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alone. God's truth and fidelity unto his people that are in covenant with him, are the true ground of all their safety. He doth not change, Mal. iii. 6: therefore we do not perish, who otherwise from the days of our fathers are gone astray. His mercies are "from everlasting to everlasting," Psalm ciii. 17; from everlasting in predestination, to everlasting in glorification. He gave "grace, and promised eternal life, before the world began," 2 Tim. i. 9; before they were extant, or had any being (further than in the purpose of God), on whom the grace was bestowed, to whom the life was promised. And what he did from eternity purpose, he will not in time revoke; for "his gifts are without repentance," Rom. xi. 29. He doth, by his faith and fear, preserve his people through his power unto that mercy which he hath from eternity given them, Jer. xxxii. 40; 1 Peter i. 5. Of themselves, they fall dangerously and frequently from their own steadfastness; and then the Lord doth chastise their wanderings with the rod of a Father, but doth not utterly take away his lovingkindness.

The covenant and grace thereof, is free and absolute, not conditional, and suspended upon the unstable will of man. "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy," and sheweth it on whom he will, Rom. ix. 15-18.-Between God the Father indeed, and Christ, as a second Adam, the transaction of the covenant was wholly conditional. He was to take from his Father a commission in our nature, to lay down his life, and to take it up again; to fulfil all righteousness; to be made sin for us; to have our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace laid upon him, before he could see of the travail of his soul. Yea, he undertook not only for his own

work, but for ours. By the preciousness of his blood he purchased; and out of the plenitude of his Spirit, he supplieth unto us whatever grace is requisite unto our salvation. But I say, as to us, the grace of the covenant is thus far free and absolute, that no duties are required of us, which are not as branches of the same covenant bestowed upon us. He hath promised to give a new heart, and to put a new spirit within us to take away the stony heart out of our flesh, and to give us an heart of flesh-to put his Spirit within us, and to cause us to walk in his statutes-to save us from all our uncleanness-to cleanse us from all our iniquities, Ezek. xxxvi. 25—27, 29, 33. And, though he there tells us, that he will be "inquired of by the house of Israel, to do these things for them," verse 37 ; yet we know, it is he only who poureth out the Spirit of grace and supplication, whereby we make this inquiry of him, Zech. xii. 10. True, indeed, it is, that when we believe, it is we only that believe; and when we work, it is we that work; but our working is not the cause of his grace, but his grace the cause of our working: and, therefore, the apostle saith, "I laboured more abundantly than they all,"-to note that the labour was his

"yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me," to note, that the power was God's, 1 Cor. xv. 10. "Thou hast wrought all our works in us," saith the prophet, Isaiah xxvi. 12. The works are ours, the strength is thine. Ours the heart and the hand that act; thine the spirit and grace whereby we act. He doth not withhold his love, till our wills prevent him, and move him to extend it; but, he doth, out of his own free love, frame our hearts unto the love of him, and work the will in us, which he requires of us, Phil. ii. 12, 13. We repent because he turns us: he doth

not turn to us, because we first turn to him; his love prevents ours, and doth not stay for it, 1 John iv. 19; Isaiah xlviii. 9, 11. The covenant and the grace thereof are immutable, and therefore change not with the unstable will of man. "God is not man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it, hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Numb. xxiii. 19. His covenant of grace is confirmed by an oath, to show the immutability of it. "This is as the waters of Noah unto me, saith the Lord: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For 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," Isaiah liv. 9, 10. A covenant, thus founded upon mere mercy, and sealed by an oath, is more immoveable than hills and mountains. The strong foundations of the earth shall be sooner shaken, than the oath of God miscarry. The oath of God is the strongest demonstration of the immutability of his counsel that can possibly be used, Heb. vi. 17: for where He swears, He doth not repent, Psalm cx. 4. Every work of mercy which He begins, He carries on to a consummation, Phil. i. 6. The foundation of God standeth sure-cannot be infringed, shaken, or undermined by the levity or inconstancy of the will of man, 2 Tim. ii. 19. Whatever the fluctuation of the heart of man may be, "The counsel of the Lord that shall stand," Prov. xix. 21; Psalm xxxiii. 10, 11.

The covenant and grace thereof is most powerful and efficacious. Therefore his mercies are sure-his promises yea and amen! because his word is settled in heaven

seconded with his power; which will find means to effect whatever He has spoken. "God hath spoken once," saith the Psalmist, "twice have I heard this." It is a word constant and stable-a word doubled, to note the certainty of it; as Joseph said unto Pharaoh, Gen. xli. 32. "Power and mercy belong unto God," Psalm lxii. 11, 12. Every promise which mercy makes, power performs. If mercy promise a heart of flesh, and to put His fear into us, God hath power enough to make it good. He may as soon be an impotent, as an unfaithful God. Abraham considered not the impotency of his own body, but the power of God to make good his promise, and therefore "staggered not through unbelief," Rom. iv. 19 -21. And so the apostle argues touching the conversion of the Jews:-" If they abide not still in unbelief, they shall be graffed in: for God is ABLE to graff them in," Rom. xi. 23.

The covenant and grace thereof is invincible by many adverse assaults; nothing can alter, or overrule the will of God, or cause him to recede from his own purposes of showing mercy. If anything could, sin could: but he hath assured us, that that shall not. "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments ; then will I visit their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes: nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail; my COVENANT will I not break," &c. Psalm lxxxix. 30-34. Though he punish, it shall be in measure; not unto rejection, but unto emendation, Isaiah xxvii. 8, 9. As to the guilt of sin, and damnation due unto it, he will pardon it: "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," Jer. xxxi. 34. As to the dominion thereof, he will subdue it, and

purge it away, Micah vii. 18-20; Psalm lxv. 3. As to the particular prevalency of any lust, he will awaken us to repent-make us by some word, or affliction, or mercy, or example, or providence, to search and consider our ways, and return from all our evil doings. So he did David, by the ministry of Nathan-so Peter by the look of Christ. As to the remainders of it, he will daily mortify, and destroy them, Rom. vi. 6. Sin, then, shall not break out so far as to annul the covenant: for who then could be saved? seeing, "in many things, we offend all," and, by the grace of the covenant alone, are preserved from offending more. Nay, the Lord is so gracious to his people, that their very sins, which of themselves do only defile and endanger them, are, by God's goodness, ordered unto their benefit. The Lord could keep his servants from falling, Jude 24; and preserve them blameless, 1 Thess. v. 23; but he is pleased sometimes to leave them, that they may know themselves, and their own weakness; that they may bemoan their own misery, and loathe themselves in their own eyes, Ezek. xx. 43. -That they may be driven to live upon free grace, and pardoning mercy alone, Psalm li. 1.-That they may set a higher price upon the Lord Jesus, who is a sanctuary for the chief of sinners to flee unto, 1 Tim. i. 15.-That they may be the more watchful over their corrupt and deceitful hearts, having so often been betrayed by them.That they may pray more earnestly for the subduing and mortifying of prevalent corruptions, Rom. vii. 23. In these and other the like ways, the Lord hath to order the very sins of his people unto their good. And if sin shall not prevail against the covenant, we are sure, nothing else shall: He that pardoneth sin, rebuketh Satan, and conquereth the world. His love is above the reach of anything to separate us from it, Rom. viii. 33-39: none

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