are called the children of Abraham, Gal. 3:7. And, O my soul, if thou art in covenant with God, surely thou dost by faith draw it through Abraham, to whom this promise was made; for "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise," Gal. 3:29. Consider what a mercy is this, That God should enter into a covenant with thee in the loins of Abraham. God makes a promise of Christ, and inclusively a covenant of grace, in his comforting Adam, but he makes a covenant expressly under the name of covenant with Abraham and his seed: O muse, and be amazed! What, that the great and glorious God of heaven and earth should be willing to enter into a covenant; this is to say, That he should be willing to make himself a debtor to us? O my soul think of it seriously; he is in heaven, and thou art on earth; he is the Creator, and thou art his creature; "Ah, what art thou, or what is thy father's house, that thou should be raised up hitherto?" The very covenant is a wonder, as it relates to God and us; what is it but a compact, an agreement, a tying, a binding of God and us? When Jehoshaphat and Ahab were in covenant, see how Jehoshaphat expressed himself, "I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses," 1 Kings 22:4. So it is betwixt God and us; if once he gives us the covenant, then his strength is our strength, his power is our power, his armies are our armies, his attributes are our attributes, we have interest in all; there is an offensive and defensive league (as I may say) betwixt God and us; and if we put him in mind of it in all our straits, he cannot deny us. As it was with the nations allied to Rome, if they fought at any time, the Romans were bound in honor to defend them, and they did it with as much diligence, as they defended their own city of Rome; so it is with the people allied to God, he is bound in honor to defend his people, and he will do it if they implore his aid; how else? Is it possible God should break his covenant? Will he not stir up himself to scatter his and our spiritual enemies? Cer tainly he will. Thus runs the tenor of his covenant, "I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee." This is the general promise, I may call it the mother promise that carries all other promises in its womb; and we find a Jesus in this promise; consider that it is God in Christ that is held forth to us in this phrase, I will be as a God to thee: O sweet! here is the greatest promise that ever was made, Christ, God is more than grace, pardon, holiness, heaven; as the husband is more excellent than the marriage robes, bracelets, rings, so the well and fountain of life is of more excellency than the streams; Christ Jesus the objective happiness, is far above a created and formal beatitude, which issueth from him. O my soul! is not this worthy of thy inmost consideration? But of this more in the next.

3. Consider Jesus in that promise made to Moses and the Israelites, "I am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Much hath been said to the promise before, as matter of thy consideration: but to contract it, consider of his promise the sufficiency and propriety. 1. Here is sufficiency, it is a promise of infinite worth, an hid treasure, a rich possession, an overflowing blessing, which none can rightly value; it is no less than the great and mighty, and infinite God; if we had a promise of a hundred worlds, or of ten heavens, this is more than all; heaven indeed is beautiful, but God is more beautiful, for he is the God of heaven, and hence it is that the saints in heaven are not satisfied without their God; it is a sweet expression of Bernard, “As whatsoever we give unto thee, Lord, unless we give ourselves, cannot satisfy thee; so whatsoever thou givest unto us, Lord, unless thou giv.

est thyself, it cannot satisfy us;" and hence it is, That as God doth make the saints his portion, so God is the portion and inheritance of his saints. Consider the greatness, the goodness, the all-sufficiency of this promise, "I am the Lord thy God!" no question but Moses had many other rich promises from God, but he could not be satisfied without God himself, "If thy presence be not with us, bring us not hence," Exod. 33:15. And no wonder, for without God all things are nothing; but in the want of all other things, God himself is instead of all: It is God's alone prerogative to be an universal good. The things of this world can but help in this or that particular thing: as bread against hunger, drink against thirst, clothes against cold and nakedness, house against wind and weather, riches against poverty, physic against sickness, friends against solitariness: but God is an all-sufficient good, he is all in all, both to the inner and outward man. Are we guilty of sin? There is mercy in God to pardon us. Are we full of infirmities? There is grace in God to heal us. Are we strong of corruptions? There is power in God to subdue them in us. Are we disquieted in conscience? There is that Spirit in God that is the comforter, that can fill us with joy unspeakable and glorious; and for our outward man, all our welfare is laid up in God, he is "the God of our life," Psal. 42:8. He is the strength of our life," Psal. 27:1. He is a quickening Spirit," 1 Cor. 15:45. Which, though it be in regard of the inner man; yet there it is spoken of the outward man, which the Lord shall quicken after death, and doth now keep alive by his mighty power, "for in him we live, and move, and have our being," Acts 17:28.

O my soul, that thou wouldst but ruminate and meditate, and consider this promise in all thy wants and discontents; when means fail, and the stream runs no more, O that thou wouldst then go to the fountain, where the water runs sweeter, and more sure; for as Joseph said to Pharaoh, "It is not in me, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace," Gen. 41:16. So may silver and gold, and such things, say to thee, It is not in us; God shall give enough out of himself; have God, and have all; want God, and there is no content in the enjoyment of all; it was the apostle's case, "as having nothing, and yet possessing all things," 2 Cor. 6:10. Surely he lived to God, and enjoyed God, and he was an all-sufficient good unto him. God may be enjoyed in any condition, in the meanest as well as the greatest, in the poorest as well as the richest: God will go into a wilderness, into a prison with his people, and there he will make up all that they are cut short of; thy discontents therefore arise not from the want of outward means, but from want of inward fellowship with God; if thou dost not find a sufliciency, it is because thou dost not enjoy him who is thy all-suf ficient good. O stir up faith, and consider the covenant, think seriously on this promise, “ I am God all-sufficient, I am the Lord thy God.”

