The Trial of a Saving Personal Inbeing
in the Covenant of Grace
If one seriously considers the covenant of grace, as that on which the salvation of our soul depends, he can hardly miss to put the question to himself, What interest have I in that covenant? There is no question but you have a common interest in it, by which you are sufficiently warranted to come into it: but that you may have, and yet perish; for even “children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness,” Matt 8:12. But the question is, Whether ye have a saving interest in it, being actually come into it, or not? The covenant is indeed brought unto you, in the ordinances of the gospel: but are you brought into the covenant, united with the head thereof, Christ Jesus? It hath been administered to you: but have you by faith taken hold of it? You have received the sacrament of baptism, the seal of the covenant, in the right of your parents; but have you personally embraced the covenant in sincerity? The two covenants, or works, and of grace, divide the whole world between them: every man is under one of the two; and no man can be under both at one and the same time, in respect of his state before the Lord, Rom 6:14. Under the first covenant stands a numerous party, in the first Adam, head of that broken covenant, deriving sin, death, and the curse from him: under the second covenant stands a party, in the second Adam, head of that fulfilled covenant, deriving life and salvation from him. These parties will be judged, each according to the covenant they are under: so the former will be condemned, in virtue of the curse of the covenant in which they are; and the latter will be eternally saved, in virtue of the promise of life, in the covenant wherein they are. In the meanwhile there is access for those of the first covenant to leave their party and covenant, and to join the party in the second covenant: but death will block up that access. Wherefore it is the interest of the one as well as of the other, to know which party and covenant they belong to. And for trial hereof, I offer the following marks, signs, or characters of those who are savingly and personally within the covenant of grace.
I. They have fled for refuge
They are such as have fled for refuge from the covenant of works; that have come into the covenant of the second Adam, as refugees from the covenant of the first Adam. For that is the character of the heirs of promise, Heb 6:17,18. Though time was when they lived at ease within the dominion of the covenant of the law; yet God hath set fire to their nest there, that they have found themselves unable to dwell any longer within the boundaries of that covenant. Mount Sinai hath been altogether on a smoke round about them; and the trumpet of the curse of the law hath waxed louder and louder, till it made them to hear it on the side of their righteousness and best works, where they were deafest; and it hath caused them exceedingly to fear and quake, as a curse denounced against them in particular: Rom 7:9, “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” It hath chased them from all the starting holes about that mountain, and left no place within the bounds of that covenant safe to them: not only has it chased them out of their profane courses, but also out of all confidence in their good works and duties of whatsoever kind; to flee for their life into the covenant of free grace, as the slayer into the city of refuge; what things were gain to them, counting these loss for Christ, Phil 3:7.
II. They approve of the covenant
They are such as cordially approve of, and acquiesce in the plan of the covenant, as suited to the honour of God, and to their case in particular: looking upon it as well ordered in all things, 2 Sam 23:5. Whosoever duly considers the corruption brought into man’s nature by the fall, will plainly perceive, that the method of salvation laid down in the covenant of grace, is the very reverse of the inclination of corrupt human nature: so that nothing less than the powerful efficacy of divine grace can bring a soul unto a cordial approbation of it, and acquiescence in it: wherefore our Lord pronounceth them blessed, whosoever shall not be offended in him, Matt 11:6. Natural men may indeed shape the covenant, in their own apprehensions, into such a form, as they may have a very good liking of it. They may apprehend it as a covenant designed to make men easy and happy; while in the meantime it allows them, at least in some instances, to be unholy: as a covenant wherein through Christ’s means, they may obtain acceptance with God by their good works, notwithstanding their ill works. But in all this they are in love with a creature of their own fancy, not with God’s covenant of grace. Let the covenant be set before them in the light of holy scripture, and viewed by them in that light; they will be sure to dislike it, and pick holes in it. Let the design of the covenant be fairly discovered, as being to exalt God’s free grace on the ruins of all excellency left with man; to make Christ all, and man nothing in his own salvation; the proud heart cannot away with that, cannot submit to the righteousness of God, Rom 10:3. The efficacy of it, in working out sin, separating between the soul and its dearest lusts, once fairly appearing; natural men flee from it, as if one cried unto them, There is death in the pot. Let them seriously enter into the thought, how it is suited to the honour of God, and the divine perfections; and how it is suited to their real safety before him: and they can not see how it is so. To the Jewish wisdom it is a stumbling-block, a device inconsistent with the divine perfections: the Grecian learning pronounceth it foolishness, a method of salvation unsafe to be trusted to: only the eye of faith discovers it to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God; safe for guilty creatures, and honourable for a holy God, 1 Cor 1:23,24.
