belonging to the Covenant of Works Quest First In what sense the Covenant of Grace is said to be everlasting Answ For opening this take notice that a thing is said to be everlasting in a two-fold sense 1. That is said to be everlasting that is never to end though it had a beginning So ye find it Psal 24. Lift up your heads ye everlasting doors that is meant of the heart and Soul of man which though it had a beginning yet it 's to endure for ever so Everlasting and a proper Eternity are not one thing it will take two Everlastings to make one Eternity from everlasting to everlasting thou art God mark there an Eternity takes two Everlastings 2. A thing is said to be Everlasting when it hath a proper Eternity So Isaiah 9.6 Christ is called wonderful counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace now Everlasting is to be taken in the second sense it 's an eternal Covenant not only is it never to end and is everlasting but it 's from everlasting however it was Transacted in time with man yet it was Transacted with Christ from all Eternity and it 's as antient as the Covenant of Redemption so ye see in what sense it 's called an everlasting Covenant that is an eternal Covenant from Eternity to Eternity Quest 2. Whether is this a peculiar Priviledge of the Covenant of Grace that it 's everlasting The reason of this Difficulty is 1. The Covenant of Works is older in Time for it was made with man in a state of integrity 2ly The covenant of Works is first in the order of nature for the covenant of Grace being made with lapsed man it supposes the covenant of Works to be broken 3ly It 's supposed by many great Schollars that if Adam had not broken the covenant of Works he had been everlastingly in Paradise and would have continued in pleasure without death so the covenant of Works in the nature of it was an everlasting covenant and consequently this is no peculiar priviledge of the Covenant of Grace Answ For Answer to the Question however the Covenant of Works was treated with man in time and though it be in the order of nature prior to the covenant of Grace yet in the counsel of God the covenant of Grace is before the covenant of Works the reason of it is that which famous Doctor Twisse lays as a Principle that a rational Agent intends first the end and then the midses as a man going to War intends first the end and then the midses the covenant of Grace being the great end in making the covenant of Works that by it he might make way for the end the covenant of Grace the covenant of Grace is first in his purpose in regard it 's the great end of the covenant of Works and he intended the end before the midses 2ly Whatever the covenant of Works should have been is a Question of which the Scripture is silent yet the covenant of Works if Adam had not broken it would have been everlasting but being broken it 's laid aside so that it 's far from being everlasting in regard of duration that it 's supposed that man stood but few hours and it was broken and he was lyable to the Penalty so the covenant of Grace is not only everlasting but the only everlasting Covenant So having cleared that this Covenant is everlasting I will take only this Note and handle it this day Doctrine That the Covenant with Believers is an everlasting Covenant so ye find it frequently called in Scripture Isaiah 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 So Ezekiel 16.60 Nevertheless I will remember my Covenant with thee in the days of thy youth and I will establish unto thee an everlasting Covenant It is frequently called an everlasting Covenant in Scripture I shall not need to insist to prove so well a known Truth but to take way to the Doctrinal Part I would Doctrinally enquire into two things First In what respects the Covenant of Grace is an everlasting Covenant 2ly I would enquire into the Grounds why the Lord in his making a Covenant would not have it a Tack for a lease of years but an absolute Gift and an everlasting one Quest First in what respects it is an everlasting Covenant Answer For clearing of this I desire ye may notice these two generals 1. It 's an everlasting Covenant in regard of Duration it 's from Eternity to Eternity it 's remarkable Psal 103.17 The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him it 's as antient as God and will endure as long as God for all his Decrees and Purposes are everlasting and eternal and an Eternity hath no beginning nor end this Covenant was treated with the Mediator from all eternity and will endure with him to all eternity But 2ly Take notice of this in the general that when God transacted the Covenant with man he intended not to set him a Tack or Lease with reserves but he intended to make an absolute irrevocable Gift therefore it 's exprest in the New Testament not by way of Tack having a number of Clauses in it but by way of Testament it 's the Gift of a Testator ratified by his death and none can revock his Will no he cannot revock it himself so that in effect it 's not a Tack or a Lease made of Pardon or Peace or a Heaven in the Covenant with many reserves but it 's an absolute Gift like the Gift in the Testament that cannot be revocked by any no by him that made it which will appear if ye notice three things First Take notice that when God transacted the Covenant himself and his Son he in a manner bound up his own hands from ever revocking the Gifts contained in the Covenant if once he give them then he cannot revock them Psal 89. If his children forsake my Law and walk not in my judgements if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail my covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips Mark there he binds up his own hands he hath made the Gift so absolute that though he be provocked he will not break it 's not like a Tack made betwixt a Lands-lord and a Tennent that if the Lands lord be forefaulted the Tack will fall he hath past from all these Articles and Clauses and bound up his own hands that if my children offend I will correct them with the rod of men but my Covenant I will not break 2ly I deny not but there are conditions in the Covenant but the man that gets the Gift cannot
in one he offends in all as James says no but we may be stronger in one thing and weaker in another but a wilfull passing by any duty in the Covenant and slighting of it is an evidence thou despises it 3. The strictness of the order of the Covenant betwixt the Commands and the Promises will appear in this that there is no obedience to the Command can be given without the Promise and there is no evidence of a right to the Promise without the Command they are so inseparably knit that a man could as soon pluck the Sun out of the Frimamen and stop the course of the Moon as to obey the Commands without the Promise not that I would have you to run away from the duty but go to the promise with it on the other hand they are so knit together that it 's high presumption for a man to lay claim to the Promises except he give obedience to the Command however some may flatter themselves as the distracted man at Athens who would go to the Harbor with Paper and Ink in his hand and call for all the Ships and take a List of all the Goods into them and come away rejoycing that they are all his there are many do so in the Covenant they take the Promises and count them theirs but there can be no comfortable evidence of a Title to the promise if we conscientiously obey not the Command the reason of it is in the order of the Covenant he that treated and drew the Covenant in all the contents of it so as there is no Title to the promising part without the commanding part and no obeying the commanding part without the promising part so ye see the Order of the Covenant in reference to the Promisee of the Covenant and the Commands of it and the connexion betwixt the Promises and the Commands I say no more of the absolute Order of the Covenant Before I compleat this Discourse of the Order of the Covenant I would consider the relative Order of it Order is a right situating of things in order to the end Now both the Commands and the Promises whether ye take them separatly or jointly in the Covenant are excellently ordered in reference to the ends of the Covenant To open this unto you I will shew you three ends for which the Covenant of Grace is made with Believers or with the Mediator in their name and ye will find both the Commands and the Promises excellently ordered in reference to all the three 1. The Covenant of Grace was made to exalt the Father 2. It was made to golrifie the Son 3. It was made to