English Puritan & Reformed

The Bowels of Tender Mercy Sealed in the Everlasting Covenant

Obadiah Sedgwick (1600-1658) · 515,826 words · 2293 min

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sufficient to itself, and unto all its works, and unto all the purposes of God; there is enough of his power as to creation, so to conversion, and pardoning, and blessing.

4. This power is an enduring power; it still abides in strength; Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, Isa. 59. 1. His power remains the same forever.

2. The Will of God in reference to the Covenant, to perform what God hath promised. Micah 7. 20. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob. Jer. 33. 14. I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel. 1 Thes. 5. 24. Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it. Phil. 1. 6. He that hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

God was never forced to make it, or to enter into this Bond, but out of his own accord willingly became ours; and this willingness was not extrinsical, depending upon the persuasion of another; but it was intrinsical, arising only from his own entire love unto us.

Quest. But the question may be concerning the kinds of God's Will, as to the performance of this Covenant.

Sol. For answer unto that, take these particulars.

1. The will of God for the performance of his Covenant, it is a peremptory and perfect Will; it is a Will resolved, a Will of purpose, or according to purpose; not an incomplete Will, it may be I will, and it may be I will not; not a wishing, but this is my purpose, my decree, I am resolved on it to bless my people, to bring upon them all the good of my Covenant.

2. This Will is grounded on it sel • ; it is a well-guided Will; it doth not depend on anything in us, for then it might not be sure; but only the good pleasure of his Will which is most sure. Ezek. 36. 22. Not for your sakes O house of Israel, but for mine holy Name-sake. Isa. 48. 11. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake will I do it. Deut. 7. 8. Because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the Oath which he had sworn unto your Fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand.

3. This Will is fixed and unalterable; must not the Covenant then be sure? Psal. 89. 34. My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Verse 35. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David.

And this willingness he hath expressed,

1. In his promise • ; yea, promise upon promise, that he will bring upon them all the good that he hath promised them, Jer. 32. 42. and Jer. 33. 14. and Micah 7. 20, &c.

2. In his Oath to all this; I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David, Psal. 89. 35. He confirmed it by his Oath, saith the Apostle in Heb. 6. 17. and an Oath for confirmation is an end of all strife, ver. 16. Luk. 1. 72. To perform the mercy promised to our f • thers, and to remember his holy Covenant. Ver. 73. The Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham; surely God will not break his word of promise and lie; surely God will not break his Oath and be perjured.

3. This Covenant is gracious; and therefore it is sure, as the Apostle speaks, Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of faith, that it might b • by grace; to the end the promise might b • sure to all the seed; The former Covenant was not sure, because it was of works, and rested upon our own strength and performance; but this Covenant i • sure because it is of grace, and rests not on any sufficiency in us, but only on the goodness and the sufficiency of God's grace; God in this Covenant doth promise to give us all things freely, to work all our works in us and for us; not to deal with us according to our deserts, but according to the riches of his mercy.

4. This Covenant is confirmed by the blood of Jesus Christ, which is called the blood of the everlasting Covenant, Heb. 13. 20. Matth. 26. 28. This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the Remission of sins. Heb. 9. 15. For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death for the Redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of an eternal inheritance. Ver. 17. A Testament is of force after men are dead.

It is called a Covenant, and a Testament.

1. A Covenant in respect of God, and a Testament in respect of Christ.

2. A Covenant in respect of the manner of Agreement; and a Testament in respect of the manner of confirming. Jesus Christ died as a Testator, and by his death confirmed the Testamentary gift before made of life and salvation.

5. I might add more demonstrations of this truth, as the sealings of the Spirit, and the sealings of the Ordinances, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, which are the seals of this Will, and the sealings of the people of God in their continual experience of the truth, and certainty of the Covenant, in the performance of the Covenant. Psal. 105. 8. He hath remembered his Covenant forever. Psal. 119. 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according to thy Word.

2. Quest. Why God makes a suit Covenant with his people?

Sol. The reasons are these.

1. Certainty is a ground of faith; We are commanded to believe, and to be persuaded, and to stand, and rest, &c. and to rejoice in believing, Rom. 15. 13. If the Covenant were uncertain, and unsure, your faith would never be certain and sure. Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw n •• r with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; But how could we draw near in that f • ll assurance of faith; Surely by believing, and being fully persuaded to enjoy what God hath promised, unless there were a certainty in the Covenant, viz. That God will certainly perform what he hath promised unto us? there cannot possibly be a certainty of faith upon uncertain promises.

2. Certainty is a ground of peace; this Covenant is styled a Covenant of peace, because it settles, and quiets, and establisheth our hearts; yea, and the Covenant breeds perfect peace; it stills all the fears, and doubts, and thoughts of heart, and therefore it must needs be a sure Covenant; and being so, we have strong consolation, Heb. 6. 18.

Two things are necessary to the settling of peace in the soul; either 1. An actual fruition. 2. A certain expectation. Were the Covenant uncertain (it may be God will be my God, it may be he will not be my God; it may be he will pardon my sins, it may be he will not pardon my sins; it may be he will save my soul, and it may be he will not save my soul) this uncertainty on God's part, would leave an uncertainty on our part; and either of these uncertainties, would certainly leave us to an uncertain, distracted, unsettled conscience; O I can never be sure that God will be mine, that mercy shall be mine, &c.

3. Certainty is the ground of hope and of patience; God would have his people to hope in him; and to wait for him; to hope in his mercy, and to wait for his promise. Psal. 130. 7. L • t Israel hope in the Lord. Lam. 3. 26. It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. 1 Pet. 1. 13. Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end; and therefore the Covenant is sure, and must be so, for hope is upheld by a sure and steadfast Anchor, Heb. 6. 19. and patience by a sure word of promise; wait for it, for it will surely come, Hab. 2. 3. God saith it twice in Joel 2. 26, 27. My people shall never be ashamed, and my people shall never be ashamed, and Isa. 49. 23. Thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me; and Rom. 5. 5. Hope makes not ashamed. O but we should be ashamed of our hope, and ashamed of our patience, if we should look for a God, and wait for a God, who either could not help us, or else would fail us.

4. The certainty of the Covenant, is the great glory of the Covenant; it is more glory to God to make a sure Covenant, than an unsure Covenant; to be certain in his word, than uncertain; to be a faithful God, than an unfaithful God; and we glorify him more upon the account of the sureness of his Covenant; here is mercy promised, and this mercy is sure; all the mercies in this Covenant are the sure mercies of David; here is Christ promised, and this Christ is a sure foundation, Isa. 38. 16. Here is grace and glory promised, and they are sure; and here are necessary outward blessings promised, and they are sure waters. O how this exalts the goodness of God! all of it is sure, and our poor souls, if they come into Covenant, shall surely enjoy all the good thereof, mercy, and grace, and righteousness, and joy, and peace, and spiritual life.

5. God makes a Covenant that is sure, because he would draw the hearts of his people to himself alone. There are four things which will draw and fix the heart where it can discover them.

1. One is goodness; this is the good which I need.
2. A second is fullness; here is all the good which I need.
3. A third is freeness; all this good is to be had freely.
4. A fourth is certainty; I shall not fail of any part of this good; why these are apt to work on the heart, and to draw it, and to fix it: and all these God puts into the Covenant which he makes with his people: it is good, it is full, it is free, and it is certain; I will do you good, saith God, and I will do you all good, and I will do it freely, and I will do it assuredly; why then to whom should we go? thou hast all the words of eternal life; on whom should we trust but on thyself alone, O Lord, who art so full a goodness, and so sweet a graciousness, and so unquestionable a faithfulness and truth!

6. This Covenant which God makes with his people is sure, because none of the people of God shall ever have cause (just cause) to complain of him, or to blame him; David in a distempered fit mutters out (Psal. 77. 8.) Is his mercy clean gone forever? doth his promise fail for evermore? But he corrects himself for this in verse 10. I said, This is my infirmity, &c. But if indeed God should not make good his Covenant, if that should fail, if it were unsure, then many bills of complaint would come in against him; Lord, thou didst hold out a word of promise, and commandedst me to rest on it, and saydst, Thou wouldst not fail me; and lo I have quit all other confidences, and cast all my hopes upon thy Word (which thou saydst was sure and faithful) and yet thou hast deceived and wronged me; O no, none shall ever be able thus to complain of God, or to charge him, being truth and faithfulness it self.

[Use 1] Is the Covenant which God makes with his people a sure Covenant? then behold hold what a privilege it is to have God to be our God, and for any of us to be the people of his Covenant. Herein they do excel all other people, namely that their Relation is higher, their condition is better, their hopes are greater, their possessions are sweeter, and their supplies are sure.

Wicked men (who are out of Covenant) have nothing sure; their lives are unsure; They shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found; yea, they shall be chased away as a vision of the night, Job 20. 8. Their pleasures and delights are unsure; They take the Timbrel and the Harp, and rejoice at the sound of the Organ, and in a moment they go down to the grave, Job 22. 12, 13. Their wealth and riches are unsure; Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world, and increase in riches; surely thou didst set them in slippery places, how are they brought into desolation as in a moment? Psal. 73. 12, 18, 19. Their honors and greatness are unsure; Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; They call their Lands after th • ir own names: nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish, Psal. 49. 11, 12. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish forever like his own dung: they that have seen him shall say, Where is he? Thus Zophar in Job 20. 6, 7. Their hopes are unsure; The eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape; and their hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost, Job 11. 20. Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spiders webb, Job 8. 14. Th • expectation of the wicked shall perish, Prov. 10. 28. Their possessions are unsure; Thou fool, this night shall they take away thy soul, then whose shall all those things be which thou hast provided? Luke 12. 20. When wicked men are in dangers, they are not sure of preservation; when they are in troubles, they are not sure of deliverance; when they are in straits, they are not sure of help; when they are in terrors of conscience, they are not sure of mercy; when they come to die, they are not sure of salvation; nothing is sure unto the wicked, but wrath and destruction; But now on the contrary, all things are sure in the Covenant for the people of God. The love in the Covenant is a sure love; and the mercies in the Covenant are sure mercies; and the peace, and the joys, and all the blessings of it are sure; yea, the meanest as well as the greatest, even his bread, and his waters are sure, and eternal life is sure, &c.

[Use 2] Is the Covenant which God makes with his people a sure Covenant? why may not this be a great encouragement unto troubled and distressed souls, to come into Covenant with God? not to stand off through fears and disputes (but I shall not be accepted, but I shall not find mercy) but to come in with faith and confidence.

There are five things which may in a special manner, affect and encourage poor broken-hearted sinners to venture in, and to close with God in his Covenant.

1. One is the thoughts of God towards them his thoughts are thoughts of mercy and peace towards you, Jer. 29. 11.

2. A second is the affectionate compassions of God for them. To this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite Spirit, and trembleth at my Word, Isa. 66. 2.

3. The designation of Christ is in reference unto them; The Lord hath anointed me (saith Christ, Isaiah 61. 1.) to preach good tidings to the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted.

4. A fourth is the particular calls and invitations of God directed unto them. Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him come, and take the waters of life freely, Rev. 22. 17.

5. A fifth is the several assurances which he is pleased to give unto them. You shall not be rejected, saith Christ; Him that c • mes to me, I will in no wise reject, saith Christ, John 6. 37. You shall not be despised, saith God himself. Who hath despised the day of small things? Zach. 4. 10. Nay, you shall be graciously accepted; I will love them freely, Hosea 14. 4. And you shall surely find mercy; I will surely have mercy on him, said God of Ephraim, Jer. 31. 20. And though your sins have been many and great, yet they shall certainly be pardoned; If the wicked will turn from all his sins, &c. he shall surely live, and not die; All his transgressions which he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him, Ezek. 18. 21. 22. Why, what sweeter encouragement than this, You shall find mercy? and what stronger encouragement than this, you shall surely find mercy? God will be your God, and he will certainly be so; he will lovingly receive you, and certainly he will do so; and he will pardon all your transgressions, and certainly he will do so. Plenitudo gratiae, & certitudo gratiae; these should work off all fears and troubles in our hearts, &c.

[Use. 3] Is the Covenant which God makes with his people a sure Covenant? then blessed are the people who are in Covenant; for all the good in the Covenant is sure to them, and shall be theirs assuredly; God is surely their God, and he hath said unto them as once to Jacob (Gen. 32. 12.) I will surely do thee good.

Peruse (I beseech you) all the Covenant of God, and consider what riches and treasures, and mercies, and blessings, and hopes, and Reversions, and promises you find there; either you are possessed of them all, or shortly shall be possessed of everyone of them; all is laid out upon you, or is surely laid up for you; what you have is sure, and what you want is sure also; you have sure possessions, and you have sure promises.

Beloved, though nothing out of the Covenant is sure, yet all things in the Covenant is sure; not only sure certitudine veritatis in a way of ttuth, but also sure certitudine haereditatis in a way of performance; not only sure quoad causam & ration pacti as to the cause and the nature of God's Covenant, but sure also quoad effectum & ration facti as to the effect and fruition of them; you shall have all the mercy, and all the grace, and all the glory which God promiseth. You may have a man's promise, and a man's Bond, and yet you may not be sure, for the man may die, or his estate may fail and break; but it is not so here in God's Covenant with you; he never dies, and he never breaks (he is an eternal infiniteness and all-sufficiency) and his Word abides the same forever; yea, one may be an heir to a great estate, yet he may not be sure to enjoy that great estate; either death, or miscarriages, or violence may deprive him of the right; but the people of God are sure heirs of all the promised good in the Covenant, and they shall not fail to enjoy all; they have the promises of all good, and they have promises that God will assuredly perform all his promises, and they have his Oath annexed unto those promises, Heb. 6. 13. when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself. Ver. 14. Saying, Surely, blessing, I w • ll bless thee; as if he should say, Surely, surely as I am God I will bless thee; now what shall we say to these things? how good is our God! how rich is his Covenant! how blessed are the people who have the Lord to be their God in Covenant! The Covenant is good, and the Covenant is full, and the Covena • t is sure; Then if the Covenant be a Covenant of blessings, and blessedness, you who are in Covenant are blessed, and shall be surely blessed.

[Use 4] Is the Covenant which God makes with his people a sure Covenant? then you who are the people interested in this Covenant, hearken unto a few instructions.

1. In the apprehension of your wants, and of the suitable good which God hath promised unto his people, pray, and never cease; seek, and ask, and knock; if you find your names written in the Covenant, and your supplies written in the promises, now pray without ceasing, pray without fainting; you are sure to speed, and therefore be sure to pray: your labor is not in vain in the Lord, said the Apostle, 1 Cor. 15. • 8. So say I, your prayers unto the Lord shall not be in vain; consider that place in Isa. 45. 19. I said not to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain, I the Lord speak in righteousness; as if he should say, I never did put you upon fruitless service; you never lost your labor when you sought me; whensoever you sought me, you did find me; I have been still as good as my word, I the Lord speak righteousness; I do not deceive any, but what I promise to be unto them that seek unto me to do for them, that I will be, and that I will certainly do for them.

There are three reasons why we should make our requests known unto God, why we should pray unto him, and hold, and keep up prayers.

1. One is, because he is only the fountain of all good.

2. A second is, because he hath promised all good.

3. A third is, because he will surely perform all the good which he hath promised. Psal. 57. 2. I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. Verse 3. He shall send from heaven, and save me; God shall send forth his mercy, and his truth. Mark the place, David is resolved to pray unto God to draw nigh, and to call upon him for help; and why will he do so? because God is the most high God, he is able to help me, and because God hath promised me help, and he will perform all that he hath promised me; yea, he will certainly do so, for he will send forth his mercy and his truth; that is, I shall certainly enjoy the mercy which he hath graciously promised, and will truly perform. A beggar will many times ask where he is not sure to receive an alms, he will hazard many a request; but it is not so with you who are the people of God; you never hazard one prayer which you make, if it be grounded upon the promise made to you; and the reason is because the Covenant is sure, and God is faithful who hath promised; what the Apostle spake about well-doing, in Gal. 6. 9. Let us not be weary of well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not; that I say of praying, be not weary of praying, (say not it is in vain) but continue praying for the mercy, for the grace, for the help, for the comfort which your souls do need; for in due season you shall reap if you faint not; when you sow the seed in the earth, you shall find it to come up and bring forth in the season of it, not as soon as you sow it, yet in the due season you shall hear of it again; so sow your prayers in heaven, (prayers are the seed which the soul doth sow) and you shall reap in due season, though you be not presently answered, yet when the season of answering comes, you shall certainly be answered.

