souls is then, in our estimation, " the one thing needful :" and, without any wish to stipulate for ourselves, we cry, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Then, as the man-slayer sought a city of refuge, and. fled, to it with all earnestness from the pursuer of blood, so do we most thankfully lay hold on this covenant, and " flee for refuge to the hope that is set before us." In truth, this way of salvation appears precisely such as our necessities require. The covenant makes over to us every thing, as the free gift of God for Christ's sake : and, deeply conscious that we have nothing, and can do nothing, whereby to merit even the smallest of its blessings, we are glad to receive them all " without money and without price."}
3. He confers upon us all the blessings —
[" This covenant is ordered in all things, and sure :" it makes over to us all that we can ever need, for body or for soul, for time or for eternity. Accordingly, from the time that we are brought to " lay hold Upon it," God showers forth his blessings upon us in rich abundance : " he blots out all our iniquities, as a morning cloud ;" and pours down upon us the riches of his grace, whereby we are enabled to mortify all our corrupt affections, and to walk before him in newness of heart and life. He makes known himself to us as a Covenant God, that is engaged to fulfil to us all his promises, and to " perfect in us the work he has begun." In short, he gives us to see that heaven itself is our inheritance ; and that, whilst " that is reserved for us, we also are kept by his mighty power for it0." His faithfulness then becomes no less an object of our affiance than his mercy ; and we are enabled, with confidence, to say, " There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me," at the great day of his appearing.]
We cannot but remark from hence,
1. How sovereign God is, in the dispensations of his mercy —
[If a shepherd separate any sheep for his own peculiar use, it is probable that he has some reference to their intrinsic worth, as the ground of his preference. But our heavenly Shepherd has respect to nothing but his own sovereign will and pleasure. This remarkably appears in the passage before us ; where the promise of God's mercy is so interwoven with the denunciations of his wrath, as to involve a doubt in which of the two lights it is to be viewed. And in this way it is that God's promises are frequently introduced. By the Prophet
0 1 Pet. i. 4, 5.