III. They are content with the covenant
Upon the discovery of the covenant to them, as made from eternity between God and the second Adam, and offered to them in the gospel; they will satisfy themselves in their covenanting, with heaven’s draught of it, so far as they understand it; and they will not go about to add unto it, nor to diminish from it; but will stand to the terms of God and Christ’s making, Acts 9:6, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” They will put a blank in the Lord’s hand, for their part; as content if all within the compass of the covenant, without putting in their exceptions, or desiring amendments and alterations to be made in their favour. They are content of the laws of the covenant; as well as the privileges of it; of the discipline of the covenant, as well as the rewards of it; of the condition of the covenant as fulfilled by Christ alone, as well as of the promises of it to be fulfilled to them; and of the promise of sanctification, as well as of the promise of justification and glorification. Hence the covenant, as revealed in the gospel, is by the Holy Ghost called a hearing, Is 53:1, marg. that is, a thing to be heard and received by faith, as a voice is received and heard by the ear, according to that, Is 55:5, “Hear, and your soul shall live.” It is the natural disposition of mankind, to speak rather than to hear: for we are more ready to declare our own will by speaking, than to receive the will of another by hearing. Wherefore the gospel being the declaration of the will of God for our salvation, only to be heard and received by faith, and therefore called the hearing of faith, Gal 3:2, there is need of the power of grace, to subdue the heart to the hearing thereof, and to stop the mouth from making proposals of our own in that matter.
IV. They love God in Christ
The love of God in Christ is habitually predominant in them: Prov 8:17, “I love them that love me.” Great was the love to them appearing in the covenant. The party-contractors about them acted therein from a principle of free, and yet greatest love. From thence sprung the first motion for a covenant of life and salvation unto them: thence it was the Father was content to give his Son for them; the Son was well please to become man, and suffer death for them; the Holy Spirit to take them for his habitation, to quicken, sanctify, and perfect them. The love of God produced the proposal of the great and precious promises in their favour, upon terms consistent with his justice: Christ as second Adam, out of love to them, accepted of these terms. And when the eternal transaction was, in the gospel, by the demonstration of the Spirit, opened and brought home to their souls; this love shone forth to them, so as they believed it. And that believed love of God in Christ kindled in their souls a superlative love to him again: 1 John 4:19, “We love him: because he first loved us.” And therefore, although their love is not always alike vigorous, but hath its waxings and wanings according to the increase and decrease of their faith; yet since their faith never altogether fails, Luke 22:32, it never fails altogether neither, from the moment it is kindled in their hearts. And it is an active principle in them, constraining them to obedience, 2 Cor 5:14, giving the chief room in their heart and affection to God in Christ, that their soul saith, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee,” Psalm 73:25. It makes it to be their greatest care to please him, and to be accepted of him, 2 Cor ;5:9; and their greatest fear, to stir him up or offend him, Cant 3:5. It makes duty agreeable to them, as a matter of choice: 1 John 5:3, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.” And it renders the remains of sin, the body of this death, a heavy burden which they long to be delivered from, Rom 7:24.
V. They take Christ as their covenant head
Jesus Christ the head of the covenant, is their head with their own consent. With heart and good-will they have taken him for their head, for all the purposes of the covenant; and they stand to it, not to alter, if the choice were to make a thousand times. Those to whom the Father from eternity chose Christ for a head, do in the day of their conversion, by faith approve the choice, making it over again personally for themselves; whence they are said to appoint themselves one head, Hos 1:11. And as often as they reiterate their acts of faith, which they must live by, they do upon the matter reiterate their choice. Being sensible of what they suffered by the miscarriage of Adam their first head, Christ is precious to them as a second Adam. They come into the covenant, and abide also in it, under his wings allenarly; expecting no benefit of it, nor by it, but through him. And they have taken him as their head for government, as well as their head for nourishment and support. They have delivered themselves unto him, to be ruled by him, as well as to be saved by him; to be governed by his laws, and not by their own lusts, as well as to be saved by his grace, and not by their own works.
