〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A COMPEND OF THE Covenant of Grace, AS The most Solid SUPPORT under the most Terrible CONFLICTS OF DEATH, THOUGH Armed with Desertion, Decay of Grace, and Sense of Gild.  
By Walter Cross, M. A.  
LONDON, Printed for Henry Barnard, at the Bible in the Poultry. 1693.   

fluence of Example and Praise, to make them good and virtuous. 3. The Mouths of those are stopped whose Duty it is to take all such Opportunities to recover a degenerate Age from Hopes of Glory or Honour at Death, who glory in their Shame when they Live. But the Abuse of a Natural and Necessary Duty, ought not to remove totally its use; it's engraven on the very Nature of Man to speak well of the Dead. By the Jewish Custom a Bride takes place of a King, but a Corpse takes place of both. Leu. 10.18. The Mourning for the Dead takes place of positive External Worship: Moses was satisfied when Aaron told him the Reason of not Eating the Sacrifice in the Holy Place, was because of his Grief for the Death of his Sons: And what is the Language of Morning for the Dead but Praising of them? Sorrow is a Passion raised from the Apprehension of the Loss of a great good; and not to Lament the Dead is next to leave them without Burial, as Dung upon the Earth, Jer. 16.14. The Dead have not their Justa duly paid them, when no Tears are mingled with their Dust; the Gospel that wipes away all Tears from all Eyes, only mitigates this, 1 Thes. 4.13. Sorrow not as those who have no hope of ever meeting again. Christ himself wept over a Lazarus that he could and did raise again presently; but as to more remote Relatives or Friends, it enjoins Sympathy, Rom. 12.15. Weep with them that weep. Tho' the Egyptians hated Israel, they mourned over a dead Jacob, Gen. 15.10. so that the Canaanites called the Place Abel Mizraim, the Weeping of the Egyptians. How unnatural are the Affections of those Children and other Relatives, that the Possession that they succeed to, drowns the Sorrow and prevents the due Performance of Honour to the Deceased, who have spent their Lives, if not Sold their Souls for an Estate to them. Whatever others do, they ought to be zealous of keeping their Names savoury and fresh. Foreigners, Aliens, will Commend the Names of their Founders. But  
These four Rules seem to be drawn from the most pure Fountains of Nature, guided by the most powerful Conduct of Reason. Confutius.  
1. To shun all Ostentation and Magnificence in Funerals, that savours of Pride and Vanity.  
2. Not to bewail the Dead with Excess, or be overcome with Grief; that bespeaks want of Reason, and more the want of Piety, and submission to our Sovereign Lord.  
3. Not to extinguish Grief totally, or hid the Profession or Expressions of it; for the want of Natural Affection is a desperate Condition, and no Person can expect faithful Friendship from that Man, that can bury his Love and Duty to his Friend or Relative, and his Memory and Esteem of him with his Corpse.  
4. That Applauses or Encomiums are the proper Duty of Friends, Neighbours, or more distant Relations: Modesty should suppress it in Husband, Wife or Children, except to intimate Acquaintance, for that is but Praising themselves: Others ought not to be silent: The Law of God allowed an Office for it once. In this Case the Modesty of Relatives has suppressed a Name that deserves to be wrote in Letters of Gold; but it suited the Person's Temper, that rather would have a Name in Heaven than Fame on Earth, and would have it rest with the Dust, and be silent as the Grave until that glorious Resurrection.  
A Second Restraint is, that its Minister's Duty to Preach a dead and a risen Christ; his Will and Testament is the Gospel we ought to Preach; our Office is making of his Funeral Sermons. R. 1. Christ is willing that his Saints share of his glory, while it is an exalting of his own also. The manifestation of Christ's Care of his Saints, is much for his Glory. Consider the Patience of Job, and the End of the Lord. When a Man has been an envied, persecuted Man for the profession of Truth, and dies in peace, leaving his Family in Plenty and Prosperity, it is a clear demonstration of Christ's Care of his faithful Servants, and his just Resentment of the Indignation done to them; when we may observe an invisible Moth consuming the Estates of their Enemies, and an invisible Worm gnawing their Consciences.  
1. Destruction is threatened to them who observe not the Dispensations of Divine Providence, Psal. 78.3. And,  
2. Rods have as observable a Nature as any, they have a significant Voice, that every wise Man should understand, Mic. 6. Zeph. 1.14.  
3. Death is as great a Judgement as can be: When Plague, Sword, Famine, come on a Nation or City, it's but Death still; but tho' the Death of the Wicked be the greatest Judgement, a frequent Death of the Righteous is the greatest Prodigy, Isa. 57.1. The Righteous perish and no Man layeth it to Heart— Not knowing they are taken away from the evil to come.  
4. The Death of the Righteous at this Day is as determined in its Language as ever, and more, Rev. 14.13. Blessed, etc. from henceforth: I shall give this Paraphrase of it, according to my imperfect Scheme of that Book. We are now about the time of the Death of the Witnesses, which tho' it be a severe stroke to the Militant Church, a time of Faith and Patience for the Saints, (the repeating of that Index, Rev. 11.13. a great Earthquake in Sicily, is such an Argument for it, that I know not how we can disbelieve it, without saying God designs to deceive us in his Providence, which is the best Comment (by fulfilment) of these Prophecies, for a greater never was: The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, tho' it hath some Likeness, yet no Equality nor Proportion to it, whether we compare the number of Cities, People, or sulphureous Lakes, the Largeness of the place, or the Dreadfulness of the Manner; beside another Vulcan new erected, or a mouth of Hell opened) yet it is an Harvest for the Triumphant, Rev. 14.15. God is now gathering all the Righteous out of the Earth, that he may set the Earth on flames. Rev. 14.18. The Angel that has power over fire: This Fire is the Wine-press of Divine Wrath, wherein the Wicked are to be trod down. Lot must be removed from Sodom, before the sulphureous Flames be kindled. The Harvest of the Righteous must precede the Vintage of the Wicked; the Salt of the Earth must be gone, before its Corruption come. There was a Springtime of the Gospel in the Apostles time, the Summer of Persecution followed: Now is the Harvest, and the Winter to the Wicked is at the Door.  
But it is more than time to return to my Text, the first Verse whereof affords this Doctrine: That the Spirit of God doth often immediately pen the Praises of the Righteous at their Death, and write their Elegies.  
