2d. Decisive mark of all such as are in the covenant of grace, which is, that perfectly pleased with it, they have taken hold of it. Seeing themselves ruined by the breach of the first covenant, they have repaired to the second, as what alone can make them blessed. They believe that it is all their salvation, and hence it is, it must be all their desire. To it as their sole sanctuary they have recourse by faith. The covenant is in their esteem a device every way worthy of God. They find no fault in it, they desire no alteration, no not in the least. There is nothing out of the covenant which they would have inserted, nothing in it which they would have erazed. There is nothing in it which they can want, and there is nothing out of it that they desire. Thus there is a wonderful harmony betwixt their hearts and it. They are formed as in breadth and in length for the reception of it. To be a little more particular, they are exceedingly pleased with the Surety of the covenant. They are astonished at the mercy, they admire and approve of the wisdom of God, in providing such a one as his only Son. They set to their seal that God is true, John iii. 33. Him whom God hath chosen and sent, and sealed, they most cordially receive. Thus as with one heart, and with one soul, they appoint themselves one head, Hos. i. 11. While others reject Christ, they receive him, and had each of them ten thousand hearts, they would all be his, and his only. Their greatest grief is that they cannot receive him as they would, there being a disloyal party within them. Though the door of the mighty and the many be shut against Christ, theirs are ever open to him. As they are well pleased with his suretiship, so with all his other offices. At his feet they sit to be taught, the crown they set upon his head, and put the sceptre in his hands, saying, Rule thou over us. They are well pleased with the benefits and blessings of the covenant, with sanctification, no less than with justification. They are well pleased with the order of the covenant, that order wherein its blessings are conveyed, viz. that life must go before working, and working

before eternal glory. As they are pleased with the administrator of the covenant: so with its administration. They discern wisdom and beauty in the freedom and universality of the gospel-offer, and in accompanying it with promises and threats, the one to those who receive it, the other to such as reject it. Being thus pleased with God's covenant, they take hold of it, as the word is, Isa. lvi. 4, 6. They venture their salvation on it, they go on board that vessel for eternity, and if it be sure, they are safe. While others swim as on the broken planks of their lame morality, they get them into the ark of the covenant, and weigh anchor for Immanuel's land. And as they sail, they sing, saying each with David, 2 Sam. xxiii. 4. God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, this is all my salvation, and all my desire.

8dly and Lastly, Such as are in the covenant of grace study obedience to the law of God: while they receive his covenant as the ground of their trust, they also receive his law as the rule of their duty. They are not of those who would lean upon the one, and at the same time lothe the other. No, no. They are the people in whose heart is God's law, Psalm xxxvii. 31. Isa. li. 7. There is a necessary connection betwixt being in the covenant, and having an habitual regard to the law as a rule of life. They are connected as cause and effect. For what day God receives a sinner into his covenant, he writes his law upon his heart. So runs the promise, Heb. viii. 10. This is the covenant, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts. This being the case, the man in covenant with God, cannot but be holy. That law written in his heart, he will transcribe into his life. This must be granted, unless a man can be in Christ, and yet walk after the flesh; can have a holy heart, and an unholy life. As the inward-writing of the law is the effect of the covenant promise, so holiness is an evidence of being in a covenant state. And such as are destitute of this evidence, are equally destitute of the thing itself, the covenant of grace. All that are in that covenant, are

truly, though not yet perfectly holy. They have a love, and an habitual conformity to the holy law. The great end of the covenant was to magnify the law and make it honourable; and that, in satisfying its claims on the guilty, and rendering them henceforth conformable unto it. Therefore such as are not holy, such as can indulge themselves in sin, it is obvious the covenant has not yet accomplished its end in them, and equally so, that they are not personally in it. All who have received Christ, receive also the law at his mouth. While they boast in his blood as a surety, and rest on his strength as a shield, they also walk in his light as a sun; resting on his atonement, they also follow his example. Isa. ii. 5. All who come to him for rest, take his yoke upon them, Matt. xi. 28, 29. they make no exceptions against any part of it. Whatever it be to others, to them it is easy and delightful, 2 Tim. ii. 19. Psal. lxvi. 18. They desire to depart from all iniquity, ab horring it in their heart, they study its destruction, Gal. v. 24. True, their obedience is imperfect as to degrees, but this is their burden and their grief. Sometimes they also fall, but that is not their way. Sometimes through the law in their members warring against the law of their mind they are brought into captivity. But are they willing captives? Oh, no! They groan, call themselves fools and beasts, and cry every one, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Rom. vii. 23, 24.

These are the three decisive marks of being in the covenant of grace: conviction of sin, faith in Christ, and holiness of life. By the first we see our misery, by the second we accept of deliverance, and by the third we testify our thankfulness to him who delivered us. The first has a relation to the covenant of works, the second to the covenant of grace, and the third to the law of Christ. The first is a conviction of our deplorable state, the second an acceptance of God's salvation, and the third a cordial performance of Juty. In the one we see our misery by the first covenant; in the other we repair to the second; and in the last we perform the

duties consequential of our covenant-state. By the first the sinner is humbled; by the second the Saviour is exalted; and by the third, God is glorified. By the first we are sensible of our bondage-state under the first covenant, Gal. iv. 24.; by the second we glory only in the cross of Christ, chap. vi. 14.; and by the third we walk according to the rule, verse 16. See all the three in Phil. iii. 3. The man who is convinced of sin, has no confidence in the flesh: having taken hold of the covenant, he rejoices in Christ Jesus its only Mediator, and is habitually careful to walk and worship in the Spirit. They are the same in effect that are mentioned by our Lord, John xvi. 8. viz. conviction of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. The man is so convinced of his sin, that he groans to be delivered from it: so convinced of Surety-righteousness, that he is all ardour to be interested in it: and so convinced of the necessity of judgment on the wicked one to whom he has been enslaved, that he fervently desires it may be executed in casting him out, and in destroying his works. These his desires are followed with suitable efforts as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He puts on the whole armour of light, and wrestling against principalities and powers, he, under God, executes upon them the judgment written. This honour have all his saints.

Examine yourselves by these marks, my brethren, and if ye can truly say you have them, you are certainly in the covenant of grace: the children of the promise, the sons of the free woman, and not of the bond; born after the Spirit, and not after the flesh; heirs of the inheritance, and shall never, never be cast out. But of one thing beware in the course of self-examination, break not the threefold cord, rest not in any one of these three marks, exclusive of the other. Conviction of sin is no mark of grace, while separated from faith in the Saviour. Faith cannot be true unless it work by love, and issue in keeping the commandments. And as little is that obedience to be regarded as evidential of our gracious state, which flows not from a heart purified by faith. But Q! happy, thrice happy that man

who can lay claim to all the three, he is in a state, and has attainments which no hypocrite ever did, or ever can reach. He has seen himself polluted, has washed in the fountain, and is careful to keep himself from the unclean and the accursed thing. He has seen his sins against the Father, has fled to the satisfaction of the Son, and to crown all, he is careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Thus he is in a state of friendship with his Makers, and is daily giving honour to the Threeone-God. He is in the covenant of grace, and ever shall*.

The three marks on which we have insisted are the same with those mentioned in our Larger Cat. Q. 172. " One who doubteth of his being in Christ, may have true interest in Christ,-and in God's account hath it, if he be duly affected with the apprehension of the want of it, and unfeignedly desires to be found in Christ, and to depart from iniquity."