2. Look out for more than as yet you have received and do enjoy: Beloved! this you shall experimentally find, that the more you do study your own hearts, the more wants and weakness you shall find in them; and the more that you study the Covenant of grace, the more riches of grace, and mercy, and glory you shall find in it. As the Queen of Sheba, though she heard much of the wisdom of Solomon, yet she found more than as much more when she came and conferred with him; so besides all the good which you have heard in the Covenant, or have received from the Covenant, if you would search further into it, you should yet find those unsearchable riches of Christ, and such depths and heighths of love and mercy, that you never espied before; there is much more grace, and much more love, and much more mercy, and much more peace than ever your souls as yet tasted of; you shall find greater things promised, than ever you as yet have partaken of.

Object. You will confess so there are.

Sol. And sit you still, and stand you complaining, and will not you make out for them? do not you know,

1. That the whole Covenant is your portion, that God hath promised to give all unto you, to give grace and glory, and to with-hold no good thing from you?

2. That all is sure in the Covenant, that there is no difference of any good which God hath promised as to the graciousness, and as to the certainty of giving; why, all the good of the Covenant is freely given unto you, and shall certainly be given unto you; and therefore you who are the people of God, be not satisfied with the little which you have, but enlarge your hearts, and enlarge your desires, and enlarge your confidences, for there is much more in the Covenant, than as yet you have got out of the Covenant; and there it is laid up for you, and it will be as surely performed as any blessing which hitherto you have enjoyed.

Beloved! the Covenant is not sure in one pa ••• and unsure in another part; this mercy promised is sure, but that mercy promised is unsure; the lesser is sure, but the greater is unsure; but all of it, and all in it are sure; pardon of lesser sins is sure, and pardon of greater sins is sure, yea, pardon of all your sins is sure! and as a pardoning mercy is sure, so healing mercy is sure, and helping mercy is sure; God will as certainly heal and renew your hearts, as he will pardon your sinful doings; and God will as certainly subdue your strong corruptions, and 〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉 powerful temptations, as he will do you any other good, and he will as surely give you peace in conscience, and Christ, and eternal life, and the joys of the holy Ghost, as well and as certainly as he hath given any truth of grace to you. You think this may be had, and that may be had, but you seldom come up with faith to believe that all shall be had; O Sirs, we frequently forget that the Covenant of God is a sure Covenant, and sure in all things; but let us strive to raise our faith unto that heighth, and to that latitude, that all the Covenant is sure; there is not one word of it which it shall fail, God will surely perform all his good promises of the Covenant; what you possess, you think is sure, yea, and all that God promiseth is sure; and therefore stir up your hearts, and look up to God with as much confidence for all which yet you want, be it never so much, and never so great, for God will surely make good all his Covenant to you; you have found the Covenant sure in many things; O but the Covenant is sure in all things; all the promises of God are Yea and Amen, &c.

3. Be not discouraged, nor despond, nor despair, for the Covenant is sure; there are four times when our hearts are very apt to fail us.

1. One is long delays of earnest prayers; See Psal. 22. 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? Verse 2. O my God I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night-season, and am not silent.

2. Another is, seeming dislike and discouragement of seeking; Lam. 3. 7. He hath made my chain heavy. Ver. 8. Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayers. Matth. 15. 23. He answered her not a word. Verse 24. I am not sent but to the lost sheep of Israel. Ver. 26. It is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast it to dogs.

3. A third is, a sensible contradicting or denial of our requests; as Heztkiah spake, for peace I have great bitterness: So when we pray for peace in conscience, then we feel more distress and trouble in conscience; and when we pray against temptations, then we find more powerful and violent temptations; and when we pray for deliverance from sin, we then feel more strong assaults and turbulent motions of sin.

4. A fourth is, when God's dealings of providence seem quite opposite to his undertakings in his promise. Judges 6. 12. The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valor, said the Angel to Gideon. Ver. 13. And Gideon said unto him, If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where are all his miracles which our forefathers told us of? Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hand of the Midianices, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all, Exod. 5. 23. And so David, to whom God promised a Kingdom, but instead thereof, he was banished the Kingdom, and his life was sought for, and pursued by Saul; whereupon he concludes instantly that all men are liars, Psal. 116. 11. In all these cases (and many more) we are very apt to be discouraged, and to question (at least) the sureness of God's Covenant, and to cry out with David, Psal. 77. 7. Will the Lord cast off forever? and will he be favorable no more? Ver. 8. Is his mercy clean gone forever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Ver. 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Nevertheless, notwithstanding all these contigencies, and seeming contrarieties, and manifold delays, and strange dealings of God with his people, his Covenant with them is sure, and it shall certainly be performed; as no work of man, so no work of God doth or shall frustrate the Covenant of God with his people.

Therefore for the better support of your hearts under all these dealings of God with you, carefully remember a few positions.

1. They are trials of our faith, but no testimonies of God's unfaithfulness; He that sits in darkness, and sees no light, let him trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay himself upon the God of Jacob, Isa. 50. 10. We think that we dare to rely on the word of promise, as a truth of God, as a sure word which will not fail us. Now God by these contrary dealings, tries the faith of his servants; there is still my promise to hear, and to do you good, and here to your sense and feeling is something directly contrary unto it; Can you in this condition glorify my good and faithful Word? Though all these clouds arise, yet the Sun will break forth; though all this befalls me, I shall yet see him to be the help of my countenance, and my God; his Word is a tried Word, I will not fail; God who cannot lie hath promised: Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him, Job 13. 15. why, Beloved! this is one principal end of God's dealing with us, in ways contrary to his promises, namely, to try and to demonstrate what our faith is in his promises.

2. They are reasons of our patience, but no characters of God's change; be ye followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises, saith the Apostle in Heb. 6. 12. God is pleased to hide himself from our prayers, and seems to neglect them, in this he tries our faith; and God is pleased many times to delay his answers, in this he exercises our patience; he will be acknowledged not only as a good God, but also as a wise God, and his delays are not his denials, but only his trials, and therefore hear himself speaking in this case, Hab. 2. 3. The Vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry, Micah 7. 7. I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me.

3. They are discoveries of many men's hypocrisy, but no evidences of God's mutability; You shall have a company of men boast of their strong faith in God, and of their great love to God, and how they trust in him with all their hearts; this they speak in the days of their prosperity; but let the Lord put forth his hand upon them, let him but blast their Jonah 's Guord, let him cut off those arms of flesh upon which indeed they do depend, let him but break down their creature-supports, and comforts, and hopes, and hold out never so many suitable and faithful promises; why, they have no hopes; a word of promise is of no life or support at all unto them: This evil is of the Lord, why should I wait for the Lord any longer? said that wicked Prince in 2 Kings 6. 33. Behold his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him, Hab. 2. 4.

4. They are many times the displayings of the best men's infirmities, but no tokens of any uncertainty in God's Covenant: The best men though they may attain to the knowledge of the truth of that grace in their hearts, yet they may be much deceived as to the measure and strength of that grace; and as many other things can declare this unto them, so do these delays and respites, and contrary dealings of God, much, very much show it: Alas, what expressions (in such cases.) have fallen from the lips of precious men? what complaints? what impatience? what charges of God himself? what disputes? what exceeding weaknesses? Psal. 116. 11. I said in mine haste All men are liars; thus David in that condition. Jer. 15. 18. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? what a sad expression is this? Jonah 4. 3. Take away I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. Verse 9. I do well to be angry, even unto death. Job 3. 3. Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night wherein it was said there is a man-child conc • ived, &c.

You see what strange weaknesses God doth discover in the hearts of his own people by delays, by his dealings with them in ways sensibly contrary to his promises, by which they come more fully to know themselves, and to be humbled before him, and to seek unto him for more assistance; and notwithstanding all this, yet the Covenant of God is sure to his people, he will yet perform all the good which he promiseth unto them, though under all this they may discern their own weaknesses and unworthiness.

5. They do serve for the greater demonstration of his truth, and are no diminutions of it at all; that notwithstanding all visibly contrary workings, and notwithstanding all the fears and doubtings, and contrary opinions of his own servants, yet God will be true, though every man be a liar; his word shall stand, and his Covenant be found true and sure, Psal. 31. 22. I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eyes; nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.

4. Then be upright, do not use any indirect ways or sinful shufflings; what need of these? the Covenant contains as much good as you need, and it is sure for the performance of all, Psal. 37. 3. Trust in the Lord, and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the Land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Ver. 4. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desire of thine heart. Ver. 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.

SECT. VIII.

8. THe eighth property of this Covenant is this, It is the last Covenant, it may be called the last Covenant in a twofold respect.

1. Because it succeds a former Covenant, and removes it; See Heb. 8. 13. In that he saith a new Covenant, he hath made the first old; now that which decayeth, and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away.

2. Because no Covenant shall ever succeed this; If any Covenant should succeed this, it must be a Covenant either of works, or of grace; not a Covenant of works, for that would bring us all under a curse, and make our condition utterly desperate; nor a Covenant of grace, because more grace cannot be shewn in any other Covenant than in this; here is all grace, and all mercy, and Jesus Christ with all his righteousness, Mediatorship, merit, purchase; this Covenant is so perfect, and is so every way accommodated to the condition of sinners, that nothing can be altered, nor can be added, nor mended, therefore it is the last Covenant.

O therefore take heed what you do; stand not off, refuse not to come into this Covenant, sin not against this Covenant, for that he offers it no more, it is the last Covenant; no hope, no mercy, no love, no Christ, no acceptance, no life but in this.

SECT. IX.

9. THe ninth property of this Covenant is, It is an everlasting Covenant; so the Text, I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, Isa. 55. 3. Incline your ear and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live, And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Gen. 17. 7. I will stablish my Covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, for an everlasting Covenant, to be God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 2 Sam. 23. 5. He hath m • de with me an • verlasting Covenant, &c. Psal. 105. 9. Which Cov • nant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac. Ver. 10. And confirm • d the same unto Jacob for a Law, and to Israel for an everlasting Cov • nant. Isa. 61. 8. I w • ll dir • ct their work in truth, and I w • ll make an everlasting Covenant with • hem. Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I w • ll not t • rn away from them to do them good. Heb. 13. 20. Through the blood of the everlasting Covenant. Hosea 2. 19. I will betroth thee unto me forever. Psal. 48. 14. This God is our God forever and ever, he will be our guide ev • n unto death.

All the things of the Covenant are styled everlasting, viz.

1. God is an everlasting God, Rom. 16. 26.
2. Jesus Christ is the everlasting Father, Isa. 9. 6. And a Priest forever, Heb. 6. 20.
3. The Holy Ghost is the eternal Spirit, Heb. 9. 14. and he abides with us forever, John 14. 16.
4. The mercy of God is everlasting, Psal. 100. 5. his mercy is everlasting; and Psal. 103. 17. it is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him; and Psal. 136. from verse 1. to 26. six and twenty times it is there said, his mercy endures forever.
5. The goodness of God is everlasting, it endureth continually, Psal. 52. 1.
6. The love of God is an everlasting love; Jer. 31. 33. I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
7. The kindness of God is everlasting, Isaiah 54. 8. with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
8. The righteousness of the Covenant is an everlasting righteousness, Dan. 9. 24.
9. The forgiveness in the Covenant is everlasting, Jerem. 31. 34. I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. Micah 7. 9. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the Sea.
10. The grace or holiness of the Covenant is everlasting; it is called abiding seed, 1 John 3. 9. and the immortal seed, 1 Pet. 1. bei • g born ag • in, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible; it is living water, John 4. 10. springing up to everlasting life, ver. 14.
11. The joy of it is everlasting, Isa. 51. 11. and none shall take it from us, John 16. 22.
12. So is the Consolation of the Covenant, 2 Thess. 2. 16. Who hath given us everlasting Consolation and good hope throu • h grace.
13. The life of the Covenant is everlasting J • hn 3. 16. he that believes shall not perish, but have everlasting life; 1 John 2. 25. This is the promise which he hath promised us, even eternal life.

For the opening of this excellent and comfortable adjunct of the Covenant, remember,

1. That the word everlasting hath two acceptions; it doth denote;

1. Sometimes a long duration; in which respect the old Covenant clothed with figures and ceremonies, is called everlasting, because it was to endure, and did endure a long time.

2. Sometimes a perpetual duration, and a duration which shall last forever; in this respect the new Covenant is everlasting; it shall never cease, never be broken, never be altered.

2. And it is an everlasting Covenant in a twofold respect.

1. Ex parte faederantis, in respect of God, who will never break Covenant with his people, but is their God, and will be their God forever and ever.

2. Ex parte confaederatorum, in respect of the people of God, who are brought into Covenant, and shall continue in Covenant forever and ever; you have both these expressed in Jer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting Covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. Mark the place, it shows that the Covenant is everlasting on God's part, and also on our part; on God's part, I will never turn away from them to do them good; and on our part, They shall never depart from me; how so? I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me, (even that fear spoken of in ver. 39. that they may fear me forever)

There are three things which I would deliver concerning the everlastingness of the Covenant.

1. Some clear demonstrations of it from the Scripture.
2. The reasons why the Covenant of grace is and must be everlasting.
3. Some useful applications of this unto ourselves.

1. The demonstrations of the everlastingness of the Covenant, in respect of the people in Covenant; I shall present unto you four arguments to demonstrate that it is so.

1. The first argument I will take from the consideration of God himself in relation unto his people, as (1. his election of them) 2. His love to them. 3. His power for them. 4. (His presence with them) 5. His promises to them.

1. The election of God, all the people in the Covenant are the elect of God; thine they were, and thou gavest them me, saith Christ, John 17. 6. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed, Acts 13. 48.

Now there are three things in election.

1. It is a gracious decree not depending on any forinsecal causes.
2. It is an unalterable decree, not raised on any mutable causes.
3. It is an effectual decree, letting forth and communicating all the things which will infallibly bring unto salvation; Rom. 8. 30. Whom he did predestinate; which if it be so, then certainly the Covenant is everlasting, forasmuch as everlasting life, and all that conduceth thereunto is unalterably decreed in God's election, and from that effectually communicated unto all in Covenant.

2. The love of God; that God doth love his people, is most clear in the Scriptures; but after what manner doth he love them? we read five things of God's love to his.

1. That God doth love his people after the same manner that he loves Jesus Christ himself, and with the same love. John 17. 23. That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Ver. 26. I have declared unto them thy Name, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them.

2. That God doth love his people with an insuperable, and with and inseparable love. Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or perils, or sword? Ver. 37. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Ver. 38. I am persuaded that neither death nor life, n • r Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come: Ver. 39. Nor heighth, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3. That God doth love his people with a most gracious love, with a love kindled only from love. Deut. 7. 7, 8. The Lord did set his love upon you, because the Lord loved you. Hosea 14. 4. I will love them freely, that is, upon the sole account and reason of my own love unto them; yea, his love was the only impulsive cause why he entered into Covenant with them, and by oath engaged himself unto them; Ezek. 16. 8. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time of love, and I sware unto thee, and entered into Covenant with thee saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.

4. That the Lord doth love his people with a most tender love; therefore he is said to betroth them unto himself in loving kindness, and in mercies, Hosea 2. 19. Loving kindness is a most affectionate love, and mercies are tender bowels of love; his love is more tender than the tenderest love of the mother to her sucking child, Isa. 49. 15. yea, his love is such to his people, that he delights in them, Isa. 62. 4. and rejoiceth over them, ver. 5. and doth rest in his love, Zeph. 3. 17.

5. That the Lord doth love his people with a love from everlasting, and to everlasting. Jer. 31. 3. Yea, I have loved them with an everlasting love. Hosea 2. 19. I will marry thee unto myself forever in loving kindness.

Certainly the Covenant 'twixt God and his people must hold and continue forever, it must last forever, where there is such a love of God to his people, viz. such a love to them as to Christ himself; such a love from which nothing shall be able to separate; such a love as depends only upon his own love, and which is so tender, and so affectionate, and is everlasting. If a Covenant made only by love, and if a people brought into that Covenant only by love, and loved at such a rate and height, even to the giving of the Son of God to save them; I say, if yet such a Covenant may be broken, and if such a people may be cast off, then is the truest and faithfullest love, and bond never to be trusted more, neither can be sure, if this love be not sure.