The man who was raised ap on high, the Anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet Psalmist of Israel. Some Commentators expound all the fourth Verse to be of this nature, and to have David for the subject. It is very observable, that not only the great men that are wicked, are often buried in Oblivion, as the most of the Monarches of the first and greatest Empire, but some good men too: God industriously (Deut. 34.6.) hides the Sepulchre and obscures the Tomb of a great Moses, while he erects Monuments of Praise and Records of Memorial for the mean and Low, who have been Faithful in their Generation; Gen. 35.8. Deborah an aged Woman, and but a Nurse, must have an Allon Bachuth, an Oak of Weeping erected for her, and the Epitaph must have a room made for it in Sacred Writ: So must Eliezers' Fidelity, and Dorcas' Coats of Charity, the Bed, Table, Stool and Candlestick for the Prophet, the Barley glean, the parched Corn and Vinegar, Ebedmelech's Clouts, Rahabs stalks of Flax, the Widow's Mite, and the Woman's Alabaster box of Ointment. Should not we be followers of God in this also?  
The second Observation from the Text, is, God's great Mercy towards David in the Circumstances of his Death; not only that such a Man of War should die in Peace, but should enjoy the use of his Understanding and Tongue to the last, yea the conduct of the Holy Spirit for the Guidance and Direction of both. These are the last Words of David. The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his Word was in my Tongue; the whole of Psal. 72. witnesseth further, wherein is contained his last Prayer.  
These last words of David may be divided into these three heads: 1. His last Will and Advice to his Family. 2. His Acknowledgement of his Infirmities, setting them up as Sea-marks or Buoys to prevent their Shipwreck. 3. His Profession of a secured and assured Salvation, notwithstanding these dangers, that he might engage them never to forsake their Father's God, and their Father's Covenant, that could suit and comfort a man tossed among the Storms of Temptations, the Sands or Shelves of Sin, and Rocks of Death and Judgement.  
First, His Advice to his Family, especially his Sons, consists in these three things, 1. Justice, v. 3. He that ruleth over men must be just. Honesty is far before Honour; the latter is but an abuse of the word without the former: The Lord forbids seeking for great things in this World, but commands the providing of things honest in the sight of all men. Injustice in such a Posterity would have the aggravation of vile degeneracy, it would be a disowning of their Father, and preferring the Name of a Moral Bastard before the Son of an Upright David. 2d. Is Piety, ruling in the fear of God; this David enlarges his Commands about: 1 King. 2.3. Keep the charge of the Lord, etc. 1 Chr. 28.8. Keep and seek for all the Commandments of the Lord your God: Seek for them, what is of his appointment, and what not; and keep them, sin not against Knowledge: Paul obtained Pardon, because he did it ignorantly. Seek and keep all of them, thou obeyest none because God has commanded if knowingly thou omit any: This is the too common sin of Parents, to separate Justice from Piety in the Education of their Children: If they be good Husbands, and Moral or Civil, they care for no more; but they will more and more find that a vain attempt to have their Children honest without Religion, both in the Root and Profession of it, it is as impossible as to have a Picture without the Canvas it's drawn on, or a Shadow without the Substance, or a Blossom preserved without the Root. 1. It is Worship and Religion that God has annexed his Promises to. Psal. 1. 1 King. 2.3. 1 Chr. 28.8. 2. It is to attempt the keeping of a part of an Indivisible thing without the other, as if a Spiritual Being could be parted. 3. It is to attempt to preserve the Duties of the Law without Motives, the Awe of God, Fear of his Wrath, or Love of his Goodness: We may see the succeslesness of it in the Debauchery of the Age; since Religion and Profession of it came in so much contempt, on that ground can we think God will take care of our Children, when we take no care of our children's fearing God? Do we think Children a fit subject for Liberty of Conscience? If they are, Baptismal Bonds are a most grievous Yoke imposed on Parents, to train up Children in the Knowledge of God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and to bring them within the Bond of the Covenant with the blessed Trinity. A third Advice is about their Company, which is comprehended vers. 6, 7. in shunning the Society of Belialites, such men as Joab and Shimei it's like, for these are named, 1 King. 3. Two things are remarkable about them. 1. Who they are. 2. Why their Company so dangerous. (1.) The Belialites are men without Yoke, men of no Conscience, no Profession, Atheists; they could be of any Profession, that which was most for their Profit, or their Humour, but were really of no Principles, under no Law; if they took up any, it was as they do the Fashion and Custom of the Place they live in, for Company: A man had better be a Quaker, Papist, etc. of any Sect, rather than a Belialite, of no Religion; an atheistical profane Crew, that can give no other Answer to any Question of Religion, about the Governor and Judge of the World, or their Soul's Condition, than to grin like an Ape, as if their Reasonable Souls by Debauchery were degenerate into Risible ones. The Spaniards say, that Don Quixot has ruined the Courage of Spain; and Sir William Temple who records it, observes, That we are like to exchange the Riches, the Religion, the Wssdom of the Nation, for this Ridiculing Humour by Fools called Wit. Never did these Vermin swarm thicker than at this day, (which makes with the former two Marks, viz. the Death of the Righteous, and Earthquakes in divers places, a Triple proof that the day of Judgement is at hand. 2 Pet. 3. These are the Scoffers of the last days, saying, Where is the Promise of his coming?) (2.) Why their Company is so dangerous. 1. The Text says, because of their Untractableness; they are as apt to hurt a man if he come in their Company, as Thorns to prick a man if he touch them; there is need of being fenced with Iron if he come nigh them, they wound so mortally; for a man must either comply with their Company, than his very Soul and Conscience is wounded; or he must resolutely oppose them, and then there must be War, Opposition, Quarrelling, Disputing: If the former, he is a Proselyte to the Brutal Herd, and an initiated Member of the Congregation of Evil-doers; if the latter, there is both need of Arms and Armour; and what man will frequent that Company where he must always be uneasy, always contend, and be in danger of his Life? A Second Reason is, Because their End is Destruction, They shall be utterly burnt with Fire. Who would walk with men that are going straight to Hell? Who would live with men that have Ulcers of uncurable Plagues running upon them, when their Company is so infectious? May be it has prevailed already so far on thee, that when out of their Company thou choofest not the ways of Life and Peace, and returns again to the same without the least Antidote, what canst thou look for but the Death of the Wicked that liv'st their Life? For as the Tree falls, so it will lie. O that Children who have disobeyed the Commands of Parents when alive, would at least let their last Will be sacred with them: This Solomon observed long, though at last too much forgot it. How highly doth God commend the Rechabites, Jer. 35. for obeying their Father's severe Commands, to drink no Wine, and to live in Tents? So highly displeased must he be with them, who disobey most necessary and easy Precepts. The Text and the Time both, though not the Occasion, where so much Love and Duty dwells, obliges me to this.  
