with faith in them that heard it. This ordinarily requires an outward means to work it by. But being wrought, it is the great inward means of communication betwixt Chrift and the foul. This is the mean of entering us into the covenant, of repen tance, juftification, reconciliation, fanctification, &c, It is the bucket whereby one draws the water out of the wells of falvation; and the want of it in most that come to them, makes them go away without water

2. Extraordinary means are whatfoever the Lord in his fovereign wifdom is pleased to make ufe of extraordinarily for conveying grace into the hearts: of his elect, as he did a voice from heaven for the converfion of Paul, Acts ix, 4. 5. None can limit fovereignty. He may use what means he will, and bring about his purposes of grace by means un known to us. What means the Lord makes ufe of in the cafe of elect idiots, fuch as are deaf and blind, and fo incapable of reading or hearing the word, and yet may get grace and be faved, who can determine? Or perhaps he does it without means altoge ther. But,

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3. The outward and ordinary means are the Lord's own ordinances, Rom. x. 14. 15. How then i fhall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how fhall, they hear without a preacher? and bow all they preach, except they be fent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!ur They are called outward, becaufe they are fomething: without ourfelves; ordinary, becaufe though ordind narily the Lord makes ufe of them for thefe holysi ends, yet he has not tied himfelf to them, but may work without them, as feems good in his fight, Acts ix. 4. 5. Now these are,

1, In the general, all the ordinances of God without exception, which he has fet up in his church for that end, namely, the word, facraments, prayer,

church communion or fellowship, Acts ii. 42. which being managed by mutual inftruction, admonition, confolation, and watching over one another, are of great ufe to promote the falvation of fouls; churchgovernment, difcipline, and cenfures, Matth. xviii. 17. religious fafting, 1 Cor. vii. 5. finging of pfalms, Eph. v. 19. fwearing by the name of God, when duly called thereto, Deut. vi. 13. and whatfoever are God's inftitutions in his church.

zdly, The moft fpecial means of grace and falvation are the first three, the word, facraments, and prayer, Acts ii. 42.

(1.) The word preached or read. This has been a well of falvation to many, and a means of grace, Acts ii. 41. About three thousand fouls together drank of this well, and lived. It is the feed which the new creature is formed of; and though a defpifed ordinance, yet the great means of God's appointment for bringing finners into a state of grace,

I Cor. i 21. forecited.

(2.) The facraments, baptifm and the Lord's fupper. In both, the people of God have drank to the falvation of their fouls, though they are not converting ordinances, but fealing ones, fuppofing the efficacy of the word to precede; as is evident in the cafe of the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts viii. 39. 1 Cor. X. 16...

(3.) Prayer, public, private, and fecret. This is a very special means of grace, and a moft ordinary way of communion betwixt Chrift and a foul. So that one no fooner grows concerned about his foul, but he uses this means, as did Saul, of whom it is faid, Acts ix. 11. Behold, he prayeth. It is a means by which divine influences have flowed plentifully to many a foul, and none of the Lord's people can live without it.

III. I fhall now fhew what makes any ordinance a mean of grace, a well of falvation, out of which

one may in faith look to draw water for his foul, or get fpiritual good by. The Papifts and church of England think human institution fufficient, else they had never made fo many fignificant ceremonies and actions in religion, for which there is no divine warrant, as croffing in baptifm, kiffing of the book in fwearing, &c. In the ufe of which they think one has ground to expect good to one's foul. But all thefe, being but human ordinances and inventions of men, are not means of grace, but of finning; not wells of falvation, but broken cifterns that can hold no water; nay they are rather puddles that de file the foul, inftead of nourishing it. For,

1. No ordinance whatsoever can avail without a particular bleffing; for the efficacy of ordinances is not natural, or from themfelves. Now men cannot annex a bleffing to their ordinances and inftitutions, to make them effectual for the good of fouls, though both church and ftate join for it. And we have no ground to expect the Spirit's working with tools that are not of his own making. Therefore their inftitution is vain. and their ufe too, Matth. 9. In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

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2. Mens inftitutions or ordinances, in refpect of God, are forbidden and condemned by the Lord's word, namely, in the fecond commandment. The want of a divine warrant is fufficient to condemn any thing of this fort, if it be never fo likely in the of human wisdom, Matth. xv. 9. juft quoted. See Jer. xxxii. 35. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the fun of Hinnom, to caufe their fons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they fhould do this abomina tion to caufe Judah to fin. And they must needs be blafted inftitutions, fince the inftitution is an invading of Chrift's royal prerogative, Matth. xxviii. 20. who has directed his fervants to teach his people to o'ferve all things whatfoever he hath commanded.

3. Mens ufe of them is not only useless, but worse, not only to no good purpofe, but to ill purpofe; for the ufing of them is will-worfhip, which is finning against the Lord, Col. ii. 20.-23. Wherefore if ye be dead with Chrift from the rudiments of the world; why, as though living in the world, are ye fubject to ordinances, (Touch not, taste not, handle not: which all are to perif with the ufing), after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a fhew of wifdom in will-worship and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honour to the fatisfying of the flesh. It provokes God, and brings on wrath on the ufers of them, Hof. v. 11. 12. Ephraim is oppreffed, and broken in judgement: because he willingly walked after the commandment. Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth: and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

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That which makes any ordinance a means of grace of falvation, what one may juftly look for good of to his foul, is divine inftitution only, Matth. xxviii. 20. forecited therefore the firft queftion in all ordinances ought to be, Whofe is this image and fuperfcription? That appointment is to be found in the Lord's word, If. viii. 20. To the law and to the teftimony: if they fpeak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. That is fufficient to make the man of God perfect, 2 Tim. iii. 16. 17. and therefore contains the whole ordinances he is to meddle with for the falvation of himself or others. The inftitution of fome ordifiancés is more clear in the word than others; but whatever ordinance has divine warrant exprefs or by good confequence, is a divine ordinance and means of grace. And to these his own ordinances the Lord has confined us, Deut. iv. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither fhall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

IV. I proceed to confider to whom the Lord's ordinances are made effectual.

VOL. II.

1. Not to all who partake of them, If. liii. 1. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Many come to thefe wells who never tafte of the water. I think it an unwarrantable expreffion, that all God's ordinances do attain their end in the falvation or damaation of all that come under them; for damnation is not the end of any of God's ordinances, but falvation. And the fcriptures adduced to prove it, viz. If. lv. 10. 11. For as the rain cometh down, and the fnow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give feed to the fower, and bread to the eater: fo fhall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it fball accomplish that which I please, and it shall profper in the thing whereto I fent it. 2 Cor. ii. 15. 16. For we are unto God a fweet favour of Christ, in them that are faved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the fa vour of death unto death; and to the other, the favour of life unto life: and who is fufficient for these things? will not prove it: for the former refpects only God's end in fending his word, the other the eyent, but neither of them the end of the ordinance. Damnation is the effect or confequence of the contempt or mifimprovement of ordinances, but by no means the end thereof.

2. But to all the elect they are effectual, unto whom they come, Acts xiii. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. John x. 26. Ye believe not, becaufe ye are not of my fheep. To the elect only they are effectual for their falvation, which is their end.

V. I am to fhew whence the efficacy of ordinances proceeds. It does not proceed from any virtue in themselves, or in him that adminifters them, but from the Spirit of the Lord working in them and by them, 1 Cor. iii. 7. But this I fhall fpeak to more largely in a pofterior difcourfe.