ever and ever,' Micah iv. 5. Persons in covenant with God will not only take a turn or two in his ways, as temporaries and hypocrites do, who are hot at hand, but soon tire and give in, but they will hold on in a course of holiness, and not fail to follow the Lamb, whitherso- ever he goes : Kev. xiv. 4, and xvii. 14 ; Ps. ciii. 17, ' The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting : ' ver. 18, * To such as keep his covenant,' &c. All sincere Christians they keep covenant with God: — (L) In respect of their cordial desires to keep covenant with God ; (2.) In respect of their habitual purposes and resolutions to keep covenant with God ; (3.) In respect of their habitual and con- stant endeavours to keep covenant with God, Neh. i. 11 ; Ps. cxix. 133, and xxxix. 1, 2. This is an evangelical and incomplete keeping covenant with God, which in Christ God owns and accepts, and is as well pleased with it as he was with Adam's keeping of covenant with him before his fall. From what has been said, we may thus argue : Those that keep covenant with God, those are in covenant with God, those have made a covenant with God ; but all sincere Christians they do keep covenant with God, ergo. But,
[8.] Eighthly and lastly. The Lord hath, by many choice, precious, and pathetical promises, engaged himself to make good that blessed covenant that he has made loith his people, yea, ivith his choice and chosen ones, 2 Pet. i. 4. Take a few instances, * If ye hearken to these judgments,'! saith God to Israel, ' and keep and do them, the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers,' Deut. vii. 12. This blessed covenant is grounded upon God's free grace ; and therefore in recompensing their obedience God hath a respect to his own mercy, and not to their merits. So Judges ii. 1 , 'I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land which I sware unto your fathers ; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.' God is a God of mercy, and his covenant with his people is a covenant of mercy ; and therefore he will be sure to keep touch with them. So Ps. Ixxxix. 34, ' My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth ;' as if he should have said. Though they break my statutes, yet will I not break my covenant ; for this seems to have reference to the 31st verse, * If they break my statutes,' &c. Though they had profaned God's statutes, yet God would not profane his covenant, as the Hebrew runs, * My covenant will I not break ;' that is, I will stand steadfastly to the performance of it, and to every part and branch of it, I will never be inconstant, I will never be off and on with my people, I will never change my purpose, nor eat my words, nor unsay what I have said. So Jer. xxxiii. 20, ' Thus saith the Lord, If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night,2 and that there shall not be day and night in their season ;' ver. 21, ' Then may also my covenant be broken with my servant David,' &c. It is impossible for any created power to break off the intercourse of night and day, so it is impossible for me to break the covenant that
1 Under the name judgments, the commandments and statutes of God are con- tained.
* That is, the order that I have set upon the courses and the revolutions of day and night.
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I have made with David, my servant ; the day and night shall as soon fail as my covenant shall fail. So Isa. liv. 10, ' The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; hut my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.' Though great and huge mountains should remove, yea, though heaven and earth should meet, Ps. xlvi. 2, yet the covenant of God with his people shall stand unmovable. The covenant of God, the mercy of God, and the loving-kindness of God to his people, shall last for ever, and remain constant and im- mutable, though all things in the world should be turned upside down. So Ps. cxi. 4, ' The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion ;' ver. 5, ' He will ever be mindful of his covenant.' God looks not at his people's sins, but at his own promise ; he, will pass by their infirmities, and supply all their necessities. God will never break his covenant, he will never alter his covenant, he will still keep it, he will for ever be mindful of it. The covenant of God with his people shall be as inviolable as the course and revolution of day and night, and more immovable than the very hills and mountains. From what has been said, we may thus argue : If God hath, by many choice, precious, and pathetical promises, engaged himself to make good that blessed covenant that he has made with his people, then certainly there is a covenant between God and his people ; but God hath, by many choice, precious, and pathetical promises, engaged himself to make good his covenant to his people. Ergo. . . .
I might have laid down several other unanswerable arguments to have evinced this blessed truth, that there is a covenant betwixt God and his people ; but let these eight suffice for the present.
7. Seventhly and lastly, Premise this with me — viz., that it is a matter of high importance and of great concernment, for all mortals to have a clear and a right understanding of that covenant under which they are, 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4. God deals with all men according to the covenant under which they stand. We shall never come to under- stand our spiritual estate and condition, till we come to know under what covenant we are, Ps. cv. 8, cxi. 5 ; 1 Cor. xi. 28 ; Gal. iv. 23-25. If we are under a covenant of works, our state is miserable ; if we are under a covenant of grace, our state is happy; if we die under a covenant of works, we shall be certainly damned ; if we die under a covenant of grace, we shall be certainly saved. Until we come to understand under what covenant we are, we shall never be able to put a right construction, a right interpretation, upon any of God's actions, dealings, or dispensations towards us. When we come to understand that we are under the covenant of grace, then we shall be able to put a sweet, a loving, and a favourable construction upon the most sharp, smart, severe, and terrible dispensations of God, knowing that all flows from love, and shall work for our external, internal, and eternal good, and for the advancement of God's honour and glory in the world. 1 When we come to understand that we are under a covenant of works, then we shall know that there is wrath, and curses, and woes wrapped up in the most favourable dispensations, and in the
1 Rev. iii. 19; Job i. 21 ; Jer. xxiv, 4, 5; Rom. viii. 28 j Heb. xii. 10, 11 ; 2 Cor. iv. 15-18.
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