It is thei'efore — to come to the first quality — called a free covenant. It Cometh from God merely of grace. It is of grace that he would enter into any terms of agreement with us. It is of grace that he would send Christ to die to be the foundation of the covenant. It is of grace that he giveth us hearts to take him for our God, to depend upon him, to love him, to serve him, &c. All is of grace, and all cometh from him.
So you see that it is a free covenant. That is the first quality.
Again, secondly, it is a sure, a certain covenant. I will establish my covenant. But in whom is it established ? how cometh it to be sure ? It is established in Christ, the mediator of the covenant, in the Messiah ; for ' in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,' Gen. xii. 3. That is the fundamental promise. All other promises, the promise of the land of Canaan, the promise of the multiplying his seed as the stars of heaven, they were all but accessary. This is the grand promise : in thy seed, in Christ, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So it is a sure covenant, because it is established in the Messiah, Christ, God-man. And Christ being God and man, is fit to be the foundation of the covenant between God and man, for he is a friend to both parties. As man he will do all that is helpful for man ; and as God, he will do nothing that may derogate from God ; and so being God, and being God and man, he brings God and man together comfortably and sweetly, and keepeth them together in a sure and fii-m agreement. For first of all, he takes away the cause of division that was between God and us, because by his sacrifice and obedi- ence he did satisfy God's wrath ; and that being satisfied, God and us are at peace and friendship ; for God till then, though he be a fountain of goodness, yet he was a fountain sealed. The fountain was stopped by sin; but when there is a satisfaction made by Christ, and we believing on him, the satisfaction of Christ is made ours. It is a sure covenant, because it is estabhshed in Christ the blessed seed.
And as it is a sure covenant, so, thhdly, it is an everlasting covenant. ' I will make an everlasting covenant with thee.' So it is set down here.
Everlasting in these respects. For when we are in Christ, and made one with him by faith, he having satisfied God's wrath for us, and made him peaceable, then God is become our father, and he is an everlasting father. His love to us in Christ is like himself, immutable. For even as Christ, when he took upon him our nature, he made an everlasting covenant with our nature, married our nature to himself for ever, and never layeth aside his human nature, so he will never lay aside his mystical body, his
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THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.
church. As Christ is God-man for ever, so mystical Christ, the church, is his body for ever. As Christ will uot lose his natural, so he will not lose his mystical body. ' I will marry thee to myself for ever,' saith God in the prophet. So then it is everlasting in respect of God, he being immu- table. ' I am God,' saith he, ' and I change not,' Mai. iii. C ; and Christ, the foundation of the covenant, is everlasting.
And then again it is everlasting in regard of us ; because if we be not wanting to ourselves, we shall be for evermore, in grace here and in glory for ever. The fruits of grace in us — that is, the work of the Spirit — it is everlasting ; for howsoever the graces we have be but the first-fruits of the Spirit, yet our inward man grows more and more, till grace end in glory, till the first-fruits end in a harvest, till the foundation be accomplished in the building ; God never takes away his hand from his own work.
Everlasting also in regard of the body of Christians. God makes a covenant with one, and when they are gone, with others. Always God will have some in covenant with him. He will have some, to be a God to, when we are gone, so long as the world tontinueth.
So that we see it is in every respect an everlasting covenant. God is everlasting, Christ is everlasting, the graces of the Spirit are everlasting. When we are dead, he will be a God unto us, as it is said, * I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,' their God when they were dead. He is the God of our dust, of our dead bodies. He will raise them up, for they are bodies in covenant with him. I am the God of whole Abraham, and not of a piece ; therefore his body shall rise again. It is an everlast- ing covenant. That is the third quality.
Lastly, It is a ijecul'mr covenant. ' I will be tlnj God, and the God of thj seed. All are not the children of Abraham, but they that are of the faith of Abraham. God is in covenant only with those that answer him, that take him for their God, that are a peculiar people. It is not glorying in the flesh ; but there must be somewhat wrought that is peculiar before we can be assured we are of Abraham's seed, and in covenant with God.