2. It is secure also on our part, where all the danger lieth ; as God will not depart from us, so he will take care we shall not depart from him ; so that if once we truly and really enter into covenant with God, we do not only keep the covenant, but the covenant keepeth us. Two- things maketh it firm on our parts —
[1.] Internal grace vouchsafed and granted to us by promise: Jer. xxxii. 40, •' And 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.' So Ezek. xxxvi^
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27, * I will put my Spirit within 3'ou, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep ray judgments, and do them.' It doth not hang upon the mutable motions of the creature's will.
[2.] External providence, or the provision that is made for failings and slips, where the heart is sincere for the main. There is a clause put into the covenant, that every failing in the performance of our duty shall not make a forfeiture. See Ps. Ixxxix. 30-33, ' If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their trans- gressions with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes ; nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.' It is the duty of God's children to watch over their corrupt nature and against temptations, that they may not fail, otherwise they are not sincere ; but yet, notwithstanding their greatest watchfulness, they will in some things be found faulty, both in point of omission and commission, yet the Lord will not be severe upon every trespass ; the covenant goeth on still, notwithstanding lesser trans- gressions on our part : 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.' We are not so firm as God, but remission of sins is one of the covenant privileges, and remaineth notwithstanding the defects and failings on our part. When we grow secure, and neglect our duty, and do not watch over ourselves, the jealous God will watch over us, and take away the fuel of our lusts, and quicken us to repentance and the remembrance of our duty. The sharpest rods and sorest stripes may stand, and do stand with his cove- nant love to them : Ps. cxix. 75, ' I know that in faithfulness hast thou afflicted me.' Yea, not only so, but they are part of his covenanting administrations ; they are fatherly corrections, and medicinal preserva- tives against sinning ; they are tokens of God's hating sin in his people, but not of the rejection of their persons, but rather effects of his love to the persons corrected.
II. The confirmation.
1. In the general, God's bill and bond hath a seal annexed to it. A seal is to make a thing unquestionable. The prophet, in his bargain for the field of Anathoth, Jer. xxxii. 10, 11, saith, ' I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it ; and I took the evidence of the purchase, which was sealed according to the law and custom.' The sealing of the deeds was an assurance by which an inheritance was made over; and a covenant and bargain ratified was sealed by both parties. So is God's covenant sealed, for the more assurance, by God and us.
2. I shall show particularly the nature of the seal on God's part and ours.
[1.] The seal of the covenant hath an impression suitable to God's part, ' The Lord knoweth those that are his ; ' where there is a double comfort and ground of assurance to God's covenant people — (1.) They are his ; (2.) He knoweth them.
(1.) They are his.
(1st.) By election from all eternity : John xvii. 6, ' Thine they were.' By this there is a distinction between them and others in the
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purposes of his grace. When the Lord had all Adam's posterity under his all- seeing eye, he did out of his free love choose some from among others to be the objects of his special grace.
(2d) By effectual calling, which is their actual choice, by which a distinction is made between them and others in time : 2 Thes. ii. 13, ' God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sancti- fication of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.' His actual choice is there meant : John xv. 19, 'I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.' The world knoweth not the secrets of God's election, but they see the effects. The first foundation of a believer's salvation was laid in election, but it is acted and completed when God calleth them from the rest of the world, and sets them apart for himself.
(3c?.) They are his by entering into covenant with him, and an act of consecration on their part : Ezek. xvi. 8, ' Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time of love ; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness ; yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.' They surrender themselves to the Lord's use : 2 Chron. xxx. 8, ' Now be ye not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord.' Give your hand to God. Now all this maketh the foundation or the covenant of the Lord sure to them, so that they shall not miscarry by damnable errors and wilful sin, as others do. God's eternal election keepeth them from the taint of errors : Mat. xxiv. 24, ' Insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.' The elect cannot altogether be seduced and drawn away from Christ, because of the purpose of God, which is backed by his invincible power and care over them. Actual election or effectual calling giveth them a discerning spirit: 2 Thes. ii. 13, ' But we are l)ound always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord ; because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.' Their minds are savingly enlightened and their wills renewed, so that they are kept safe. Their covenant-dedication doth particularly entitle them "to God's care, so that they are guided by God's Spirit, and guarded by his continual providence, till the work begun in them be perfected : Phil. i. 6, ' Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ'