Christ is described under various characters, cloathed with various offices, and standing in various relations to, and connections with mankind. It has been shown that Christ is, in some sense, a covenant-head to all mankind, as well as to his spiritual body of true believers; although there is some difference in his headship with reference to these very different bodies. And the like may be said with respect to his being called a Redeemer, and Savior. He is the Savior of all men, especially (in a special sense) of them that believe. But Christ considered in his character of a Mediator, is much more confined, and, in a great measure, limited to his visible church, and covenantpeople, (as I shall shew hereafter) with whom alone, the treaty of peace which is carried on in the covenant of reconciliation, is ordinarily confined. Although therefore all mankind, good and bad, are under the general administration of the covenant of ' grace yet it is very consistent that apostates, and incorrigible offenders should be cut off, and rejected by God, from the peculiar privileges of the treaty of peace which God is carrying on in the covenant of reconciliation, and the precious advantages of Christ's mediation. It is as consistent for God thus to treat heinous offenders in this life, as it will be, to condemn them in the last day.

2. Objection. If mankind are born probationers under the covenant of grace; then the children of heathen, and of excommunicated persons have as good a right to the seal of the covenant, and the privileges of the church, as the children of believers. The children of Cain for instance, were born in as good an estate and standing, as the children of any other branch of Adam's family.

Answer. God hath manifestly so formed human nature, and so ordered the state of things, that children are necessarily, in some degree, sharers in the state and portion of their natural parents. They come into the world in a weak, helpless state; and the God of nature has committed the care and dispo

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sal of them in their minority, to their parents. if parents who have the care and disposal of their children, go out from the presence of the Lord; they necessarily carry their children with them. And thus is there a foundation in nature, for God to visit the iniquity of the parents upon their children. Indeed; when children are grown to years of understanding, they may return; and the door of the church is open for their reception. But if they cleave to the error of their fathers, they make their father's sin their own. And in this manner the divine conduct is vindicated by the prophet in the xviii. chapter of Ezekiel. But with respect to the return of such sinners into the church, another objection may arise in the minds of some, from the tenor of the moral law.

Objection. All that God hath required in his law, is LOVE; love to God and man: nothing but love, or what is included in it, or is a proper expression of it, can be consistently required of man. Therefore nothing that a sinner does, or can do, whilst his heart is destitute of true love to God, can be called obedience, nor be said to be required of him by God.* There

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Some people have strangely bewildered themselves with those words of our Savior in Matt. xxii. 37-40. shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets " They suppose, these words will authorise their saying, "All that the law requires is love; nothing but what is contained in love, or is a proper expression of it, can be said to be required by the law" And such will be ready to find fault with the description I have given of the moral law in the beginning of this discourse, where I have said it consists in maintaining, exercising and expressing the divine image, in the various ac tions, and on the various occasions of life. This divine image I have there illustrated, as consisting in the exercises of dependence, complacency and subjection, with moral integrity of heart. Dependence and subjection are as distinct exerci ses from complacency or love, as any different exercises of

fore God has not required such to join with the church or come to ordinances, whilst they remain in this natural state.