VI. Their confidence is in Christ
The condition of the covenant fulfilled by Jesus Christ, is the alone ground of their confidence before the Lord, as to acceptance with him, or any benefit of the covenant they look to partake of. A crucified Saviour is the foundation laid in Zion, for sinners to build on: and believing in him is the soul’s building upon it, 1 Pet 2:6. If men build on another foundation, they build on the sand, and their confidence shall be rooted out: if, being driven off from all other foundation, they build not on this neither, they must needs perish as the chaff which the wind driveth away. To believe, or build on Christ’s righteousness by him fulfilled, can import no less than one’s trusting on it for his salvation. Whether this trust be strong or weak, it must be: else faith is not, building on Christ is not; but the soul is kept in a state of wavering, in opposition to the staying of it by faith on Christ, James 1:6. Now, he that is within the covenant, takes Christ’s righteousness as his alone ground of confidence before the Lord: for the covenant shews not, nor allows any other: nothing save Jesus Christ, and him crucified, 1 Cor 2:2. He hath some measure of confidence for life and salvation, upon that ground; whereby he is distinguished from the desperate, faithless, and unbelieving: and what confidence he hath for life and salvation, he hath upon that ground alone; whereby he is distinguished from the presumptuous, formalists, and hypocrites. And both these things are joined in the believer’s character, Phil 3:3, “And rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
VII. The covenant is their portion
The promises of the covenant are a satisfying portion to their hearts. They are indeed sensible they have many wants; but then they see as much in the covenant as would supply them all; that they need not go to another door for supply: they are persuaded there is as much water in that well as would quench all their thirst, if they could but get the art of drawing it. Thus the covenant is all their salvation, and all their desire, 2 Sam 23:5. This discovery of the covenant is not owing to nature, but to that grace which shews so much worth in the one pearl, as makes a man content to sell all he hath, to gain it, Matt 13:46. But no man will come into the covenant, until once he get it: for who will join himself to one in a marriage-covenant, or contract of service, with whom he cannot see how to live? Faith discerns in the covenant not only a refuge, but a portion, Psalm 142:5, else the man would never come into it. And none who have once got this discovery, will remain out of the covenant, Psalm 9:10, “They that know thy name, will put their trust in thee.” See John 4:10. If the worth of the treasure hid in the field of the gospel, be perceived, all will go for the obtaining thereof, Matt 13:44,45; all will be counted loss and dung for the excellency of it, Phil 3:8. Certainly the men of the world do not see this in the covenant: it is but an empty hungry thing to their blinded eyes. The covenant is, in the gospel, held out to them in the breadth and length thereof: but it does not take with them: it is far from being all their desire: after all, as if they had nothing that could satisfy, they still cry, “Who will shew us any good?” Psalm 4:6. The truth is, the heart of man can never see enough in the covenant for to rest satisfied with, till grace give it a new set, and contract its endless desires: for that which the unrenewed heart is most set upon, there is no provision in the covenant for, but against it.
VIII. The Spirit of the covenant is in them
The Spirit of the covenant is in them: and that is another spirit than what the men of the world are actuated by, Num 14:24; Ezek 36:27, “I will put my Spirit within you.” The Spirit of Christ if the Spirit of the covenant, purchased by the blood of the covenant, lodged in the fulness thereof in Christ the head of the covenant, and communicated in some measure to all the covenant-people. And that Spirit may be known by these three characters thereof.