3. The power of God in relation to his people in Covenant, which is a securing and preserving power.

1. A securing power; it secures their union with, and relation unto Christ, and that forever; peruse that excellent place in John 10. 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Ver. 28. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Ver. 29. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand: Here is a description of such as are believers, and are in Covenant, (they are called the Sheep of Christ) and such as he knows and owns to be so, and they hear his voice and follow him; here is also a description of their sure and safe condition, they shall never perish, they shall never be parted from Christ, ver. 28. and here is a description of the cause or reason thereof, viz. the greatness of the power of God, (He is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my hands) as if he had said, If these should miss of heaven, and if these should perish, it must be for want of power in me, that I am not able to keep them; some other power there must be which is stronger than the power of God, by whose hand they are held and kept; but my Father is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of his hands, therefore they shall never perish, but they shall have eternal life; and if so, then the Covenant 'twixt God and his people is an everlasting Covenant.

2. A preserving power, that God preserves his people, the Scripture doth abundantly testify unto us, and if I can make it evident that he by his power preserves them unto everlasting glory, I think then that the everlastingness of the Covenant will appear unto you; and for that see 1 Pet. 1. 5. who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation: Mark, he speaks of the people, (whom ver. 2. he calls the elect of God the Father, and sanctified by the Spirit; and ver. 3. begotten again) and of those he saith that they are kept; by what power? by the power of God; by what means? through faith; unto what? unto salvation, until they come to receive that incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that fades not away, which is reserved in heaven for them, ver. 3. 2 Tim. 4. 18. The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly Kingdom. 2 Thess. 5. 23. I pray God your whole spirit and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ver. 24. Faithful is he that call • th you, who also will do it: why, what can more clearly demonstrate the everlastingness of the Covenant with the people of God than this? that they are kept by the power of God unto salvation; that they are preserved unto his heavenly Kingdom; that God will preserve their whole spirit, and their whole soul, and their whole body blameless unto the coming of Christ.

4. The presence of God with his people; he is so present with his people, that he is said to be nigh unto them, and to be with them; and to go along with them, and to hold them in his hand, and to hold their hand, and to bear them up, nay, so as to dwell in them, and walk in them; and this presence it is a watchful presence: Isa. 27. 3. I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment lest any hurt it; I will keep it night and day; and it is such a powerful presence, you need no other, and no more but God's presence; if he be with you, who can be against you? I will tell you, God's presence is enough to comfort you, and it is enough to strengthen you, and it is enough to uphold you, and it is enough to raise you, and it is enough to protect you, and it is enough to save you: If God be present with your hearts, this is enough to make your graces to act: If God be present with your graces, this is enough to strengthen them, and enough to preserve them. Now God is present with everyone of his people, as to their bodies, as to their souls, as to their graces, and in a special manner, and forever; I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee; the Lord is round about his people for evermore, &c.

5. The promises of God; these also do clear the everlastingness of the Covenant, which I shall show unto you in six particulars.

1. God doth promise to work in his people whatsoever conduceth (on their part) to the perpetuity or everlastingness of the Covenant. There are five things which will make us steadfast and firm in Covenant.

1. One is a real work of grace on the heart; (when the heart is indeed changed or renewed) though counterfeit grace will fail, yet real grace is permanent: And God hath promised this unto his people, Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you.

2. Another is a sincere heart; though hypocrisy be vanishing, yet sincerity will continue; there is faithfulness and steadfastness in sincerity, and God hath promised to give this heart unto his people, Ezek. 11. 19. I will give them one heart, and one way, Zach. 8. 3. Jerusalem shall be called a City of truth; and ver. 8. They shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness. Isa. 1. 22. Then shalt thou be called the City of righteousness, the faithful City.

3. A third is entire and exceeding love; this will hold out unto the death; yea it is stronger than death; and this hath God also promised to give his people. Deuteronomy 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

4. A fourth is the fear of himself (which is the beginning of wisdom, and the deliverance from sin) this also God promiseth to give unto his people in that Covenant. Jer. 32. 40. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

5. A fifth is sound faith. 1. Of union. 2. Dependance; both these he promiseth. They that trust in the Lord, shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed, but abideth fast forever. John 6. 45. They shall be all taught of God; every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the father cometh to me. Zeph. 3. 12. And they shall trust in the Name of the Lord. Hab. 2. 4. The just shall live by his faith.

2. God doth expressly promise to keep his people from falling away from him, and that he will never leave nor forsake them. 1 Sam. 12. 22. The Lord will not forsake his people for his great Name-sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Psal. 37. 24. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Ver. 28. The Lord forsaketh not his Saints, they are preserved forever. Psalm 94. 18. When I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. Hosea 14. 4. I will heal their backslidings. 2 Thess. 3. 3. The Lord is faithful who shall stablish you.

3. God doth expressly promise to strengthen and increase their grace; The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger, Job 17. 9. The path of the just shall be as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Prov. 4. 18. He will make all grace to abound; he will work in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure; Those that are planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the Courts of our God; they shall still bring forth fruit in old age.

4. God doth promise to confirm his people unto the end, and to finish the work which he hath begun in them. 1 Cor. 1. 8. He shall confirm you to the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus. Phil. 1. 6. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it (will perfect it) he will carry it on until the day of Jesus Christ.

5. God doth promise to break down all which might else cause his people to break off the Covenant; There are but five causes supposable for the breaking off that Covenant on our part, and God removes everyone of them from his people.

1. One is the power of sin; but God hath promised to subdue our iniquities, Mic. 7. 19. And sin shall not have dominion over us, Rom. 6. 14.

2. A second is the power of Satan; but God hath promised, that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape. 1 Cor. 10. 13. He hath promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his people. Matth. 16. 18. He hath promised, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head, Gen. 3. 15. and that he will bruise Satan under our feet, Rom. 16. 20. and resist the devil, and he shall fly from you, James 4. 7.

3. A third is the power of the world; but said Christ to his Disciples, John 16. 33. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world; and 1 John 5. 4. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even over faith.

4. A fourth is the supposed liberty and inconstancy of man's will; that a man (if he will) he may cast off his God, and give over to be one of his people; but this God promiseth to remove, by giving of his own Spirit, which shall cause us to walk in his Statutes, and to keep his Laws and to do them, Ezekiel 36. 27. and Jeremiah 32. 39. I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever.

5. A supposition that God will subtract or with-draw his grace from his people; Neither shall this be; for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance; so Rom. 11. 29. And Mary hath chosen the good part which shall not be take • n from her, Luke 10. 42.

2. A second Argument to demonstrate the everlastingness of the Covenant 'twixt God and his people, shall be taken from several considerations of Christ and believers who are the people in Cov • nant.

1. Christ's suretyship. 2. Christ's Mediatorship. 3. Christ's union with them. 4. Christ's love. 5. Christ's intercession. 6. Christ's promises and preparations for them.

1. The suretyship of Christ; in Heb. 7. 22. Christ is said to be made a surety of a better Covenant; (so I conceive the word should be rendered, viz. Covenant, and not Testament; for a surety is not of a Testament, but of a Covenant) A surety is one who is engaged and stands bound for another, and is responsable for him; as Judah for Benjamin, Gen. 43. 9. I will be surety for him, of my hands shall they require him. And in matters of contract 'twixt person and persons, a surety is taken in for this very end, That the contract may be made sure and good, may not fail, but be truly and perfectly performed; and the surety is a distinct person undertaking and engaging in the behalf of him who is of himself the more weak and insufficient contractor. As to this consideration, Christ is styled the surety of the Covenant, because he is a third person engaged not so much for God, as unto God on our behalf, that all that we are obliged for in Covenant unto God, shall be truly and faithfuly made good and performed; He (as our surety) stands bound to fill us with those graces, to give us those affections, and to supply us with such a sufficiency of strength, as forever to cleave unto the Lord in dependence and love, and to walk before him in truth, and to serve him in holiness and righteousness all out days.

2. The Mediatorship of Christ; you know that he is styled the Mediator of the Covenant, Heb. 12. 24. You know that this is one difference 'twixt the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace; that had no Mediator, but this hath; there God dealt with Adam as a righteous person, and Adam had no other bottom and foundation for his standing, but his own created righteousness; as long as he kept that, the Covenant remained; and when he lost that, the Covenant was broken, for there was no Mediator to make up the breach. But now for the Covenant of grace, there is a Mediator, upon whose shoulder the weight of the Covenant rests; and as long as that Mediator lasts (which is forever) so long that Covenant of grace shall last; This Mediator is Jesus Christ, who (as Mediator) doth confirm the Covenant by satisfying for sin, and making peace and reconciliation, not suffering any enmity and difference to remain between God and his people; but he doth (if I may so express it) keep up the League 'twixt them both, by his merit with the Father, and by his Spirit with believers; by his Priestly Office he establisheth peace with God; and by his Kingly Office he establisheth the hearts of the children of God; his very Office (as Mediator) is to unite God and us together, and to preserve that union forever; if at any time we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins; and when we are weak, he then puts out his strength to conquer temptations for us.

All these things considered, it is clear, that because of Christ's Mediatorship, the Covenant of grace must be everlasting.

3. The union 'twixt Christ and the people of the Covenant. That there is an union 'twixt Christ and believers, is most evident in Scripture; I am my Beloveds, and my Beloved is mine, so the Church speaks of Christ, Cant. 6. 3. in respect of which union, Christ and believers are styled the head and the body, Eph. 1. 22. A foundation, and a building, Eph. 2. 20, 21. 1 Pet. 2. 4, 5. A Vine and the branches, John 15. 5. A husband and wife, 2 Cor. 11. 2. Eph. 5. 32. And Christ dwells in us, and we in him, John 6. 54. He lives in us, Galatians 2. 20. (Christ liveth in me) and we live in him, Col. 3. 3.

This union 'twixt Christ and us, it hath two properties.

It is,

1. Unio arcta, a very near union; so near is that union, that (in a proportion) it doth answer the union 'twixt Christ and God his Father (John 17. 22. That they may be one, even as we are one) and that we are entitled with the very Name of Christ himself, 1 Cor. 12. 12. and that we are said to die with Christ, and to live and rise with Christ; and our sufferings are styled his sufferings, Col. 1. 24. and the persecution of Christians, the persecution of Christ; Acts 9. 4, 5. Why persecutest thou me?

2. Firma, a very firm and lasting union; therefore our marriage with him, is called an everlasting marriage, Hosea 2. 19. And Christ saith of every believer (who hath union with him) that he dwells in him, John 6. 56. that he will not lose him, ver. 39. that he hath everlasting life, ver. 47. that he shall not die, but live forever, ver. 50, 51.

And indeed by virtue of this union with Christ, all believers do enjoy an everlasting influence, and an everlasting communion with God in Christ, &c.

4. The love of Christ unto believers who are the people of God in Covenant, the Scriptures are very high in the expression of it; John 15. 9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue ye in my love. Ephes. 5. 2. Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savor. Rev. 1. 5. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. John 13. 1. Having loved his own, he loved them to the end. Ephes. 3. 19. The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.

His love is a fruitful love, a watchful love, an entire love, a faithful love, an helpful love, and a preserving and upholding love; is it imaginable that Jesus Christ having so much love to die for his people that they might not perish, will after that leave them unto themselves, that they may break the Covenant, and so perish?

5. The prayers and intercession of Christ; the intercession of Christ is everlasting; He ever lives to make intercession; he is our Advocate who appears for us, and our Intercessor who speaks for us; and his prayers and intercession do prevail with the Father; Thou hearest me always, Joh. 11. 42. Now you may read of four Petitions which Christ did put up for his, for their constancy and perseverance in the Covenant. Luke 22. 32. I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Joh. 14. 16. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Joh. 17. 11. Holy Father, keep through thine own Name those that thou hast given me. Ver. 20. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Joh. 17. 24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, before the foundation of the world.

6. Christ's promises and preparations, and what are these? Rom. 8. 1. Th • re is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Mark 16. 16. He that believeth shall be saved. John 3. 16. Whosoever believeth in him shall n • t perish, but have eternal life. John 14. 2. In my Fathers house are many Mansions, I go to prepare a place for you.

7. I might add to all these the work of Christ on the hearts of believers, in destroying the works of the devil, in crucifying of their lusts, in healing of their natures, in quickening of their graces, in conquering of temptations, in drawing out their affections, &c.

8. The titles of Christ. 1. Our Rock. 2. Our life. 3. Our peace. 4. Our hope. 5. Our Shepherd. 6. Our Father. 7. Our friend. 8. Our Brother. 9. Our Head. 10. Our Husband. 11. Our King. 12. Our Savior.

Verily the Covenant must needs be everlasting 'twixt us and our God, who have such a Christ so engaged for us, so mediating for us, so strictly united to us, so exceedingly loving of us, so continually watchful, and careful, and helpful, ever loving, ever praying, ever helping, and resolved to save us.

3. A third Argument to demonstrate the everlastingness of the Covenant, shall be taken from the Spirit of God, which everyone hath who is in Covenant with God; Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my Spirit within you.

Now there are ten works which the Spirit of God doth for all the people of God.

1. He doth change their hearts; 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same Image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2. He doth mortify their sinful lusts; Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body.
3. He makes known the things of God unto them, and teacheth them all things; 1 Cor. 2. 10. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. 1 Joh. 2. 27. Teacheth you of all things.
4. He doth powerfully enable them for all the works of obedience. Ezekiel 36. 27. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my Statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.
5. He doth dwell in them. Rom. 8. 11. and he dwells in them forever. Joh. 14. 17. and dwelling in them, he makes them a fit habitation for God, Ephes. 2. 22.
6. He doth guid and lead them. Joh. 16. 13. The Spirit of truth, he will guid you into all truth. Rom. 8. 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.
7. He doth sustain or uphold them. Psal. 51. 12. Uphold me with thy free Spirit.
8. He helps them in their infirmities, Romans 8. 26. and supplies them, Phil. 1. 19.
9. He bears witness that they are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; Heirs of God, and joint Heirs with Christ, Rom. 8. 16, 17.
10. He Seals them unto the day of Redemption. Eph. 4. 30. and moreover abides in their hearts; he is the earnest of their inheritance, until the Redemption of the purchased possession.

4. A fourth Argument to demonstrate the everlastingness of the Covenant 'twixt God and his people, shall have respect to some considerations in the people of God.

1. They are born again; not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever, 1 Pet. 1. 23.

2. They are partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1. 4. and of the life of Christ, 2 Cor. 4. 11.

3. They are the house built upon the Rock, which fell not, because it was built upon a Rock, Mat. 7. 25. and that Rock is Christ, who is a sure foundation, Isa. 38. 16.

4. They are delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the Kingdom of Christ, Colossians 1. 13. And his Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom; unto the Son he saith, Thy Throne is forever and ever, Heb. 1. 8.

5. Their hearts are superlatively set on God, and only on him; Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none that I desire upon earth besides thee; God is my portion forever, Psal. 73. 25, 26.

6. They are strenghthened with might by his Spirit, and rooted, and grounded in love, Ephes. 3. 16, 17.

7. They are the Pillars in the Temple of God, and shall go no more out, Revelations 3. 12.

8. They are the inheritance of God, his portion, his peculiar treasure, and purchased with the blood of Christ, 1 Pet. 1. 19. He would never pay so dear a price for them, and then put them off; Isa. 49. 25. And Israel mine Inheritance. Zach. 2. 12. The Lord shall inherit Judah his portion. Deut. 32. 9. The Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. Psamle 135. 4. The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

9. The commands and ways, and communions with God, are no burdans to them; not grievous, because they are born of God and love him; 1 John 5. 3. But pleasing and delightful. The Law of God is written in their hearts, Jer. 31. 33. Psal. 119. 16. I will delight myself in thy Statutes. Ver. 24. Thy Testimonies are my delight. Cant. 2. 3. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet unto my taste.

10. They hate evil, Psal. 97. 10. and loath their abominations, Ezekiel 36. and have crucified the flesh, with the lusts and affections thereof, Galations 5.