make the Salvation of the Elect sure and easie Now in reference to all these three Ends the Covenant is excellently ordered in all things I will speak a little to this in regard the special order of the Covenant lies in the wise ordering of the End for which it 's made First I will shew you how this Order of the Promises and Commands tends to the honour of the Father 1. This Order in the Covenant contributes to exalt the Father there are some that write on the Covenant they offer some excellent Reasons to prove that the Father hath gotten a great deal more Glory by the Covenant of Geace than he hath gotten by the Covenant of Works even though Adam had stood still in his Integrity I will only let you see this in two or three particulars 1. Consider the Glory of his Justice the Glory of his Justice is exceedingly advanced indeed he had a great deal of Glory of his Justice when he sent the Deludge and destroyed the old World and when he sent fire and brimstone and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah all men might see the Glory of his Justice in this but this was nothing to what Christ met with from the Father Awake O sword and smite the man that is my fellow Any that heard of the Deludge and of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah by fire would say that he is a just God that would not suffer sin to go unpunished but they that hear of this that he took pleasure to bruise his own Son and had a delight in the breaking of Him that when he stood a Sacrifice in the room of Sinners he would not forgive him one Farthing when he cryed upon the Cross with strong cries and tears being in an Agony and commanded the Sword to awake and smite the man that is my fellow he would not stay until his Sword was wet with his hearts Blood is there not great glory in his Justice All the torments of the damned for all eternity declare not his gloy so far as the sufferings of Jesus Christ 2. It exalts the Father not only in his Justice but in his Power all the things that ever he did to declare his Power the making the World out of nothing and giving so excellent an Order to it declares him an excellent God but the Power that appears in the Refurrection of Christ and the working of Faith which is the exceeding greatness of his Power outstripes that when he made the World he made it out of nothing but here he brings it out of its contraries he brings a heart of flesh out of a heart of stone but the raising of Christ from the Dead that had all that the Justice of God could do and all that Satan could do he rose and declared himself to be the Son of God with power 3. If ye take notice of his Wisdom he is the only wise God the things that we quarrel at we find that he did it in Wisdom he hath given great proofs of his Wisdom but in nothing more than what he hath given in the Covenant of Grace that his Son should come from his Bosom and be personally unite to mans nature and in that nature to suffer that man might not be condemned if he take his Mercy his Love and his Grace and the rest of his Attributes whatever appeared in the Covenant of Works are all nothing to the contrivement of the Covenant of Grace so the Order of the Covenant is so well suited to the end especially to his Fathers golry that in all the things that are done or would have been done from the beginning of the World to the end it never appeared so as by the Covenant of Grace the Father is exalted above all that ever the Angels could devise by this Covenant of Grace But these are but one of the Ends the glorifying of his Son and making the Salvation of the Elect sure and easie are the two great Ends of the Order of the Covenant SERMON XXVIII 2 Samuel 23. Verse 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow THere are three special ends of the Covenant of Grace the exalting the Father the
the day we Covenant with Him we make this an express Article in the Covenant Lord till thou fulfil thy part I can never fulfil my part SERMON VII 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my Salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow I Divided this Verse in five Branches the first Branch was the Nature of the Security that David had from God for his encouragement he calls it a Covenant I have dwelt on this at length though Divines that write of the Covenant insist on several things that I have not mentioned yet I need dwell no longer in opening the nature of the Covenant than I have done there is no man nor society of man can loose the Obligation of a Covenant it always binds either to the Duties or to the Curse and Penalty of the Covenant and if we cast off the Obligation to the Duty wely under the Obligation to the Penalty But before I yet leave this Branch there is one thing I proposed in the Point when I named it that I will dwell on in the Work of this day which is to evidence and prove that this Covenant is a Covenant of Grace for so I told you in the proposing of the Point that the great ground of encouragement at death is the Covenant of Grace I confess I remember not where in all the Scripture it 's expresly called by this Name It 's called a Covenant of Peace and a Covenant of Promifes Ephes 2.12 And it 's called a Covenant consisting of mercies Isa 55. I will make an everlasting covenant with them even the sure mercies of David the root and end of it is said to be Grace to the praise and glory of his grace and to the exalting of his grace There are multitudes of Names given it in the Bible equivalent to this Name a Covenant of Grace Therefore it may very rationally have this Name a Covenant of Grace But the thing I intend to follow in the work of the day is to do these four things and if the Lord be with us and bless us they may be for our edification and advantage 1. I will prove and make appear to you that this everlasting Covenant this ordered and sure Covenant is a Covenant absolutely of Grace 2. I will shew you some reasons why God in Transacting this Covenant would have it to be entirely a Covenant of Grace 3. I shall clear an Objection or two And lastly shall help you to improve it in reference to some particular cases First For proving that it 's a Covenant absolutely of Grace I must first clear what is meaned by the word Grace It 's true sometimes it 's put for inherent Grace which Papists call Gratia gratum faciens 2 Pet. 3.18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ most ordinarly it 's put for Gods free favour and good will so we find Rom. 11. If it be of grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace would not he grace And when we call it a Covenant of Grace the meaning is it 's a Covenant consisting of meer Favour and Good-will and this is the thing I am to make out this day that this Covenant is absolutely and entirely a covenant of Grace I confess this is a generally supposed Principle among Christians yet it 's not well understood First That covenant which is founded neither in the merit of the Creature nor in any alluring motive from the Creature must be a covenant of Grace with the Creature there are must be a covenant of Grace with the Creature there are ordinarly two things that influence Transactions and Covenants the merit of the Creature or if there be no merit some alluring motive Abimelech entered in a Covenant with Isaac because he saw God was with him Shechem is content to enter in a Covenant with Jacob's Children for all their cattel saith he will be ours Many will enter in Covenants with others either on the account of merit a Master will covenant with his Servant to pay him his Fee and that because he hath wrought well or if there be no merit they go on some alluring motive a man will enter in a Marriage covenant sometimes on the account of beauty and sometimes on the account of riches but God is entering in a Covenant with us saw neither merit nor any alluring motive as for our beauty Ezekiel 16.6 When I past by thee thou wast cast out in the high-way lying in thy blood to the shame of thy nakedness and no eye pitied thee I passed by thee and cast my skirt over thee and the time was a time of love And for our goodness and riches Psal 50.12 If he were hungry he needed not tell us for the cattel upon a thousand hills belong to him and Psal 16.2 Our goodness extends not the thee He had been no less glorious nor happy if He had never created Man it had diminished nothing from His infinite perfection Now a Covenant founded and transacted betwixt Him and us where there is neither merit nor any alluring motive must absolutely be a Covenant of free will and entire Grace But