of thofe as being in covenant in fome fenfe, who are by the gofpel rule utterly cut off and uncovenanted, is fuch a departure from the received acceptation of the phrafe as is not to be admitted. At this rate we might say that the damned in hell are in covenant, and belong to the kingdom of heaven. Nor is it to be doubted but that Korah, and those who lived in open idolatry, were, fo long as they had an intereft in the covenant, entitled to fome of its special privileges.

Upon the whole, merely a conditional grant of covenant bleffings gives no one an intereft in the covenant, as the phrafe is always understood. Such a conditional grant is made to all men; and it is a matter of great concernment to all; and is an expreffion of the mercy of God to the world. In confequence of this, all may be confidered as in a falveable state. And we are to love them, to hope and pray, and ufe means that they may come to the knowledge of the truth, and be faved. And many bleffings are daily bestowed on them; yet we are not to imagine that all are in covenant: Nor does a propofal or offer of this conditional grant, enforced with a divine command, requiring men to confent to and comply with it, give men an interest in the covenant. This indeed brings the bleffings of the kingdom of heaven near to them, and even puts them in actual poffeffion of fome valuable external privileges granted to the church, viz. the word of God, and the outward means of faith. The preceptive part of the covenant then reaches, and takes hold of, and binds them to obedience; yet all the hearers of the gospel, are not in the covenant. This is the peculiar privilege of the church and its members. And though all of these have not a title to all covenant bleffings, yet they have a present and abfolute title granted to them, in and by the covenant to fome of its privileges, even fuch as none but the church can have a regular access to.

SECTION IV.

The Connexion between Covenant Duties and Privileges.

I SHALL now offer some obfervations on the connexion, relation, and dependance which the duties and privileges of the covenant have the one on the other. The right understanding of this feems to be neceffary to our having a juft view of the gofpel conftitution.

Indeed

Indeed the duties and privileges of the covenant cannot be perfectly diftinguished from each other. For though there are many bleffings which are not duties, yet all duties are bleffings. They are bestowed upon and wrought in us, as well as done by us. Moral acts or qualifications are effects which may be referred to the fupreme and subordinate agent; and fo may at the fame time be inftances and expreffions of special divine favour, and alfo of obedience in the fubject to the will of God. It is the doctrine of fcripture that the first and second caufe co-operate in and towards the fame effects. Every good gift is from God, who worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. There is nothing good in us which we have not received from him. By his grace we are what we are. Faith is his gift. And yet it is his commandment that we believe in the name of his Son. Chrift is exalted to give repentance. At the fame time he commands all men every where to repent. All covenant duties, as effects of divine grace according to the promise, are also covenant bleffings.

But with refpect to thefe duties and privileges it is obfervable that there is a connection between them. Covenant duties have fpecial bleffings annexed to them; and special bleffings lay bonds of duty on those who receive them. Thus, that qualification, whatever it be, by which we are favingly united to Chrift, has a chain of privileges connected with it, iffuing in eternal falvation. Thefe privileges are alfo connected with the effential and fundamental virtues and graces required in the gospel. The habit and principle of thefe is connected with the proper acts and expreffions of them in the life. And thefe expreffions and evidences of inward fanctification are connected with a right to peculiar external privileges: Whence arife fpecial obligations, a compliance with which has further bleffings annexed. Duties qualify for, and entitle to privileges; and privileges qualify for and give a right or warrant to perform duties. But the relation, reference or refpect which the duties and bleffings of the covenant have to each other in this their connection requires to be further confidered."

And in the first place the order in which they are connected is to be noted. Some are prior, or before others in the order of nature, or of time. Thus in the order of nature the call of the gofpel, accompanied with the influence of the spirit, is a divine favour going before faving faith. Faith, whether we confider it as a duty, or a gift of God, precedes a faving union to, and interest in Christ, and juftification through his redemption and righteoufnefs, with all thofe benefits which accompany or flow from it. The belief of the heart is prefuppofed in the profeffion of the mouth. And profeffion of faith which is

a duty, goes before a right of admiffion to the fpecial ordinances and privileges of external communion in an inftituted church. If we confound the proper order in which gospel duties and bleffings are connected, we fhall intirely change the form and structure of the covenant.

It is alfo to be obferved concerning the duties and benefits of the covenant which are thus connected in their proper order, that those which are before others are confidered as having some kind of caufality with refpect to those which are consequent to them. In other words, the following parts in the series or chain of covenant duties and bleffings thus linked together, have a neceffary dependance on the foregoing, and could not be without them. Thus there are special privileges which are fufpended on faving faith, viz. a faving intereft in Chrift, juftification, the inhabitation of the fanctifying fpirit, &c. There are also special external privileges annexed to, and depending upon our having and holding forth credible evidences of faith, fuch as a right of accefs and admiffion to the ordinances of inftituted churches. But Chriftians feem not fully agreed what term best expreffes this relation between the antecedent duty or qualification, and the confequent privilege annexed to it; or how the latter depends on the former. Some chufe to represent the qualifications to which the privileges of the covenant are annexed, as means by which these bleffings are obtained. But the meaning, as it is explained, is fo general and indeterminate, that it seems to amount to no more than this, that the mean is fomething without which the end is not obtainable. And indeed Dr. WATTS, fays exprefsly-"Every fore"going bleffing may be reckoned in fome fenfe as a means with regard to that which follows."-Others maintain that the gofpel covenant is a conditional grant or promife: And that a compliance with covenant duties is the condition or term on which the grant of covenant bleffing is fufpended. This indeed is a word which fome think not so fit to express the qualifications to which bleffings are annexed in a covenant of rich and free grace; efpecially as the qualifications themselves are as free gifts as any others. And befides, the word itself seems to admit of as great a latitude in its meaning as the other, in the opinion of the forecited author, who fays" Every bleffing of falvation that in the "neceffary order of nature follows another, may be faid to be fuf