11. They are a people who live by faith, and are much in prayer, that God would work all his works in them and for them, that he would not leave them, nor forsake them; that he would preserve and uphold, and confirm, and stablish them unto the end. They work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

2. The reason why the Covenant which God makes with his people, is an everlasting Covenant, and shall be so.

1. There are reasons for this in respect of God.

1. His Wisdom hath contrived this Covenant in a way of everlastingness, which appears in three particulars. 1. He lays the foundation of it not upon ourselves, but Christ; not on our will and power, but on the power and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. 2. He engages himself for himself, and for his people, to keep them unto himself, and from falling, and to continue them to be his people forever; not only to give them grace, but to preserve that grace; not only to begin a good work, but also to finish it. 3. He promiseth mercy to pardon the sins of his people, and grace to heal their backslidings.

None of these were in the Covenant of works, and therefore that lasted not; but all these are in the Covenant of grace, and therefore it is everlasting.

2. His purpose; his purpose in making of this Covenant was to exalt, and glorify, and magnify the greatness of his love, and the riches of his grace and mercy unto his people. Now there are four things which magnify God in these. First, his graciousness, freely to make us to be his people. A second is his goodness, in the plentiful blessing of his people. And thirdly his faithfulness, that he will surely bless his people. And fourthly his everlastingness, that he will never forsake his people, and never will turn away from doing of them good.

Why, this exalts his mercy indeed that it endures forever; and his love indeed that it continues forever; and his grace indeed, that as it is free, so it is everlasting.

2. There are reasons for this in respect of his people. I will mention a few of them.

1. The everlastingness of the Covenant, is a just reason of full and perfect thankfulness; Psal. 100. 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his Courts with praise; Be thankful unto him, and bless his Name. Verse 5. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting. Psal. 136. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for h • is good, for his mercy endureth forever.

2. His people have cause now to trust on him forever. Isa. 26. 4. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Psal. 62. 8. Trust in him at all times, ye people, pour out your heart before him, God is a refuge for us, Selah.

[Use 1] Is the Covenant (which God makes with his people) an everlasting Covenant? then that opinion is very false, which delivers out unto us such a Covenant of grace as is mutable, and alterable, and may be broken off, and cease between God and his people.

That a man may be made a child of God, and yet may become the child of the Devil; that he may be graffed into Christ, and yet may be broken off from Christ; that he may have true faith and grace, and yet he may lose true faith and grace; that he may find love and mercy from God, and yet may so sin, as actually to forfeit (and that forever) all the love and mercy of God. Certainly this is a very sad assertion, that any person should be translated from death to life, that he should be delivered from the power of Satan, and translated into the Kingdom of Christ, that he should be effectually called, and become a believer, and thereupon a Son of God, and heir of glory; that he should for a while believe and rejoice in his God, and be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, and yet upon a sudden (notwithstanding all the love and promises, and engagements of God unto him in Covenant) his Sun should set at noon-day, he and his God should part and be utter enemies again, that he should cast off God from being his God: and God should forsake and cast him off from being any of his people; and as it is a sad opinion, so it is an opinion utterly inconsistent with this truth of the everlastingness of the Covenant of grace. A relation which ceaseth to be, that relation is not everlasting; and that agreement or Covenant which is broken and frustrated, that Covenant is not everlasting; to be temporary, and to be everlasting, are questionless, inconsistent; neither will that evasion of a temporarinesse on our part, and everlastingness of the Covenant on God's part, any way patch up the business, because there is no such Covenant of grace which God hath made with his people. Jer. 31. 31. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Ver. 32. Not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt, which my Covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord; Mark the place, God makes no such Covenant as shall be broken on our part, but such a Covenant as shall hold and be kept on our part, as well as on his part; verse 33. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people, &c. And cap. 32. 40. I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

The principal (if not the only) ground of this breaking and falling opinion, is a supposition of a power in the will of man, according to the pleasure and use whereof, the Covenant of God's grace must stand or fall, must continue or break off.

And to speak plainly according to the Arminian doctrine, all the stability, and state of a sinners salvation, is made to depend upon the will of a sinner; the election of God, the conversion of a sinner, the beneficial Redemption by Christ, the perseverance in Christ and grace; all of these do lie at the mercy of the will of a poor sinner; and truly I must confess, that if the Covenant of grace had no surer foundation then man's w • ll, it may quickly cease to be an everlasting Covenant. But we read of other and better foundations (for the perpetuity of this Covenant) th • n man's will; we read that it is grounded on the immutable counsel of God, and on his absolute promises, and on his Oath, and on the blood of Christ confirming and establishing of it, and on his power, and intercession, and presence, and love, and Spirit, and faithfulness.

But as to the opinion of these men (which indeed is none other, but that of the Pelagians, and Papists, and Arminians) Give me favor to speak a few words.

1. It is very improbable that God would make a new Covenant with us, and state the stability and everlastingness of it upon the will of us sinners; for hereby,

1. There should be no difference (as to the ground of safety and certainty) 'twixt this Covenant of grace and that of works; for if Adam had improved the power and liberty of his will, he had continued, and had enjoyed the life which God promised unto him. Now wherein doth the grace of this Covenant exceed the other of Works, if eternal life be left unto the pleasure of our will, as formerly it was to Adams?

2. Nay it should be harder, and more unsafe for us to be in the Covenant of grace, than it was for Adam to be in the Covenant of works; because in that condition Adams will was created with a perfect righteousness, and conformity, and sufficiency to have continued in that Covenant; but we are fallen with him, and have lost that perfectly inherent righteousness; and the grace which comes in the room of it, is very weak and imperfect; so that as to the perpetuating of the Covenant, we should be extremely disadvantaged in comparison of our imperfect holiness, with his perfect righteousness; and thus we by grace should have only a less power and strength to continue in Covenant with God, than Adam had.

3. God undertakes more for our part in this Covenant, than he did for Adam in that Covenant; for there he did give a sufficiency of righteousness, and so left man unto himself; but here he doth not only call us to be his people, and give us grace to make us to be so, but also promiseth and engageth his own power, and his Christ, and the Spirit of grace to assist and uphold, and preserve, and confirm, and stablish us unto the end.

Surely then it is not probable that he would leave the issue of so much mercy and happiness to the power and sole pleasure of our own will.

4. That God should glory so much in making this Covenant with his people, and please to speak so much of his great kindness, and riches of grace and mercy, and of what he hath done, and will do for them; and yet when all comes to all, it is no more but this, if your will pleaseth, you shall enjoy all this.

2. It is very incongruous to make the Covenant thus to depend (for the lastingnesse of it) on the power and pleasure of man's will; it would rob God's grace of all the glory for our abiding in the Covenant; for as the sole blame would be ours, if we did break the Covenant; so the sole praise and honor must be ours, if we (by our own wills) do continue and perpetuate the Covenant; God will give this, and will give that if we continue steadfast in his Covenant; and that steadfastness depends only upon the power and pleasure of his will (God, say they, nowhere promiseth that gift absolutely, but we must look for that in ourselves) And I beseech you now tell me, where the glory of our perseverance unto glory must light; shall the grace of God have it? no, it is not the fruit or work of God's grace determining; then the man must have it, who did so manage and stir, and improve his will as to hold out to the end; and thus by placing the lastingnesse of the Covenant upon the power of man's will, the creature gets away the glory from the Creator; and God's grace which should reign in this Covenant, must lose the Crown unto the supposed power and pleasure of man's will.

3. It is very uncomfortable to ground the lastingnesse of the Covenant upon the power and pleasure of man's will; for hence it will necessarily follow, that you cannot (till the very last minute of your breathing) come to any certain conclusion of your state in grace, nor of your portion in glory; Why so? because it is in the power of your own will, whither you will stand or fall, hold fast, or break off relation with God; it may be you will, it may be you will not; perhaps your own corruptions may be too strong for you, or Satan's temptations, or something from the world, and then your hearts fall off from God, and you are lost forever; so that it is impossible (by this doctrine) ever to have any settled comfort, fixed peace, or steadfast hope; because all the happiness of your estate is but conditional upon the good behavior of your own wills, which is very changeable.

Obj. But therefore we will pray the more to God, that our wills may not be led aside from him, but keep fast to him and his ways.

Sol. True, and this is indeed a direct course to stand fast in the Covenant; but then consider, that this course will break the neck of that opinion which makes the lastingnesse of the Covenant to depend upon the sole power and pleasure of man's will.

For when you pray to God for his grace, and his strength, and his continued presence, that you may (thereby) continue with him in Covenant, you do herein deny your own power and sufficiency, and you do acknowledge that you are strong in his strength, and not in your own might; and consequently that the lastingnesse of the Covenant doth not depend on the power of the will, but upon the presence, and power, and assistance of his grace, and so fall in with us, that the Covenant is everlasting; not in respect of man's will, but in respect of God's grace.

4. I will add one consideration more; it is not possible (I speak ex hypothesi, in reference to the Will, and Power, and Truth of God revealed in the Covenant) that the people of God really brought into Covenant with him, should break off the Covenant with him, and so make it mutable and void on their part; Suppose but this, that the Covenant shall not fail nor cease on God's part (that God will be but true to perform what he hath promised unto his people) I then affirm that it is not possible that the Covenant should fail on our part; my reason is this, Because the full performance of the Covenant on God's part, doth essentially and naturally include the performance of it on our part, and prevents all breaking and voiding of the Covenant.

God in this Covenant doth promise unto his people,

1. That he will be their God forever.
2. That he will never cast them off.
3. That he will never forsake them.
4. That nothing shall separate from his love.
5. That he will never turn away from them to do them good.
6. That if his people transgress, he will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes; nevertheless his loving kindness he will not take away from them, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail.
7. That he will be merciful to their transgression, and will heal their backssiding.
8. That he will give them his Spirit which shall cause them to walk in his Statutes, and to do them.
9. That he will give them an heart to fear him forever, and that he will put his fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from him.
10. That he will confirm his people unto the end, and that he will perform or perfect the good work which he hath begun in them, until the day of Jesus Christ: and that he will preserve their whole soul and body blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I say, grant me but this supposition, That God will be faithful to make good these promises unto his people (which the Scripture peremptorily saith he will, and that it is impossible for him to lie, Heb. 6. 18. and God who cannot lie hath promised, Titus 1. 2.) it will hence necessarily follow, That it is impossible the Covenant should be broken, and made void by the people of God: For upon the performance of these promises on God's part, the Covenant comes to be performed on his people's part.

[Object.] I know not well what can be replied to take off the edge of this Argument, unless we think to ward the blow by the distinction of absolute and conditional promises. But

[Sol.] 1. If I mistake not, these men will not acknowledge any promises of God (unto us) for absolute promises, but all of them must be conditional, and respective to the will of man.

2. Secondly, what avail any conditional promises as to this case? what room or place have they here, as if the Covenant should be everlasting, if it were everlasting? or the people of God should still continue in Covenant, if they did continue in Covenant, or as if God would give them an heart to fear him forever, if they did fear him forever! or that they should never depart from him, if they never did depart from him.

This Tautology is worse then his, Sub montibus illis Inquit erant & erant sub montibus illis.

And thus by what I have delivered, it doth manifestly appear that the Covenant of Grace is not an alterable, fading, ceasing Covenant, but everlasting, both in respect of God, and also in respect of the people of God.

[Object.] But yet some are afraid that such a certain everlastingness of the Covenant would make the people of God too secure and presumptuous in ventering to sin against God! seeing that the Covenant shall still hold twixt them and God.

[Sol.] I answer, Surely these men are more afraid then hurt, and plainly discover their ignorance concerning that heavenly frame of spirit in the people of God, and also of the nature and virtue of heavenly certainty and assurance.

The people of God have the laws of God written in their hearts, and their hearts are circumcised to love the Lord their God, and they know their own self weakness and insufficiency, and are taught to fear the Lord and his goodness, and to live by faith, and to be watchful in Prayer, that so they may be preserved from every evil way. Yea, and the more they are assured of the immutability of God's love, and of their relation unto him, the more are their hearts knit in love unto him, the love of Christ constrains them, 2 Cor. 5. 14. and the more conscientiously tender are they to walk in godly fear and reverence, and in all well-pleasing before him, and to answer everlasting love with everlasting love.

[Use 2] I now proceed to a second Use from this adjunct or property of the Covenant. Is the Covenant which God makes with his people an everlasting Covenant? Then happy are the people who are in this Covenant.

Beloved, It is everlastingness which makes hell to be hell, and heaven to be heaven: As the misery of misery lies in the lastingness, and everlastingness of it, (and it will be thus dreadful, and it will be thus forever and ever) so the happiness of happiness lies in the everlastingness of it. This God is our God forever and ever. This makes the enjoyment of God to be a most happy enjoyment: His mercy endures forever, he loves us with an everlasting love; O what happiness is this to be the children of love, and to be the people of mercy forever? Jesus Christ yesterday, and today, and the same forever; this is happiness indeed, that Jesus Christ is ours, and that we are his for everlasting! everlastingness doth include in it three things.

1. One is a privation of a contrary estate, and of a contrary Relation forever: For if the estate or relation be changed, it cannot be everlasting: and this shows the singular comfort and happiness of the people of God, that their estate and relation shall never fall into a contrary estate and relation. They are in the estate of life, and they shall never fall into the estate of death; They are in the estate of salvation, and they shall never fall into the estate of condemnation. They are the children of God, and the members of Christ, and they shall never pass into a relation contrary to this: Because every everlasting estate and relation is a perpetual absence or privation of a contrary estate.

2. A second is, a continuation of the same being and relation: for whatsoever is everlasting that must continue, it must not be broken off? if it be broken off, it is not everlasting.

O what a happiness is this that your Sun never sets; that your day still continues, your God still continues, and still continues to be your God! your God still loves you, and his love still continues towards you; Jesus Christ still continues, and he continues still to be your Redemption, your Righteousness, your Peace, and your salvation.

3. A third is, an endless perpetuity: you can never come to the end of everlastingness: you may see an end of your worldly riches (they fly away) and you may see an end of your friends (they die away) and you may see an end of your lives (man dies and wasteth away, and man gives up the Ghost, and where is he? Job 14. 10.) But you shall never see an end of the everlasting Covenant: Time is the measure of all the world, but everlastingness is the measure of the Covenant of Grace; as long as everlastingness lasts, & as far as everlastingness goes, so long doth the Covenant last, and so far doth the Covenant extend. Everlastingness hath no end, and the everlasting Covenant hath no end: why! This heightens, and this sweetens the Covenant of grace! God is our God, and we are his people to everlasting, without end: Though afflictions fall in, though losses, though persecutions, though death itself, yet the Covenant goes on and lasts. God is your portion forever, he hath married you to himself forever in loving-kindness, and mercy, and judgment, and faithfulness.

O Christian, what canst thou have more then to have God to be thy God? O Christian! what wouldest thou have more, then to have God to be thy God forever? A sure enjoyment, a perfect enjoyment, and an everlasting enjoyment: These are the utmost of thy desires.

[Use 3] Is the Covenant an everlasting Covenant? This may then serve as a Cordial unto the people of God, especially in two cases. 1. One of fear of falling away from God. 2. Another of desertions, when they question whether God be not fallen away from them.

1. The everlastingness of the Covenant is or should be a cordial unto the people of God, against their fears of falling away from God.

How often do we hear these complaints; and doubts, and misgivings? Indeed the Lord hath shown me great mercy; He did not leave me to my sinful heart and life, he did pity and call me, and brought me in to Christ, and made me one of his people, who aforetime was none of his people! But I still find such a body of sin, such a law in my members warring against the Law of mind, so many sinful corruptions within, and so many strong and violent temptation without, and so much weakness and insufficency in myself, that fear I shall never hold out unto the end, I shall one day fail, and loose all my interest in God, and in Christ, and grace.

To this sad complaint I would briefly speak three things.

1. There is a twofold fear: There is a a fear of unbelief, and this is a vexing, and distressing, and disabling fear, it loosens our confidence in God, and in his promises: It is a naughty fear, and beware of it, and resist it, and bewail it: And there is a fear of tenderness and jealousy, in regard of the Natural deceitfulness of our own hearts, and of the supernatural weakness of our own strength, this is a good fear; and blessed is the man that thus feareth always: The weak child feareth, and thereupon cries out to the Parent to take him, to hold him, to support him, and by his fear of falling he is preserved from falling. So the child of God fears, and thereupon he cries out unto his God! Lord help thy servant! forsake me not, make haste to deliver me! keep me, who cannot keep myself; establish my goings, Thou hast promised to keep and preserve the feet of thy Saints; This fear is that fear which God hath promised to put into the hearts of his people that they shall not depart from him; And indeed this fear is their strength; the more of this fear, the more safe they are. Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall; Thou standest by faith, Be not high-minded but fear, work out your salvation with fear and trembling?

