the Executor, and receive your legacy, by faith? Alas! that any fhould be found, who have no heart to it.

Legacy 3. His Spirit of grace, we so much need. Hear the words of the testament, Prov. i. 23. Turn you at my reproof: hebaid, I will pour out my spirit unto you. Chrift hath the feven Spirits of God, even a fulness of the Spirit in himself, to communicate; and hath made over the fame, by his teftament, to finners of Adam's race: withal, as executor of the teftament, he hath made intimation thereof, declaring himself ready to give the Spirit unto all that come to him accordingly: John vii. 37. Jefus stood and cried, faying, If any man thirft, let him come unto me, and drink, Ver. 38. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath faid, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Verse 39. But this pake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him, fhould receive. O fuitable legacy for Adam's children! Here is life for us, life for our dead fouls: for his Spirit is the Spirit of life, loofing the bands of fin and death, Rom. viii. 2. How fhall dead fouls live? Our Lord himfelf anfwers that question at large, John vi.; fhewing himself to be the life-giving bread, that giveth life unto the world, verfe 33.; that it is by eating this bread fouls fhall live, verfe 57.; that the quickening Spirit is in it, verfe 63.; and that it is to be eaten by faith, ver. 35, 63, 64. Whether then fhould the foul go for life, but to Chrift as executor of his own teftament? ver. 68. For as we derived death from the firft Adam, fo we muft derive life from the fecond Adam, elfe we can. not have it, verfe 53. Here is regenerating, and fanctifying grace for us, whereby our natures may be changed, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. the image of God required in us, through grace received, answering to the grace in the man Chrift, as the wax to the feal, John i. 16.; for all this worketh the Spirit of Christ in those who believe, Eph. i. 13. Here is made o:

ver

ver to us grace whereby we may be enabled to true evangelical repentance, Zech. xii. 10. Ezek. xxxvi. 31. to walk in newness of life, ver. 27. and to mortify the deeds of the body, Rom. viii. 13. Here is bequeathed unto us enlightening grace, whereby we may difcern our duty: for the Spirit is the Spirit of light and direction, John xvi. 13.; exciting and ftrengthening grace, which comes by the fupply of the Spirit. Philip. i. 19. Eph. iii. 16.; comforting grace in all trials and afflictions, for he is the Comforter abiding for ever where once he comes, John xiv. 16.; and establishing grace, whereby the finner once in Chrift, is for ever kept from falling away, either totally or finally, ver. 17. 1 John ii. 27. In a word, Chrift having left us the Spirit of grace in his testament, all grace fuitable to our needs lies open to us. Wherefore none that hear the gospel remain deftitute of grace, but because they will not come to Christ for it.

Legacy 4. A fuitable portion of the good things of this life, as infinite wisdom fees needful: Pfal. xxxvii. 3. Thou shalt dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Chrift ih his teftament, has difponed to finners a kingdom, even the kingdom of God, and adding thofe things thereunto. Matth vi. 33. His teftament is fuited to all our need, even in temporal things: he hath feen to our provifion and protection, according to the promises made thereanent in the covenant. These promises primarily made to himfelf in the eternal covenant, he hath by his testament, as it were, indorfed to us, to be made forthcoming to all who by faith embrace it, and claim them upon it. Wherefore believers may go to Chrift for their daily bread, as well as for fpiritual benefits; pleading the teftament for the one, as for the other. And to receive the bread and the water in virtue of Chrift's teftament, will be more fatisfying to a Christian in the exercise of faith, than all the fulness

of

of worldly men can be, forafmuch as at that rate they have them as the purchase of the precious blood of the Teftator and his Father's bleffing therewith.