The second thing is, the Acknowledgement of his Infirmities, Although my House,— although he make it not to grow: For the Matter of it, though it's not an Auricular or particular Confession, or in order to a Priestly Absolution, yet from the Knowledge of his Life we may guests at the ground of his Grief. 1. David had much Gild on his Conscience; though he was a man according to God's Heart, yet his Perfection was not sinlesness; he was not of the Quakers Principles, to boast of his Perfection; but did mourn over his Iniquities, though committed some Twenty, as his Murder of Vriah, some Forty years before this. 2. David had many Designs to fulfil, he wanted to reap the Comfort of his Labours, as to his own House or the House of God; he had conquered all his Enemies round about, and now he wanted to enjoy a triumphant Peace, and plentiful possession: He had Moses-like brought the People to the borders of the Land of Rest, but he must not go over to possess that beautiful Mountain of Lebanon, tho' he begged hard for it. He had with most industrious Pains, and incomparable Expenses, prepared all Materials for the House of God, 1 Chron. 28. and God will not let him lay one Stone of the House for all that. Psal. 146.4. In that very day his thoughts perish: All a man's Purposes, were they never so good or useful, perish when the appointed Hour comes. 3. David's Children were not so with God as he would have had them; there had been Incest, Murder and Rebellion among them; and these who survived, though some of them lovely Children, and wiser than their Father, and the root of the Matter in them too, Solomon the most wise, was beloved of the Lord, and the Lord heard his Prayers again and again, yet that Zeal that the Old Man had for God was not in him. 4. David's Grace did not grow, or bud and flourish, as the Original has it; he had Faith, but it did not flourish in the pleasant Blossoms of Joy and Assurance, Psal. 51.8, 12. The Joy of thy Salvation, that he wanted. The temporal Afflictions that the Godly meet with for their Backsidings, might be sufficient Warnings and Motives to others, to walk more circumspectly and Watchfully all their days. Here is an Intimation of twenty years' Desertion, and the Hour of Death filled up with the dreadful aspect of Gild. The Counsel of dying Persons, about Religion, about Conscience, about Duty and Sin, aught to be highly esteemed; then they feel how evil and bitter a thing it is to sin against God: If we see our righteous Fathers groaning over and smarting for their Infirmities on their Deathbed, what may we expect if we get our Souls for a Prey?  
The third Thing is, what was David's Comfort under the sense of approaching Death, thus armed with the Terrors of his own Gild, and the Frowns of Heaven? It is certain no mean Cordials, no Temporary thing can support his fainting Spirits then: Rooms full of Gold, the Company of all our Friends and Relations, the sweetest Harmonies of Music, the daintiest Dishes, the strongest Cordials, and most skilled Physicians; the only Helps a Man must betake himself to, are Spiritual, for the Carcase perishes. If a Man be not skilled in Divinity, and have some Spiritual Experiences, there is nothing that can bring any shadow of relief to him, but it is not every Divine either that can administer to himself or others support against Death, tho' that is the only Science that affords relief. Some expound the 3, 4, 5, Verses, as so many different Topics of relief to his Condition: 1. Experience, The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me: Shall God let me perish, to whom he has given his Holy Spirit in such a measure? But this might be baffled, God has taken his Spirit from thee, thou hast sinned away that Grace; a deserted and tempted Soul is full of Error, and either may not believe the Doctrine of Perseverance, or may mistake the Graces of the Spirit for Gifts, such as Balaam had. 2. The Nature of the Blessed Trinity, The God of Israel, the Rock of Israel, the Spirit of the Lord; the Attributes of God, the Mediatorial Offices of the Son, and sweet Influences of the Spirit: But these may all become Thoughts of Terror and Dread to a Soul, without some sight of an Interest in them; as Peter, Depart from me, for I am a sinful Man, and Adam when he heard God's Voice hid himself in the Garden: Therefore David, 3. Finally concludes on the Covenant of Grace, as that through which the spiritual Experiences were conveyed, and as that which contained the Terms of his Interest in God, its Properties and Articles, did obviate all Objections, the Disease could never be too strong for its Balsams, nor the poisoned Arrows of Death could never drink up its comforting spirits: This affords the Doctrine I intent for the subject of the following Discourse.  
Doct. The Covenant of Grace is able to comfort all the covenanties in it, against the Assaults of Death, armed with the most dreadful Stings that the Law, Sin, Satan, or Desertion can afford to it.  
This is the Honey we may eat out of the Carcase of this Lion of the Tribe of Juda; this is the rich Legacy left by his Will to all that are in Covenant with God; this is his advice to all poor Sinners, as ever they would be safe at death, be sure to be in Covenant with God. We have not this on his Experience only, he found it so at Death, nor on his Testimony only; the word of a King is too weak a Pillar to build the Salvation of our Immortal Souls upon; nor on the Testimony alone of the Spirit of God speaking by him: But the same Spirit shows us the reason of the thing also, by setting down a Copy of this well-ordered Covenant, which I shall Analyse in these seven several Heads, that are so many Arguments to prove the Truth of this Doctrine: Its (1.) Divinity. (2.) Personality. (3.) Graciousness. (4.) Everlastingness. (5.) Order. (6.) Sureness. (7.) It's Perfection, as to Salvation or Satisfaction. Having shown from each of these apart, and much more from all put together, with how much satisfaction every Covenanted Soul may die, whatever be the Imperfections or blasts upon the growth of their Grace, or whatever be the disorder of the Affairs of their House, whatever terrible use Satan may make of them, or sorrow we may have from them, yet we may safely lay down our Corpse in the Dust, and bid Farewell to Sun, Moon and Stars, to the Creatures below us, and our Friends about us, and say, Welcome Fellowship of Angels, Hail ever blessed Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier; I come, I come, help me through this pain, guide me through this dark Valley of Death, dispel this only remaining Cloud between me and that Sun of Righteousness. I shall conclude with some useful Application, having proved and explained this Truth.  