1. The Spirit of the covenant is a Spirit of holiness
The great design of the covenant, next to the glory of God, was the sanctification of sinners, Luke 1:74,75. All the lines of the covenant, from the first of them unto the last, meet in that as their centre. There is a display of exact justice, in the condition of the covenant; of rich grace and mercy, in the promises of it: of greatest faithfulness and power, in the administration of it: but holiness goes through the whole, and every the least part of it. Wherefore it is called the holy covenant, Dan 11:30. Who then can reasonably imagine, that the unholy are within this covenant? that the servants of sin, whether profane, or formalists, strangers to the power of godliness, whom no bands of holiness will hold, can be within the bond of the holy covenant? No, sure they are not; they have not the Spirit of the covenant. The Spirit of the covenant make the covenanted initially holy; and to press toward the mark, to wrestle, long, groan, and pant for the perfection of holiness, Phil 3:14. It makes a vein of holiness run through their whole man; their whole life; their thoughts, their words, their actions; their dealings with God, and their dealings with men. The covenant was erected on purpose to destroy the works of the devil: it was a confederacy entered into by the Father and the Son, for rooting sin out of the hearts and lives of the children of Adam; for restoring the divine image in them; and for bringing them again to a perfect conformity to the moral law of the ten commandments, from which they fell in Adam. For this end was the condition of it performed, the promises of it made, and the administration thereof committed to the Holy Jesus: 1 John 3:8, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Wherefore, whosoever partake of the covenant, partake of the Spirit of holiness: Gal 5:18, “If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Verse 16, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
2. The Spirit of the covenant is an ingenuous free Spirit, Psalm 51:12
It is the spirit of sons, not of slaves; of free men, not of bond-men, Rom 8:15. There is some obedience to the holy law given by unbelievers, the men of the first covenant, as well as by believers, the men of the second covenant: and the eyes of the world can perceive no difference between the obedience of some of the former sort, and those of the latter sort; howbeit there is a vast difference, which is seen by the all-seeing eye. Are these within the covenant, praying persons? So are many, who have no saving part not lot in it, Is 58:2. Are they men of temperance and sobriety, justice and honesty, candour and faithfulness, men of blameless lives? So are several others besides them, for all that any man can see, (Phil 3:6). Thus far they agree. But there is a vast difference of the spirit they are actuated by, which makes a mighty odds in the manner and kind of their obedience. Unbelievers are actuated by a spirit of bondage, suitable to their state of bondage under the covenant of works, (Gal 4:24,25). A slavish fear and a servile hope are the weights hung upon them by that covenant, causing them to go: sin is avoided, duty performed, not out of love to God and holiness, but out of love to themselves. Believers are actuated by the Spirit of adoption, suitable to their state of adoption, under the covenant of grace, (verse 26). God is their Father: and they serve him as sons, not as slaves, (Mal 3:17). Christ is their elder brother, who loved them, and gave himself for them: and his love constrains them, (2 Cor 5:14). The Holy Spirit dwells in them, hath quickened them, renewed them, making them partakers of the divine nature, (2 Pet 1:4). So sin is avoided as contrary to their new nature, duty pursued as agreeable to it. Their faith of the love of God in Christ hath begotten in them love to God again, for a new principle of obedience, (1 Tim 1:5). By faith they trust on Christ, and on him alone for life and salvation: and this at once undermines in them the slavish fear of hell, and the servile hope of heaven; so that these are so far from being their only motives to obedience, that they cannot be their predominant motives; nay they cannot be at all in them, but as enemies to their faith and love, (2 Tim 1:7); (1 John 4:18). Yet withal, it is to be remembered, that it is not slavish for saints to fear God’s fatherly anger, and thereby to be stirred up to duty, (Psalm 119:120); (Heb 11:7); nor to hold the way of duty, in hope of the enjoyment of God in that way, and the tokens of his favour, (John 14:21), and in the end perfect happiness in heaven; all through Jesus Christ alone, (1 Cor 15:58). Our need of these things for incitements to duty, do indeed argue our childish state, for there will be no need of these fear and hopes in heaven; but by no means a slavish state. Neither is it at all slavish, to have a heart filled with a reverential fear and dread of God, upon the consideration of his tremendous justice, and wrath in hell, against the miserable objects thereof; and to be stirred up to duty thereby, (Matt 10:28); (Heb 12:28,29). To look thereunto, and move away towards God in the way of duty, with fear and trembling, is very agreeable to the state of those who have by faith received a kingdom that cannot be moved; but are not yet ascended up to heaven: who are indeed drawn up out of the fearful depth; but are not as yet haled up to the top of the rock, though the strong chain of the covenant is so about them, that they shall never fall sown again. For in heaven the awe and reverence of God, on that score will be perfect, (Is 6:1-3). But it is slavish for saints, to fear their being cast into hell for sin; and servile, to hope their obtaining heaven for their good works. And yet that slavish fear and servile hope, may creep in upon the children of the second covenant, and move them to duty: because their faith is weak, much of the old Adam remains in them, and it is not easy for them, though dead to the law in point of privilege, to be dead to it in point of practice. But these impure mixtures of selfishness in their duties will be humbling unto them: and they will loath themselves, for that they act not, in their obedience, with more of the free spirit and son-like disposition. And their will in that case is accepted through Christ.