2. Your standing or continuing in the Covenant, doth not depend upon your own strength, nor doth God leave you unto that, but it doth depend on his strength, and on his power, Ephes. 3. 16. That he would grant you (according to the riches of his grace) to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, Mic. 4. 5. We will walk in the Name of the Lord our God forever and ever, Zach. 10. 12. I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord: Though your strength be insufficient, yet the strength of your God and of your Christ is sufficient for you. 1 Pet. 1. 5. We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. 2 Cor. 12. 9. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

3. The Lord is able to keep you from falling, and to preserve you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, Jude ver. 24. Nay and he will keep you from falling: Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, Psal. 56. 13. Thou hast delivered my feet from falling, Psal. 116. 8. He will keep the feet of his saints, 1 Sam. 2. 9. When I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up, Psalm 94. 18.

2. The everlastingness of the Covenant should be a Cordial to the people of God in the time of desertions, when they are apt to question whether God be not fallen off from them, and hath forsaken them? But consult these Promises, and you may find these fears removed, Isa. 49. 14. Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. ver. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea they may forget, yet I will not forget thee. ver. 16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, Thy walls are continually bef • re me. Isa. 54. 7. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. ver. 8. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. ver. 10. The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

[Use 4] Is the Covenant which God makes with his people an everlasting Covenant? Then bless God (and not yourselves) for your standing, and for your continuing inCovenant with him.

There are three things for which we should bless God. 1. For his restraining grace. 2. For his converting grace. 3. For his confirming grace, that he will, and doth keep you steadfast to himself in Covenant.

O beloved! we could never keep ourselves, nor establish ourselves; were it not for the goodness, and the power, and the love, and the faithfulness of our God, we should break with God, and turn aside from him, and leave all: truly it is almost a wonder that the people of God do hold out in keeping Covenant with God, considering

1. The daily and frequent discouragements which they meet with in the world, the continual scorns, and threats, and persecutions, and affronts to their persons and godliness.

2. The manifold allurements, snares and temptations unto sin, and sinful ways, by wicked example, and promises, and hopes, and connivencies: wickedness in judgment, in practice, is a general infection; the common air is infected with this plague; it is therefore the more hard to keep our health.

3. The malice of Satan and his power and subtlety is exceeding great: he desires to sift and winnow us as wheat, he threw down the third part of the Stars: he helped to break the first Covenant: There is not any one of the people of God but may say of him as David of his enemies, Psal. 118. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped me.

4. How strongly some of the people of God have been hazarded in the lasting part of the Covenant? Solomon, Peter, Asa, insomuch as many from their falls have erected the Doctrine of the Apostasy of the Saints.

5. Those many remaining Principles for inconstancy and failing: as spiritual pride, unbelief, hypocrysie, and worldliness, much of everyone of these still in our hearts.

6. Add to all these the exceeding weakness in all our graces. How little faith, how weak love, and how apt to be shaken, and offended! Truly we must acknowledge that what we are, we are by the grace of God; and that if we be strong, we are strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, and that it is the Lord who keeps us by the strength of the Covenant to continue steadfast and faithful to the end, &c.

[Use 5] Let none abuse this sweet heavenly truth of the everlastingness of the Covenant twixt God and his people; as therefore to venture upon great transgressions, and say God will raise me again, and show me mercy again, for his covenant lasts for ever, Let me do what I list, &c.

To such I would present a few words.

1. That of the Apostle in Rom. 2. 2. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Psal. 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Rom. 6. 1. What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? ver. 2, God forbid. This were indeed to turn the grace of God into wantonness, as the Spider turns the sweet juice into poison.

2. That of the Apostle to the Church of the Ephesians, Ephes. 4. 20. But you have not so learned Christ. verse 21. if so be that you have heard him, and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.

3. Though the Covenant doth last twixt God and his people forever, yet there are weighty Reasons for them to take heed of sinning against their God.

1. They do exceedingly dishonor their God by their sinning, and cause his Name to be blasphemed, as Nathan charged it on David, 2 Sam. 12. 14.

2. They make an unkind return to their most kind God: Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise: doth this answer his love and goodness to you, to choose you for his people before other people?

3. They do exceedingly grieve their God and Father. This, that the people of his grace should deal thus with him, is a grief unto him, as he was grieved with that generation forty years.

4. Though the Lord will not cast off his people when they do transgress, yet he will visit their sins with stripes, Psal. 89. 32. And those stripes may be very sharp and heavy, as David found them; and though David did not break his neck by his fall, yet David brake his bones, and a wounded Spirit who can bear? Prov. 18. 14.

5. Though the union continue twixt God and his people, yet (upon their great transgressions) the comfortable communion will be interrupted and darkened, they shall lose the joy of their salvation, Psal. 51. 12.

6. Though God will raise his people again, yet it will cost them dear for the cure of their wounds and bruises, and to put their bones in joint again. They shall know that it is an evil and bitter thing thus to sin against a God in Covenant, &c. It may cost them many tears, and fears, and prayers, and conflicts, and waitings, &c.

[Use 6] Is the Covenant which God makes with his people an everlasting Covenant? Then let all the people of God be so wise as to use all the means to continue the Covenant in an everlastingness on their part: God worketh our lastingness in the Covenant by means: You find in Scripture that Spiritual means are subordinate to Spiritual ends, and that certainty of issues doth take in a necessity of means. The Covenant is everlasting; and that it may be so, therefore doth God put his people upon several ways and duties to perpetuate the Covenant, and to assure themselves it shall be so.

There are ten things which if you carefully heed, you may be confident of the everlastingness of the Covenant.

1. Keep up an humble fear; I will put my fear into their hearts, Jer. 32. 40. Blessed is the man that feareth always, Prov. 28. 14. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2. 12. Fear your wants, crave supply, and grow in faith.

2. Be adding of grace to grace, and give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure; for if you do these things you shall never fall, 2 Peter 1. 5, 10.

3. Strive after and keep up an exceeding love of your God, a superlative love; This will keep you fast: Saw you him whom my soul loveth? I found him whom my soul loveth, I held him fast, and would not let him go, Cant. 3. 3.

4. Keep your hearts with all diligence: Look to them, watch them still, be mending of them, and minding of them; unite or join my heart unto thee said David. Let them be much in meditating of the goodness of your God; love of your God, kindness of your God. Take delight in God alone, and in his ways, as the Wife in the Husband.

5. Be conscientiously diligent in attending upon the public Ordinances. 1 Thes. 5. 19. Quench not the Spirit, verse 20. Despise not Prophecying. Acts 20. 32. I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified: The Ordinances are your strength. They 1. Give you a sight of God's will and ways. 2. Keep up tenderness in conscience. 3. Open more fully the love of God unto you. 4. Quicken your hearts. 5. Increase your faith. 6. Heale your corruptions. 7. Convey help from Christ. 8. Direct and establish your goings.

6. Be much in prayer, that you may be kept and held fast by God unto the end, Psal. 119. 8. I will keep thy Precepts, O forsake me not utterly. Verse 33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy Statutes, and I shall keep them unto the end. verse 116. Uphold me according to thy Word that I may live. verse 117. Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe, and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.

7. Remember Jesus Christ his love to you, his promise to you, and live by faith upon him: Take hold of his strength, and then you shall walk up and down and not faint. Remember that he is the Author and finisher of your faith.

8. If you offend never so little, return speedily to your God, and judge yourselves, and sue out for more grace, for more strength, for more sufficiency from Christ; let not any enmity live, humble your souls and make peace.

9. Beware of Seducing and Erroneous Dectrines, do not affect to hear them: Cease my son, (Prov. 19. 27.) to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge! Beware lest you also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, 2 Pet. 3. 17.

10. Get much experience of the exceeding love of God to you in Christ: Every day get a sight of his gracious favor, and be often in the consideration, 1. Of what he hath done for you. 2. What he is to you. 3. What he will bestow on you.

SECT. X.

10. A Tenth property of this Covenant is this, It is the best Covenant: Better than any other Covenant, Heb. 7. 22. Jesus was made a surety of a better Covenant. 8. 6. He is the Mediator of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises. There is (you know) the first Covenant (the Covenant of Works) and there is the second Covenant (the Covenant of Grace) which is divided into the Old Covenant, and into the New Covenant: Now here I shall briefly open two things unto you.

1. That the Covenant of grace which is the second Covenant, is a better Covenant than the Covenant of Works which was the first Covenant.

2. That the New Covenant (under which we live) is a better Covenant then the Old Covenant under which the Fathers did live.

1. The Covenant of grace is a better Covenant then the Covenant of Works: This will appear if you do consider ten particulars.

1. The Covenant of Grace hath a better foundation than the Covenant of Works: The foundation of the Covenant of works was that power of will and righteousness wherewith Adam was created: he stood upon his own bottom, and was left unto his own sufficiency, like the Prodigal child, Luke 15. he had all his goods in his own hand. But the foundation of the Covenant of Grace is Jesus Christ: he is the sure foundation-stone laid in this building, Isa. 28. 16. and our salvation is laid upon one that is might, upon one who is able to keep, and to save to the utmost: Not our strength, but Christ's strength; not our undertaking, but Christ's undertaking; not our will, but Christ's Mediatorship and Suretyship is the foundation of the Covenant of grace.

2. The Covenant of grace hath better terms; All the Articles of it are promises: nothing is there required of us, which is not promised unto us by God: yea that which was required in the first Covenant as a condition, is in this Covenant turned into a promise, viz. Obedience to God's Commandments, Heb. 8. 10. I will put my Law into their minds, and write them in their hearts, And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And that which is required in this Covenant as a condition, it is likewise promised, Joh. 6. 45. They shall be all taught of God; every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

3. The Covenant of Grace hath better admissions (I speak in respect of us) thn the Covenant of Works. The Covenant of works would not admit any person unless he were righteous and inherently righteous, and perfectly righeous: (The Covenant of works was never made with the sinner, but with the righteous) it condemns and casts out the sinner, but never doth accept of him or let him in. But the Covenant of grace doth admit sinners: if any sinner be rightly sensible of his sins, and of h • s wants, and imperfections, God calls out unto him, Hearken unto me and your souls shall live: And he that hath no money, come buy and eat, Isa. 55. 1, 3.

4. The Covenant of grace hath more favorable proceedings with the parties brought into Covenant, than the Covenant of Works: The Covenant of work is very sharp and quick, the least transgression (therein) doth undo the party (whether of Omission or of Commission) Cursed is everyone that doth not continue in everything that is written in the law to do it, Gal. 3. 10. That one sin of the Angels hath undone them forever. That one sin of Adam brought him under the sentence of death.

The Covenant of Works had no mercy to show, it proceeded only in a way of justice. But the Covenant of grace is not so strict and quick: it is a very favorable Covenant: I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, saith God, Heb. 8. 12. And if any man sin; we have • n Advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, 1 Joh. 2. 1, 2. If my people which are called by my Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, Then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin, 2 Chron. 7. 14.

5. The Covenant of grace hath better promises; the Covenant of works (so far as yet I do understand it) had but one grand promise annexed unto it, and that promise also was but conditional, viz. A promise of life upon the condition of fixed Obedience: life should be continued as long as obedience was continued. (Do this and live) But the Covenant of grace contains better promises, and more promises; it doth contain a promise of life upon better conditions than that of working: Life is promised upon believing (Believe and thou shalt be saved) and besides that, it contains promises of all the things that shall bring us unto that life; promises of holiness, promises of strength, promises of perseverance in grace: And promises against all the things which might break us off from the Covenant, and from the fruition of promised life and salvation.

6. The Covenant of grace is more indulgent than the Covenant of works: Those services which will not be accepted in a Covenant of works, will yet be accepted in a Covenant of Grace: The Covenant of works doth so insist upon works, that the least mixture of diminution, or imperfection, renders the work uncapable and distasteful: the work must be in every regard perfect, for matter, and manner, and measure, or else (as to that Covenant) it was faulty, and rejected. But this is not in the Covenant of Grace: weakness in working, and imperfection of service shall not be rejected. The day of small things is not despised: The bruised Reed shall not be broken, The smoking flax shall not be quenched: I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him, saith God in Mal. 3. 17. If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not, 2 Cor. 8. 12. Unto this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. I have seen thy tears, said God of Hezekiah, Isa. 38. 5. Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee, Psal. 38. 9.

7. The Covenant of grace affords better pleas than the Covenant of works. If a person offend against the Covenant of works, his mouth is stopped, and he can plead nothing on his own behalf, nothing at all to stay the hand of justice against him.

But if one sins against the Covenant of Grace, he hath yet something to plead for himself, why God should not reject and destroy him: There are four things which he can plead.

One is his Relation, yet thou art our Father, and we are thy people.

A second is, the merciful nature of God, ready to show mercy, and to multiply pardon.

A third is, the death of Christ, he shed his blood to make our peace, and to slay all enmity.

A fourth is, the very Covenant itself, wherein God hath promised that he will not cast away, and that he will heal and forgive the backslidings of his people, and though he will chastise them, yet he will not forsake them.

8. The Covenant of grace gives a better estate then the Covenant of works: we have a better estate by this, then we had, or could have by that.

'It is true, That Adam in innocence enjoyed a larger measure of knowledge, and righteousness, and had also free communion with God, without fear, and had dominion over the creatures. But yet he had not knowledge of God in Christ: nor any communion with God through Christ, nor had he any manifestations of the glories of the Gospel by the Spirit of Christ; and besides all this, whatsoever enjoyments Adam had which might make up a happy estate unto him, yet all that enjoyment was mutable and contingent: But now in and by the Covenant of Grace, our enjoyments are higher, and they are also surer.

1. They are higher, for now we enjoy God, not only as a Creator, but as a Father: we enjoy him a merciful, and gracious, and abundant in goodness and truth: and we enjoy Jesus Christ in a way of union with his person (being bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, as the Apostle speaks, Ephes. 5. 30.) and in a way of communion in his death, and life, and victories, and purchases: and we enjoy the very Spirit of Christ, as to all his graces, and comforts, and assurances.

2. They are surer; he enjoyed God, so as yet he lost his God: he enjoyed righteousness, so as yet he lost his righteousness; and dominion, so as he lost that dominion; and had it not been for Christ (who was immediately promised after the fall) he had never found his God again, nor a righteousness again, nor any right of dominion again: but in the Covenant of grace all is sure, and stable, and permanent: God is our God forever, and we continue his people forever: Christ is our Head, and we are his Members forever: we enjoy the Spirit, and he abides in us forever. The Covenant of grace is a better Covenant then that of works, as to the way and cause of Remuneration.

In a Covenant of works you must earn your wages before you must be paid your wages: your own doing is the price of your receiving, and your reward is as your work is; nothing is there expected as a bounty, and gift, but all runs there as debt and wages: Adam could never pray under this Covenant, Lord receive me graciously, do me good freely for thy mercies sake: But it is not thus in the Covenant of grace, where he that deserves nothing, may yet receive all: and the unworthy sinner doth yet attain to the most excellent mercies (upon the sole account of the riches of God's grace in Christ) In the Covenant of grace God doth not reward us according to our ill deeds, nor doth he reward us for our good deeds. But he freely pardons the ill works of his people, and doth them all good, not for their goodness, but for his own goodness-sake.

In the Covenant of works you come to God, saying, Lord! This I have done, therefore bless me:

In the Covenant of grace, you come to God, saying, Lord! This I need, and this thou hast promised, O give it me, not for my sake, but for thy truths sake, and for thy Christ's sake: freely love me, freely accept of me, freely own, and bless me; I can show no deserts of mine, but I can show unto thee thine own promises: I can find enough in myself why thou shouldest abhor and curse me, and yet I find enough in thyself and Covenant why thou mayest embrace and help me.

10. The Covenant of grace is a better Covenant than that of works in respect of a double efficacy. 1. Of helping recovery. 2. Of saving virtue.