2. Here is the propriety of saints, "the Lord thy God." O what is this that God is thy God? Heaven and earth, angels and men, may stand astonished at it. What? that the great and mighty God, God Almighty, God all-suficient should be called thy God? It is observable what the apostle speaks," God is not ashamed to be called their God," Heb. 11:16. Would not a prince be ashamed to take a beggar, a runagate, a base and adulterous woman to be his wife! but we are worse than so, and God is better than so; sin hath made us worse than the worst of women, and God is better, holier, higher than the best of princes; and yet God is not ashamed to own us, nor ashamed that we own him as our own. I am thy God. It is as if the Lord should say, Use me and all my power, grace, mercy, kindness, as thine own; go through all my attributes, consider my Almighty power, con

LOOKING UNTO JESUS.

sider my wisdom, counsel, understanding; consider my goodness, truth, 131 faithfulness, consider my patience, long-suffering, forbearance; all these are thine; as thus, my power is thine, to work all thy works for thee, and in thee, to make passage for thee in all thy straits, to deliver thee out of six troubles, and out of seven; my wisdom is thine, to counsel thee in any difficult cases, to instruct thee in things that be obscure, to reveal to thee the mysteries of grace, and the wonderful things contained in my law; my justice is thine, to deliver thee when thou art oppressed, to defend thee in thy innocency, and to vindicate thee from the injuries of men. What needs more? O my soul, think of these, and all other God's attri butes; say in thyself, all these are mine; nay, more, think of God in Christ, (for otherwise what hast thou to do with God in the covenant of grace?) and say in thy heart, Jesus Christ is mine, my Saviour, my Redeemer, my Head, my elder Brother; his doings are mine, and his sufferings are mine; his life and his death, his resurrection and ascension, his session and intercession, are all mine: nay, more, if Christ.be mine, why then all good things are mine in Christ; I say in Christ, for they come not immediately, but through the hands of a sweet Redeemer, and though he be a man who redeemed us, yet because he is God as well as man, there is more of God and heaven, and free love in all our good things, than if we received them immediately from God. devils have their being from God by creature-right, but we have all we Ravens have their food, and have from God in Christ by covenant-right; this surely, this very promise is the main and principal promise of the covenant; it is the very substance, soul and life of all: O then how careful should thou be to improve the strength of thy mind, thoughts and affections on this only subject?

4. Consider Jesus in that promise made to David, "He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure," 2 Sam. 23:5. 1. An everlasting covenant, consider this in the internal efficacy, and not in the outward administration, it is Christ that hath built and prepared a kingdom that shall never fade, a spiritual and an heavenly kingdom which shall never cease; and as he hath prepared it, so if thou believest, he hath entered into a covenant with thy soul to bestow it on thee; it is an everlasting covenant, and he will give thee everlasting life. in all things: the covenant of grace is so marshalled and ordered, that it 2. It is ordered stands at best advantage to receive and to repel all thy objections. Many and many an objection hast thou raised; how often have such thoughts been in thee, "O! I am miserable, I shall not live but die, my sins will “damn me, I am lost forever; and again, if God hath made with me a cove"nant why then I have something to do on my part, for this is of the nature "of the covenant to bind on both parts; but, alas, I have failed! I can do nothing, I can as well dissolve a rock, as make my heart of stone an "heart of flesh; I can as well reach heaven, with a finger, as lay hold on "Christ by the hand of faith ?" Have not such arguings as these been many, and many a time in thy heart? O consider how the covenant is ordered and marshalled in respect of the Author of it, of the persons interested in it, of the parts of which it consists, of the end and aim to which it refers, and in some of these, if not in all of these, thou wilt find thy objections answered, removed, routed. 3. It is sure, God is not fast and loose in his covenants; heaven and earth shall pass away, before one jot or tittle of his word shall fail. Consider, O my soul, he both can and will perform his word; his power, his love, his faithfulness, his constancy, all stand engaged. What sweet matter is here for a soul to dwell upon? What needs it to go out to other objects, while it may find enough here?

But especially, what needs it to bestow itself upon vain things? O that so much precious sand of our thoughts should run out after sin, and so little after grace, or after the covenant of grace!

