Now, there is a twofold word to be believed by all those who would enter into the covenant of grace in a saving manner, namely, the word of the law, and the word of the gospel. The believing of the former is a faith of the law; and of the latter, a faith of the gospel. The faith of the law is the work of the spirit of God, as well as the saving faith of the gospel, though wrought by him in a very different manThe former he works by the law, as a Spirit of conviction and bondage, convincing of sin and misery, Rom. viii. 15. with John xvi. 8. The latter he works by the gospel, as a quickening Spirit, a Spirit of saving illumination and adoption.

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Whosoever then would enter into the covenant of must, in the first place, have a faith of the law; which therefore is necessary to be preached to sinners. And by it a man believes three things.

1. That he is a sinner, a breaker of the law's commands, liable to divine vengeance. The law pronounces him a guilty man, and he believes the report of the law concerning himself in particular; and so, by this faith, his heavy and sorrowful heart echoes back to the voice of the law, Guilty, guilty! Rom. iii. 19. This faith is a divine faith, founded upon the testimony of God in his holy law; and rests not in the testimony of men, whether spoken or written. The Spi, rit of God, as a spirit of bondage, brings home the law to the man's conscience, and persuades him, that that law is the voice of the eternal God, and the voice of that God to him in particular; and so convinces him of sin upon God's own testimony. And thus he believes.

(1.) That his life and conversation is sinful and corrupt, displeasing and hateful in the sight of a holy God, according to the divine testimony, Rom. iii. 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one.' He believes, what is true, that his omissions and commissions are to him innume rable; his righteousness and unrighteousness are both toge ther sinful and displeasing to a holy God; that he is gone out of the way of God, and is walking in the way of destruction and misery.

(2.) That his heart is full of mischief and iniquity, according to the divine testimony, Jer. xvii. 9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.' He sees

ceiving, not giving; taking all from Christ, without money and without price; laying the stress of the soul's acceptance with God wholly on what Christ has done and suffered; and renouncing entirely all doings and sufferings of our own in that point.

(2.) Hereby the sinner enters into the covenant, by uniting with Christ, who was the representative with whom it was made, John x. 9. and so the unity of the covenant and the representation in it, are preserved. If men entered into the covenant another way, as by accepting such and such properly called terms to them proposed, and promising for themselves the performance of them, the representation in the second covenant is marred, and there would in effect be as many covenants of grace, as there are persons embracing it at different times; at least Christ's covenant would be one, and ours another. But the covenant of grace being made with Christ, as the second Adam, in the name of all such as should be his, it is evident, that the only way of one's per sonal entering into such a covenant, must be by becoming his, standing related to the head of the covenant, as our head and it is by faith, and no work or consent of ours differing from faith, that we are united to him, and become members of his body, Eph. iii. 17.

But here ariseth a weighty question, necessary to be touched, for clearing your way into the covenant, viz. What is that believing, by which one unites with Christ, and so enters into the covenant of grace? Believing, in the scripture-use of the word, is trusting a word, person, or thing. And hence the scripture-phrases of believing to, and believing in i. e. having trust to and in; phrases, however unusual with us in conversation, yet ordinary both in the Old and New Testament. It is the trusting a word, as to report, Isa. liii. 1. in God's words, Psal. cvi. 12. It is trusting a person thus the Israelites believed the Lord and his servant Moses; Heb. believed in the Lord, and in Moses his servant.' Job iv. 18. Heb. He believed not in his servants,' i. e. trusted them not. And it is the trusting a thing too, Job xxxix. 12. Wilt thou believe him,' viz. the unicorn? Heb. believe in him,' i. e. trust in him. Deut. xxviii. 66. Heh. Thou shalt not believe in thy life.'-And thence I conclude, that saving faith is, in the general, the trusting of a word, and of a person and thing held forth in that word.

Now, there is a twofold word to be believed by all those who would enter into the covenant of grace in a saving manner, namely, the word of the law, and the word of the gospel. The believing of the former is a faith of the law; and of the latter, a faith of the gospel. The faith of the law is the work of the spirit of God, as well as the saving faith of the gospel, though wrought by him in a very different manner. The former he works by the law, as a Spirit of conviction and bondage, convincing of sin and misery, Rom. viii. 15. with John xvi. 8. The latter he works by the gospel, as a quickening Spirit, a Spirit of saving illumination and adoption.

Whosoever then would enter into the covenant of grace, must, in the first place, have a faith of the law; which therefore is necessary to be preached to sinners. And by it a man believes three things.

