justification, glorification; it is the highest link in the golden chain of salvation. What is the reason that God has entered into a covenant with fallen man ? it is from his eternal purpose. What is the reason that one man is brought under the bond of the covenant and not another ? it is from the eternal purpose of God, Ezek. xx. 37. In all the great concerns of the covenant of grace, the purpose of God gives the casting voice. The purpose of God is the sovereign cause of all that good that is in man, and of all that external, internal, and eternal good that comes to man. Not works past, for men are chosen from everlasting ; not works present, for Jacob was loved and chosen before he was born ; nor works foreseen, for men were all corrupt in Adam. All a believer's present happiness, and all his future happiness, springs from the eternal purpose of God ; as you may see, by comparing the scriptures in the margin together.^ This purpose of God speaks our stability and certainty of salvation by Christ, God's eternal purpose never changes, never alters ; ' Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed,' saith God, * so shall it stand.' God's purposes are immutable, so is his covenant. God's purposes are sure, very sure, so is his covenant. The covenant of grace that flows from the eternal purpose of God, is as sure as God is sure ; for God can neither deceive nor be deceived. That covenant that is built upon this rock of God's eternal purpose, must needs be sure ; and therefore all that are in covenant with God need never fear falling away. There is no man, no power, no devil, no violent temptation, that shall ever be able to overturn those that God has brought under the bond of the covenant, John x. 28-31 ; 1 Pet. i. 5. But,
(2.) Secondly, Consider that the covenant of grace is confirmed and made sure by the blood of Jesus Christ, which is called ' the blood of the everlasting covenant,' Heb. xiii. 20. Christ, by his irrevocable death, hath made sure the covenant to us, Heh. ix. 16, 17. The covenant of grace is to be considered under the notion of a testament ; and Christ, as the testator of this will and testament. 2 Now look, as a man's will and testament is irrevocably confirmed by the testator's death; — ' For where a testament is, there must also, of necessity, be the death of the testator ; for a testament is of force, after men are dead ; otherwise, it is of no strength at all whilst the testator liveth ;' — these two verses are added as a proof of the necessity of Christ's manner of confirming the new testament as he did, namely, by his death. The argument is taken from the common use and equity of confirming testaments, which is by the death of the testator. A testa- ment is only and wholly at his pleasure that maketh it, so that he may alter it, or disannul it while he liveth, as he seeth good ; but when he is dead, he not remaining to alter it, none else can do it. In the seventeenth verse, the apostle declareth the inviolableness of a man's last will, being ratified as before by the testator's death. This he sheweth two ways: (1.) Affirmatively; in these words, ' A testa-
» Rom. viii. 28, and ix. 11 ; Eph. i. 11, and iii. 11 ; 2 Tim. i. 9.
^ The main point which the apostle intended, by setting down the inviolableness of men's last wills after their death, is to prove that Christ's death was very requisite for ratifying of the New Testament : consult the scriptures. Mat. ivi. 21 ; Luke ixiv. 26 ; Heb. ii, 10, 17.
318 THE COVENANT OF GRACE PROVED AND OPENED.