(1.) There is the Divinity of the Covenant, the more of God that there is in any thing, the more of Goodness there must be in it; for there is none good but God: God is 1. The Author of this Covenant, he hath made. The like expression we find Isa. 55.3. Jer. 3.31. Man that was but of Yesterday, could never make an Everlasting Covenant; Angels that are charged with folly, and are yet Students of its Mysteries, 1 Pet. 1.12. could never bring things confounded by Sin into Order again; this Politic Union is founded on the Personal Union of Immanuel. Who could have contrived that? Who could have contrived a Righteousness to answer the broken Law of the first Covenant? There are two most comforting Thoughts arises from Gods being Author of the Covenant, the Goodness of the end, and wise contrivance of the Means: 1. The Goodness of the End; Persons that have any Grains of Honesty left, when they enter a Confederacy with others, design a mutual Advantage. It is a mere Cheat to draw Persons into a Commerce, or Policy they can get no good, but hurt by. But God can receive no Good, Ps. 16. Our goodness extends not to him; and his Glory consists in giving, that we may see there is such an inexhaustible Fountain of Goodness and Blessedness in him, that when Sinners have received a full Salvation, Gild a complete Pardon, and all empty desire a full satisfaction measured out by Wisdom, so that it may not satiate, but still preserve so far the Desire, as to delight in receiving; all the advantage must be ours: If any part of this Design should fail of making us completely happy, it would reflect on Divine Alsufficiency, it would eclipse his Glory. We are made Sons by Covenant, and will a Father see his Children starve while he possesses any thing? 2. The wise Contrivance of the Means; there is not one Article of the Covenant that we would desire left out, or one Article we could desire added to it, if our Understandings were come to a mature perfection to judge of such a Concern, 1 Cor. 3.22. Death is ours, we would rather want it; but how shall we get to Heaven without Death, for Flesh and Blood cannot enterit? Or how shall this Earth be changed into a glorious Condition without Death? There are many more Reasons we know not; all things present are ours: We would rather want many of our present. Conditions and Circumstances, Sickness, Poverty, etc. but (Rom. 8.) all these work together for our good: If this Covenant should any way fail or prove deficient, we may bless God we had no hand in it; or rather that all in it was Contrived by him, all its Clauses, Terms and Articles, were settled and Authoritatively published before we knew one Word of it; if it come short of its End, it will not be through our Default, he knew what we were when he Contrived the Covenant for our Happiness, he entered into Covenant with us as Sinners, it will reflect on his Wisdom and Circumspection, his Foresight or Prudence. Obj. The first Covenant failed of its End, and that was made by God. Resp. It's positively false, for it was Contrived, and that Primitive Constitution of Man too, as a Means to bring in the Covenant of Grace and the Happiness of Man through it. Man's Blessedness was not the immediate End of that Covenant. To say God is come short of his End, frustrated and disappointed, is to make him not God. The learned Strangius says, tho' Sin is no means of God's Glory, Permission of sin was, for that made way for Creatures being brought from a lower Condition, and greater distance from God than mere nothing was; by it the steps of nigh infinite successions and degrees of Happiness are increased; Goodness blossoms into Grace and Mercy, by making an Inhabitant of Hell, whether by Act or Desert, an Heir and Possessor of Heaven; but it had remained a mere Goodness that it had made a Clod of Clay an Angel: What a Manifestation of Infiniteness, for Creatures to be always increasing, but ever short of God's fullness!  
Secondly, The Divinity of the Covenant appears in God's being the Party as well as the Author, Zach. 13 ch. last Ver. I will say it is my People, and they shall say the Lord is my God, and that distinctly in all the Relatives of the Blessed Trinity. We enter into Covenant with God as Father; Christ says, I go to your Father and my Father: We enter Covenant with God as Son in all his Mediatorial Offices: We enter into Covenant with the Holy Ghost in all his sanctifying and glorifying Influences: We see David here set all the Blessed Trinity, the God of Israel, the Rock of Israel, and the Spirit of the Lord, before the Covenant, as the Persons he did indent with. And it is yet more distinctly set down in the Baptismal Form of the Covenant, in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: This helps to remove some Difficulties about the Covenants Conditionality; for the whole Law being in its Nature as unchangeable as the Relations between the Creator and Creature, it stands still the Measure and Standard of Duties and Conditions of the Covenant of Grace; but what Conditions the Father as Fountain of Authority requires, the Son as Mediator, Surety, and Cautioner performs, and what this Mediator as God's Vicegerent and Deputy requires, the Spirit enables us to do, whose Operations are both preventive and effectual; so this Covenant of Grace is an absolute Disposition of Grace notwithstanding all the Laws and Duties of it; for there are no preparative Duties required in order to the Spirits Influences, nor may be no Persons in this World without some of his Beams and Rays; for as it is Christ's Merits that preserves this Earth from being a Hell, so it is the Spirits Influences that keeps the Temper of Man in any better Condition than that of Devils. There is a vast difference between what Man actually is, and what he is De jure, by Nature: We are Children of Wrath by Nature, our Understanding is mere Darkness, and our Wills a mere Enmity: We would sin designedly against God, and designedly Dishonour him; We would intent Rebellion in every act, and this seems to be the Apostles Intention, 1 Cor. 10.13. There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to Man; to sin at this rate is not common to Man, Man's Design is not higher than his own Profit or his Pleasure, the Prosecution of which though he knows it is a Sin, yet he wishes it were not.  
Thirdly, The Divinity of this Covenant appears in God himself, his Attributes, Personalities and Providential Operations, being all the Promised Blessings of the Covenant; for the Covenant is a Marriage Covenant, wherein not as in other Covenants of Peace or War, Trade or Commerce, the Obligation is limited to some particular thing, here the Party and all he hath comes under Obligation: Hence is that Argument good, Because he lives we shall live also; and Christ's Proof for the Resurrection of the Body and Immortality of the Soul, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive, because God is the God of the Living. Nothing can utterly die that is in this Covenant, because God's Life is engaged to keep them alive. Indeed this exceeds Marriage Contracts, because the Husband hath not a Life to communicate, nor a Power to preserve his own. God's Omnipotency is ours; I am the Almighty, walk before me and be thou perfect. We need not fear the Power of Enemies, his Immutabillity, I Change not, therefore ye shall not be be consumed: And all his Creatures, 1 Cor. 3.22. The World, Life, Death, things present, or things to come, all are yours: Providential Operations, Rom. 8.28. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God: Psal. 25.10. All his ways are mercy and truth to such as keep his Covenant.  