Secondly the evince this yet further that it is a Covenant absolutely of Grace compare it with the Covenant of Works the Covenant made with Adam for in the Covenant made with Adam there was indeed Grace in it yet not so much Grace as appeared in this Covenant the Covenat made with Adam was made with a person that did not merit a Covenant yet it was made with an innocent man however he had not provoked God yet he did not merit that God should Covenant with him the Covenant made with Adam was made with an undeserving man indeed but He makes the Covenant of Grace with his enemy For when we were yet enemies Christ died for us Rom. 5. And he gave Himself for the ungodly and not for the innocent any of us may know by our own temper if we shall make that the measure whereby to consider Acts of Grace if a man had never wronged us nor injured us in word or in deed how ready are we to make peace with Him but if he had done his outmost out of malice and contempt of heart it 's not easie to fall under a Covenant with him The Covenant made with the first Adam was made with an innocent man that had done nothing to disoblige Him but when He made the Covenant of Grace He made it with fallen man the ungodly man that was his enemy now what a great deal of Grace was there in this if we had bound up Covenants of friendship and fellowship with a man and if he had betrayed and gone contrare to his engagements and turned implacable and vindictive would we bind up a Covenant with that man again And the case was so when He treated a
Flourishes nor Apples 2. This Doctrine tends not to security nor prophanity in regard all that are in this Everlasting Covenant they receive Influences that keeps them from security and prophanity I will not say but they may have their Winters David had it for a year it was a year after he went in to Bathsheba and murthered Vriah before the Prophet comes to him The Spouse is made to sing The winter is over and past the Summer is come the time of the springing of herbs is come the Spring must come if thou be in Covenant with him therefore it opens no door for Security or Prophanity for they that are in Covenant with him it 's impossible for them to continue in Security I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me 3ly This Doctrine hath no tendency to Security for ordinarily these that are in Covenant if they will not be awakened by the Word the Lord will awaken them by the Rod I have told you that Christ hath three Posts he sends after Believers there is his Word and his Rod and if none of these two will prevail he will send his Spirit and that will prevail they that are in Covenant cannot get leave to live in Security and Prophanity if the Word will not waken them the Rod shall do it and if neither of these two do it the Spirit shall do it so if any shall say I am secure and am living in Security thou may go and dash thy head against a stone but this Covenant is Everlasting and it cannot be altered we shall be judged by it in the day of our appearing SERMON XXV 2 Samuel 23. Verse 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow IN the right up-taking of the Covenant we must not only search into the Nature of it but into the Properties of it three whereof are expressed in this verse it 's everlasting it 's ordered in all things and it 's sure The first of these I spoke to the last day that it was Everlasting and have shewed you many things about it Doctrinally and Practically I come to the second Property Ordered in all things this though ye do not at first see through it yet ye may see it afterward having a great deal of Marrow into it and it 's a very material Property of the Covenant the Word in the Hebrew Vehalma Mentanus renders it dispositum in omnibus Junius renders it ordinatum in omnibus The Septuagints or the seventy Interpreters Translate it by a Word borrowed from a General Marshal in an Army putting all his Forces in a Military Order it 's well ordered as a well Marshalled Army wherein every one is in their proper posture and so is the Covenant ordered the meaning is every thing in the Covenant is fitly disposed or appointed or ordered And for clearing of it ye must take notice that the intention of the Spirit of God in speaking by David that it 's fitly ordered is not only to shew that there is an excellent method and sorting of all the parts of the Covenant but that it is excellently sorted and ordered in order to the great end for which the Covenant was made to advance the Glory of God and the Salvation of the Elect which are the two great ends for which it 's made and herein it differs from the Covenant of Works for though it 's not denyed but it be well ordered and fitted yet it neither contributes so much nor was it so conducible to exalt God and bring the Elect to Glory as the Covenant of Grace is which I might let you see in many particulars it was well ordered in a way suitable to that Dispensation but not in all things in a way tending to exalt God and the salvation of the Elect as the Covenant of Grace is to be brief this is a very special property of the Covenant of Grace and a distinguishing one from the Covenant of Works that it 's ordered in all things not abstractly but in order and in reference to the end which is to exalt God and to promote the salvation of the Elect. So this property of the Covenant is considerable as it 's an everlasting Covenant so it 's Marshelled and Ordered and disposed as an Army in an excellent posture for a Victory This being the meaning of it I will make two Observations and follow them in several following Sermons the first of them I will but name but shall God willing dwell on the second The first is this that such as would have consolation from the Covenant must observe the order and method and disposal of the contents of the Covenant 2ly I will take this that the Covenant is excellently and singularly ordered in all things relating to the exalting of the Father and the Mediator and the salvation of the Elect. Doctrine first Such as would have peace as David had at his death from the Covenant are to consider the order of the Covenant so doth David here when he is rejoycing among his last acts from the Covenant that God had made with him he considered it as a Covenant ordered in all things these that take not up the right order of the Covenant and the method of it can never have sweetness nor peace nor consolation from the Covenant For confirming and clearing this to you I desire ye may take notice of these three things 1. God who is the God of Order and not of confusion for so the Scripture calls Him he is very exact in observing of Order Observe him in natural Things in the Work of Creation what an excellent Order he keeped first to make Light then to make other things and then bring in Man when all things were Ordered for him There is an excellent Order in his Providences the Ordinance of the Sun and Moon and all the Stars have an Order by a Decree appointed them it 's true there will appear confusion in his Providences but they are but like the black and white Threeds in a Web or like the discordant Strings of an Instrument of Musick they all move to make the Instrument play or like the Wheels of a Knock though some of them move against other yet they all tend to make the Knock strike when the hour comes so all his Providences tend to the end he hath Decreed he hath appointed Order in his Church Let all things be done decently and in Order they that are for confusion are not for God for God he is the God of Order and not of confusion it 's true Papists and Prelats would build on this a multitude of humane Inventions but Order is best keeped in the Church when it 's according to the Scriptures God is the God of Order and Parity among Church-officers hath no tendency to
