III. How they are so taken by believers.

IV. How far they are their joy.

I. In God's covenant or testimonies there is, 1. The Author. 2. The Mediator. 3. The applying Agent. 4. The ascertaining revelation. 5. The donative or benefit given. 6. The guiding doctrine and law. 7. And the persons or subjects connoted, to whom all this is suited, to be an heritage for ever, and the rejoicing of their hearts.

1. The author is God, the Lord of us and all, in whose hand and will is our soul and body, our life and death, our health and sickness, our joy and sorrow; whose loving-kindness is life, and better than life; (Psalm lxiii. 3 ;) who, if he will, can make us whole and happy, and who hath told us what he will do by his covenant. He wanteth not love, for he is love itself; essential, infinite self-love, communicating to his creatures such love as his wisdom seeth meet for them to receive. The love that gave us the Mediator and the covenant, will certainly perform it; it was of mercy that he promised, it is now of mercy and justice that he performs it. He wanteth not wisdom to rule the world by truth and goodness, and needeth not deceit and falsehood hereunto, nor to flatter such worms as we into obedience. Nor doth he, that maintaineth heaven and earth, want power to make good all his word; nor is there any adverse power to make it difficult, and hazard the success. Indeed, he that seriously considereth the divine perfection, will think it were more strange and incredible that God should not bless and glorify the faithful according to his word. If it be credible that the sun sends forth its illuminating and enlivening beams so far and wide, to so many millions of various creatures, (though it scorch the unsuitable objects that are too near,) it is credible that God, who is infinite goodness, should bless the capable with heavenly glory. And did we not see that sin maketh many uncapable, it would be harder to reason to believe that all shall not be blessed by such a God, than that all the faithful shall be blessed. And we find, that though both be hard to unbelievers, they are of the two more hardly brought to believe the threatenings, than the promises, of God. What wonder is it that infinite power, wisdom, and love, should make some of his creatures blessed by communication, and man in especial, when he hath made him capable of it?

And what greater satisfaction and security can a fearful, troubled, dying man have, than the infallible word of the most

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glorious God? Surely he that firmly believeth it to be his word, can hardly choose but believe that it is true, and meet for our most quieting trust.

2. The angels and Moses were the mediators of the Jewish law; but the eternal Word incarnate is the Mediator of the new covenant; promised only before, to Abraham, David, &c., yea, to Adam, but sent, when made man, in the fulness of time. (Gal. iv. 4.) And it must needs be a sure and excellent covenant which is made and confirmed by such a Mediator, named in the prophecy, "Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace:" (Isa. ix. 6;) of the increase of his government and peace there is no end. He is the heir of all things, by whom the worlds were made; the brightness of God's glory; the express image of his person; and upholding all things by the word of his power; made better than angels, having by inheritance obtained a more excellent name; whom all the angels of God do worship; and for whom they disdain not to minister to the faithful. It is a sure and comfortable doctrine which must have such a Preacher sent from heaven, and a certain covenant which hath such a wonderful Mediator.

3. But it is not like the powerless word of man, but the holy Spirit of the Father and the Son undertaketh to accompany it, and, as the arm of God, to set it home, and make it effectual to its proper ends: we have not only heard this word, but felt it; as we hear and feel the powerful winds, though we see them not, and perceive not whence they come, or whither they go; all have felt this that are born of the Spirit, (John iii. 8.) God spake not like man when he said, "Let there be light;" (Gen. i. ;) and he teacheth not like man, when his Spirit, by his word, doth quicken, illuminate, and regenerate souls. It is a sure covenant that hath such an inward Mediator, such an agent, and advocate, and witness of Christ, speaking operatively from God to man, and speaking prevailingly in man to God.

4. And the sure manner of revelation doth make it fit to be our trust and joy. As it beareth on itself the image or impress of God's power, wisdom, and goodness; so by powerful miracles, and manifold wisdom, and unmeasurable goodness, it hath been delivered, sealed, defended, and propagated; and by a comunicated spirit, or life, light, and love, in all sound believers, confirmed to this day.

5. And what is it that with such glory and certainty is de

livered to us from heaven? It is a deed of gift, (thus sealed by Christ's blood and Spirit,) of grace, and glory; of Christ to be our Head, and Lord, and Husband, and Life, in and with him; (John v. 10, 12;) of the free pardon of all our sins, how many and great soever, and of reconciliation with God, and of justification by the blood and righteousness of our Redeemer, and of the continued teaching, preserving, sanctifying, strengthening, comforting aid of the Holy Spirit; of adoption and title to the heavenly inheritance, that being sons, and having the Spirit of the Son, by it we shall be sealed up to glory, and be made the habitation and temples of God. In a word, it is a promise of this life, so far as that all things shall work together for our good; (Rom. viii, 28;) and of the life which is to come, where we shall live in glory with Christ for ever. This is the sure and blessed covenant of God.

