SERMON XXXVIII. 539. And can you be content with such a portionas this is, while the saints are inheritors of all that is holy and happy, both in this world and the next ? O may your busy thoughts he awakened betimes, and make you ever restless and uneasy in your present wretched estate! Return to the Lord in humble mourning for all your past iniquities : Returnto God speedily, from whom you have wickedly departed : Loath yourselves because of your abominations, and abandon every idol : Say to him, my Father, in the spirit offaith andpenitence, and he will put you among the children, and give you a goodly heritage; Jer. iii.I9. Seek acquaintance with Jesus the Son of God, the Saviour, the Lord and Heir of all things ; commit your souls to his hands, resign yourselves entirely to his grace, that he may change your unholy natures by his Spirit, that he may cleanse away your guilt by the blood of his atonement, that he may give yoµ an interest in his own riches ; then the covenant of his love shall sanctify to you all the enjoyments of earth and time, and make you possessors of all the good things in heaven and eternity. Second Use. This doctrine discovers to us the glory of the new covenant. A blessed covenant indeed that has given so rich a treasure to creatures so unworthy ! We are sinners, and deserve nothing, yet when we believe in the Son, of God, the gospel gives us in our measure the inheritance and possession of all things. Adam was made Lord of this lower world; this earth and. the creatures that dwell on it were put into his hands, all things below were given him for his use, his support, and his delight. Thus mankind considered in the first Adam, in his innocent estate, were lords of all. But by one man sin enteredinto the world; Rom. v. 12. and by that sin, Adam has forfeited his sove- reignty and dominion, with all his large possession of the crea- tures, both for himself and for us. When the sentence came forth from the mouth of God, Cursed be the groundfor thysake; Gén. iii. 17. the curse fell on all this lower world, and did, as it were, make a seizure of the creatures out of the hands of Adam the great sinner. They areno more his in that sanctifiedmanner for his real and final benefit, as they were before : They now become instruments of temptation and sin, pain, and sorrowand misery. But the covenant of grace restores all back again to us in and by the second Adam, who is the Lord of the new world, and under this character, is possessor of all things : And a sanc- tified useof all things is given to us again, in and by Christ Jesus. O glorious covenant, that can takeaway the curse fromcreatures, and make them become ablessing to the saints ! But there is a further glory in it still ; for our possession of
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