of grace shown only to mankind. God dealt so favourably with the posterity of Adam, that if they would believe Jesus to be the Messiah, the promised King and Saviour, and perform what other conditions were required of them by the covenant of grace; God would justify them, because of this belief. He would account this faith to them for righteousness, and look on it as making up the defects of their obedience; which being thus supplied, by what was taken instead of it, they were looked on as just or righteous; and so inherited eternal life. But this favour shown to mankind, was never offered to the fallen angels. They had no such proposals made to them : and therefore, whatever of this kind was proposed to men, it availed not devils, whatever they performed of it. This covenant of grace was never offered to them.

2. I answer; that though the devils believed, yet they could not be saved by the covenant of grace; because they performed not the other condition required in it, altogether as necessary to be performed as this of believing: and that is repentance. Repentance is as absolute a condition of the covenant of grace as faith; and as necessary to be performed as that. John the Baptist, who was to prepare the way for the Messiah, "Preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," Mark i. 4.

As John began his preaching with "Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matt. iii. 2. So did our Saviour begin his, Matt. iv. 17, "From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Or, as St. Mark has it in that parallel place, Mark i. 14, 15, "Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel." This was not only the beginning of his preaching, but the sum of all that he did preach; viz. That men should repent, and believe the good tidings which he brought them; that "the time was fulfilled" for the coming of the Messiah. And this was what his apostles

preached, when he sent them out, Mark vi. 12, "And they, going out, preached that men should repent." Believing Jesus to be the Messiah, and repenting, were so necessary and fundamental parts of the covenant of grace, that one of them alone is often put for both. For here St. Mark mentions nothing but their preaching repentance: as St. Luke, in the parallel place, chap. ix. 6, mentions nothing but their evangelizing, or preaching the good news of the kingdom of the Messiah: and St. Paul often, in his epistles, puts faith for the whole duty of a Christian. But yet the tenor of the Gospel is what Christ declares, Luke xii. 3, 5, "Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." And in the parable of the rich man in hell, delivered by our Saviour, Luke xvi. repentance alone is the means proposed, of avoiding that place of torment, ver. 30, 31. And what the tenor of the doctrine which should be preached to the world should be, he tells his apostles, after his resurrection, Luke xxiv. 27, viz. That repentance and remission of sins should be preached "in his name," who was the Messiah. And accordingly believing Jesus to be the Messiah, and repenting, was what the apostles preached. So Peter began, Acts ii. 38, "Repent, and be baptized." These two things were required for the remission of sins, viz. entering themselves in the kingdom of God; and owning and professing themselves the subjects of Jesus, whom they believed to be the Messiah, and received for their Lord and King; for that was to be "baptized in his name:" baptism being an initiating ceremony, known to the Jews, whereby those, who leaving heathenism, and professing a submission to the law of Moses, were received into the commonwealth of Israel. And so it was made use of by our Saviour, to be that solemn visible act, whereby those who believed him to be the Messiah, received him as their King, and professed obedience to him, were admitted as subjects into his kingdom: which in the Gospel, is called "the kingdom of God;" and in the Acts and epistles, often by another name, viz. the "Church."

The same St. Peter preaches again to the Jews, Acts

iii. 19, "Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."

What this repentance was which the new covenant required, as one of the conditions to be performed by all those who should receive the benefits of that covenant, is plain in the Scripture, to be not only a sorrow for sins past, but (what is a natural consequence of such sorrow, if it be real) a turning from them into a new and contrary life. And so they are joined together, Acts iii. 19, "Repent and turn about ;" or, as we render it," be converted." And Acts xxvi. 20, "Repent

and turn to God."

And sometimes " turning about" is put alone to signify repentance, Matt. xiii. 15. Luke xxii. 32, which in other words is well expressed by "newness of life.” For it being certain that he, who is really sorry for his sins, and abhors them, will turn from them, and forsake them; either of these acts, which have so natural a connexion one with the other, may be, and is often put for both together. Repentance is an hearty sorrow for our past misdeeds, and a sincere resolution and endeavour, to the utmost of our power, to conform all our actions to the law of God. So that repentance does not consist in one single act of sorrow, (though that being the first and leading act, gives denomination to the whole) but in " doing works meet for repentance;" in a sincere obedience to the law of Christ, the remainder of our lives. This was called for by John the Baptist, the preacher of repentance, Matt. iii. 8, "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance." And by St. Paul here, Acts xxvi. 20, "Repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." There are works to follow belonging to repentance, as well as sorrow for what is past.

These two, faith and repentance, i. e. believing Jesus to be the Messiah, and a good life, are the indispensable conditions of the new covenant, to be performed by all those who would obtain eternal life. The reasonableness, or rather necessity of which, that we may the better comprehend, we must a little look back to what was said in the beginning.

Adam being the Son of God, and so St. Luke calls him, chap. iii. 38, had this part also of the likeness and image of his Father, viz. that he was immortal. But Adam, transgressing the command given him by his heavenly Father, incurred the penalty; forfeited that state of immortality, and became mortal. After this, Adam begot children: but they were "in his own likeness, after his own image;" mortal, like their father.

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God nevertheless, out of his infinite mercy, willing to bestow eternal life on mortal men, sends Jesus Christ into the world; who being conceived in the womb of a virgin (that had not known man) by the immediate power of God, was properly the Son of God; according to what the angel declared unto his mother, Luke i. 30-35, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the SON OF GOD." So that being the Son of God, he was, like the Father, immortal; as he tells us, John v. 26, "As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."

And that immortality is a part of that image, wherein those (who were the immediate sons of God, so as to have no other father) were made like their father, appears probable, not only from the places in Genesis concerning Adam, above taken notice of, but seems to me also to be intimated in some expressions, concerning Jesus the Son of God, in the New Testament, Col. i. 15, he is called "the image of the invisible God." Invisible seems put in, to obviate any gross imagination, that he (as images used to do) represented God in any corporeal or visible resemblance. And there is farther subjoined, to lead us into the meaning of it, "The first-born of every creature ;" which is farther explained, ver. 18, where he is termed "The firstborn from the dead:" thereby making out, and showing himself to be the image of the invisible; that death hath no power over him; but being the Son of God, and not having forfeited that sonship by any transgression;

was the heir of eternal life, as Adam should have been, had he continued in his filial duty. In the same sense the apostle seems to use the word image in other places, viz. Rom. viii. 29, " Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." This image, to which they were conformed, seems to be immortality and eternal life: for it is remarkable, that in both these places St. Paul speaks of the resurrection; and that Christ was " The first-born among many brethren;" he being by birth the Son of God, and the others only by adoption, as we see in this same chapter, ver. 15-17, "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father; the Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together." And hence we see, that our Saviour vouchsafes to call those, who at the day of judgment are, through him, entering into eternal life, his brethren; Matt. xxv. 40, "Inasmuch as we have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren." May we not in this find a reason, why God so frequently in the New Testament, and so seldom, if at all, in the Old, is mentioned under the single title of THE FATHER? And therefore our Saviour says, Matt. xi., "No man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him," God has now a Son again in the world, the first-born of many brethren, who all now, by the Spirit of adoption, can say, Abba, Father. And we, by adoption, being for his sake made his brethren, and the sons of God, come to share in that inheritance, which was his natural right; he being by birth the Son of God: which inheritance is eternal life. And again, ver. 23, “We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body;" whereby is plainly meant, the change of these frail mortal bodies, into the spiritual immortal bodies at the resurrection; "When this mortal shall have put on immortality," 1 Cor. xv. 54, which in that chapter,