(2.) There is the Personality of the Covenant, Thou hast made with me: Though God entered into Covenant with Abraham for himself and his Seed, yet as soon as his Seed did exist in the World, he did personally enter into Covenant with them, first with Isaac and then with Jacob; and the more Pious we find any Persons in Scripture, the more frequent we find them in this Exercise: David's first Michtam or Golden Psalm, gins thus, O my Soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, with his Expectation of the like Answer from God, Psalm 35.3. Say unto my Soul, I am thy Salvation: God's Language is Providential, so that it's to the same purpose, when he says, Preserve me O God, for in thee do I put my trust. Our Faith is our Personal Covenanting, and God's preserving is his Virtual Saying, He will be Our Saviour, this is Prophesied to be more frequent and more formal under the New Testament State than it was under the Old, Isaiah 44.5. One shall say I am the Lords, and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord: Isaiah 45.24. Surely shall men say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: The Apostle doth most pathetically press this Personal Dedication, Rom. 12.1. I beseech you therefore Brethren, by the mercies of God, ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service: And the Practice of the Primitive Church answered their Apostolical Advice, 1 Cor. 8.5. They first gave themselves to the Lord, and to us by the Will of the Lord: The different Constitution of the Visible Church under the New Testament, from that under the Old, and the different Administration of the Covenant, have a considerable Influence to make the formal performance of this more our Duty; for it is in part upon this Account that the Church is called (Mat. 16.) a Church de futuro, I will build my Church, as Camero observes: It was a Building to be begun, whereof the Foundations were not yet laid, and the Covenant a new Covenant. First, For the Constitution of the Church, we have a fair Account of it in the 18th. of Matthew, in Christ's Answer to the Disciples Question about the Kingdom of Heaven: First, There is the Qualifications of the Members, Verse 3. Converted ones, become as little Children. Secondly, Their formal Entrance into the Kingdom of Christ, and their Reception in the Name of Christ by them that are in it, Verse 5. Thirdly, There is an account of the great Evil that doth any ways hinder or hurt this Constitution, or these little Ones now received into it, and therefore becomes the only Object of Church-Discipline that is Offence. Sin is only against God's immediate Government, Psal. 51. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned: He only can Forgive it, he only can Punish it: It is a Breach of his Law only, Offence is against the Church, as being that which occasions any Member thereof to sin, or by which its Members may offend others; but scarce any can Offend but them that are in the Church. Injuries which hurt a Man's Body or Estate, are the Objects of the Civil Government: One Act may have all the three Evils in it, and may be Punished by all the three Governments. Fourthly, There are the remedying Rules or Methods of Discipline about this Evil, set down Verse 15, 16, 17. Fifthly, There is the supreme Court, where the last Appeal lies in Trial of this Affair, with the last and most severe Punishment this Court can Inflict: The former is the Church, the latter is an Exclusion from that Society, for than he can Offend no more; as a Dead Man in the State can injure no more. The last thing is, the way of the Constitution of this Court, and the Reason why we ought to acquiesce in its Judgement about such Affairs: The former is the stated and agreed Meeting of such Converts in the Name of Christ, the latter is from Christ's being among them, his Promise to hear them, his Institution of them, and Conferring Authority to the Ordinance; now this Agreement to continue steadfastly in the Apostles Doctrine, in mutual Fellowship, in breaking of Bread and in Prayer, Acts 2.42. doth formally Constitute a Covenant; it is a fulfilment of that Prophecy, Jer. 50.5. Come, and let us join ourselves unto the Lord; and it doth suppose their Personal Covenanting with God, for they who come into it are to be received as little Children, and as Converted one's; and tho' Persons cannot give account when they were first Converted, more than when they were first Conceived or Born, without their Parent's Information, yet they may give Account of their Personal Covenanting with God, and when it was, tho' with great difference in Explicitness or Implicitness, in the bare Exercise of Faith and Prayer, and the secret Thoughts of the Hearts, or in external Words or Writing 
† Vide Mr. Baxter, on Confirmation the way to Reformation. . Secondly, In the New Administration of the Covenant, which receives its Alteration very much from the New Constitution of the Church; for in the former all Circumcised were in the Church, here it's only those that are Converted; so all Abraham's Natural Seed through Isaac and Jacob were within the Covenant, as to all its visible Privileges, but in this New Administration they are brought under the Covenant, by the Lord's pouring out his Spirit on them, by his putting his Laws in their Minds, and writing them on their Hearts, Heb. 8. The very Import of having a Law in the Mind, is a willing and ready Compliance with them known, a being made willing in the day of his Power, a hearty undertaking to perform them, followed with some suitable Endeavours, and what is this else but personal Covenanting?  
Our satisfying ourselves with a Virtual Performance of this is too common and too gross a defect to be indulged, that is, a compliance with the Duties of the Covenant in some measure, without a serious setting about this Duty first, and entering into it; this is doing Violence to the Beauty and Order of this well ordered Covenant, which requires our In-being before our Doing, or our Receiving. Secondly, It is an Omission of a positive enjoined Duty. Thirdly, It is very unbecoming God's transacting with us, who has formerly drawn up the Covenant in all its Articles, and has set his Name to it, and has recorded it in his Word, and has appointed a vast Number of Men under the Office of the Ministry to Publish it, and has furnished them with the Spirit to Interpret and Inculcate it, and their great Message is, Be ye reconciled to God, be at Peace with him, enter into Covenant with him, and faithfully keep and observe it: Is this a suitable Correspondence to God's Transaction, that we won't come under Obligation, but we will do as we find Opportunity and have Occasion or Convenience, as it may consist with our other Interests and Concerns? This is in effect to say, we will not at all; for the Covenant requires that we be wholly God's, utterly denying ourselves and all our Interests, as he hath given himself wholly to us. Fourthly, The Manner of Persons entering into Covenant with Satan, who is God's Ape, and who hath set up a Kingdom and a Covenant in direct Opposition to our Lord Jesus Christ, may have some Influence both for Illustrating and Inculcating this Duty, which the Learned Weems thus explains: Satan doth all he can to persuade his Subjects formally to Covenant with him, to put one Hand under their Foot, and another above their Head, and give all between them to Satan, or to write a Bond of Resignation of themselves, and Seal it with their Blood; and if they be Baptised Christians, that they formally Renounce their Baptism; but if he cannot attain these things, he has a set of Ordinances made up of Charms and unreasonable Arts, as Astrology, Chiromancy, etc. which he in his way Blesseth with Success as far as he can, those who follow the Practice of them. This is a Virtual Covenanting with him. Now as we would not Judge all such Witches or Wizards who do too frequently Practise Charms, either in Cures, Prognostics or Injuries, so we ought not to think all true Christians who perform Christian Ordinances: And if Covenanting with Satan has such a Power to make us his, that but very few are recovered from Hell who go to such a height in sinning, what an Influence must Personal Covenanting with God have to make us his, when there is so great difference in Contracting, for we are gulled and deceived in the one: It is in great Ignorance we Covenant with Satan. Secondly, Satan deceives us, and never fulfils the half of what he Promises. Thirdly, God has an antecedent Right, and therefore our Covenanting with Satan is Unlawful. Fourthly, God has a greater Power, and he hath sent Christ on that very Office, to destroy the Works of the Devil, therefore there is a Possibility of Recovery out of that State, but no final Relapse from the other; for No man can pluck the Sheep out of the Father's hand.  
