of Sanllification. 105 covenant, lofl {heep, even as others. Adam left them as fo many waifs and firays, wandering on the moHn– tains of vanity, · ready to become a prey to the roar- , ing lion, who goes about there, feeking 'whom he may devour. Ifa.liii. 6. ' All we like lheep have gone a– 'ftray: we have turned every' one to his own way.' All of them had lofi the way, and none of them ~ould land it again. They had gone away from God, and · could not return. They had turned to him the back aJJd not the face, and had become fo 'inflexible, they could not turn about to him and to their duty. They ' had lofi their eyes, and could not difcern the way to return: ' To do good they had no knowledge,' Jer. iv. 22. They had loft the power of their limbs, and could no more return, tho' they had known the way, than ' the Ethiopian can 'change his skin, or the leo– pard his fpots,' Chap. xii. 23. And they had withal lofi heart to return : God being to them an unatoned God, his face fet againfi them, they·could not bear ,to approach hii?. So they never would have ret1:1rned~ altho' they had been able ; but each of them would have fai d,' 'There is no hope. No, for I have loved ·firangers, and ~fter them will I go,' Jer.ii. 25. Where• fore, had not the Mediator interpofed, they had \van• der'd endle.fly : had not Jefus Chrifi taken the defpe– rate .cafe in hand, there had nev~r been a returning finner ofAdam's family, a true penitent, a heart kind– ly fofthed in forrow for £n, nor turn'd in hatred againfl: fin as fin, more than there is among the fallen angels. But upon co1:1~dc;>ration of the feconJ Adam's walking with. God, the "'hole way · of ol]edience to · the law,. which they went off from having withal laid on. him the iniquities -ofthem all; there was a promife made of ' giving them repentance, that ' he fuould gather · together in one the children of God, that were fcat– tered abroq.d ,' John xi. 52. In performance ofwhich promife, ~ter his afcenfion into h,eayen, it was found, L Ll that
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