the heart, and they are as essential parts of the divine image and as much required as love or complacency. Their great mistake about those words of our Savior, is owing to the want of careful attention to their just import. He has not said that All the law and the prophets are contained, comprised, or included in these two commandments. But his words are "On these two commandments HANG all the law and the prophets." The true import of the word hang will be readily discovered, if we attend to the description of moral depravity, given in the preceding discourse. I have there mentioned five particulars wherein it consists. The three first are extrinsic of the will. The fourth may be said to be intrinsic, as it consists in the prepossession of the heart in favor of creature-enjoyments. This carnal mind is voluntary and chosen; and the gaining of the will for God, would very much remove our inability for his service in this respect. The introduction of the covenant of grace has taken off that disfranchisement laid upon fallen man by the broken law; and has taken out of his way all such extrinsic impediments which disabled him for the service of God. And the only remaining impediment is this carnal mind, which is internal in the heart. This is removed by a clear discovery and cordial belief of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Hereby the soul is reconciled to God, and the love of God shed abroad in the heart. And this love will be attended with, or will draw after it all moral virtues, or christian graces, whereby complete conformity to God, or a corresponding agreement of the whole heart with the divine perfections will be introduced. And hence has our Lord, with great propriety, represented every moral virtue inculcated upon us by the law and the prophets, as hanging or depending upon love. Love will draw the whole heart to God, and will lead to the due exercise of every gospel-virtue whereby the divine image complete in all its parts, will be restored. And although many of these exercises are quite distint from love, and cannot properly be said to be included in it; yet they may be said to hang upon it, because love will lead on the soul to all these exercises. Again; our Lord by saying, “On these two hang all the law and the prophets" shows us, that love is the great mark or point to which all that is contained in the law and the prophets is calculated to bring us; which is very consistent with there being many things previously enjoined upon us, in order to bring us to it.

Answer. There was a great difference between Cain's remaining in a natural state, and his going out from the presence of the Lord. He did very wickedly in going out; and it was as great wickedness, to tarry there, and not return. We are required to cease to do evil, as well as to learn to do well.. A covenant-relation to God was the state in which Cain was born: and he did very wickedly when he quitted it, and went out from the presence of the Lord. Consequently, when a man joins to the church, he therein ceaseth to do evil, or returns, and re-assumes his native station, the station in which God set Adam and his seed, when the covenant of grace was introduced. The being of this covenant-relation to God; and consequently, our right of acting agreeable to it in maintaining communion with the visible church, is founded on the divine authority which put fallen man into this state. The truth of this cannot be denied, unless the preceding account of the introduction of the cov enant of grace, as the foundation of God's subsequent dealings with mankind, shall be disproved. And shall we say, our being in a natural state disqualifies us for keeping that native station which the God of nature and grace has put us into? We must either justity Cain in going out from the presence of the Lord or allow a natural man to sustain a covenantrelation to God in the church.

It may be said, he was not to be justified, either in going out of the presence of the Lord; nor yet, in continuing in his impenitent natural state.

Be it so. But was he required to repent and turn to God without a Mediator, and without an attendance upon, and improvement of those means and privileges which God, in the covenant of grace, has freely given through Christ to mankind in their natural state, for the purpose of bringing them to repentance and in the use and improvement of which they are required to exercise and express their return to him? But that covenant relation to God in which the visibic church stands, together with all the

privileges of it, are granted by God to mankind in their natural state, as means to bring them to repentance, and in which they are to exercise and express their return to him; as is evident from all the arguments which prove the federal right of our infant seed all which will more fully appear when I come to point out the privileges of the members of the visible church, under the following third head of this discourse.

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II. I am next to inquire how, or by what it is, that this visible distinction is made; or how it is that we become members of the visible church, and are enti iled to the privileges of its communion.

Although God put Adam and his seed into this Covenant-relation to himself, after the fall; yet since there has been an apostacy from it among men, it has pleased God to put a mark of distinction upon his covenant-people, whereby they are separated to him, from the rest of mankind, by affixing seals to his covenant. Thus in the covenant dispensation to Abraham, when mankind had greatly corrupted themselves after the flood, and were apostatized from God, circumcision was instituted to be the token, or initiating seal of the covenant; and God commanded him to confirm this covenant upon his seed after him at eight days old. Hereby Abraham and his seed became the visible church, or covenant-people of God: but the rest of the world were rejected from this relation for their apostacy. And under the gospel dispensation, instead of circumcision, baptism is appoint ed to be the initiating seal of the covenant. And as it was required under the former dispensation, of the stranger that would join himself to the church of Israel, to circumcise himseli and his seed; so, under the gospel dispensation, all such as are received into the church are admitted by baptism. For since it has pleased God to affix seals to his covenant, it is evidently necessary his people should be confirmed in their covenant relation to him by receiving the appointed seal.