Legacy, 5. An unflinged death: John viii. 51. If a man keep my saying, he shall never fee death. Men in their teftaments make provifion for the comfortable life of their legatees; but they can leave them nothing to make death fafe and comfortable to them. But in Chrift's teftament there is a fpecial provifion for his legatees in death, as well as in life: and in the faith thereof, the faints have welcomed the grim meffenger, dying comfortably in the faith of the fealed testament, Heb. xi. 13. Our Lord Jefus being to encounter death armed with its fting, and that in its full ftrength given it by the broken law, was perfectly fure of the victory: fo making his teftament, he left it as a part of his laft will, that finners of Adam's race fhould be free from the sting of death, through faith in him. A precious legacy, which he could well bequeath, because purchafed by his own death; and which he can and will make ef fectual, fince the fulness of power over death and the grave is in his hand, and he is executor of his own teftament. How lamentable is it, that men, knowing they must die, should flight the testament, and the kindness of their best friend, appearing here where none else are capable to help!

Legacy 6. and last. Everlasting life on the other fide of death: John vi. 58. He that eateth of this bread, fhall live for ever. Chrift's teftament looks not only to this, but the other world; in it is provifion made not only for time, but for eternity: he hath difponed in it a kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, as an everlasting inheritance for the legatees, Luke xxii. 29. This comprehends the happiness of the foul in its feparate state; the glorious refurrection of the body at the last day; and the complete happiness of foul and body together, from henceforth,

and

and for evermore. The importance thereof who can exprefs! But whatever is in it, it is in the testament made over to finners of mankind: and whofoever of them come to Chrift for it, fhall, upon the ground of his faithfulness, without all peradventure. obtain it.

These are the comprehenfive legacies of Chrift's testament. To enter more particularly into the detail of them, there would be no end. Ye have the book of the teftament, both old and new, among your hands: read it diligently; and that as Christ's téftament, as indeed it is: and in every page ye will perceive of the unfearchable riches. Withal remember, that it nearly concerns you, and every one of you, ás parties legatees in whofe favour it was made; fince ye are men, fons of men, Prov. viii. 4. The teftament is lawfully intimate to you, both by the preaching of the word, and by putting a copy of it a Bible, in your hands. And ye are called to come to Christ as executor of it, by faith in him, to receive your legacies. Happy will you be, if ye anfwer the call. But if ye do not, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you: for it will aggravate your condemnation, that not only were all these legacies left you in Christ's teftament, but the fame was intimate unto you, and ye were called to come to the Executor to receive them, but ye believe not, ye would not. Thus far of Chrift the Teftator of the covenant.

III. Chrift the Prophet of the Covenant.

The covenant being an eternal transaction, which no creature had access to be witness unto; the being thereof was an absolute secret to the whole creation: and, in that it was a mystery of the manifold wifdom of God, Eph. iii. 10. no creature was fufficient to unfold the nature thereof. Upon the which accounts, the Apostle calls it the wisdom of God in a

my

mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world, I Cor. ii. 7. And hence appears a neceffity of conftituting a prophet of this covenant; and that none but a divine person was fit to be the original prophet thereof; and this fo much the more, that, by reafon of the fpiritul blindness of the parties unto whom it was to be revealed, a mere objective relation could not be fufficient in the cafe For the natural man, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him: neither, can he know them, because they are fpiritually difcerned, verfe 14. Wherefore Jefus Chrift was as adminiftrator of the covenant, conftitute the prophet thereof; being he of whom, by the Apostle's teftimony, Mofes truly faid unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me, Acts iii. 22. And whofoever elfe were at any time prophets there. of, he alone was the original prophet of it, John i. 18, No man hath feen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bofom of the Father, he hath declared him.

And in this character Chrift was conftitute, (1.) The Meffenger, (2.) The Witness, and, (3.) The Interpreter of the covenant.

1. In the capacity of Prophet, he was conftituted the messenger of the covenant, Mal. iii. 1. to bring the good tidings of that treaty of peace into the world: and not only fo, but by the authority of Heaven, to proclaim the treaty to finners, to offer them the benefit therof, and to deal with them to accept, by coming into it perfonally. A covenant furely of unparalleled weight and importance, that had such a messenger thereof.

2. In the fame capacity he was conftitute the witness of the covenant, Ifa. lv. 4. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people. God knew the world to be a guilty world, whofe confcience witneffed