Fifthly, The Discouragements that hinder Persons from such a sacred Engagement, are more from Ignorance of them, than reality in the things themselves. As first, Some are frighted by the greatness of the Obligation, and their Inability to perform: To which I answer, We are under all that Obligation already, it rather relieves than oppresses. Christ says his Burden is light, and his Yoke easy; it is no more Burden than Wings to a Bird; for the Apostle says, He that is not under the Law is under Grace; and what things the Law says, it is to them that are under the Law. There is no Duty thou engagest to perform, but thou wast obliged as a Creature to perform before, and by this Covenanting thou getst a Right and Interest in Christ, by which all thy past Disobedience is pardoned, the burden of Gild taken off, and thou receivest strength to obey better for the future: For the Providential Language of God in Covenanting with a Soul, is the giving of his Spirit; hence this is the Language of one that understandingly enters into Covenant with God, Isa. 45.24. Surely to him shall men come, saying, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. A second Discouragement is, from the sense of Desertion, and want of the Spirit; from persons own unfitness and unholiness, they say with Peter, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Resp. This is from a Mistake about the end of the Law; the Lord blesses the Law, or sends his Spirit to empower it, Joh. 16. when the Spirit convinces of Sin; so the end of this is to drive us to Christ, to make us seek a shelter under Grace, when we are scorched with the heat of the fiery Law: Hence Christ calls, Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden. Secondly, How disorderly would we have God to act toward us, to say, If he will fill us with Comfort and Joy, and give us Assurance, the very top Blessings of the Covenant in this Life, or rather the Earnest and Beginnings of the other Life, if he will fulfil all the Covenant to me, then will I enter Covenant with him. A third is from the fear of Hypocritical acting with God, and so rather sin and provoke him to destroy me, than to receive me into this State of Salvation. Resp. I know no better Cure of Hypocrisy, than to bring and keep the Heart in the View of God, and under the Awe of his Presence: In the 18th of Luke, we see this wrought a considerable Cure upon a Pharisee, tho' the greatest Hypocrites in the World. Vers. 11. God I thank thee that I am not as other men: He did not speak suitably to his own Principles, to own God the Author of that difference that was between him and any other Man in Matter of Religion: It was the Awe of God upon Conscience that extorted the Truth out of it; and I have heard Free-willers pray as inconsistently with their own Profession, which made me have far more Charity to their Persons than their Principles. But (2.) Thy Condition is like the Lepers at the gate of Samaria, thou art sure to starve if out of Covenant, and art sure to sin against God out of Covenant in every thing thou dost; but thou hast a May-be for it, if thou fly to this Refuge, and lay hold of the Covenant; and dost not thou think that if God spoke immediately from Heaven to thee, in a time of Plague, Famine, Sword or Sickness, and say, May be thou shalt be safe in such a Place, that thou wouldst speedily fly to such an Asylum? But we have more encouragement, the King already holding out the Sceptre, and declaring his readiness to accept Imperfect Performance, that we may approach with greater Courage than an Esther before her Ahasuerus.  
Sixthly, It is such an Encouragement at Death, when all other Comforts prove as broken Cisterns without Water, Thou hast made with me a Covenant, is a Shete-Anchor of Hope; and so much the more when they have had the Verdict of a Society of grave, serious and experienced Christians, that their Covenanting was not formal and hypocritical, but sincere and accepted of God; that the temper of Mind it was performed with, could be the Effect of no less Author than the Spirit of God, the Birth bespoke its Father to be Heavenly, when each of that Company of sagacious Saints witnessed that it was on the same Bottom their Hopes were built, and that their Souls were all in a like Condition, in the same Bundle of Life; and this not without a Minister of the Word holding that Glass before their Face, wherein they might see their Language to be a Copy of that Original, and that this Harvest was from the Seed of the Word. This has proved to many the sweetest and strongest Cordial they had at Death, and there is ground to judge the Consolation solid, since Mat. 18. Christ has declared what they lose on Earth, he would in Heaven; what they agreed about to ask, he would grant; and such a Verdict is not passed without serious Prayer to God in the Name of Christ, for a Judgement of Discerning in that present affair. Is this the thing that discourages People from Joining unto Churches of such a Constitution, that becomes so much matter of Comfort and Encouragement at the hour of Death? Who that are seriously concerned about their own Salvation, would want such an Ordinance of Trial? I think it is the Reverend Mr. Ba. who advises Persons to write the Condition of their Soul, and desire some Ministers or understanding Christians Verdict of it: But I think this Verdict is preferable on several Accounts. 1. As much as the Verdict of many is before the Judgement of one, or a Church before a single person's. 2. As much as a Divine Ordinance that has such Promises of the Spirits Conduct, Mat. 18. before a humane Help and Expedient. That which indeed first recommended it to me, was a Gentlewoman on her Deathbed, who bewailed David-like her want of growth much, and had this complex Evidence alone left, which she improved much more pathetically than I have here expressed it: I have found it the Experience of three more since in the like condition, though not under such backsliding or desertion.  