1. The Covenant of works never did afford help to recover any one sinner: As that Commander spake of the Watchman whom he found asleep (and therefore ran him through with his sword) I found him dead and left him dead: That we may say of the Covenant of works, It finds us dead in sins and in trespasses, and it leaves us dead in our sins and trespasses: there is no balm for our wounds in that Covenant: But the Covenant of Grace, this doth help and restore sinners; it is the ministry of Life and Grace, and Peace: But God (saith the Apostle in Ephes. 2. 4, 5.) who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ: And 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. And Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his love towards us, in that whiles we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. verse 9. Much more then being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

2. The Covenant of works did never save any righteous person. What saving power might be found from it upon a supposition of Adams standing, I dispute not; but this I say, There never was any one person saved actually by the Covenant of works: But yet the Covenant of Grace doth save all Believers. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, 1 Tim. 1. 15. Whosoever believeth in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life, Joh. 3. 15. We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. Ephes. 2. 8. By grace ye are saved through faith. 1 Pet. 1. 9. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Thus you see that the Covenant of grace is the best Covenant, in comparison of the Covenant of works.

[Use 1] Is the Covenant of Grace the best Covenant? The best Covenant that ever God made with man, and for man? How great then is their sin who refuse this Covenant, and to come into this Covenant? The greater that any mercy is, our sin is therefore the greater to refuse that mercy. O beloved! whence is it that many of your hearts are still hardened? whence is it that you love darkness rather then light? why do you not hearken to this Covenant? whence is it that for lying vanities, you forsake your own mercies!

1. Are you not sinners?

2. Do not sinners need mercy?

3. Can mercy be found anywhere but in this Covenant of mercy? or peace anywhere, but in the Covenant of peace? or life anywhere but in the Covenant of life?

4. And doth not this Covenant hold out mercy unto you? yea the best mercy! and upon the best terms! The other Covenant affords you no mercy, it easts you off, it condemns you to death and wrath. And this Covenant yet offers you mercy, and life, and salvation; and no Covenant but this doth so. What, and yet to refuse to come into it? surely either you know not that you are sinners, and what will befall you for your sins, or else you are desperately wicked to slight and refuse the mercy and grace of God in this Covenant. Ezek. 24. 13. Because I would have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness anymore, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. So may the Lord say unto some of us, Because I would have shown you mercy, but you would not accept of mercy, therefore you shall never have mercy. And because I would have taken you into Covenant, and you would not come into my Covenant of grace, and life, and peace, I will never be a merciful God to you, nor a gracious God to you: but you shall die in your sins and perish forever, Heb. 2. 3. [Use 2] How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? (Heb. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth; much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.)

Is the Covenant of Grace the best Covenant? (better then any other Covenant which God made with man?) Then how injurious are many broken-hearted sinners, both unto themselves and unto God! who lay the Covenant of grace so low, and impose such opinions upon it, as if there were no difference twixt a Covenant of grace and a Covenant of works. Surely it is either temptation which lies upon them, or ignorance, or unbelief, that they thus stand off, and fear, and dispute, and except, and question, and many times conclude against all encouragements to be taken into this Covenant, and there to find mercy, and rest for their souls: truly they do many times turn the Covenant of Grace into a very Covenant of Works.

O but there is no mercy to be had!

O but not for such great sins!

O but for me! O but I can deserve nothing! and bring nothing! O but the sentence is past against me! O but I have nothing to make my peace! And thus they make the Covenant of Grace, a very Covenant of Works; no better then so; a Covenant without mercy, without grace, without a Mediator, without a tender compassionate God and Father; no City of refuge at all, nor help to the poor sinner at all: And when they are convinced of mercy in it, and possible reception into it, yet they think that God will not come off to this but upon very hard and difficult terms, usually annexing the Legal condition to the promises of the Covenant of Grace.

Why sirs! what do you mean thus to wrong God, and his Covenant, and your distressed souls?

Either there is a Covenant of Grace, or there is not; either that Covenant of Grace is a better Covenant than the Covenant of works, or it is not. If it be a better Covenant, then the fallen and undone sinner may find relief there, and help there, which he could not find in the Covenant of Works; for if the sinner can be no more relieved by this than by that Covenant; it is then no better Covenant. And now see what a slurre you cast upon the wisdom of God, and upon the goodness of God, and upon Jesus Christ, and upon all the promises of God: O distressed sinner! If the merciful God, if the gracious God, if the giving God, if the forgiving God, if the freely loving God; if the Lord Jesus as Mediator and Surety, if all the promises of God in Christ, if all the offers of grace, if all the calls of the Gospel may suffice to convince thee that this Covenant is the best Covenant that ever was or can be made for sinners, with all suitableness and tenderness to the sinners condition: Then dispute no more, but pray for faith to give God the glory of his exceeding grace in this Covenant, &c.

[Use. 3] Is the Covenant of Grace the best Covenant? What a comfort is this to all believers who are effectually brought into this Covenant? Is it no comfort to be brought into such a good estate as better cannot be found or enjoyed? If the Covenant of Grace be the best Covenant (better then any other Covenant) Then all in that Covenant, are in the best condition of all other men. It was a special kindness in Joseph to give his Father and his Brethren a p • ssession in the land of Ramesis: what kindness then is that in God to make you to be his people, and to become your God, and to settle such a portion, such a possession upon your souls, as in heaven and earth a better Covenant cannot be! how should you hearts rejoice, and bless God for the Covenant of Grace, and for bringing of you into that Covenant of grace? where

A Redeemer is only to be found, and you have an interest in that Redeemer; A reconciled God is only to be found, and you have a propriety in that reconciled God; pardoning mercy is only to be found, and you have your shares in that pardoning mercy; Renewing grace is only to be found, and you have your portion in that renewing grace! Salvation is only to be found, and you have your possession of that salvation.

Others perhaps cry out, O that we might have mercy, and O that we might have Christ! and O that God would be pacified towards us, and reconciled to us, and O that our sins might be forgiven, and our souls accepted into life! why you have all this, and more than this! Have you not cause to rejoice who are brought into such a Covenant where you have a propriety in God, and Christ, and the Spirit, and mercy, and grace, and glory? yea into such a Covenant where you may find relief and support for every want, and against every fear, and against every sin, and against every temptation? where all the sorts of mercies, and helps and comforts are yours? Yea unto such a Covenant where there is not only mercy, but fullness; and not only fullness; but freeness, and with all these a certainty and unchangeableness? Here is as much mercy, and goodness, and happiness as you need, and you shall surely have it, and it shall continue unto you forever. Adam and God parted; but you and your God shall never part; you and Christ shall never part; you and mercy, and grace, and salvation shall never part.

2. The second thing which I would show unto you about the comparison of the Covenant is this, That the new Covenant of grace under which we do live, is a better Covenant then that old Covenant of grace under which the Fathers lived, and the people of God of old time.

For the managing of this mighty and intricate Point, I shall deliver unto you three particulars.

1. That none of the people of God in any age of the world (since the fall of Adam) had a Covenant of works given unto them by God (for life) but the Covenant which God made with them (for life) was a Covenant of Grace.

2. Wherein that Covenant of Grace, under which the people of God of old lived, consents or agrees with the Covenant of Grace, under which we do now live.

3. The pre-eminency or betternesse of this New Covenant, in a comparison with that old Covenant.

1. That none of the people of God in any age of the world (since the fall) had a Covenant of works given unto them by God for life, but they had all of them a Covenant of Grace given unto them for life:

Let us (if you please) calculate the several Ages or times of the Church of God, and then you shall clearly see the truth of what I speak.

1. As soon as Adam fell, God was pleased to set up the Covenant of Grace in the form of a promise, for he made a promise of Christ as a Savior and deliverer, Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Here is an express promise of Christ, who is called the seed of the woman, because he was to take our nature upon him: And the work or Office of Christ is to bruise the head of the Serpent, (that is) Jesus Christ was to conquer and destroy him: and surely the conquest and destruction of of Satan imports our full deliverance from him, and restoration of us into the estate of freedom, and grace, and happiness: The which Christ doth by having his heel bruised (that is) by dying and suffering for us, and hereby procuring life and salvation. The Apostle calls it His putting to death, concerning the flesh, 1 Pet 3. 18. And in this respect Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Rev. 13. 8. because the death of Christ (by which our deliverance and salvation is wrought) was published and promised from the beginning of the world: Now there is no Covenant wherein Christ comes in on the behalf of sinners, but that Covenant is a Covenant of Grace.

2. Again, pursue this from Adam to Abel, and from Abel to Enoch, and from Enoch to Noah, it is evident they were not under a Covenant of works, but of grace: And I will give you one reason for it, or rather the Apostle will do it for me, who speaking of Abel and Enoch, he doth commend the one for his more excellent sacrifice, Heb. 11. 4. and the other for his pleasing of God, verse 5. and both of them (and Noah also) for faith (for he adds in verse 6. But without faith it is impossible to please God) whence I argue thus, That those persons who enjoyed such a faith by which their persons and services were pleasing unto God, and graciously accepted of him, those were not in a Covenant of works, but in a Covenant of Grace.

Nay look on the words once more, verse 4. By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice then Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. And verse 7. Noah became heir of the righteousness which is by faith: verily a righteousness by faith is no righteousness in a Covenant of works, but of grace: It is that righteousness through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Phil. 3. 9.

3. Let us advance one step further from Noah to Abraham where we shall hear of the Covenant again, Gen. 17. 2. I will make my Covenant between me and thee; and verse 7. I will establish my Covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generation for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee: Here is a Covenant expressly made twixt God and Abraham; but what Covenant was it? Surely not a Covenant of works, but a Covenant of grace. And that I shall clear unto you by four particulars which I pray you well to consider and observe.

1. In this Covenant you have Jesus Christ promised unto Abraham; so the Apostle in Gal. 3. 16. To Abraham and his seed was the promise made; he saith not to thy seeds, as speaking of many, but of one who is Christ.

2. Abraham (In relation to this Covenant) is styled a believer, yea the Father of all them that believe, Rom. 4. 11. And the Gospel was the means of his faith, which was a justifying faith, Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all Nations be blessed.

3. He received the sign of Circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, Rom. 4. 11.

4. Moreover it is said of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that they are in the kingdom of Heaven, Matth. 8. 11. And of all the Elders with Abraham, that they did desire a better Country, that is an heavenly, Heb. 11. 16. And this also proves that neither he, or they were under a Covenant of works (which never brought any to Heaven) but under a Covenant of Grace; for by grace ye are saved, Ephes. 2. 5.

5. Let us go forward from Abraham to Moses, and there let us consider whether the Church were under a Covenant of works, or of grace. That God set up a Covenant in Moses time, the Scripture doth clearly teach us, Exod. 19. 5. If ye will obey my voice, and keep my Covenant, Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. verse 6. And ye shall be un to me a kingdom of Priests, and an holy nation. Exod. 34. 27. After the tenor of these words, I have made a Covenant with thee, and with Israel, Deut. 4. 13. He declared unto you his Covenant which he commanded you to perform, even ten Commandments, and he wrote them upon two tables of stone?

But here it is earnestly objected, What, was not the Law which was given upon Mont Sinai, a Covenant of works? what was it else but a plain and clear manifestation of the Law written in the heart of man at the first, and now revived and set on foot by God himself.

Sol. This is (I confess) somewhat a knotty question, and therefore I would speak warily unto it.

1. The Law given by Moses (Ministerially) was partly Moral in the Ten Precepts, and partly Ceremonial in the Levitical Types and Ceremonies, and partly Judicial in the civil Rules appertaining to the Jews, as such a Nation in civil society; but the debate will principally fall upon the Moral Law.

2. Which may be considered two ways, viz. 1. As to the matter of it, as to which I grant that therein is the Covenant of works to be found. 2ly As to the form or Sanction of it, as given (at this time) to the people of Israel; thus I deny it to be a Covenant of works; Although much which was in the Covenant of works, be in this Covenant, yet this Law or Covenant was not given for this end to the people of Israel, to be a Covenant of works unto them (that is) such a Covenant upon, or from which they must expect life upon their doing.

3. You must distinguish twixt 1. The intention of God in giving the Law, and 2ly The abuse or perverting of that Law. I do grant that many of the Jews did set up a Legal Righteousness for their justifications and rested upon the works of the Law, as if life came by them (against which the Apostle Paul doth notably argue in his Epistle to the Romans, and to the Galatians) But this was not the intention of God in the Sanction of the Law: They never could find a justifying righteousness by the Law, or works of the Law (under the notion of a Covenant of works) Nor did God ever propound it for that end: and because I meet with this choice question, I will briefly deliver my own judgment concerning it in three particulars.

1. That God never did, not will set up for sinners a Covenant of Works.
2. That he did not in giving the Law to the Israelites, set it up.
3. That this Covenant on Mount Sinai was a Covenant of Grace, at least subserviently and respectively.

1. That God never did (since the fall) set up a Covenant of Works: and I will give you arguments to demonstrate it.

1. He did set up immediately after the fall a Covenant of Grace (this the Scripture clearly shows us) but a Covenant of works is inconsistent with a Covenant of Grace; and a Covenant of grace is inconsistent with a Covenant of works, They are mutually destructive one to the other. If of works, then no more of grace, saith the Apostle, Rom. 11. 6. So that you must either deny that God did set up a Covenant of grace for sinners (which the Scriptures affirm) or you must grant that a Covenant of grace is inconsistent with a Covenant of works (which the Scriptures deny) or you must confess that there is no Covenant of works (since the fall) set up by God for sinners.

2. If God did set up a Covenant of grace for sinners, and after that a Covenant of works for sinners, Then he did set up a possibility for sinners to be saved, and an impossibility also for sinners to be saved: The reason whereof is this. There is a possibility for a sinners salvation, as to a Covenant of grace where mercy may be found; and there is an impossibility of a sinners salvation, as to a Covenant of works, where no mercy is to be found for a sinner: But for God to make salvation both possible and impossible for the same sinners, were most inglorious and absurd.

3. To put sinners upon contradictions, is no way suitable with the wisdom and goodness of God. But if God should have set up a Covenant of works for sinners, after he hath set up a Covenant of Grace, he should have put the sinner upon contradictions: you must believe, and you must not believe; you must be justified and live by works, and you must not do so. The Covenant of grace saith you must believe; the Covenant of works saith you must not believe. That saith, believe and you shall be saved; this saith, do this and live: what is this but to build up, and pull down; to offer mercy, and to deny mercy; to give life, and to take way life?

4. To make the Covenant of grace to be changable and void, is quite contrary to the intention and purpose of God who hath made that Covenant to he everlasting, and never to be altered, no more then the Priesthood of Christ is changeable, of which God hath said, Thou art a Priest forever. But if God should set up a Covenant of works after a Covenant of Grace, this would void and frustrate the Covenant of grace. It would throw down Christ as a Mediator, and the Righteousness of Christ, and all the Fabric of a Sinners salvation by a Christ.

2. As God never did (after the fall) make a Covenant of works with sinners, so in particular he did not make such a Covenant with the Israelites when he gave the Law unto them from Mount Sinai, he did not give that Law for to be a Covenant of works, which I shall endeavor to prove thus.

[Demonstrated.] 1. What Covenant God made with Abraham, that Covenant he made with the seed of Abraham (Gen. 17. 7. I will stablish my Covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after thee) But that Covenant with Abraham was the Covenant of grace, and the seed of Abraham were those Israelites: And if those who are the seed of Abraham were under that Covenant of grace with Abraham, they could not be put off to another Covenant of Works, in which Abraham was not, unless you will say that God did act in different Covenants with Abraham and his seed.

2. The Apostle saith the Law is not against the promises of God: Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid, Gal. 3. 21. And do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid, yea we establish the Law, Rom. 3. 31. Mark! the Law is not against the promises, nor doth faith make void the Law; both these can very well agree together; but so they could not, if the Law had been given as a Covenant of works; for now the Law would be expressly against the Promises, and faith would certainly make void the Law. The promises of God are contrary to a Covenant of works, and faith is destructive to a Covenant of works. If therefore the promises, and faith, and the Law can consist, Then the Law cannot be set up as a Covenant of works.

3. That Covenant which God made with Moses, and under which Moses stood, was no Covenant of works; but Moses and the people of Israel were both under the same Covenant, Exod. 34. 27. I have made a Covenant with thee, and with Israel: If any doubt under what Covenant Moses did stand, whether (of works or grace) let him peruse Heb. 11. 26. what a description he shall there find of Moses: He shall there find him to be a Choice and eminent believer in Christ, Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, and having respect to the recompense of reward, &c. Now certainly such a choice believer in Christ was not under a Covenant of work.

