Now, whenever you look upon your graces or gracious evidences with one eye, be sure you look upon the covenant of grace, your last royal fort, with the other eye. The whole hinge of a man's comfort and happiness hangs upon the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace is the saint's original title to heaven ; it is a saint's best and brightest evidence for life and salvation. There was an eternal design, an eternal plot, if I may so speak, betwixt God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ; a bargain, a covenant made between the Father and the Son, for the salvation of his chosen ones ; and by this patent and tenure of grace all saints have title to heaven, &c. Dear Christians, many times your gracious evidences are so blotted and blurred that you cannot read them. Oh then, turn to the covenant of grace! When other evidences fail you, the covenant of grace will be a glorious standing evidence to you. It is upon the score of the covenant that you must challenge an interest in all the glory of another world. The covenant of grace is the great charter, the magna charta, of all your spiritual privileges and im- munities. Now, in this great charter the Lord declares that sincerity shall go for perfection, Luke i. 5, 6. In this great charter the Lord hath declared that he judges his people by the standing bent and frame of their hearts, and not by what they are under some pangs of passion, or in an hour of temptation. Acts xiii. 22. In this great charter the Lord declares that his eye is more upon his people's inward disposition than it is upon their outward actions, 2 Chron. xxx. 18-20 ; and that his eye is more upon their will than it is upon their work, 2 Cor. viii. 12, Philip, ii. 13. In this great charter, the covenant of grace, the Lord hath declared that he will not forsake his people, nor cast off his people, because of those failings and weaknesses that may, and do, attend them : 1 Sam. xii. 22, ' For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake : because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people.' Ponder much upon Jer. xxxi. 31-38. He chose you for his love, and he still loveth you for his choice. God will rather pity his people under their weakness than he will reject them for their weakness. The cove- nant of grace that God hath made with his people is as the covenant that a man makes with his wife. ' I will betroth thee unto me for ever, saith the Lord. Turn, 0 backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you,' Hosea ii. 19, 20 ; Jer. iii. 13. Now, a man will never reject his wife ; he will never cast off his wife for those common weaknesses and infirmities that daily attends her; no more will the Lord cast off his people because of the infirmities that daily hang upon them. In this great charter — the covenant of grace — the Lord declares that he will require no more than he gives, and that he will give what he re- quires, and that he will accept what he gives ; and what can a God say more ? and what can a gracious soul desire more ?
O sirs ! when all is cloudy overhead, and all dark within doors ; when
Chap. V.] a cabinet of jewels. 491
a Christian's graces are not transparent, when his evidences for heaven are soiled and blotted, and when neither heart nor house are as they should be, it is good then to turn to the covenant of grace, and to dwell upon the covenant of grace. Thus David did : 2 Sam. xxiii. 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.' Let me give a little light into the words.
' Although my house be not so with God.' Though David in the main had a good heart, yet he had but a wicked house. Absalom had slain his brother, rebelled against his father, and lay with his father's concubines ; and Amnon had deflowered his sister, &c. Now David, under a deep sense of all this wickedness, and of his own personal un- worthiness, sadly sighs it out, ' Although my house be not so with God,' &c. ; though I have not walked so exactly and perfectly as I should have done, though neither I nor my house have walked answerable to those great mercies and singular kindnesses of God that have been ex- tended to us ;
' Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant' The word everlasting hath two acceptations. 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 it denotes a perpetual duration, a duration which shall last for ever. In this respect the covenant of grace is everlasting. It shall never cease, never be broken, nor never be altered.^ Now, the covenant of grace is an everlasting covenant in a twofold respect :
First, Ex paiie fcederantis, in respect of God, who will never break covenant with his people ; but is their God, and will be their God for ever and ever : Ps. xlviii. 14, ' For this God is our God for ever and ever : he wiU be our guide even unto death.' Ay, and after death too ; for this is not to be taken exclusive. He wiU never leave his people, nor forsake his people, Heb. xiii. 5, 6.
Secondly, Ex parte confoederatoruiii, in respect of the people of God, who are brought into covenant, and shall continue in covenant for ever and ever. You have both these expressed in that excellent scripture, Jer. xxxii. 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.' Seriously dwell upon the place. It shews 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 ? '1 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 for ever').
' Ordered in aU things.' Oh what head can conceive, or what tongue can express that infinite counsel, wisdom, love, care and tenderness, that the blessed God has expressed in ordering the covenant of grace, so as it may most and best suit to all the wants, and straits, and necessities, and miseries, and desires, and longings of poor sinners' souls. The co- venant of grace is so well ordered by the unsearchable wisdom of God, 1 Vide Isa. Iv. 3 ; Gen. xvii. 7 ; Ps. cv. 9, 10 ; Isa. Ixi. 8 ; Heb. iii. 20.
492 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. V.