The Third Property is, the Graciousness of the Covenant: The word gracious is not in the Text, nor is it any where in Scripture verbally the Epithet of this Covenant, though most usual among Divines; and there is reason enough for it, for a Covenant cannot be made between the Creator and Creature without a gracious condescendency; and therefore some will not allow the Law of Works to bear the Name of a Covenant, because there cannot be a Covenant and not of Grace. Persons that have a Despotic Power, as a Master over a Slave, or a Father over a Child, will not enter into Terms with them: The end of a Covenant is to bring Persons under Obligation that are free; and therefore Kings love not to hear of Covenant terms between them and their People. Now God's antecedent Right being Sovereign, and absolutely founded on Creation, it's rather a giving away his Right than getting one: Thy Maker is thy Husband, contains a Miracle of Grace in it. 2. It's being a Testament, this famous Name gives Title to all the Bible, the Old and New Testament. This is the Nature of a Testament, it can Convey nothing but what is good, Privileges but no Punishments: All things that are Conveyed are Tokens, Legacies, Estate or Inheritance; if any hard Condition be annexed, the Person is not Obliged to accept; so must be gracious by its being a Testament, but how much more if we consider it as summed up by Christ, from John 12. to 18. ch. He leaves the Father our Tutor and Guardian, the Holy Ghost Executor, Heaven as an Inheritance, Measures of Grace as Legacies, Joy and Peace as Love-Tokens; he leaves us under the Notion of Babes, that cannot Forfeit their Estate without their Executor and Guardians consent, which is impossible; therefore in this sense true, He that is born of God cannot sin. 3. It's gracious, because so full of Promises; Gal. 3.6.17. it's called a Command and a Law too, Ps. 111.10. who hath commanded his Covenant for ever; because all the Law, that is holy, just and good, is still required in it, being unchangeable in their Nature; but now Grace shines in their being put in this Covenant, where Grace is promised to enable and strengthen us to obey: We are under all the Law, Mat. 5. Christ came not to destroy it; and our Condition enlarges the Duties of the Law, mixes Humility with Sorrow, Obedience with Repentance; and so the new Discoveries of God by the Gospel enlarges the Objects of Faith. Ye believe in God, believe also in me: And our Obligation is greater, as a Married Woman is more obliged to Chastity than a Virgin, and Moses' Nurse more obliged than another Nurse, because also a Mother. But there is so much Grace in the Promises that overballances all this. 1. The mixing or joining of Christ's Works with ours, the Covenant of Grace and Redemption together, supply the Place of the broken Covenant of Works: Hence our Imperfect Obedience if in Faith is accepted for perfect, the Will for the Deed. Nathan says to David, Because it was in thine Heart to build to me a House, I will build to thee a sure House; it admits of Repentance to supply the Place of Obedience, it gives strength to Obey, this Uniting of the Command and the Promise makes it appear Conditional, but the Certainty and Ability to perform the Conditions, both depending upon the Promises, takes away the proper Nature of a Condition, (whose Properties are, 1. Potestative, in the Person's Power to perform them. 2. Casualis, the other Party being uncertain whether we would Perform them or not. 3. Causalis, in respect of Right, being of some Valuable Considerations) and leaves a bare Necessary Connexion or Ordered Covenant, instead of a Conditional Covenant; and the many Ifs used in Scripture to be the Ifs of Demonstration used by Civilians in Testaments, or Logicians in Arguing; not the If of a proper Condition, tho' it's usual among Divines and Protestants to use it for Priority of Order, and that is not inconsistent with Graciousness.  
But I need not squeeze this Covenant so to bring Graciousness out of it by such Inferences, when Rom. 4.14. the Inheritance is said to be of Grace, the Covenant called a Covenant of Peace, and its Blessings sure Mercies; when all the covenanties are Sinners, Rebels, when the greatest of them are often Chosen, and that like Manasse, in the Height of their Iniquity, and when all their Sins are forgiven at once, when the first Condition or Duty of the Covenant is mere Faith, a Receiving, and when to do that is the Work of the Spirit, both as to first and last of it, Heb. 12. The Author and Finisher of our Faith: Eph. 2.8. It is the Gift of God: And so long as one Spark of Life remains in that Appetite fixed or determined on God, our right in the Covenant stands: I believe, Lord help my Unbelief: Faith as a Grain of Mustardseed: And tho' it should lose sight of many of its Objects, it ought to be receiving and trusting God for, the Unbelief of Man will not render the Faith of God of none effect. We may sing, Grace, Grace, to every Article of this Covenant, and what can support a Man in sight of Death if Grace will not? A Man cannot discern himself in a Covenant of Grace and not see God on a Throne of Grace, and when a Soul apprehends God as gracious, it apprehends him as 1. Good, for that is the groundwork. 2. As Love, for that's the Spring. 3. As Merciful, for the Object's miserable. 4. As Sovereign, Free and Absolute, in dispensing of Blessings and Benefits, for to show Grace is absolute Monarchy: Hence all the Acts of Government are for Exalting this Throne, to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace, Eph. 1. I see my Gild, but I see Pardoning Grace; I feel sin, but I feel restraining and renewing Grace; I see Death, but I see over-ordering Grace: This supports the Soul.  
The Fourth Property is the Everlastingness of the Covenant: Thou hast made with me an Everlasting Covenant, Psal. 103.17. The Mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, Isa. 55.3. The sure Mercies of David are called an Everlasting Covenant. The Covenant of Works was before the Covenant of Grace in Time, and in Order of Execution, as all Means are before their End, but the Covenant of Grace was before it in Divine Intention. Grace could not have been so branched forth in Mercy and Forgiveness, if the former had not been both made and broken: On this Account this Covenant of Grace was from Everlasting, being founded on Everlasting Love; With an Everlasting Love have I loved thee, therefore with Lovingkindness will I draw thee: It is founded on the everlasting Thoughts that did emanate from that Love, Psal. 40.5. The thoughts that were ever of Old, they are more than can be numbered, and on the everlasting Purposes that those Thoughts did result in, 2 Tim. 1.9. According to his Grace and Purpose which was given us in Christ before the World began: And as it was from Everlasting, so it is unto Everlasting: A Person once brought into it, shall always remain in it, Psal. 89.33. If they break my Statutes, etc. then will I visit their Transgressions with the Rod, etc. nevertheless my Lovingkindness will I not utterly take from them. There is a threefold ground of this Perseverance. 1. Because of God's engaging his own Fidelity, he will not suffer his faithfulness to fail; the Unbelief of Men will not render the Faith of God of none effect. 2. His Promise unto Christ: Once have I sworn to David, that his Seed should endure for ever. 3. The Promise of persevering and securing Grace; he will put his Fear in their Hearts, that they shall not departed from him. The Confederating Parties, the Everliving God and Immortal Souls are Everlasting, and this Relation between them shall never be altered; this is the Reason of Christ's proving of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's being yet alive, Matth. 22.32. from God's being their Covenanted God, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Psal. 24.7. The Faculties of our Soul under the Figure of Doors or Gates are called everlasting, for they are so many Capacities or Desires for seeking after, receiving and enjoying of that King of Glory: Hence is that explicatory Verse 5, 6. This is the Generation of them that seek him, that receive the Blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his Salvation: There is an everlasting God, and an everlasting Soul, an everlasting Appetite, and an everlasting Satisfying that the Commerce among the Inhabitants of the holy Hill of the Lord consists in, and this Covenant of Grace contains the Municipal Laws of that Traffic. This is another Pillar that renders the Covenant of such a supporting Nature, especially at Death, for that cannot break an everlasting Tie; though we die to this World, and all the Relations founded by other Covenants, whether Marriage, Peace, War, Friendship, Death is the Death of all of them, but it makes not the least breach upon this. Rom. 8.38. I am persuaded that neither Death, nor Life, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God. We are still alive to God, and must receive the Promises suitable to that separate State between Soul and Body, and must perform the Duties proper to it, whereof we know nothing so much as the God in that Covenant Relation we go to, which contains Comfort enough against the loss of all the Relatives we part with.  