3. The Spirit of the covenant is a Spirit of sympathy regulated by the covenant
There is a commonness of interest, and thence a mutual sympathy, among confederates. And this sympathy among the confederates of Heaven, regards both the head and the people of the covenant.
(1)They have a native and kindly sympathy with the God and head of the covenant. It is true, his essential glory can never be liable to diminution; nor can his eternal rest in himself be in the least disturbed, by whatsoever men or angels may do or suffer: and the man Christ is now beyond the reach of suffering. Nevertheless, his declarative glory in the world hath its times of shining clear, and of being under a cloud. Now, as he hath a sympathy with them, in all their concerns, their distresses and their enlargements, their joys and their griefs, (Is 63:9); (Luke 15:5); which is a very tender sympathy, insomuch that the touching of them is the touching of the apple of his eye, (Zech 2:8): so they also have a very tender sympathy with him, in the concerns of his glory. They are glad and rejoice in the prosperity of his kingdom, (Acts 11:23,24). They pray for it continually, (Psalm 72:15): and contribute their endeavours, in their stations to advance it, (Phil 1:21), “For to me to live is Christ.” They have a feeling of the indignities done to his Majesty, as done to themselves, (Psalm 69:9), “The reproaches of them that reproached thee, are fallen upon me.” And they are mourners for the sins of others, as well as for their own; on the account of the dishonour they do to God, because they keep not his law, (Psalm 119:136). The children of the covenant will neither be opposers of the kingdom of Christ, nor will they be neuters; but will put their shoulders to the work of their Lord, to help it forward, according to their vocation: and without such a public spirit, in greater or lesser measure, no man shall be able to prove his saving interest in the covenant: for so hath our Lord himself determined the matter, (Matt 12:30), “He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathered not with me, scattereth abroad.”
(2)They have a native and kindly spirit with the people of the covenant: for they are members one of another, (Eph 4:25). The grace of the covenant disposeth men to be loving and beneficial to mankind, but in a peculiar manner to holy men; to “do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith,” (Gal 6:10). The common bond of the covenant engageth them in peculiar love one to another; even as in that bond they are the common object of the world’s hatred. They bear the same image with Christ their common head; and that image will recommend all who bear it, unto one that is within the covenant himself, so far as he can discern it. Wherefore their love is a love to all the saints, (Eph 1:15). And hence ariseth the sympathy which every true Christian hath with the church of Christ throughout the world, and with the several members thereof known to them; their joint interest in the covenant challengeth it; for by the covenant there is a near relation among them; and from their union under the same head, results their communion, (1 Cor 12:12,26). Therefore a spirit of selfishness, whereby men’s concern is all swallowed up in their own things, leaving them no sympathy with the church and people of God, is a shrew sign of a graceless state. How much more, a spirit of reigning enmity against religion, and the professors thereof: where religion, and what concerns it, makes men the special objects of their enmity, spite, and resentment? An habitual course of this is none of the spots of God’s people; but it declares man to be of the world, (John 15:19), “I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” The Spirit of the covenant will carry men quite another way; since, taking hold of the covenant, they have embarked in the same bottom with those whose head Christ is, and who have declared war against the devil’s kingdom. To them they will say, “We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you,” (Zech 8:23).
