from its natural flock, and ingrafted into a new one. The finner, in his coming off from the first ftock, is paffive; and neither can, nor will, come off from it, of his own accord, but clings to it, till almighty power make him to fall off, John vi. 44. "No man can come unto me, except the Father, which hath fent me, draw him." And ch. x. 40. "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." The ingrafted branches are "God's husbandry," 1 Cor. iii. 9. "The planting of the Lord," Ifa. Ixi. 3. The ordinary means he makes ufe of in this work, is the miniftry of the word, 1 Cor. iii. 9."We are labourers together with God." But the efficacy thereof is wholly from him, whatever the minister's parts or piety be, ver. 7. "Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth: but God that giveth the increafe." The Apoftle preached to the Jews, yet the body of that people remained in infidelity, Rom. y. 16. "Who hath believed our report?"yea, Chrift himself, who fpoke as never man spoke, faith ncerning the fuccefs of his own miniftry, "I have laboured in

vain, I have spent my ftrength for nought," Ifa. xli. 4. The branches may be hacked by the preaching of the word: but the ftroke will never go through, till it be carried home on them, by an omnipotent arm. However, God's ordinary way is, " by the foolifhin fs of preaching to fave them that believe,' 1 Cor.i. 21.

I

The cutting off of the branch from the natural stock, is performed by the pruning kuife of the Law, in the hand of the Spirit of God, Gal. ii. 19. "For I, through the Law, am dead to the Law." It is by the bond of the Covenant of Works, as faid before, that we are knit to our natural ftock: and, therefore,, as a wife, unwilling to be put away, pleads and hangs by the marriage-tie; fo do men by the Covenant of works. They hold by it, like the man who held the hip with his hands; and when one hand was cut off, held with the other; and when both.. were cut off, held it with his teeth. This will appear from an diftinct view of the Lord's work on men, in bringing them off from the old stock; which I now offer in thefe following. particulars:

FIRST, When the Spirit of the Lord comes to deal with a perfon, to bring him to Chrift,, he finds him in Laodicea's cafe, in a found fleep of fecurity, dreaming of heaven, and the favour of God, tho full of fin against the holy One of Ifrael.”— Rev. iii. 17. "Thou knoweit not that thou art wretched and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked."-And, therefore, he darts in fome beams of light into the dark foul, and lets the man fee he is a lost man, if he turn not over a new leaf, and. betake himself to a new courfe of life. Th, by the Spirit of the Lord, acting as a spirit of bondage, there is a criminal court: erected in the man's breaft, where he is arraigned, accused, and condemned for breaking the Law of God; convinced of fin and judgment John xvi 8. And now he can no longer fleep fecurely in his former course of life. This is the first stroke the branch.

gets, in order to cutting offi

SECONDLY, Hereupon a man förfakes his former profane curfes, his lying, fwearing,. Sabbath-breaking, ftealing, and fuch like practices, though they be dear to him as right eyes; he will rather quit them than ruin his foul. The fhip is like to fink, and therefore he throweth his goods over-board, that he himself may not perish.. And now, he begins to bless himself in his heart, and look joyfully on his evidences from heaven; thinking himself a better fervant to God than many others, Luke xviii. 11. "God I thank thee I am not as other men are, extor tioners, unjust, adulterers,' &c. But he foon gets another stroke

S 3.

with

with the ax of the law, fhewing him that it is only he that doth what is written in the Law, who can be faved by it; and that his negative holiness is too fcanty a cover from the storm of God's wrath: And thus, although his fins of commiffion, only, were heavy on him before; his fins of omiffion now crowd into his thoughts, attended with a train of law-curfes and vengeance. And each of the ten commands difcharges thunder-claps of wrath against him, for his omitting required duties.