pended on that other as a condition without which it shall not "be bestowed."-However, while we difclaim all pretence to merit in any qualifications wrought in us, or done by us, and acknowledge ourselves entirely beholden to the free grace of God, and the righteoufnefs of Chrift for our whole falvation, with all the means and qualifications whereby we are made meet for the inheritance

inheritance of the faints, I fee not why our afferting the condi tionality of the gospel covenant should be fufpected of detracting from the honour due to the grace of God, and the merit, the power and love of our divine Redeemer. And however vague the meaning of the word condition may feem, in itself, yet the fenfe is fixed and determined by the explanation given of it, namely, That act or qualification of the party with whom the covenant is made, by which, according to the tenor of the covenant, the party has a title to, or is interested in the benefits therein granted or promised. In this fenfe we conceive the new covenant may be termed conditional.

When any one to whom a bleffing is conditionally promised has, or complies with, the condition; then, and not till then, the promife becomes abfolute. The bleffing is no longer fufpended on a future contingency. There is however fomething abfolute in favour of mankind granted and secured to them in the covenant of grace, antecedent to their complying with its condition. For it abfolutely connects the benefits of divine favour with most gracious conditions, and so puts men into a falvable state, and is a ground of hope concerning them. The grace of the covenant fo far extends to all, that favourable terms of falvation are granted to them; which are alfo accompanied with various bleffings, means and encouragements to repentance. But an interest in the covenant so as to have access to the grace and bleffings therein promised, none can obtain till they obtain the conditions or qualifications to which the promises are annexed.

SECTION V.

Of the Condition of the Covenant.

AS the bleffings granted or promised in the covenant are manifold and different, of which fome have no inseparable or conftant connection with others; fo the conditions or qualifications inferring a title thereto are no lefs different, diftinct and separable. It is therefore impoffible to determine and ftate particularly, what is the condition of the covenant, till it be first known, to what *particular bleffing or privilege the condition enquired for has relation. For one bleffing is annexed to one condition, another is fufpended on another. Nor can we find, I think, any one act or qualification whatever which has a promise of all covenant bleffings; nor do I find any act of compliance with the requirements of the covenant fo indifpenfably neceffary, but that a perfon may

without

without it have an interest in the covenant, fo as to have a right according to the gospel rule to fome of its special bleffings. If we should fay, for inftance, that saving faith is the condition; yet it is not to be denied that many who have not faith have an interest in the covenant, and right to fome covenant privileges. And there are alfo fome covenant privileges to which many who have faith have not a regular gospel right.

Before we can give a particular anfwer to the question? What is the condition of the new covenant, we must first understand whether what is enquired for be the condition of entrance or admiffion into covenant. Or the condition of continuance therein. Or the condition on which a right to fome particular covenant bleffing is fufpended. Or finally the condition of all the promises.

As to the condition of entering, being received into, and having an interest in the covenant; it is to be noted that many, even all children of regular church members, are born in and under the covenant, and so have an abfolute unconditional grant of fome Special privileges. Their relation to parents who are entitled to God's gracious promise to them and their children, gives them an intereft in the covenant without any act of theirs, as the condition.

Adult perfons who are not in covenant can no otherwise be regularly admitted into it, than by their compliance with conditions, or obtaining the fpecial qualifications to which some covenant bleffing or privilege is annexed. Whoever is entitled to any cov enant promise or grant whatever has an intereft in the covenant. And the first act or qualification in any one, which has fuch a promise or grant annexed, is the condition of entrance into covenant to fuch a perfon.

Now as the bleffings pertaining to the external and internal administration of the covenant are of a different kind, fo the qualifications required in order to our having a right to each of them refpectively are no lefs different.

The firft act or qualification which has a promise of the faving grace and bleffings of the covenant is, I think, generally held to be a true and living faith, whereby we are united to Chrift in whom all the promnifes are yea and amen. Faith therefore, with a fincere confent, or reftipulation agreeable to the covenant propofal, feems to be moft properly the condition of access to thofe bleffings which belong to its invifible adminiftration. But faith alone gives no right of admiffion to the external privileges granted to the members of a visible inftituted church.

What then is the condition or qualification required in order to a regular admiffion and accefs to these external privileges? This I think is a credible profeffion or evidence of faith, and confent to the covenant, exhibited without known hypocrify. Whoever

makes