IX. The laws of the covenant are in their hearts
In the last place, the laws of the covenant are in their hearts, namely, the laws of the ten commandments, the eternal rule of righteousness, (Heb 8:10). That law, in all its parts, is a copy of the divine nature, which in regeneration is transcribed into the heart of every one brought into the covenant: and the whole of it is written there, though every part is not written alike clear, nor any part perfect. As is the image of God restored in us, so is the law written in our hearts: in sanctification there is a new man created; which speaks a perfection of parts, though there is not a perfection of degrees in these parts, (Eph 4:24); (2 Cor 5:17); (1 Cor 13:12). This may be taken up in these four things:
1. They approve of the whole law, so far as it is known to them:
(Psalm 119:128), “I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right.” They love God: and every part of the law is a line of his image: wherefore loving the law as expressing the image of his holiness, they must needs love the whole law; since there is nothing in it but what is a transcript of that holiness. And as the head of the covenant is in their eyes altogether lovely, (Cant 5:16), the laws of the covenant being like him, must be so too. Why do not unbelievers love the holy law, but because they do not love a holy God? (Rom 8:7). But believers loving a holy God in Christ, must love the law also, since in it the image of his holiness is expressed. The holy law condemns many things in them; yea, every thing of theirs, so far as it is morally imperfect: and so they do themselves, consenting unto the law that it is good, (Rom 7:16). It condemns every sin; every one’s most beloved sin, the evil he is most easily led aside into; and for that very cause the unrenewed heart hates the law. But the grace of the covenant makes a man to leave his complaint on himself; to approve the law and condemn his own lust contrary thereto: (Rom 7:12), “The law is holy; and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Verse 14), “But I am carnal.”
2. They have an inclination of heart towards the whole law, so far as they know it:
(Psalm 119:5), “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” There is in them a fixed principle, which lies the same way with the holy law; bending away from what the law forbids, and towards what the law directs unto. True, there is a contrary principle in them too, which fights against it; but so do they against that contrary principle, breathing, longing and lusting for the complete victory over it, and for full conformity to the holy law, (Gal 5:17). This is a new set of heart given in the new birth; exerting itself, not in lazy wishes for conformity to the law, but in a resolute struggle for it, enduring to the end. Hence,
3. They will habitually endeavour to conform in their practice to the whole law, so far as they know:
(Psalm 119:6), “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” If the law is written in one’s heart, he will write it out again in his conversation: and a sanctified heart will certainly make a holy life; (Matt 6:22), “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” Where is the efficacy of the holy covenant, if men may be in the covenant, and yet live like those that are without it? Nay, but to whomsoever the grace of God hath effectually appeared, it will have taught them effectually to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, (Tit 2:11,12). If the grace of the covenant bring you not to duties of piety towards God, you have no saving part in it. If you are brought unto these, but withal left at liberty from the duties of righteousness toward your neighbour, that you do not loath, but dare to be unjust in smaller or greater matters; you are yet “in the gall of bitterness, and in the (bond of iniquity):” (Luke 16:11), “If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” If you are brought forward unto both these, and yet not be sober, but left slaves to your sensual appetites and fleshly affections, you are no better: for “they that are Christ’s, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts,” (Gal 5:24). But whoso have fled to the covenant of grace in Christ for life and salvation, and withal are honestly endeavouring conformity to the whole law in their practice, they, howbeit in many things they miss their mark, do shew themselves to be within the bond of the holy covenant, and ought to take the comfort thereof, as the divine allowance to them: (2 Cor 1:12), “Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.”
4. Lastly, Their souls lie open to what of the laws of the covenant they know not.
They are content to know them, desirous to be taught them, that they may conform unto them. (Psalm 119:26). “Teach me thy statutes.” There are many sins of ours hid unto us; because there is much of the laws of the covenant we do not discern. And hypocrites do not desire to know the whole law: they are willingly ignorant of some things thereof, because they have no inclination to entertain them. But the sincere, being content to part with (every false way), and to take upon them the whole yoke of Christ, hating sin as contrary to God’s nature and will, and loving duty as agreeable thereto, do of course lie open to the further discoveries of sin and duty: they come to the light, (John 3:21). They say, “That which I see not, teach thou me,” (Job 34:32), “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” (Psalm 139:23,24).
“The Trial of a Saving Personal Inbeing in the Covenant of Grace” is from Thomas Boston’s View of the Covenant of Grace, first published in 1734. (Reprint, East Sussex: Focus Chrstian Ministries Trust, 1990), pp 194-205.
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