THIRDLY, Upon this he turns to a pofitively holy course of fife. He not only is.not profane, but he performs religious duties; he prays, feeks the knowledge of the principles of religion, ftrictly obferves the Lord's day, and, like Herod, does many things, and hears fermons gladly. In one word, there is a great conformity in his outward converfation, to the letter of both tables of the law. And, now, there is a mighty change upon the man, that his neighbours cannot mifs to take notice of Hence he is cheerfully admitted by the godly into their fociety, as a praying perfon, and can confer with them about religious matters, yea, and about foul exercife, which fome are not acquainted with. And their good opinion of him, confirms his good opinion of himfelf. This ftep in religion is fatal to many, who never get beyond it. But here the Lord reacheth the elect branch a farther ftroke. Confcience flies in the man's face, for fome wrong fteps in his converfation; the neglect of fome day, or commiffion of fome fin, which is a blot in his converfation: and then the flaming fword of the Law appears again over his head, and the curfe rings in his ears, for him that continueth "not in all things written in the Law to do them," Gal. ii. 10.

FOURTHLY, On this account he is obliged to feek another *falve for his fore. He goes to God, confeffeth his fin; seeks the pardon of it, promifing to watch against it for the time to come, and fo finds cafe, and thinks he may very well take it, feeing the Scripture faith," If we confefs our fins, he is faithful and juft to forgive us our fins," Johni. 9. not confidering that he grafps at a privilege, which is theirs only who are ingrafted into Christ, and under the covenant of grace; and which the branches yet growing on the old flock cannot plead. And here fometimes there are formal and exprefs vows made against fuch and fuch fins, and binding to fach and fuch duties. Thus many go on all their days, knowing no other religion, but to do duties, and to confefs, and pray for pardon of that wherein they fail; omifing themselves eternal happinefs, though they are utter frang

ftrangers to Chrift. Here many elect ones have been caft down wounded, and many reprobates have been flain; while the wounds of neither of them have been deep enough, to cut them off from their natural ftock. But the Spirit of the Lord gives yet a deeper ftroke to the branch which is to be cut off; fhewing him, that, as yet, he is but an out-fide faint; and discovering to him the filthy lafts, lodged in his heart, which he took no notice of before, Rom. vii. 9. "When the commandment came, fin revived and I died." Then he fees his heart a dunghill of hellish lufts; filled with covetoufuefs, pride, malice, filthinefs, and the like. Now, as foon as the door of the chambers of his imagery is thus opened to him, and he fees what they do there in the dark, his out-fide religion is blown up as infufficient; and he learns a new leffon in religion; namely, That he is not à

Jew which is one outwardly," Rom. i. 28.

FIFTHLY, Upon this he goes funther, even to in-fide religion: fets to work more vigoroufly than ever, mourns over the evils of his heart, and ftrives to bear down the weeds he finds growing in that neglected garden. He labours to curb his pride and paffion; and to banish fpeculative impurities; prays more fervently, hears attentively, and strives to get his heart affected in every religious duty he performs; and thus he comes to think himself not only an out-fide, but an infide Chriftian. Wonder not at this; for there is nothing in it beyond the power of na ture, or what one may attain to under a vigorous influence of the Covenant of works. Therefore another yet deeper ftroke is reached. The Law chargeth home on the man's confcience, that he was a tranfgreffor from the womb; that he came into the world a guilty creature: and that, in the time of his ignoLance, and even fince his eyes were opened, he has been guilty of many actual fins, either all together overlooked by him, or not fufficiently mourned over: (For, fpiritual fores, not healed by the blood-of Christ, but skinned over fome other way, are eafily ruffled, and as foon break out again.) And therefore the Law takes him by the throat, faying, "Pay what thou oweft."

SIXTHLY, Then the finner fays in his heart, "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all and fo falls to work to pacify an offended God, and to atone for thefe fins. He renews his repentance, fuch as it is; bears patiently the afflictions laid upon him; yea, he afflicts himself, denies himself the ufe of his lawful comforts, fighs deeply, mourns bitterly, cries with tears for a pardon, till he hath wrought up his heart to a conceit of having. obtained it; having thus done penance for what is past, and re

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