sure 1. He hath sealed it with the death of his Son the death of the Testator maketh the Testament of force Heb. 9.16 Where a Testament is here must also he of necessity the death of the Testator for a Testament is of farce after men are dead otherwise it is of no force at all while the Testator liveth 2ly He hath Sealed it with the Witness of his Spirit every Believer is sealed by the Spirit Eph 1.13 In whom also after ye have believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise it is an excellent confirmation of all the Promises of the Covenant when he gives the Spirit 3ly He hath confirmed it by his Oath Heb. 6.17 Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counset confirmed it by an oath Verse 18. That by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation 4ly He hath confirmed it by the Seals of the Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper which should make you when ye hear of the occasion of the Sacrament of the Supper to run to it there are many very indifferent about it yet in other places they run to the occasion in multitudes All these four Seals laid together prove this Covenant to be sure for whom he loves he loves to the end Lay all these grounds together and these four Seals superadded and ye will see that there is not the least ground left to doubt of the certainty of it for both as to the negative and positive Reasons it hath all things that can sicker a Covenant To make way to some Questions about this sureness of the Covenant I will give you these two things superadded to all the former Grounds to prove it sure 1. The Covenant of Grace is surer than the Covenant of Nature now the Covenant of Nature is very sure the Mountains stand firm and the Sea keeps its ebbing and flowing the Sun keeps his course and the Moon keeps her course and loses not an hour and the Stars keep their course so that a man may prognosticat all the Eclipses to the end of the World the reason is the Covenant of Nature is so sure and the Order given to them is so sure as there may be a sure Prognostication given of all the changes to the end of the World yet they are not so sure as the Covenant of Grace he may alter the Covenant of Nature and not be unfaithful he may make the Fire not burn he may make the Sun stand still he may make the Iron swim he may make the Hills skip like Lambs he may divide Jordan and may alter many things in the Covenant of Nature and not be unfaithful but if he alter one Article in the Covenant of Grace if he glorifie not one that is Redeemed and pardon not one that is a Penitent he would be unfaithful he would deny himself for God may alter and overturn things in nature but he cannot alter one Clause of the Covenant of Grace without a reflection on his faithfulness 2ly This Covenant of Grace is no less sure than the Covenant of Redemption that was made betwixt the Father and the Mediator for in effect it is a Stream of that Ocean there are many of our Divines that continue still to make the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Redemption one Covenant Mr. Dickson hath distinguished them and as appears very rationally they having distinct Articles and distinct Parties but whether they be distinct Covenants or Equal they are equal in the point of certainty they are not surer than other So that if Christ might break one Article of the Covenant of Grace he might break one Article of the Covenant of Redemption SERMON XXX 2 Samuel 23. Verse 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things nad sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow IT is one sweet Property of the Covenant of Grace that it is sure I laboured to prove this in the Forenoon and before I apply this Doctrine there are two practical Questions I will but briefly touch Quest. The first is this is not the Covenant unsure in some things Particularly is it not unsure as to the date and time of the accomplishment of the Promises Who can tell when he will bring in the Jews or when the fulness of the Gentiles will come or when he will give deliverance to his Church or when he will return to a Believer whom he hath deserted Do we not find the Promises generally sine die there is no day nor term put in the Promises Who would take a Bond and count it a sure Bond that had no term nor day set down in it And doth not this render the Covenant unsure Now for clearing of this Question I desire ye may take notice of these three things 1. It 's true the Promises have not a day set down they that will sit down and tell within such and such a time such and such things will come to pass they are adding to the Covenant their own Inventions yet we have in the Covenant several things relating to the term and day that are sufficient and ye will find four things relating to the Term and Day 1. Ye find the Vision is for a set time there is a determinat time with God Psal 102.13 Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favour her yea the set time is come So we know and may comfort ourselves in this that there is a set time of the accomplishment of the Promises with God Habakkuk 2.2 and 3. vers And the Lord answered and said write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it for the vision is not 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 2. We have this relating to the Term that it will be a short time it 's among the last Letters that we received from the Mediator of the Covenant Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be He is making all the haste he can he will not tarry nay he will come quickly and that is more than he will not tarry 3ly We have this in the Covenant that that time will be a seasonable time when he comes with the accomplishment of the Promise It will be a seasonable time 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time 2 Cor. 6.2 For he saith In a time acceptable I have heard thee c. That is a seasonable time now what would we have more Is there any uncertainty in the Promises though they be sine die or
He may deny it for good reasons known to himself and they are especially three why even at the latter end of some he will deny them the actual exercise of the hope of salvation 1. To let them see that he is Lord of his own Grace and of is own time to dispose as he thinks fit for if there were always a hope of Salvation in the end we would think it due though he give it ordinarily yet he makes exceptions to let us see that he reserves a latitude to himself and will not fix nor determine a tine for the communication of his influences 2. There are some that die under some un-repented sins they may have gone through their whole lives and may have heard many Sermons and yet may be secure and quiet and hardned though their Consciences could tell them of some secret guilt they have committed in their life un-repented for no wonder he give them a storm in the mouth of the Harbour not to take away their hope but to let them see that he is Lord of his own Grace and of his own Time Mr. Sibs Observes that they have had manyest terrours in their end that had fewest in their life a person that goes under a quiet peaceable way of Religion all their life time who neither in the beginning nor progress of it hath had many Terrours will have a Storm in the End though he secure their Salvation yet he may deny the strong actual exercise of the hope of Salvation all their Life-time 4. Though the Lord deny the Joy or Assurance of the hope of Salvation as there is Joy and Assurance of the hope of Salvation evidenced in Scripture yet there is in all Believers a secret innitency of hope as there is a secret relying of Faith so there is a secret innitency in hope I have been witness to some that at Death bed bould be brought to no hope of Salvation and when they were bidden quite and renunce and despair of the hope of Salvation no they durst do nothing of that kind which evidences there was some secret act of inn itency on Christ and hoping for the thing promised though there was not the actual exercise of it So in Answer to the Question ye have all these four First That all men have a possibility of hope that the Devils and Apostat Angels cannot have Secondly Believers have always the grounds of hope either in the Decree the Promise or in the Seed Thirdly If the Lord deny them the actual exercise of hope it is either to chastise them for some Un-repented guilt or for tryal to let them see that he is Lord of his own coming and going and not to limit him to a Time Fourthly to learn them to distinguish betwixt a secret act of hope so that a man cannot well call it hope himself yet it hath hope imported in it and a real act of hope that is strong lively and in exercise so that generally the point holds that Believers in their latter end have the hope of Salvation and this hope is a special cordial to patience and longing for Glory and to all to all that I have formerly spoken of SERMON XXXII 2. Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me and everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow DAvid the Son of Jesse in his last words like the Nightingale sang sweetliest towards his end he hath sung of the Covenant and hope of Salvation he had from it he had fallen in Adultery and Murther and many grievous sins yet he casts not away the hope of Salvation but he dies with it among his last words because God had made with him an everlasting Covenant c. I opened the meaning of these words all my salvation I followed the Doctrinal part of the first Doctrine I will come now to the Application and be brief in it But do Believers in their straits and at Death ordinarily rejoyce in the hope of Salvation there is a threefold use I will speak a little unto Vse The first Use is of Exhortation be exhorted to get this hope of Salvation it 's excellent in your Life but chiefly comfortable at Death all things then will be bidding you adieu it 's recorded of Quintus Curtius in the Life of Alexander that when he was going to Asia he distributed his Kingdom among his Favourites and when one asked him what he would leave to himself he answered hope man must in a little distribute his Estate and Moveables and what will he leave to himself except he have this hope of Salvation I exhort you to get this Hope ye that want it But ye will ask how ye shall come at it For helping you to it I would offer you some considerations and some Practices for helping you to it First Take notice of some Considerations and I shall name these three First it may help you to this that ye are under a possibility of this hope hope is possible for you it were a folly to preach among the Devils or the damned in Hell to hope for they are excluded from all possibility of hope if they had ten thousand worlds and every one of them better than this World they would give it all for hope if it were but possible for them â—o get it but there is a possibility for you in a little ye will be beyond the possibility of it if ye do it not now 2. Consider what a dreadful thing it is to be without the hope of Salvation the Apostle Ephes 2.12 Kints these two together having no hope and without God in the world if ye be without hope ye are without God and what have ye in your hand if ye be without God it 's but a poor thing ye have in your own havd ye have your little Cottage and your Dyet and your cloathing is that your all if ye be without the hope of Salvation ye have your all in your hand what a dreadful thing is that and what a poor man is he that hath no more but what he hath in his own hand 3. I exhort you to condsider to press you to get this hope of Salvation that ye are trysted with a tossing time a time of tryal if we were without hope says Paul we were of all men most miserable what will be your cordial in all the trials and afflictions ye may meet with if ye want the hope of salvation I might add many moe to press you to get this hope of Salvation but if ye ponder these that I have given you they may be of great weight I would offer you four Practices I that would second these Considerations with to press you to get this hope of Salvation 1. I exhort you to take heed of a counterfeit hope The hope of the hypocrite says Job shall be like the giving up the Ghost
nakedness so the Covenant of Grace running in this strain we must be altogether free from having any accession to it there is none of us but we may say although my house be not so with GOd when he enters in Covenant with us For further clearing of this it will appear in these three or four Particulars 1. Take a view of the persons he takes in Covenant with him when first he meets with them they are sometimes simpler than other and sometime baser than others it 's not many Wife not many Noble but God hath chosen the foolish things to confound the wife several times when he begins first to take them into Covenant they are in regard of outward priviledges inferior to others was not Esau Jacob's Brother and the elder Brother they had the same Father and the same Mother and any thing that might be a difference Esau had it yet Jacoh have I loved and Esau have I hated the persons he takes in Covenant evidence it to be a Covenant of Grace and free favour sometime they are the simplest sometime the lowest sometime among the grossest of sinners what was Paul what was Mary Magdalen 2. It evidences the Covenant to be of meer Grace in regard of us in that the Lord keeps different ways with them he takes in Covenant after he takes them in and yet he does them no wrong there are some he will call at the third hour some at the sixth hour some at the tenth some at the eleventh he will give as much to them he calls at the tenth Hour as to them he calls at the third he will give as much Glory and as much Honour and when he hath done that he can tell Friend I have done thee no wrong I may do with my own what I will there may be one called in at the gates of Death that may have as much nay a greater gale of sweetness than the old standing Christians ever had it 's remarkable the good Thief on the Cross never man exceeded him in a gale of sweetness yet he searce had it one hour he had it out of Christ's own mouth this night thou shalt be with me in Paradise scarce any exceeded him in a flush of love he tells the ill Thief we are justly here says he but this man what hath he done and yet he came in at the eleventh hour So it evidences it 's of Grace absolutely in regard he will call what person he will in and dispense to them as he pleases when they come in tho they come in at the eleventh hour yet he will give them possibly a Feast that they that come in at the third hour get not 3. It evidences it in regard of us to be of Grace in that the dispensations of the Covenant they are not only communicat to what person and in what measure he pleases but in the third place their Dispensations are limited by no Law either as to Time or Place or Duration or Continuance under the Covenant of grace we cannot telll when we will have communion with God nor how long we will keep it it will sometimes come before we be aware and it will go before we be aware the Design of it is to prove that the dispensations of the Covenant of grace depends on the Will and good Pleasure of him that gave them of take a Believer at his fullest the Covenant is the enjoyment of it is proven to be of Grace in regard the thing given we can have no hand in it and it goes and readily he is no finful cause of it so these are clear evidences that the Covenant is of meer Grace This be the first ground on which I go to prove the Covenant to be of Grace The second is that on Gods part all he does proves it to be of Grace might he not have said that which is filthy let it be filty still that which is dying let it die after Man had fallen but he took another way The Grounds on which the-Covenant stands and the foundations Divines make are three and all the three are to be found in him the first is his Love the second is his Christ the third his Mercy these three are the foundations on which the Covenant stands and they all prove it to be of free Grace 1. There is his Love it 's so much the sweether that love is at the bottom of it if the Father give a Jewel to his Son but if he give it with a frown or a token of anger it would not be so much as if he had given him a Farthing with all the Testimonies of his Heart-love but here we have a Jewed and we have it with no frown it 's remarkable Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because ye were moe in number than any people verse 8. But because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers Now heard ye ever such a because as this I have loved you because I have loved you What Logick would this appear to Aristotle would they not call it an Identick but this holds well in the point of the Covenant I have loved you because I have loved you so that there is the first rise of the Covenant it 's love and if ye say what was the rise of the Love was it Beauty was it Service Merit or Price no it was Love I have loved you because I loved you 2. The great foundation of the Covenant is his Christ therefore the Covenant is called the sure mercies of David now David was dead long before Isaiah's time It shall come to pass says he in the latter days that David my servant shal be their King David was dead but there were two Davids and like the second Temple the glory of the latter Temple was greater than the first now the sure mercies of David are the sure mercies of the Covenant which are called so because they are sounded on Christ whose Type David was and he a Branch sprung out of the root of Jesse 3. The Covenant is founded on his Mercy that ye may distinguish from his love Mercy supposes misery the proper object of Mercy is misery we may rather call the ground of the Covenant Pity I had pity on them for my own names sake it 's not love that inclines some to be favourable to them that are in misery but pity the same was at the root of the Covenant he saw many to be created and born and knew they would eternally ruine and out of pity he entered into this Covenant For further clearing and confirming of this point that the Covenant is absolutely of Grace and free Favour I would have you take a view of the Blessings of the Covenant the conditions of the Conenant and thirdly of the end and design of the Covenant and all these three will evidence it to be a Covenant of Grace 1. Take a view of