4. That Covenant which was confirmed by blood, and sprinkling (which typified the blood of Christ confirming and ratifying the Covenant) was no Covenant of works: But the Covenant which God then made with the Israelites was confirmed by blood, Exod. 24. 7. Moses took the book of the Covenant, and read in the audience of the people, and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. verse 8. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words: Now this very place is quoted by the Apostle in Heb. 9. 19. He sprinkled both the book and the people, verse 20. saying. This is the blood of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you; and expressly interprets it, and applies it to the blood of Christ, verse 14. and ve • se 23. And therefore that Covenant with that people was not a Covenant of works which never was, nor shall be confirmed by the blood of Christ.

5. That Covenant which did so convince of sin, that it did also show the way of expiation of sin, and of forgiveness, could not be a Covenant of works (for that Covenant convinces and condemns) But this Covenant at Mount Sinai shown sin, and the way of forgiveness; for it taught men to look for forgiveness in the blood of Christ specified in the sacrifices.

6. If the Law had been given to the Israelites for a Covenant of Woe • ks, Then upon the breaking of that Covenant, all the Israelites had been cut off from all hope of salvation. My Reason is this, Because a Covenant of Works once broken presently condemns, and (as to it) Salvation therefore becomes impossible, it not at all admitting of repentance, or of mercy, or of a righteousness and satisfact on by another. But there was no such Covenant made with the Israelites as the sinning against which did make their salvation thus desperate, but that upon repentance they might be received to mercy. And for this see Deut. 4. 29. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; verse 30. When thou a • t in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient to his voice; verse 31. For the Lord thy God is a merciful God; he will not destroy thee, nor forsake thee, nor forget the Covenant of thy Fathers which he sware unto them. Lo! here is a way prescribed for repentance in case of transgressions: And here is mercy, and acceptance in case of repentance, and all this in reference to the Covenant made with their Fathers, and with them. And are any of these to be found in a Covenant of works, or upon the transgression of it?

7. It had been strange kindness in God to help the Children of Israel out of Egypt by an out-stretched arm, and after this to make such a Covenant with them, that they should never have found mercy, nor salvation, as in a Covenant of works there is not.

3. The Covenant made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, was at least subserviently the Covenant of Grace: and given for gracious ends and purposes. I say a Covenant of Grace for the substance of it, though propounded in a more dark way, and in a manner fitting for the state of that people, and that present time and condition of the Church, namely so as to convince them of sin, and of their own impotency, and of the great need of Christ, and to fly for mercy to God revealed in Christ, and to be a Rule of life for a people in Covenant with God, that so they might inherit the promises of mercy, Gal. 3. 19. The Law was added because of transgressions; verse 24. The Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified through faith.

This assertion I shall endeavor to make out unto you from the Word of God.

1. The Praeludium unto the Law makes much for this. Read it in Exod. 19. 5. If you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my Covenant. Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. verse 6. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of Priests▪ and an holy Nation. And the Apostle makes use of these expressions, and applies them to those who are in the Covenant of grace, in 1 Pet. 2. 9. But ye are a chosen Geneeration, a Royal Priesthood, an holy Nation, a peculiar peo • le, &c. And verse 10. Which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Now I beseech you mark me! Is there any Covenant (unless that of grace) wherein the Lord doth thus own, and thus exalt a people? Is it not merely of the grace of God in Christ by whom we are made Kings and Priests to God? Is it imaginable that any people should be (as it were) God's own proper goods, which he loveth, which he sets his heart upon, which he keeps in store for himself, for his own special use, which he will not part withal, which God accounts as his rare and exquisite, and precious treasure (as all this the word Segulah doth signify) and yet this people are not in a Covenant of grace?

2. The immediate Introd • ction unto the giving of the Law, Exod. 20. 2. I am the Lord thy God which have, &c. why there is the very Covenant of grace; here is God as our God (and blessed are the people who have the Lord to be their God) and here is Jesus Christ the Mediator of the Covenant implied; for in Christ doth God become our God; and there is our redemption from sin and Satan intimated by their deliverance out of Egypt, and presently there is the worship of God instituted and appointed, which if acceptable to God, must be performed with faith (for without faith it is impossible to please God) God would not command his people so to worship him, as to displease him, Lev. 26. 12. I will set my Tabernacle amongst you, and my soul shall not abhor you, and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people; and in the very Covenant, Exod. 20. 6. showing mercy to thousands of them that love me.

3. Upon the breaking of the Tables of that Covenant before they were written again, there is such a preface made by God, as can no way fit any Covenant but that of Grace; as you may see in Exod. 34. 7. The Lord, the Lord gracious and merciful, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiveing iniquity, transgression and sin.

4. The Ceremonies were Appendices of the Moral Law, especially of the first and second Commandments, as given to the Israelites; and what did those ceremonies shadow out? even Jesus Christ and Redemption, and Reconciliation, and Remission, and Salvation by him, &c. Moses is said therefore to write of Christ, Joh. 5. 46.

5. Many other Arguments might be brought, as that if those people were not in a Covenant of Grace, then none of them could be saved; for a sinners salvation is in no Covenant but that of Grace; and yet many of them under the Covenant which God made with them were saved. Acts 15. 11. We believe that through grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they, &c.

I now proceed to the Second Particular.

2. Quest. Wherein that Covenant of Grace under which the Fathers lived doth consent or agree with the Covenant of Grace, under which we now do live?

Sol. They do consent and agree in three Particulars.

1. In the Parties, God was one party, and fallen sinners were the other party in the Old, and so they are in the New Covenant. Before the coming of Christ, which respects the Old Covenant, none but sinner • were looked on and brought into Covenant, and after the coming of Christ, which respects the New Covenant, none but sinners, which work not, but be • ieve in him that justifieth the ungodly, are taken into Covenant. The Grace of God is manifested towards sinners in the one, and towards sinners in the other Covenant.

2. Both these Covenants had a Mediator who stood between the parties at a distance, and reconciled them, even Jesus Christ, who is said to be the same yesterday, and today, and forever: You have him promised to Adam and made known to Abraham, who saw the day of Christ and rejoiced, Joh. 8. 56. and prophesied by of Moses, Act. 3. 22. Moses truly said unto the Fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him shall you hear, &c. he was promised to the Fathers, and expected o • them, Luk. 1. 69. He hath raised up an born of salvation for us, in the house of his Servant David. Vers. 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets, which have been si • ce the world began. And verse 72. To perform the mercy promise to our Fathers, and to remember his holy Covenant. Vers. 73. The oath which he sware unto our Father Abraham, &c.

3. They do agree in the main Promises; the spiritual promises of good things, Rom. 15. 8. Jesus Christ was a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers: Some think that the Fathers under the old Covenant were fed only with temporal Promises. Indeed they had many temporal Promises, and some were of special Blessings and Gifts, as the land of Canaan &c. Nevertheless they had the same spiritual Promises, which we have under the New Testament.

Forgiveness of sins; besides that place formerly mentioned, in Deut. 4. 29, 30, &c. you read of frequent Promises of forgiving of sins upon their Sacrifices, in Levite. 9 and 2 Chro. 7. 14. If my people shall humble themselves &c. I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin.

Eternal life, both promised and enjoyed; Many shall come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, Matth. 8. 11. They embraced the promises of a better Country, even an heavenly, verse. 11, 13, 16. Prepared for them a City, We hope to be saved even as they, Acts 15. 11, &c.

3 Quest. Wherein they differ, and wherein the betterness of the New Covenant of Grace doth consist.

Sol. Although both these Covenants do agree in substance and end, yet they differ very much as to the particular from of administration or dispensation; I will touch only on Five differences.

1 In Obscurity and Perspicuity.
2 In Burdens and Liberty,
3 In Weakness and Efficacy.
4 In Restraints and Extent.
5 In Time and Duration.

1. The New Covenant is a better Covenant than the Old, because there is a greater Perspicuity in the new Covenant, and a greater Obscurity in the old Covenant. Hence 'tis that the Gospel is called The revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, Rom. 16. 25, 26. He doth not mean that it was kept secret, or hid, or covered absolutely from the beginning of the world to that time; but he speaks comparatively (that i • Now Jesus Christ and the way of salvation by faith in him appears most clearly; the Sun is risen and shines without any cloud; Behold the Lamb of God; Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; He that believes shall be saved; We are saved by grace, &c. I am the way, the truth, and the life: There was not (comparatively) such clearness in expression in the Old Testament; Hence it is, that the Apostle speaking of both these Testaments in 2 Cor. 3. he tells us of a veil on the one Testament, verse. 14. and of an openness in the other Testament, verse. 18. We with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, &c.

Let me give you a few Instances that you may the better understand this.

1. Consider Jesus Christ; it is true that he was revealed in the Old and in the New Covenant; but yet with a marvelous inequality of light; he is called the Seed of the woman, and the Root of Jess, and the Ointment, and the Mighty God, and the Child to be born: But the clear expression of him is in the New Covenant, Luk. 2, 11. This day unto you is bern in the City of David, a Saviou • , which is Christ the Lord. Joh. 1, 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, Acts 11. 38. God hath anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. Vers. 42. It was he which was ordained of God, &c. Vers. 43. To him give all the Prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

2. Consider him likewise in his Offices; these were more darkly revealed in the Old Testament or Covenant in types and figures: His Mediatorship was typified in Moses, who stood between God and the People; his Priestly Office was shadowed in Melchizedek, his Prophetical Office in Moses, who revealed the mind of God to the people; his Kingly Office in David; God shall give him the Kingdom of his Father David: But in the New Testament, these are clearly affirmed of Christ, 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus; He is expressly called our High Priest, Heb. 4. 15. and chap. 5. 5, 6. And expressly called a Prophet, Acts 3. 22. And a King, Joh. 18. 37. A King of Kings, Rev. 19. 16.

3. Consider Christ in the business of Redemption; in the Old Testament this was shadowed in the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt by Moses, and the bringing of them into Canaan by Joshua: And in the Brazen Serpent, upon which they who were stung with the fiery Serpent and looked, were healed. But in the New Testament he is expressly called our Redeemer, and our Redemption; 1 Cor. 1, 30. Heb. 9. 15.

4. Consider likewise the Benefits which we have by Christ in the Old Testament; our Justification was shadowed in the Passover, in the Blood of the Lamb, and in the many Sacrifices of that time, and in sprinkling the blood of the Sacrifice: But in the New Testament this is clearly opened, 1 Cor. 5. 7. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. And Ephes. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin. So our Adoption was figured in the first born; and our Sanctification, in those Legal washings from pollution and uncleanness: But now in the New Testament we have it expressly, Christ is made unto us of God, Wisdom, and Righteousness and Sactification, 1 Cor. 1. 30. And that in him we receive the Adoption of Sons, Gal. 4. 5. And to as many as received him he gave this dignity, to be the Sons of God, Joh. 1. 12.

2. The Old Testament had more of Burden in it, and the New Testament hath more of Liberty in it. Hence it is that the Old Covenant is called a Yoke, Acts 15. 10. and a Burden, Col. 2. 20. and a Bondage, Gal. 4. 3. and an Hand-writing of Ordinances against sinners, Col. 2. 14. What a number of Ordinances and daily Sacrifices? O what a variety, and sometimes costliness of extraordinary Sacrifices for several contingencies of lega • pollutions, besides the obligation of them to the observation of days, and months, and years, and ceremonial Sabbaths; again, the restriction of the people to worship at Jerusalem, where Thrice every year all the males were to come and appear before God, Deut. 16. 16. Moreover a great restraint of their liberty in the use of several Creatures, the eating of which was denied unto them; But now understand the New Testament or Covenant, all these Bonds, and Yokes, and Restraint are broken; Christ hath set us at liberty from the yoke of bondage, Gal. 5. 1. and hath blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us, Col. 2. 14. and any of the creatures is allowed unto us being sanctified by the word and prayer: The Church heretofore was as an infant, but now it is a child come to ripe years, and enjoys a freedom by Christ.

3. They differ as to Weakness and Power; The Old Testament had but a very weak operation in respect of the New; the Spirit was not so plentifully poured out as it is under the New Covenant, and therefore the old ministration of the Covenant is called a Letter, 2 Cor. 3. 6. and the new, the Spirit: he speaks comparatively of the one with the other; That the Old Testament did but as it were declare, but the new doth work powerfully and effectually in our hearts.

Not that the old Covenant had no spiritual influence and operations; for we read of many living under it who were choice and rare in grace; Abraham for Faith, and Moses for Meekness, and Job for Patience, and Josiah for Tenderness, and Hezekiah for Uprightness, &c. But that the more plentiful effusion of the Spirit was reserved until Christ's Resurrection from the dead, and ascension into Heaven; at which time the New Covenant began to appear in its glory and efficacy; gifts were abundantly given unto men, and Three thousand, and Five thousand at once converted, &c.

4. In Limitation and Extent; the Old Testament or Covenant was confirmed to the people of the Jews, and such Proselytes as came in amongst them, Psal. 147. 19. He showeth his Word unto Jacob, his Statutes and his Judgemenns unto Israel. Verse 20. He hath not dealt so with any Nation. To them were committed the oracles of God, Rom. 3. 2. To them pertained the Covenants and the Promises, Rom. 9. 4. And therefore said Christ to the woman of Samaria, Salvation is of the Jews, Joh. 4. 22. But the New Covenant is a more large and open door; it takes in the Jews and the Gentiles, yea some of all the Nations in the world; there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus, Gal. 3. 28. The Gospel publisheth Christ and the Covenant to Jews and Gentiles, and it is powerful unto both, &c. God is become the God of the Gentiles also, and not of the Jews only, Rom. 3. 29. The great separation between the Jews and the Gentiles began upon the coming out of the children of Israel from Egypt, and especially when the Ceremonial Law was set up as a partition wall; And this Separation wall was broken down by the death of Christ, Ephes. 2. 14, &c. and proclaimed immediately after his Ascension.

5. They do differ in Time and Duration, The Old Covenant was but temporary, I mean as a Covenant with such and such ceremonies: therefore it is called weak and vanishing, Heb. 8. 13 What should the shadows do when the body itself is come? But the New Covenant abides forever; It is the everlasting Gospel. And it is an everlasting Ministration both for the matter and manner of it.

There might be many more differences between them produced, but I shall spare to mention them.

Thus have you heard the betterness of the New Covenant and therewith a discourse of the several dispensations of the Covenant; I will make a few useful Applications from what I have delivered, and then I shall go on to another general Head of the Covenant.

Use 1. See of what antiquity the Grace of God is! and of what a length it is! it hath been acting and putting forth itself from the beginning of the world, it is of ancient days, and running along through all ages unto our age, and so shall it hold on until the end of the World. God hath had some (ever since the fall) whom he hath owned in special a manner for his people; There is no age but his Covenant (in some measure) hath been afoot, and some have been tasting of his Grace and Mercy; We in our generation are not the only vessels of them, thousands and thousands before us have been restored by Grace, and saved by Grace.

Use 2. How should this bow in our hearts to come into that Covenant of Grace which hath in so many Generations been found so full of mercy and life? and to trust upon that God who is good, and always keeps Covenant; there is not anything spoken of in any one Dispensation of the Covenant, but it hath been still performed: Surely that Covenant which hath held out so many years to so many Believers, it will be sufficient and effectual for us all our days.

Use 3. Then it is a gross error of the Anabaptists, who put the Fathers under a carnal Covenant, and that God fed them only (with husks) with Temporal Promises, with earthly blessings; as if they had no interest in God himself, nor Christ, nor Grace, nor Glory; whereas the Old Covenant (under which they lived) made up the same relation 'twixt God and them, as between us and God; and they had the same Christ revealed unto them, as we have; and their Faith looked on him as promised and to come, as our faith looks on him as come and exhibited; and they and we are the same children of God by faith, and heirs of the same glory by Christ.

Use 4. Then it is also a gross error to lay any other foundation than what is laid, my meaning is, To set up a Covenant of Works for life and justification, to build our confidences and hopes for life and salvation upon our own works; for God (as you have heard) hath from age to age, and from generation to generation set up a Covenant of Grace (though in several ways of dispensation) for his people, and in these latter times (as the Apostle stiles them) hath settled, fixed an invincible Covenant of grace to the worlds end. And the Covenant of grace lays Jesus Christ alone for the sinners foundation, and gives faith to lay the soul upon him, not upon our own righteousness, but upon his righteousness. You do for lying vanities forsake your own mercies, when you leave Jesus Christ, and expect life from a Covenant of works.

