second part of the Bond under present consideration; and in the swearing of it, covenanters openly stand forth as God's witnesses, bearing explicit testimony for all those precious truths contained in these subordinate standards and avow their resolution, in the strength of divine grace, to continue steadfast in the faith and proféssion of them, all the days of their lives.-Thirdly, It consists of an engagement, in divine strength, to the performance of the several duties incumbent upon them in their different places and stations. These duties are various; and a considerable number of them are particularly condescended upon in the Bond itself, among which are the following. 1. That they shall, notwithstanding any temptations they may meet with to the contrary, endeavour to continue steadfast in the faith, and

of searching the scriptures, for this purpose, among several others, that they might try their own principles by them-told his auditory that they had no need to search the scriptures to try whether the confession of Faith, and our other subordinate standards, were agreeable to, and founded upon the word of God, as this was already done to their hand by those who compiled them. This is very like making people's faith to stand in the wisdom of men, and is the very thing which our fathers were wont to call the essence of Popery. This is in perfect unison with what he with some others, had given in to the Synod, in the month of April that same year, in their first paper of romonstrance, Reason 5. in which s they allow, that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to whom the Confession of Faith was first presented, had a right to receive it with certain limitations; but alledge, that in consequence of their reception of it, and of its having continued ever since to be avowed as the Confession of this church, we have now lost all right to give any limitation to our reception of it, but are bound to adhere to it as it stands, without more ado. Had this

to hold fast the profession of it without wavering. 2. That they shall endeavour to bear faithful testimony against the many prevailing errors and corruptions of their time, particularly those mentioned in the acknowledgment of sins prefixed to the Bond. 5. That, according as they may have a call in providence, they shall contribute their endeavours for the spread of the gospel through all nations, and particularly through the whole breadth and length of Britain and Ireland. 4, That they shall study to prefer the honour and glory of God, and the prosperity of his cause and kingdom, to all other interests whatever, and particularly to those which are of a personal and selfish nature. 5. That they shall endeavour to be mutually helpful to one another in their Christian course, strengthening one another's hands,and encouraging their hearts, in the way and work

doctrine been always held and acted upon by the body of professed Protestants, we should not to this day have heard one word of a Protestant reformation. Though the new statement of the Secession Testimony had answered no other purpose but this,it was certainly one good end served by it,to discover who among us were Popishly inclined, and disposed to assert the church's infalibility. That persons who may have bad a system of religious principles presented to them for their adoption, who have made trial of them by the unerring rule of the divine word, and found them agreeable to it, and who, in consequence of all this, have actually embraced them, and vowed an adherence to them, should make conscience of holding fast what they have to received, is beyond a doubt: but this very different thing from people implicitly embracing whatever the church of which they are members may have adopted in some former ages, and being freed from an obligation to try their religious principles by the word of God, because their ancestors have made such a trial of them before they were born.

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of the Lord. And, 6. That, in the whole of their deportment, they shall endeavour to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith they are called, and study to be good examples to one another, both in their personal exercise, and in the religious ordering of their families. These are a brief summary of the duties particularly specified, and engaged to, in that Bond: but as a full enumeration of every duty incumbent on each of the covenanters could not possibly be made in a deed of this kind, therefore a general clause is annexed, binding the swearers to the conscientious discharge of every duty which they owe either to God or man. And now, from the whole account of its contents, may not every person see the great excellency of this Bond? There is every thing in it that is fit for a deed of this nature, without any thing that can be viewed as improper for being made the matter of our covenant-engagements. It has nothing in it but what is purely religious, while at the same time it comprehends every thing that can be justly considered as our reasonable service.

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But, from viewing its matter, let us for a moment turn our attention to the order of arranging its contents, and this will give us a still further view of its excellency. The arrangement is made in that very order which God himself hath established in the covenant of grace. You all know, that the order established there, betwixt duty and privilege, is very different from that stated in the covenant of works. The order under the covenant of works was, that duty was first, and privilege was to follow, as the stipulated reward of man's obedience. But this order is completely reversed by the covenant

S

of grace. Here privilege is placed first, and duty suc ceeds: man is not to work for life, and procure it by his own obedience; but this being already procured for him by the obedience and death of Christ, and secured to him by free promise, he is now to work from life, to testify his gratitude to God for the riches of his grace displayed in this whole matter. Now, this is the very order observed in that bond which is the subject of pres ent consideration. It begins with a declaration of our acceptance of the new covenant, and of all the rich blessings contained in it; and it concludes with an engagement to all the duties of our Christian calling, to be performed wholly in the strength of the grace of that

covenant.

II. LAMENTATION.

THIS Subject may, in the second place, be improved in an use of lamentation and mourning. There are many things with relation to covenanting which call loudly for this exercise.-1. It is for a lamentation, that this work should be so keenly opposed as it is by many, in the present time. None of you can be ignorant, that this work is in a particular manner the butt of the malice of a great part of this generation: and the manner in which they manage their opposition to it is no secret. Some attempt to run it down with ridicule, and others with downright raillery. Some aver that it is a mere Jewish practice, and others cry out against it as entirely the offspring of pride and party-spirit. Some will tell you that it is a piece of gross superstition and will-worship, having no foundation whatever in the word of God,

while others exert themselves in framing the most frightful misrepresentations of the nature of it, in order to deter people from it. One way or other, it is every where vilified and spoken against. And alas! what is the purport of all this, but just an attempt to rob God of that homage and allegiance due to him from all his subjects, to deprive the church of one of the most signal aneans of her own reformation and establishment in the faith, and to blot out one of the most express institutions of Heaven from the list of divine ordinances? It will not avail persons to plead, that in managing such opposition against it, they do not view it in the light of a divine ordinance, but rather of human invention; for a divine ordinance it really is, be their views of it what they will; and the mistakes of men will never bear them out in their opposition to the work of God. Saul of Tarsus verily thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth; this, however, did not free him from criminality in persecuting the church of God.-2. It is matter of lamentation, that many of the professed followers of Christ continue through their whole life wilfully ignorant of their duty on this head. They have Bibles among their hands, in which the obligation to this work is clearly set forth; but they never once think of examining what they have to say upon this subject. They have likewise a variety of publications within their reach, in which the doctrine of scripture on this point is collected together, for assisting them in the investigation of it; but they never once design to give them a perusal. This is a subject about which they neither wish to read nor hear. They know not whether it is matter of sin or duty, and