6. And what is the doctrine and laws of God? are they not also suited to our trust and joy? Is it not a delightful thing to read that which no mere man could tell us? How God made man and all the world, and what laws he gave him. How sin came into the world, and death by sin. How God hath governed the world from the beginning, and how he hath redeemed What Christ is, and what he hath done, and what he will do. And what man is, and what he should be, and what he shall be, and do, and have for ever.

us.

And what is there in God's laws but that which is our safety, and should be our joy? If good laws be the safety and honour of kingdoms, are not God's laws so to all the world? What an ugly dungeon were the world without them; and what a worse than brutish thing were man! Oh! how happy were man, were families, were cities, were kingdoms, if all had made God's laws their rule, and all men's laws and lives had been ruled by them! Then there would have been none but wise, just, and holy rulers, that would have governed for God, and for the common good, and princes would have been indeed the fathers of their countries, and masters of their families, abhorring all contradicting selfish interests, and all injustice, tyranny, and oppression. Then subjects would have, with reverence, readiness, and fidelity, obeyed God, in obeying and honouring their parents, princes, and masters. Then all men would love their neighbours as themselves, and do as they would be done by; love and justice would reign among all, and injury, partiality, and selfishness would be abhorred. And which of us

cannot say, 'Had I been ruled by God's laws, I had escaped all the guilt, the shame, the corrections, the terrors that have befallen me. It is our sin against that sacred rule, which is the cause of all our sorrows, else what peace might we have had in our consciences, in our bodies, in our houses, in our cities, and country, as having peace with God. God's strictest laws are but his strict forbidding us to destroy or hurt ourselves and others, as you forbid fire, and water, and knives, and gunpowder, surfeiting, and poison, to your children, for their preservation.

Oh! how glad would every true Christian be, if God's laws were more fully written on his heart, and he could but be and do all that God therein commandeth. For want of this perfect conformity it is that he crieth out with Paul, "To will is present with me, but to do I find not. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!"

How joyful should we be if we could but trust God, and love him, and obey him, and be free from sins as much as the law of God commandeth us. We testify, therefore, that the law is holy, and just, and good, while we repent that we break it, and wish that we could better keep it. For this would keep our souls from guilt and shame, and terrors, and our bodies from much calamity and pain; all God's ways are pleasantness, and all his paths are peace. Great peace have they that love his law, and nothing shall offend them; let papists hide it, and accuse it, and let the ignorant and malignant scorn it, yet will believers judge it fit for their confidence and delight.

7 And the rather, because that all this is admirably suited to our necessity. We are undone sinners, and had perished for ever, without a Saviour, and a pardoning covenant. We are dark and foolish, and should have erred to damnation, without this sure and heavenly guide. We are beset with temptations; and how should we overcome them without God's promise of better things than this world can give us? We are under manifold pains and sorrows, and must shortly die; and how should we undergo all this in peace if we had not hopes of future happiness, and of that which will compensate all our losses? We have a life of service to God which must be faithfully and cheerfully done, and how should we so do it without good persuasion of this reward? He that cometh to God, must believe that God is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Oh! then, what a joyful word should that be to us which is

sent from God himself thus to guide, to secure, to strengthen and comfort us, by the promise of all that we need, and can well desire, sealed by the blood, miracles, and Spirit of Christ, and bearing the impress of God the author, and that to such miserable sinners as we are.

II. But how are God's testimonies our heritage for ever, when in heaven we shall have no need of Scriptures?

Answ. 1. "For ever" sometimes signifieth to the end of my life, as David saith," I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever," (Psalm xxiii.,) and so oft. And so God's testimonies were taken for his heritage, or chiefest portion, and rejoicing constantly, and to his life's end, as securing him of an everlasting heritage.

2. And the heritage promised by them, and connoted, is everlasting; and the holiness imprinted by them on his soul will be perpetuated and perfected in heaven.

III. What is it for believers to take God's testimonies for their heritage?

Answ. It is supposed that the flattering world, and the pleasures of the flesh, do stand here in competition, and are by many taken for their best, and this because they either think not of, or believe not, the better things of a life to come, and the comforts of a holy prospect and preparation. In this case, every true believer, seriously weighing all, and what can be said on both sides, what the world and flesh will be and do for him, and what God, and grace, and glory will be and do, doth wisely discern and resolve,

1. That the world is vanity, and sin abominable.

2. That God is all-sufficient, infinitely good, and to be trusted, and his word most wise and just and true, and therefore, though his belief have its imperfections and assaults, yet he so far believeth God's promises to be sure, and his precepts to be good and necessary, as that he resolveth here to place his hope and trust for his whole felicity in this life and hereafter, and to give up himself to the study, love, and obedience of God's laws, as the guide and security, and comfort of his soul, renouncing all the flatteries of the flesh and world which stand against it, and are preferred by sensual unbelievers.

In few words, this was David's faith and choice, and this is the faith and choice of all true believers, by which we may