5. Consider Jesus in that new covenant or promise, which God made with Israel and Judah; "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his brother, and every man his neighbor, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more," Jer. 31:33, 34. Oh what an error is it, that there is no inherent righteousness in the saints. That there is no grace in the soul of a believer, but only in Christ? Is not this the ordinary scripture phrase, "I will put my Spirit within you," Ezek. 36:27. And the water that I shall give you, shall be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life," John 4:14. And, "the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you," 1 John 2:27. And Christ in you the hope of glory," Col. 1:27. Observe how "the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels," Ezek. 1:20. So that when the Spirit went, they went, and when the Spirit was lifted up, they were lifted up; even so is the Spirit of Christ in the saints, acting, and guiding, and framing, and disposing them to move and walk according to his laws. "The kingdom of heaven is within yoù," saith Christ, Luke 17:21. And "I delight to do thy will, O my God, saith David, yea, thy law is within my heart," Psal. 40:8. O my soul, if thou art in covenant with God, besides the indwelling of the Spirit, there is a certain spiritual power, or principle of grace, which Christ by his Spirit hath put into thy heart, enabling thee in some measure to move thyself towards God. And this principle is sometimes called a new life, Rom. 6:4. Sometimes, "a living with Christ," Rom. 6:8. Sometimes, "a being alive to God," Rom. 6:11. Sometimes, "a revealing of his Son in man," Gal. 1:16. And sometimes," a putting of the law into our inward parts, and a writing of the law within the heart," Jer. 31:33. O consider of this inward principle, it is an excellent subject worthy of thy consideration!

2. "I will be their God, and they shall be my people;" Consider God essentially, and personally, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; God in himself, and God in his creatures: this very promise turns over heaven, and earth, and sea, and land, and bread, and clothes, and sleep, and the world, and life, and death, into free grace. No wonder if God set this promise in the midst of the covenant, as the heart in the midst of the body, to communicate life to all the rest; this promise hath an influence into all other promises, it is the great promise of the new covenant, it as great as God is, though the heavens and the heaven of heavens be not able to contain him, yet this promise contains him, God shuts up himself (as it were) in it. "I will be their God. 2. They shall be my people, i. e. they shall be to me a peculiar people," Titus 2:14. The word hath this emphasis in it, that God looks upon all other things as acci dents in comparison, and his substance is his people: they are his very portion, "For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance," Deut. 32:9. They are his treasure, his peculiar treasure above all people; "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine," Exod. 19:5. Observe, O my soul, All the earth is mine, q. d. All people is my people, but I have a special interest in my covenanted people, they only are my portion, my peculiar treasure. "Blessed be Egypt

my people, Assyria the work of my hands: and Israel mine inheritance,' Isa. 19:25. I have made all people: Egypt, and Assyria, and all the world is mine, but only Israel is my inheritance: the saints are those that God satisfies himself in: the saints are those that God hath set his heart upon; they are children of the highest God, they are the spouse that are married to the Lamb: they are nearer God in some respects than the very angels themselves, for the angels are not in a mystical union so married to Christ, as God's people are. Oh the happiness of saints; "I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

3. "They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord." Consider of this! Oh poor soul, thou complainest many a time of thy weakness, thou knowest little or nothing: why, see here a glorious promise, if thou art but in covenant with God, then shalt thou be taught of God, and then thou shalt know God far more clearly than the Jews of old, he will open to thee all his treasures of wisdom and knowledge, he will bestow on thee a greater measure of his Spirit, "So that out of thy belly shall flow rivers of living waters," John 7:38. We say, a good tutor may teach more in a day, than another in a week, or a month: now, the promise runs thus, "That all thy children shall he taught of God," Isa. 54:13. Not that private instruction, or public ministry must be excluded: we know these are appointed under the New Testament, and are subordinate to the Spirit's teaching; but that the teachings of God do far surpass the teachings of men, and therefore the knowledge of God under the New Testament shall far surpass that under the Old: herein appears the excellency of Christ's prophetical office, "He is such a Prophet, as enlightens every man within, that comes into the world: he is such a Prophet as baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and with fire, John 1:9.33. He is such a Prophet as makes men's hearts to burn within them, when he speaks unto them," Luke 24:32. He is such a Prophet, as bids his ministers, "Go, teach all nations, and I will be with you: and I will make you able ministers, not of the letter, but of the Spirit," Matt. 28:19,20. He is such a Prophet, as teacheth inwardly, clearly, experimentally, and sweetly: no man in the world can say this, or do this, but Jesus Christ, the great Prophet of the church, whom God hath raised up like unto Moses, or far above Moses. O my soul, consider if thou art thus taught of God!

4. "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more." Consider of this; "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered," Rom. 4:7. Consider, O my soul, suppose thy case and thy condition thus; as thou livest under laws of man, so for the transgression of those laws thou art called to account; the judge weighs, and gives an impartial and just judgment, he dooms thee to the axe, or rack, or wheel; and because of the aggravation of thy crime, he commands thee to be tortured leisurely, that bones, sinews, lights, joints might be pained, for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years: that so much of thy flesh should be cut off every day; that such and such a bone should be broken such and such a day; and that by art the flesh should be restored, and the bone cured again, that for so many years, as is said, thou mightest be kept every day dying, and yet never die; that all this while thou must have no sleep, nor ease, nor food, nor clothing convenient for thee; that whips of iron, lashes and scourges of scorpions, that racks, wheels, caldrons full of melted lead should be the prepared instruments of thy continual, horrible, terrible torments: in this case, suppose a mighty prince, by an