1. That he is a sinner, a breaker of the law's commands, liable to divine vengeance. The law pronounces him a guilty man, and he believes the report of the law concerning himself in particular; and so, by this faith, his heavy and sorrowful heart echoes back to the voice of the law, Guilty, guilty! Rom. iii. 19. This faith is a divine faith, founded upon the testimony of God in his holy law; and rests not in the testimony of men, whether spoken or written. The Spi, rit of God, as a spirit of bondage, brings home the law to the man's conscience, and persuades him, that that law is the voice of the eternal God, and the voice of that God to him in particular; and so convinces him of sin upon God's own testimony. And thus he believes.

(1.) That his life and conversation is sinful and corrupt, displeasing and hateful in the sight of a holy God, according to the divine testimony, Rom. iii. 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one.' He believes, what is true, that his omissions and commissions are to him innume rable; his righteousness and unrighteousness are both toge ther sinful and displeasing to a holy God; that he is gone out of the way of God, and is walking in the way of destruction and misery.

(2.) That his heart is full of mischief and iniquity, according to the divine testimony, Jer. xvii. 9. The heart is de ceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.' He sees

those hellish lusts there, which he little noticed before. The law shining into the heart, discovers them; and pressing the man, irritates them; so as he believeth, that he has such a mystery of iniquity in his heart, as he could never before believe to be there, Rom. vii. 9.

3. That his nature is quite corrupted, according to the divine testimony, as one dead in trespasses and sins,' Eph. ii. 1. And so his soul echoes back to the law's testimony, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,' Psal. li. 5. crying, Unclean, unclean. He sees that his disease is not accidental, but natural and hereditary; and so that his nature cannot be mended, but must be renewed. And so he believes, not only that he does no good, but that he can do no good. And in all these respects he sees and believes himself to be an object loathsome in the sight of a holy God, loathsome in respect of his life, heart, and nature too.

2. By the law man believes, that he is a lost and undone sinner, under the curse of the law for his sin, Gal. iii. 10. He no more looks on the curse of the law as some strange thing, belonging only to some monsters of wickedness, and far from him. But the Spirit of God brings home the dreadful sentence of that broken law, and applies it close to him, as if he had said, thou art the man. And he groans out his belief thereof under the felt weight thereof, like a a man under the sentence of death, Rom. vii. 9.

3. By it a man believes, that he is utterly incapable to help himself, and so that he must inevitably perish for ever if he get not help. He believes, that he cannot, by all his doings and sufferings, remove the curse of the law from off him, according to the divine testimony, as being without strength, Rom. v. 6. nor change his own nature, heart, and life, in a right manner, according to that infallible testimony, Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil,' Jer. xiii. 23. He believes himself to be a dead man spiritually; legally dead, and morally dead, as the apostle testifies of himself in that case, Rom. vii. 9.

This is the faith of the law and the effect of it is a legal repentance, whereby the soul is broken and bruised with fear and terror of the wrath of God, grieves and sorrows for sin as a ruining and destructive evil, seriously de

sires therefore to be freed from it, despairs of salvation by itself, and seriously looks out for relief another way, Acts ii. 37. and xvi. 29, 30. Thus the law is a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ; and the faith of the law makes way for the faith of the gospel. Not that this legal faith or legal repentance is the condition of the soul's welcome to Christ and the covenant of grace; our access to Christ and the covenant is proclaimed free, without any conditions or qualifications required in us to warrant us sinners of mankind to believe in Jesus Christ. But they are necessary to move and excite us to make use of our privilege of free access to Christ and the covenant: so that a sinner will never come to Christ nor embrace the covenant without them.

In calling you then to embrace the covenant, ye are called indirectly, and by consequence to this faith of the law, to believe that ye are sinners in life, heart, and nature; lost and undone, under the curse; and utterly unable to help yourselves. Yet this is not saving faith.

Saving faith, which unites to Christ, is the faith of the gospel for the gospel only is the ministration of righteousness, 2 Cor. iii. 9. It is in it that the righteousness of faith is revealed unto faith, to be believed, Rom. i. 17. That is the word which gives the sinner the only notice of a Saviour, of the atoning blood, and the new covenant in that blood. And hence it is that it is the only word by which saving faith is begotten in the hearts of lost sinners, Gal. iii. 2. In this word of the gospel the Lord Jesus, with all his benefits and covenant, is to be believed on and embraced by faith, Rom. x. 8. And the word of the gospel being received by believing, we have Christ and his covenant, with all the benefits of it; faith being indeed the echo of the quickened soul to the word of grace that bringeth salvation, Mark i. 15. Isa. liii. 1. Gal. iii. 2. a trusting of the word of the gospel, the person, viz. the Saviour, and the thing therein held forth to us to be believed on for salvation.

This is that believing by which we are united to Christ, and entered into the covenant of grace. So the question being put, how shall I personally enter into the covenant of grace in a saving manner? I answer in the following particulars.

First, You must believe that there is a fulness of salvation in Christ for poor sinners. This is the constant report