the Blessings of the Covenant if ye will but view them in their greatness that God should be our God that Christ should be our Mediator that we should have Pardon Peace Fellewship and Heaven readily we could neither Merit nor give Peace nor Service but some trivial thing in time but what could we do for Heaven if there were no more to make Popery odious that is enought that they plead for merit they that will plead for Justification by Works there seems to be some Magick in them 2. If ye view the Conditions or Terms on which they are made it 's impossible that there could be an Offer made but upon some terms unless God would bring all to glory both the Reprobate and Profane and the Godly he behoved to make some terms and it was impossible for him to make them lower than to accept of believe in and imprace the Son 3. If ye view the end of the Covenant which is the exalting of the glory of his Grace since the beginning of the World he hath exalted his power in his Government of the World and in the end he will exalt his Justice but here in making this Covenant he hath exalted his Grace so ye see this Covenant clear that it is meerly of Grace Before I clear any Objection against it I would inqure into the Reasons why the Lord would have this Covenant absolutely of Grace and free Favour many reasons are brought by them that treat of the Covenant but I will pitch on three or four 1. The Lord would have it a Covenant of meer Grace that is might be sure it could stand on no Foundation without tottering but on his Grace therefore it is of faith Rom. 4.16 That it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed that which makes the Covenant sure is that it stands on God's Grace the Covenant of Works stood on Adam's free will it 's true he had an excellent qualified will and abundance of power and con-creted greace too in as great a measure as he was capable of yet when it stood on Adam's inherent grace it could not be sure but now it stands on Gods grace so that Gods grace must fail before the Covenant fail why he hath made it stand on the foundation of Christ and so long as Grace endures the Covenant endures 2. As he hath made it sure to them that do not deserve it so he hath made it a Covenant of Grace that he might make all the refusers of it inexcusable If I had not come and spoken to them them had not had sin but now they have no cloke for their sin he might have come and spoken the Covenant of Works and that readily would not have taken away all excuses form them but Christ came and spake the Covenant of grace and if he came and spoke it what cloke can be invented for sin and rejecting of Christ in the Covenant ye are told he will forgive all by-gones if ye be but willing and thought ye have a mixture of unwillingness yet if ye come with that unwillingness and accept of his Offer he will forgive does not this take away all excuses what excuse can the sinner have and imagine to have at the great day when a Covenant of grace is offered to him and yet he rejects it 3. it 's of grace to keep the godly humble it keeps them humble if ye take a view of three things that are brought under th Covenant 1. The time was when they were like the worst of sinners there is not one piece of Clay in the hole of the pit not one stone in the Quarrie but they are like other Jacob is like Esau in the hole of the pit 2. Any thing that hath made the difference betwixt a Believer and a Reprobate it 's a thing given What hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why boasts thou as if thou had not received it they are alike in natures and any defference there is it 's but as ye saw on a wall there is one place of the eall dark and on another place there is a ray of the Sun that ray came not from the wall but from the Sun and if there be an Interpostion it will be as dark as any other place in the Wall and this contributes to keep them humble 3. The Lord would have this Covenant to be of grace that he might exalt his Son and there is indeed the great Reason of it the Father intended to exalt the humane nature of the person of the Mediator that is one Design like the Dream Joseph saw in the Fields I dreamed says he that all your Sheafs fell down and mine stood up this Dream the Father accomplishes in the Covenant of grace he would have yours and mine and all our Sheaves fall down and Christs stand up the exalting of him is well payed for he merited it does he not deserve it the exalting of his Son is one great Design he hath in preserving and governing of the World for he hath done him besides the love he had to him a wonderful piece of service that it is a wonder to be considered so that the Covenant might be sure that it might make the Be probate inexcusable for rejecting of him and make Believers humble and yet exalt Christ it 's made a Covenant of grace Lastly he would have it a Covenant of grace that there might run a considerable difference betwixt it and the old Covenant of Works I deny not but there was grace in that Covenant but it was nothing to this these Reasons do sufficiently evince why the Lord would have this Covenant of Grace Object There is one only Objection I will answer May not some say did not our Cautioner purchase this Covenant and in a legal sense what the Cautioner hath payed the Principal hath payed as to all uses of the Law the Act of the Cautioner is to be imputed to the principal Debitor and if the Cautioner hath payed how can it be a Covenant of grace and free favour Answ This Objection will be taken away if ye notice three things 1. It was Grace that made the Father give Christ was ever the like of it heard tell of a Father loving his Son and loving him so well and giving him for his enemy would that derogat any thing from Grace I like the Observation of a Divine he says there are many gracious promises in the Covenant but the Kernel of the grace of them lies in giving Christ of all the wonderful acts that ever was heard tell of the like of this was never heard that the Father shojld bive Christ it 's true Abraham offered to give his son Isaac but Abraham was a Servant and was commanded and he had done a great sin if he had refused beside he knew well that God was able to raise up an Isaac out of his Ashes so that is was of grace he
least failing nor the least idle word but we might sit down and conclude it will eternally cast me in hell for I am under a Covenant that binds me to damnation for the least tailing but the nature of the Covenant is altered and if ye would take up the Covenant of Grace aright labour to understand the difference betwixt the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works that thou may not go ay judging thy case as if the nature of the Covenant were not changed but as if thou were under thet Covenant which is impossible for thee to obey 2ly Not only understand the differences betwixt these two Covenants but exaine these four things that I have often mentioned the principle from which it flows and that is Love and Grace the prive that was given for it that is the Blood of his Son the great contents of it ye have often heard that it 's impossible for him to speak with reverence to promise greater things than he hath done in the Covenant he hath promised Himself and his Son and 4ly consider the end of it and that is for the Glory of his Grace the end of it is that ye may exalt his Grace and so if ye would take up the Covenant a right do not only state it in competition with the Covenant of Works but consider it in these four that are last mentioned In the second place I exhort thee to improve it as the Covenant of Grace I shall first shew you who are they that do not improve And 2ly Give some directions how to improve it as a Covenant of Grace There are three or four sorts of persons that do not improve it as a Covenant of Grace I. However we hold in disput on this head preparatory Works to be in Gods ordinary way antecedent and introductory to conversion yet we determine not the degrees of preparatory humiliation no there is some times the Lord opens the heart of a Lydia and we read nothing of his Low Work