[Use 5] Use 5. If they who had the Covenant of grace more dimly and darkly revealed, were brought in as a people unto God; what shall we say for ourselves, who have the Covenant of grace most clearly revealed in the Gospel, and who have Christ, and all the work of Redemption by Christ? and all the way of salvation by Christ written (as it were) with the beams of the Sun? what shall we say for ourselves, if yet

1. We remain ignorant of mercy, and life, and Christ, and salvation.

2. We remain obstinate, and refuse to hearken unto the way of life, and unto the terms of grace propounded unto us in the Gospel.

3. We still receive the grace of God in vain, and are no way wrought on by the ministration of the New Covenant; but it is still a dead Letter unto us, not a quick • ing Spirit, &c. O how inexcusable are our souls? and how unanswerable shall we for all this grace of God? and how heavy will the condemnation be for despising the grace of God shining amongst us with such glorious light in the face of Christ, and in the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ? If our Gospel be hid, it is hid unto them that are lost. 2 Cor. 4. in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ (who is the image of God) should shine unto them, verse 5.

[Use 6] O what manner of persons should the people of God be in these times, who live under the new Covenant, the best of all Covenants! Better than the Covenant of works, better than the Old Covenant of Grace for perspicuity, for efficacy, for liberty, &c.

1. What manner of men should we be in knowledge of Christ, and of the grace of God in Christ!

2. What manner of men should we be for soundness of judgment in the truths of the Covenant, having so much light of the Gospel revealing the Covenant.

3. What manner of men should we be in the estimation of Christ, in affections unto Christ, in love to Christ, in faith in Christ? to whom Christ is so fully, and so evidently made manifested by the Gospel in his Person, in his Offices, in his Love, in his Redemption, in his Salvation.

4. How rich in grace, how abounding in every grace! to whom the New Covenant of grace is preached, which is of more power and efficacy than any other Covenant which hath a more abundant presence and influence of the Spirit. As to whom much is forgiven, of them shall much be required; So they who have received much, from them doth God expect more.

5. How should you serve your God. and live up to Christ in all intention of mind, and fervency of Spirit, and freedom of heart, and cheerfulness of soul, and readiness of obedience, who are brought into that Covenant which sets you at liberty from a world of Ceremonies, and Sacrifices, and restraints, and besides, from sin and Satan!

6. How chiefly should your hearts be raised to the better promises in Christ fully manifested now in the Gospel! In the Old Testament you find more mention indeed of temporal blessings, and the spiritual were (many times) veiled in them: But in the New Testament you find the greatest mention of Spiritual blessings, and temporal blessings be annexed unto them. And why is this, but because your hearts should be more taken up with, and more set upon the great things of salvation and heaven, than the mean things of earth, and of this life? O that you had hearts suitable and answerable to the choicest & chiefest manifestations of the Covenant of grace, and of the blessings more fully revealed and promised in the Covenant!

[Use 7] How should we Gentiles bless the Lord whom he hath reserved for the times of the New Covenant, which excels the other! It is to me a very considerable Mystery that the Jews who were (if I may so express myself) the Original people of God, the first fruits of the creature, That they should have the largest time under the Old Covenant: And we who are Gentiles that came in (as it were) at second hand, should have all our time under the New Covenant. That they by unbelief were so quickly broken off, and the Gentiles have been for so many hundred years graffed in: whatsoever the mystery of this dispensation may be, certainly we who are sinners of the Gentiles, have wonderful cause to bless our God who hath given us so long a day in the day of his grace; and have singular cause to improve such a mercy with fear and trembling! As we may see the greatness of the freeness of God's grace, and the exceeding riches thereof to us, so should we both lay hold on the grace revealed, and walk with more faith and humility: not be high-minded, but fear: for we stand by faith; Remember saith Paul to the Ephesians, (Chap. 2. 12.) That at that time ye were without Christ, being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel, and strangers from the Covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world? But verse 13.) now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

CHAP. VI.

Isaiah 55. 3.

And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

I Have now discoursed of the Covenant of Grace as it stands in opposition to the Covenant of Works: and I have discoursed of the Covenant of Grace as to the vital nature of it, what it was: and I have discoursed of the Covenant of Grace, as to the Properties and Adjuncts of it.

Now I shall proceed unto a fourth General consideration of this Covenant of Grace: and that is the condition of it. The Covenant of Grace (herein) agrees with all other Covenants, that it is a mutual obligation; God binds himself, and his people bind themselves; there is something which he will do, and there is something which we must do: I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant, Ezek. 20. 37. and surely the • e is a condition in that Bond. God hath his part in the Bond, and we have our part in the Bond; If you trace the Covenant from Abraham even unto Christ (successively) you shall all along find a condition expressed, and annexed unto the Covenant.

Abraham he believed, Gen. 15. 6. And he was to walk uprightly, Gen. 17. 1. and the many Rites in Moses time took in a condition of faith and obedience; and so it did in David's time: and the like with the people of Israel, in and after the Babylonish Captivity: and so in Christ's, and the Apostles time.

SECT. I.

Object. I Know there is a great dispute How any condition can be allowed in a Covenant of Grace: And some are very eager against it: and think that if any condition be admitted, then presently we are Legalists, and are setting up a Covenant of works instead of a Covenant of Grace.

Sol. But I humbly conceive that there is no need of such heat, nor fear of such an inconveniency in this Point, if parties would but patiently hear one another, and calmly consider the matter.

Therefore first I think it necessary to distinguish of that word (condition) which may be taken in a three-fold sense.

1. For such an Act which we may, or may not perform, according to the power and pleasure of our own free will, without the preventing, or determining grace of God: And truly in this sense, I know no godly Christian, who doth, or dare to thrust in a condition to the Covenant of Grace, as if there were something to be done by us (that is) by the sole power of our free wills, upon the drawing out of which, a Covenant is made up, and accomplished twixt God and us.

2. For the doing of some work which hath in it a meritorious reason on our part, either for the acceptance of our persons with God, or for the performance of his promises unto us, so as wages are due to a workman; no such condition as merit and self-worthiness. Neither in this sense dare we admit of a condition in the Covenant of Grace; for the thirsty drink of the water of life freely, and the poor buy without money, and without price: Both our graces, and our rewards are only of the grace of God in Christ.

3. For some qualifications in the sinner, not wrought in him by his own power, but by the sole power of God's grace: without which he cannot stand in an actual relation unto God as his God, nor can apply the promises of pardon and salvation by Christ unto himself: In this sense we do hold a condition in the Covenant of Grace, namely, That something there is required of us, which yet God doth promise to work in us (and which he doth work effectually in the hearts of all the Elect in time) therefore Faith is called the operation of God, Col. 2. 12. and the work of his power, 1 Cor. 2. 5. without which they cannot look on God as their God, nor can apply the Promises of forgiveness and eternal life, and which (when they do find wrought in themselves by the power of God's grace) they can, and may apply both unto themselves.

Look as to make up a conjugal Relation, there is something required on either party; The woman must be willing to take and receive the man for her husband, as well as the man is willing to take the woman for his wife: So it is in the making up of the Spiritual marriage (which is the Covenant) twixt God and us; as he is willing to be our God, so must we be willing to be his people. And as be (therein) takes us to be his people, so do we (therein) take him to be our God; Only with this difference, That in the civil Covenant of marriage, our own will leads us to that; but in the Spiritual, God doth by his Spirit work in us that will, which is a condition necessary to make the Covenant between himself and us.

2. A condition (as thus interpreted) as it is simply necessary to the Covenant of Grace (being a mutual compact, and not a mere promise) so it is expressly determined in Scripture. Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life: ye shall not perish if you do believe: and ye shall have everlasting life if ye do believe. Mark 16. 16. He that believeth shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned. Isa. 55. 3. Incline your ear and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting Covenant. Exod. 24. 7. He took the book of the Covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. verse 8. and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Chap. 3. 19. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, &c. Chap. 13. 18. Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. verse 39. And by him all that believe are justified, &c 2 Cor. 6. 17. Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. Verse 8. and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

3. Every condition annexed unto a Covenant, doth not make that Covenant to be a Covenant of Works, unless you do put the self same condition into that other Covenant which is placed in the Covenant of works: But thus it is not in the Covenant of grace; which

1. Puts not the same condition, but another condition of a quite different nature from that condition in the Covenant of work: There it is, Do this and live, Here it is, Believe and you shall be saved.

2. Puts such a condition which is compatible with the grace of God: Indeed works (that is) a self perfect, and absolute obedience is incompatible, and inconsistent with salvation by grace; but a saving by faith is not inconsistent with grace: Of which if any doth doubt, let him but read the Apostle in Ephes. 2. 5. By grace are ye saved. verse 8. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. What can be can spoken more expressly to show the consistence twixt grace and faith? grace saves, and yet faith saves; ye are saved by grace through faith.

Now from all which hath been discovered, it doth appear that the Covenant of grace can admit of a condition, namely such a condition which is graciously given, and such a condition which will in the nature and use of it exalt all the grace of God. And truly this condition is Faith, and no other thing; for Faith

1. Is the gift of God, Ephes. 2. 8. and Phil. 1. 29. It doth not (at all) flow from ourselves. Therefore believers are said (Joh. 1. 13.) to be born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

2. And it is such a gift of God as is completely adopted to the Covenant of Grace: (To no Covenant but that, and to that it is) For that Covenant on God's part is all in offers, and promises, and givings; and faith is all in receiving, and is depending, and acknowledging, and magnifying the grace of God.

And that Faith is the condition annexed to this Covenant, I shall present unto you a few Arguments (besides the Scriptures above mentioned) to demonstrate it.

1. That without which God is not our God, nor are we his people: And upon which God is our God, and we do become his people and children; This is a condition of the Covenant; But faith is that without which God is not our God, nor are we his people, and upon faith God is our God, and we are his people and children: See it in the particulars.

1. Without Faith there is no Relation (by way of Covenant) twixt God and us;

1. For God and unbelievers are not in Covenant.

2. Refusers of the Covenant, are not in Covenant.

3. Persons under wrath and condemnation are not in Covenant. He that believes not, is condemned, and he shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him, Joh. 3. 18. Ephes. 2. 11. Remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, &c. verse 12. That at that time, ye were without Christ, being aliens from the common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. This was their condition before they were quickened from the dead, and had obtained faith, 1 Pet. 2. 10. Which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

2. Upon faith, God becomes our God in Covenant, and we become his people and children. He upon believing becomes our God in Covenant, Isa. 55. 3. Incline your ear, and come unto me: Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you. And Rom. 8. 15. Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father: And that spirit of Adoption presupposeth faith: None are sons but by faith: And we upon believing do become his people and children. Gal. 3. 26. Ye are all the children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus.

2. That which gives you an interest in Christ, the same thing gives you an interest in the Covenant of Grace. (For this is a sure truth, that according to your interest in Christ, so is your interest in God, and in the Covenant. Out of Christ you shall find no God to be your God) But Faith is necessary to give you an interest in Christ, forasmuch as Christ becomes ours by faith: By faith we are planted into Christ, and built upon Christ, and married unto Christ, he is ours, and we are his.

3. If all the good of the Covenant comes unto us upon believing: Then Faith is the condition annexed unto the Covenant (you can have none of the good of it but upon believing; unbelief cuts you off from all title, and all fruition) but all the good of the Covenant comes to be settled upon you by believing. If you believe, you shall be saved: If you believe, you shall be justified and pardoned: you have the righteousness of Christ by faith, and you have the pardon of your sins by faith, you are heirs of all by faith: He that believeth on the S • n hath everlasting life, Joh. 3. 26. The promise that he should be the heir of the World was not to Abraham, or to his seed through the Law, but through the righteousness of Faith, Rom. 4. 13.

4. All the dealings with God as a God in Covenant, is by Faith; you can have no communion with him at all without faith; you cannot acknowledge him, nor love him, nor desire him, nor delight in him, nor call upon him, nor trust him, nor take anything from him, nor make any use of him or of his promises but by faith. Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God, must believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, James 1. 6. But let him ask in faith, &c.

SECT. II.

Quest 1. BUt now come three Questions, what Faith that is which is necessary, and which must be put forth to bring us into the Covenant, and without which we neither are, nor can be in Covenant with God.

2. Whether Faith only be the condition?

3. Why Faith is the condition?

1. What Faith it is that is the condition?

Sol. There are several distinctions of Faith considered in the kinds of it, of which I shall not speak; and there are several conditions of the same Faith in respect of the particular acts issuing or following from it.

1. That Faith which brings us into the Covenant, is a Faith which respects Christ, or which is conversant about Christ. No other Faith but this Faith; and of this Faith there are divers acts. 1. One is an uniting act. 2. And there is a justifying act. 3. A third is a drawing act.

The faith which brings us into the Covenant, is that faith which doth unite us unto Christ, which makes us one with him: And we being thus united to Christ, we are thereupon, and therefore in the Covenant: Faith considered as justifying, doth not bring us into the Covenant; for our justifying follows our being in the Covenant; we must first be in the Covenant before we can have Righteousness and forgiveness of sins. Neither doth faith as drawing any grace from Christ bring us into the Covenant: Forasmuch as all the fruits of communion are consequents unto us being first in the Covenant. But it is faith considered only as uniting us unto Christ which brings us into the Covenant.

For the opening of this Point (which is as difficult and weighty as any that I meet with) give me favor to enlarge myself a little in showing unto you

1. That there is an union twixt Christ and us.
2. That faith is the means or instrument of that union.
3. That our interest in the Covenant necessarily flows from this union with Christ.

1. That there is an union twixt Christ and us, not an imaginary union, an union only in the apprehension of the mind (as an object apprehended is conveyed and united to the intellect) but a very real union: Hence it is that the Church is called the Body, and Christ is called the Head, Ephes. 5. 23. Christ is the Head of the Church, and he is the Savior of the body. And verse 30 Ye are members of his body, and of his flesh, and of his bon • s. Now there is a real union 'twixt the body and the head, and between every member of the body and of the head; they are all joined to the head by the Nerves and Ligatures from whence they receive their sensation and strength. In like manner there is an union between us and Christ, we are joined to the Lord, (1 Cor. 6. 17.) and he is • oyned unto us, &c.

The Church is called a building, and house, and Christ is called the foundation and corner-stone, Eph. 2. 20. We are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the Corner-stone, 1 Pet. 2. 4. To whom coming as unto a living stone, verse 5 ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, &c. There is an union twixt the building and the foundation, the building depends upon the foundation, and the foundation bears up the building.

The Church is the Branches, and Christ is the Vine, Joh. 15. 5. I am the Vine, and ye are the branches: The living branches have their union with the roots, there they grow, and there they live, and are nourished.

The Church is called the Spouse and Wife of Christ, and Christ the Husband: I will marry thee to myself, Hosea 2. 19. I have espoused you unto one husband, saith Paul, 2 Cor. 11. 2. And twixt them the union is so near, that they are called one flesh, Gen. 2. 24. so likewise are Christ and they who are united to Christ called one Spirit, 1 Cor. 6. 17.

2. That faith is the means and instrument of our union with Christ: By which we are near to him, enjoy him, are joined unto him, possess him as ours. And this the Scripture holds forth unto us abundantly in the several expressions of faith: Our believing is sometimes styled a coming to Christ; Come unto me; and No man comes to me except, &c. A receiving of Christ, Joh. 1. 12. To as many as received him, &c. A livingly Christ, and a living in Christ. Because I live, ye shall live also, Joh. 14. 19. I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God, Gal. 2. 20. and a joining to Christ, 1 Cor. 6. 17. A being in Christ: Ye are in Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 1. 30. and that is by faith. A partaking of Christ, a planting of us into Christ, and Christ is said to dwell in us by faith, and so do we dwell in him by faith, and abide in him by faith. A eating and drinking of Christ, Joh. 6. 56.

When the Spirit of God works faith in our hearts, our hearts are now brought in to Christ; they are subdued and captivated: We embrace Christ, and we come in to Christ; and Christ is ours, and we are his, and the whole heart ir settled upon Christ, and knit unto Christ, and becomes one with Christ.

3. Our interest in the Covenant necessarily follows from this union with Christ. Being brought by faith into Christ, you are now in the Covenant: And that I shall clear unto you thus.

1. The Covenant of God was made first with Christ as the head of the Church, and with us in relation unto Christ,