Do you then inquire, When darkness obtains to fuch a degree in the foul, whether we may bring former experiences in review, as a ground on which we may reft? This depends entirely on the effects which proceed from fo doing.-If to reft on former experiences, makes us careless and unconcerned, with respect to our walk and conversation, and causes us to become indifferent, and ready to say, We are fenfible of what hath passed between God and our fouls ; that we have devoted ourselves to his service; and that, though we may have been unfaithful, yet he is faithful; and, though we may want ardour, zeal, and activity, in promoting the cause of Chrift, the covenant is unchangeable.-God is indeed FAITHFUL; but you must alfo be true to your folemn engagements, and exercise holy love towards him. If you wholly fail in these respects, you can with no propriety build your hope on former experiences. Yet it may fometimes be highly ADVANTAGEOUS to reflect upon what you may have experienced in times paft. A. When former experiences produce HUMILITY, and lead you, in fecret, to ask Jehovah, saying, Lord, did we not, at fuch a period, obligate ourselves to be thine for ever, and, in thy prefence, refolve, through grace, never to forfake thy fervice? and didft thou not, at that time, fay to us, "I have loved you with an

everlasting love; I have admitted you within the bonds of my covenant?"When the foul looks back on experiences and occurrences like thefe,-and reflects how little agreement there is between former engagements and its prefent condu&t,-between God's manifeftation of love to it, and its return of love to him ;-if then pride falls, and shame covers the face; this is both pleafing to God, and beneficial to the Chriftian.

B. Former experiences are useful to ENCOURAGE and bear up your fouls, when the Lord conceals from you the light of his countenance. When you look back, and duly confider how lively your exercifes once were; with what fervour you approached the throne of grace; how unrefervedly you furrendered yourselves to the Lord Jefus; and how folemnly you engaged to be followers of him, as the great captain of your falvation; the natural conclufion that must be drawn from all thefe experiences is, that they sprung not from nature, but from grace: than which reflexion, nothing can more animate the fouls of the diftreffed and doubting children of the cove

nant.

C. Paft experiences are especially to be confidered as useful, when they ferve to AWAKEN you to WALK more tenderly in the prefence of God, even when he may be hiding his face from you; infomuch that you can fay, Lord, although now we are fenfible that thou art withholding from us thofe joys and thofe divine confolations which once we tafted; yet still ftrong are our defires after holinefs,-great are our obligations to thee; and we are anxious to fulfil them all.

3. But fill there are others who fay, We would not dare affert that, fo far as refpects us, we have not given ourselves unto God, and faid AMEN to every part of the covenant; but ftill we fear that the work hath not been done in truth; for God, on his part, has never affured us of it, by giving us to tafte and fee that he is good, as he hath done to others of his redeemed ones. We conceive that, if we had in reality entered into the covenant, Jehovah would, at one time or other, have embraced us in love.

A. That we may be inflrumental in affording you

encouragement, we would obferve, That you ought not to be alarmed because you have never enjoyed fuch fenfible evidences of a work of grace upon your hearts from God himfelf: for has not the Lord already beftowed upon you great bleffings? can it be called by any other name than that of AMAZING grace, that so much light hath beamed in your fouls ; that you can discover that you have cordially given yourselves to him.

B. You are too apt to form too great ideas of the MANNER in which Jehovah meets with his people, on the occafion of their covenanting with him. You are frequently led to believe that God, as it were, comes down from heaven, and with a voice loud like thunder, and penetrating as the lightning, addresses you, faying, Your fins are forgiven you; I am your God.It is true, God may have acted on this wife in certain inftances; but it is not his ordinary way of difpenfing grace. In like manner, you may have tafted and feen that the Lord is good; but, at the time, may not have viewed this to have been the cafe. If you confider that grace, in its lowest degree, is true and faving; and that the fmalleft experience of holy breathings of defire after Chrift, are evidential of fpiritual life, you may be brought to discover that thofe degrees of grace, which you may have experienced, ought not to be overlooked, or that you ought not to defpife the day of fmall things. For inftance:

If you were enabled to lie with humility, as a worm, in the prefence of God, wrestling for grace, and melted into tears, on account of a fight of your fins in all their aggravated colours, would not these tears have a tafte and relifh in them? or were you, on the other hand, to obtain a view of Jefus, in his precioufnefs, fwectnefs, all-fufficiency,-fo that you

could not refrain from crying, "Thou art fairer than "the fons of men; grace is poured on thy lips;" or could shed tears of love: have not these tears a taste, a sweetness, which you never before experienced; not even when the world fmiled upon you, and when you drank deeply of the cup of creaturely comforts.

Yes, were you to be engaged in wrestling with God, and did Jehovah but afford you the smallest drop out of the fountain of divine comforts, which he opens to his people; were he to reach out to you the fceptre of his grace; and though, with a trembling hand, you should touch it, and your fouls be ftrengthened and animated, would you not then alfo tafte, that is, experience a meeting of God with you? and, if you have never tafted more than this, nor ever fhall in this life, fear not: your ftate is good. We are told in the Scriptures, that we are not faved because we are affured of grace, but because we have GRACE wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit.

Thus we have seen what appertains to the act of covenanting with God, as alfo the difficulties which arife in the minds of his people, with refpect to that folemn work.

On all hands, it must be agreed that, in order to be well PREPARED for the holy facrament of the Lord's fupper, it is of the laft importance that we cordially accept of God for our God, by the folemn act of entering into covenant with him; for what can be more fuitable to our characters as members of his church, than to approach unto the table, giving our hearts away to him?-and what is better calculated to awaken the fouls of his children unto renewed zeal, than to engage in tranfactions of this ferious nature? Befides, the subject of covenanting with God, as a subject of meditation, is ufeful to natural

men, ferving as a mean to convince them that, as long as they have no inclination to devote themfelves to the Lord, they cannot acceptably enter within his fanctuary, in order to eat of his bread, and drink of the wine which he hath mingled; for that person who is not interested in the covenant itself, may not take its feals in his polluted hands.

But it is time to draw this lecture to a clofe, by an applicatory addrefs to the different characters which conftitute this affembly,

And, with refpect to you who are here IGNORANT of the covenant, as to its letter,—and whofe lives evidence a total INDIFFERENCE to its interefting contents, fhame and confufion ought to cover your faces. The part you are acting is foolish and abfurd in the extreme. Would you not confider a poor man chargeable with the higheft degree of folly, who, if an eftate were left him by will, were to neglect inveftigating the contents of that teftament, or fhould be unconcerned about obtaining poffeffion of the inheritance? But, sinners, your conduct is infinitely more abfurd: the God of heaven has made a glorious teftament, and offers to prefent you with an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away; but you have never paid the least attention to it; not even fo much as to inquire whether your names are mentioned in it; whether its offers of mercy are made to you, or in what manner its invaluable bleffings may be obtained. Unhappy befotted men, who, with minds perfectly unconcerned, pass through life without having God for your portion, and deftitute of an intereft in the covenant! What! is it poffible that the repeated invitations of God in his word fhall make no impreffions upon you, and be nothing more than feed which falls by the way fide?