before some may reason my work is not of effectual calling why I had never the legal humiliation that some hath but what if he let out thy Byll with a Prin and take a Sword to others What if he carry on thy work of humiliation with thee in the progress of Sanctification What if thy Legal Terrours be before thee that some have had in the beginning of their work He is an absolute Lord that hath the oversight of this thou that will sit and question all thy foundation marks O! I was not humbled the preparatory works was not with me as with others however we maintain preparatory works against Antinomians that deny them utterly they say to what purpose are they We maintain a necessity of them in so far as the Lord bring the work of conversion after them as necessarily as the Threed must follow the Needle But 2ly They do not rightly improve this Covenant hat would make up a hatchpotch betwixt the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace readily there are some they would lay some stress on Mercy and Grace providing they had some works to mingle in with their Grace I formerly hinted at it it 's impossible to be under both Covenants and thou that would make up a hatchpoton of these Covenants in order to thy Justification thou art taking a way to mingle both together and they will never wall well 3ly They rightly improve not this Covenant of Grace that ordinarily reject the offers as either being too far above them or too far below them several Believers when they are called by the Gospel to come in to the Banqueting-house they would be at some merit or price of their own before they can treat with Jesus about their pardon and their peace these take not up the Covenant as a Covenant of Grace and are not improving it as such Therefore I will offer four Directions especially relating to four practical cases wherein Believers ought to improve the Covenant as a Covenant of Grace 1. When under the sense of unworthiness O! such a silly heart as I have and what can I do with it Shall I go to God with it Wilt thou take up the Covenant as a Covenant of Grace I have several times advised you to do with Christ as the Father did with him the Father in the Covenant of Redemption forgave him not one farthing he payed it to the utmost for he knew he was abundantly able therefore he took pleasure to bruise him therefore he required all that he had promised and on the terms promised so if he hath bidden thee come and get the change of an unworthy heart and told thee that unworthiness is an argument of pity do not sit down in the Lond of Famine as Jacob's Children were ready to do in the Land of Canaan even when Joseph hath the Command of all the Store in Egypt and if thou should go down with money in thy hand to buy victuals he will send thee home and the money in thy sacks mouth 2ly It 's an ordinary case when we come under challenges to say there is no hope for me in God what will ye say of Pardon hath he not promised Pardon But say they will he pardon the like of me Will he not pardon the like of thee He hath pardoned as great sinners What made him pardon David Abraham Manasseh Paul but Grace And that same Sun that shined in their days shines now in our days and that same Grace that was then is to the fore yet 3ly Improve it when thou goes to God with any Petition though it be some great thing may be thy heart is broken under the Desolations of the Church of God the grace of the Covenant may be a great encouragement to thee in that case though thou think O! such an undeserving thing as I am and what can Grace do but cast me off But thou may go considently to him if it be for thy self if for thy friend in distress if for the Church of God and though thou have no other argument thou may press the Grace of the Covenant Lastly improve this Grace in the judging of Fundamental Priviledges and in the building of thy hopes of eternal ones First Thy Adoption comes to be a Question what An I adopted to be a Son of God A poor thing But what could that hinder the Grace of the Covenant if Grace thought fit to call thee to that Priviledge These that are ready to think on such great things what is in my walk Shall I enjoy God for all eternity How can it be expected that I shall enjoy him But Grace is the great ground of all our hopes to be brief learn to take up this Covenant as a Covenant of Grace and to deal with himself according to it there are none of you but in a little while ye will be at the gates of death and this will be the great ground of your encouragement Vse 4. The last Use
God All these laid together evidence and are the first ground of the point that when we come to be challenged for guilt yet we may warrantably rely on and plead the Covenant 2ly The second ground is this though it be true the Covenant be a created thing it 's finit yet the rise and Seals of it are infinit there is nothing properly infinit but allanerly God and consequently the Covenant is finit mercy is the rise of it and truth is the seal of it and they are essential Attributes of God so though the Covenant and Promises be created things though though they be finit yet the fountain of the Promises and the Seals of them are infinit now what ever guilt thy soul can be challenged for thou has something that 's infinit in the Covenant the rise and seal of it cannot but be for finit guilt a sufficient ground of relying on infinit mercy and truth if Peter should stand and say Christs righteousness I have denyed him if Paul should say Christs righteousness I have blasphemed his righteousness will not cover my sin that which is sufficient to cover the sins of all the elect is sufficient to cover the sins of any particular elect there is ground under challenges to rely on the Covenant the mercy of it is infinit and the truth whereby it 's sealed is infinit 3ly The great end for which God challenges for guilt is to drive sinners to the Covenant it 's the great end for which he challenges and tells the person my house is not so with God it 's not to drive them from the Covenant but to it the Law in this case becomes a School-master to lead to Christ of all the Logick that ever I read it was the worst in Peter to say to Christ Depart from me for I am a sinful man he had rather ground to say come to me for he was the Saviour of sinners and he had his Name Jesus on that score because he saves his people from their sins Now to say Depart from me to him the case is so as when we say our house is not so with God and I cannot take the Covenant the mo challenges the greater need of the Covenant and here remember that when challenges and terrours are impediments to faith they are like Jordan flowing over all its Banks they are never kept in their proper limits but when they rely on the Covenant and the mercy and truth that are the springs and seals of the Covenant 4ly Take notice of this as one ground of the truth of this that challenges and guilt should not drive us from the Covenant but to the Covenant ordinarily a rejecting of mercy is a dismal sin hardly is there a greater injury done to Christ than when challenges or sense of guilt puts us to cast at his mercy and his Covenant I like the Divinity of one that tells Judas did Christ a great wrong in betraying him but a far greater in despairing of his mercy in betraying him he laboured to take away Christs life as man but in despairing of his mercy he laboured to take away the life of God there is no greater sin than when we cast at his mercy it is despair to entertain challenges and dwell on them and not rely on the Covenant now despair of all sins against God it 's one of the most hellish like and one of the greatest sins I will let you see four evils that ly in this sin of despair and are peculiar to it 1. Despair opposes God in his greatest Commands the greatest Command that ever he gave was to believe in his Son 1 Joh. 3.23 This is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ now despair is unbelief in the highest degree therefore it opposes God in his greatest Commands 2ly It opposes God in one oâ— his chiefest Attributes the great end why he made the world was not to be glorified in his Power in his Wisdom in his Justice but in his Mercy and his Grace there is the great end of Creation and Providence that he may be exalted iâ— his Mercy and his Grace and despair opposes him in this 3ly Despair it enrages the soul against God the damned in Hell that are despairing of Christs mercy are weeping and howling and gnashing their teeth they would even bite God if they could reach him they are compared to a Dog gnashing