3. His gracious covenant, which may be considered — (1.) As to the terms or conditions it requires ; (2.) As to the penalties which God hath reserved a liberty to inflict.
[1.] As to the terms or conditions propounded. It requireth per- fection, and accepteth of sincerity. It requires perfection : Gen. xvii. 1, ' I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect.' Surely the covenant of grace requireth perfection, for the righteous law is adopted into the frame of it as the rule of our duty ; otherwise our defects were no sins, and otherwise allowed failings were consistent with sincerity ; and where shall we then stop? otherwise we were not obliged to strive after perfection ; for it were only a work of super- erogation, not of necessary duty to press towards the mark. Therefore certainly it doth invite us to the highest degree of goodness, and raaketh perfection itself our duty. And there is mercy in it, that our duty and happiness may agree, and we may not have liberty to be bad
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and miserable, but ever bound to our own felicity, whicli consisteth in an exact conformity to God, and the most perfect subjection to him. But yet it accepteth of sincerity. If our hearts be upright with God, and set to obey, please, and glorify him, and we make it our main work so to do, God will not enter into judgment with his servants, nor be strict to his children, nor condemn those that love and fear him: 2 Chron. xxx. 18-20, ' But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purifi- cation of the sanctuary. And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.' Therefore he taketh not advantage of our infir- mities to ruin us. Indeed, as the covenant commanded perfection, it noteth our infirmities, to humble us, in order to our cure ; but as it accepteth of sincerity, Christ looketh not to our infirmities as a judge, but as a tender physician, to rid us of them, and free us from them more and more.
[2.] As to the afflictions and penalties, which God hath reserved a liberty to inflict, notwithstanding the new covenant, they all infer his sparing of us ; for they are but temporal evils, when we have deserved eternal ; and the temporal evil is sent to prevent eternal. It is true they are merited by our sin, but yet they turn to our^ good ; they are in themselves the effects of God's displeasure, and parts of our misery, but by them he speaketh to the conscience of a sinner, and sealeth instruction to our hearts, that we no longer deal perversely ; for the rod hath a voice : Micah vi. 9, ' Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.' In short, they are in themselves, and in their own nature, evils of punishment ; but their property is changed, and so they are acts of God's faithfulness : Ps. cxix. 75, ' I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me ; ' and they are sent to us as a needful medicine : Isa. xxvii. 9, ' By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin ; ' and are profitable acts of God's fatherly discipline : Heb. xii. 10, ' For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be par- takers of his holiness.' Mercy turneth them to our benefit. It is our part to seek after the benefit ; it is God's part to give it, and to remove the affliction, and that is his sparing. Hie ure, hie seca, modo in ceternum parcas ; or. Burn me, or cut me, or do what thou wilt with me here, so thou spare me as to eternal punishment, said one of the ancients.
4. From his comfortable relation to us. He is our Father, and a father will not be severe to his children, partly out of instinct of nature, which inclineth the brutes to their young ones, till they can shift for themselves; and partly from reason, which should guide men, they being our own flesh, blood, and bone, a new and second self; the child is the father multiplied, and the father continued ; and partly out of conscience of God's command, who hath enjoined this duty on parents, to be tender of their children. Now if God be our Father, and will take the relation upon himself, he will do whatever this rela- tion implieth : Ps. ciii. 13, ' Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth those that fear him.' Yea, whatever is in the creature is ascribed to God per modum eminentice — by way of eminency ; Uxm
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pater nemo — no one is so much a father as God: Luke xi. 13, 'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? ' So in the present case —