Page:Faith's plea upon God's covenant (5).pdf/16

16 to you: no reſpect to your perſons nor prayers, as it is ſaid, 'To Cain and his offering, God had no reſpect,' Gen. iv. 5. So God hath no reſpect either to your perſons or performances: they are an abomination to him. Your prayers to him are but like the howling of a dog, if you have never taken hold of his covenant, nor ſeen the reſpect that God hath to the covenant. You have no reſpect to God, while you have no reſpect to that which he reſpects ſo highly. And as he hath no reſpect to your perſon or performances, he hath no reſpect to your tears: they never flowed from faith's views of a pierced Chriſt. He hath no reſpect to your ſouls, the 'redemption therefore ceaſeth for ever,' becauſe you have no due reſpect to the Redeemer's blood and righteouſneſs. He hath no reſpect to your communicating: nay, he diſapproves of it, and diſcharges you to ſit down at his table, on peril of eating and drinking your damnation. God hath no regard nor reſpect to your ſalvation, becauſe you have no regard nor reſpect to the Saviour he hath provided and offered. God thinks as little to damn you, as you think little to diſhonour him. God thinks as little of you, as you think little of ſin, and he hath as little reſpect to you, as you have to Chriſt and to the covenant. Wo to you, if you remain in this caſe, for the day is coming, wherein God will, before all the world, ſhew no more reſpect to you, than to ſay to you, 'Depart from me ye curſed, into everlaſting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!' But,

3. Hence we may ſee the happineſs of believers, that have ſuch a reſpect to the covenant, as I was ſpeaking of, a great, dear, full, and perpetual reſpect to it and the Mediator of it, who have taken hold of the covenant through grace, and know what