his teeth in the place of the damned there is nothing to be heard there but howling and cursing and gnashing of teeth and that for ever and ever the reason is they despair of Christs mercy had they hope after a million of years to come to glory they would lay by their howling and cursing but that hope is past them the door is closed and they are enraged and fighting desperatly and none fights so desperatly as Souldiers that expects no Quarters 4ly Despair makes every sin unpardonable the smallest sin committed in the course of our life becomes an unpardonable sin if it be venomed with the venome of despair so ye see despair of all sins is most dreadful and most dismal to God and he that casts at the Covenant when he is challenged for guilt must despair and so eminently dishonour God Lastly We are not to cast at the Covenant in regard there is no way of an outgate from challenges but from the Covenant let folk turn themselves where they will under terrours there is no way of an outgate but from the Covenant and readily they that seek their contentment in other things and cast at the comforts of God under their terrours they are driven to seek an outgate in their lusts I remember a Passage of famous Mr. Hutcheson having one day to deal with a person under the terrours of God with whom he had been several times he made offer of the Covenant to him but the man did cast at all the offers of the Covenant and was overwhelmed with terrours and after several Arguments he pleaded with him thus says he if ye stubbornly refuse the comforts of God ye shall at length seek your comfort in your lusts and a little after the man turned profligat and continued profligat and prophane Now lay all these together and ye will see the truth of the point that when God challenges for guilt it 's not our part to cast at the Covenant but the more firmly to adhere and cleave to it and assert an interest in it Before I apply it there are two cases I will clear First one may ask Shall every one under challenges lay claim to the Covenant There may be a twofold difficulty here First I am not sufficiently humbled to lay claim to the Covenant great sins should have great repentance Manasseh was a great sinner and the Scripture says he humbled himself greatly before God Or Secondly readily one may say I come short of grief for sin and of the tears that an hypocrite will have and shall I
grown secure and neglects Duty and goes out against sin as a friend and has not taken it up as a Enemy and dealt with it so thou may say I have made a Covenant with the Lord but thou cannot say the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant Secondly These that have made a personal Covenant with him and he with them they have a second Mark they follow the design of the Covenant which is Holiness 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord. Now he that hath entered in Covenant with God and would have a sure Mark from his Holiness should look to these two 1. He is to look to the Holiness of his heart and conversation if he say I am holy in my Desires and holy in my Delights I have a holy Joy and a holy Peace and has not a holy Walk and looks not like a savourie Christian in his conversation that person cannot readily say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant he may have made a Covenant with God but he cannot say God hath made a Covenant with me Besides 2ly Not only must Holiness be in the conversation and in the heart but he is careful to prefer the design of the Covenant to all other things if the Lord should give thee the Offer that he gave to Solomon at Gibeon Ask of me says he Riches or Honour and many things he named and I will give it to thee he preferred Wisdom to them all So he that is in covenant with God would prefer Holiness to any thing that God could offer It 's remarkable Psal 119.111 Thy testimonies have I chosen as an heretage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart Mark how he came by that I have chosen what choosed he I have chosen thy testimonies that is a general word it 's no I have chosen thy Promises but I have chosen thy Testimonies taking in the Commands Mark 3ly For what he choosed them I have chosen thy Testimonies for my heretage Mark 4ly The reason why he choosed them I have chosen thy testimonies for they are the rejoycing of my heart importing whatever I meet with I get no true joy from it therefore I have chosen the testimonies for my heretage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart I can get nothing that rejoyces my heart but allennerly thy Testimonies therefore I have chosen them that is the second Mark whereby ye may try if God hath made the Covenant with you if ye have come to take up sin as an Enemy and deal with it so and if ye have taken Holiness not only in heart and conversation but ye have chosen it as your Heretage because it rejoyces the heart Thirdly ye may know if he hath made this Covenant with you by his accomplishment of the Covenant to you if he hath begun to fulfil the covenant he hath certainly made the covenant with you Experience is a notable ratification of the Promise O but it is a sweet proof of the truth of the Promise he that believeth hath a witness within him that Christ is the Son of God he hath the Spirit within him and none can send the Spirit but the Son of God take a view of the Promises and sort them that ye may go to such a Promise when ye are under challenges under deadness and desertion and mark them it 's a dreadful thing when all the Bible is alike to us and when we have not some passages of the Bible that we may say of them these are may Scriptures Now if he hath been pleased to acccomplish the Promise thou may say he hath made with me a Covenant It will fall in afterward when I speak of the several passages in this Verse by what Rules we shall try if the things that we meet with in our Spirit be the accomplishment of the Promise Observe your case and compare it with the Promise many have no skill to do this they take the Promises in Grosse they observe not absolute and conditional Promises they compare not their case with the Promise therefore none is so confident to say God hath made with me a Covenant I say to you go home and say to your hearts the word that Ahab said to Micajah How often shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but the truth Go and charge your Heart and Conscience with see thou tell me nothing but the truth if these Marks do not agree to thee whatever thou say of making a Covenant with God thou may go home after all these Sermons and say I have made a Covenant with God but I dety thee to say God hath made a Covenant with me SERMON XXIII 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow WHen first I entered on this Verse I proposed four things to be considered First the Nature of Davids security it 's a Covenant 2ly The Parties Transacting in this Covenant the Lord and me of these two I have spoken all the things that I judge necessary to be spoken in a multitude of Sermons The other two Branches of the Verse which are the most natural remain to be handled the first whereof are the Properties of this Covenant there are three of them mentioned in the Verse it 's everlasting it 's ordered in all things and sure Where by the way in the general ye would notice two things First That these three Properties are marks of Distinction betwixt the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace it was neither Everlasting nor ordered in all things in any way suitable to mans Salvation nor was it sure so that from these three Properties we can prove That the Covenant God made with David it was a Covenant of Grace and not the old Covenant of Works 2ly Ye would notice that such as would have peace from the Covenant they must study and be acquaint with the Properties of it it 's no sufficient ground for David at death to say the Lord hath made with me a Covenant unless it be an everlasting Covenant and well ordered and sure these who are ignorant of the Properties of the Covenant can never have the sweetness and consolation that the Covenant affords Therefore without further I will begin and handle this day the first Property that is here mentioned of this Covenant it 's an everlasting Covenant it 's true the main thing I design is to handle the order of the Blessings of the Covenant and here before I can come at that I am to handle there are two textual Doubts necessary to be cleared 1. How is the Covenant said to be everlasting 2ly Whether this be a peculiar Property of the Covenant of Grace not