The Fifth Property is its Harmonious Order, and the greatest Controversies among Protestants are about this; the different Methods and Systems of Divinity, are so many different Orders they conceive divine Wisdom to have framed the Covenant in: And no wonder we mistake in attempting to fathom the depth of divine Mysteries, until the Eyes of our Understanding be enlightened with Vision, and we admitted to read the Divine Records in their Original in Heaven. We but know in part, and no man that knows but a part of a Book only, can give a true Analysis of it; for every new Notion that we attain, altars somewhat of our former Method: This Order is called the Form of sound Words, the Form of Godliness. Order is a Disposition of things according to their natural or useful Priority or Posteriority; the former holds in Speculatives, the latter in Practicals.  
There are three things in the Covenant, whose Order is principally to be observed: The Subjects, the Matter, the Ends.  
(1.) As to the Subjects, I shall but name them. First, God is concerned about the Covenant before us, he made it. Secondly, That the Order of the Trinity is observable in it. 1. It flows from the Love of the Father, and is contrived by his Wisdom. 2. The Blessings of it purchased, or way for the Execution of the Contrivance, that it might consist with the Justice of Divine Government, made by the Son. 3. The Execution of it is by the Spirit. Thirdly, That Christ as our Mediator and Head was in Covenant for us before us; as the first Adam was in the first Covenant before us, so the second Adam was; hence we receive all through him. Eph. 1. He hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings in Christ Jesus. He shall take of mine, and give it unto you. We eat his Flesh, and drink his Blood; we receive our Measures from that Immense fullness treasured up in him: There was no new Covenant to intervene between the first Adam and his Seed, in order to their partaking of the Privileges promised to him, or possessed by him. Fourthly, Persons must first be in Covenant before they partake of its Privileges; Subjects must precede their Properties; all the Promises of the Bible, blotting out Sins and Iniquities, cannot solidly comfort thee who art not in Covenant; only thus far, I may be in Covenant, and then they are mine: The Man must be first taken, before any Right to what he has; this is the one thing necessary to poor Sinners, that they be in Covenant once. Fifthly, There is a great difference, though not in Right, yet in Priority of Order, as to Possession among the Subjects of this Covenant. 1 Cor. 15.23. Every one in their own Order. Isa. 9 Of the Increase of his Government there will be no end; and that Increase by Order: There are Variety of Forms and Classes in Christ's School, the Lowest is in this World, which is but a mere Initiation into it. The greatest Blessings here bear the Nature of Titles or Earnests of the Future, Eph. 1.17. though so big as to enable us to live, to maintain and propare us. By virtue of this Order Sinlesness is as necessary a Condition of our entering Heaven, as Faith is of our Pardon or Justification.  
(2.) There is the Order of the Matter of the Covenant, which consists in the Promises and Precepts of it, abstractly or in their mutual Aspect. 1. Abstractly, with respect to the Promises of the Covenant, there is an Order among them; there are some Promises whose fulfilment we may expect and do enjoy in this Life, some not; as that no Temptation shall befall us that shall totally conquer us in this Life; but a perfection in Knowledge and Holiness, a doing away of what is in part, a being without Spot or wrinkle, are Blessings proper to the future Life; a being freed from all Suffering, is proper to the other Life, 1 Pet. 5.9. There is no Promise but what beiongs to the Covenant, nor no Blessing but what comes through the Promises. 2. There are some Promises absolute, others conditional. God gives a Stock before he requires any Improvement; God required no Duty until he had made a Creature, and ●●tted it with Faculties for performing of the Duties he required, nor doth now the Covenant of Grace, although the Law still keep up its Right, and claim the exercise of Faith, one of the first duties of the Covenant, but the Gift of Faith is before it: The Promise of the Redeeming Seed, Gen. 3. was preventive of all Duties; there was need of believing it, in order to all saving Blessings by it, Heb. 11. but the Nature of that Faith was such, as no external Revelation or Motives could alone bring forth. A clear Discovery, ver. 1. of invisible things realized to the Mind, the Idea of them formed in the Soul; for Joh. 1. darkness could not comprehend the Light, and the natural Man knoweth not the things of God. 3. Legal Promises are before Evangelical; Joh. 16. the Spirit convinces of Sin before it convince of Righteousness, though there be great difference between the degrees of Conviction and Humiliation some are under; yet no man will ever fly to a Refuge, that is not sensible of need; no man will trust to another's Righteousness, that doth not despair of his own:— when the Law came, sin revived and I died. 4. The Promises about the Being and exercise of Grace, are before the Knowledge of them: An Act presupposes an Object; there are many things in our Souls we are ignorant of, or doubtful about: Whether Freedom be an Attribute of the Will, or rather of the Man? How far it is active or passive? Whether it can form an Idea never impressed? Whether it be capable of Traduction, or another Soul may be propagated from it, or created out of it? And how long may we be ignorant of the Accesses and Recesses of the Spirit of God, with which is his Language to it, and what Influences speak a State past the danger of final Relapsing. 5. The Promises that give a Capacity, before them that fill and satisfy it: It is not orderly acting, to put an Estate in a Minors power, one under Age. Our Lord took two of the most ripe and early Children that ever this World afforded, and gave the World an Experiment of their Unfitness for enjoying the Comforts and ravishing Enjoyments of the other World; Peter and Paul, they were both confounded, they knew not what they said, nor what they heard. 6. The Promises suited to our Need rather than Desire: Our Desire is corrupted and feverish; we often long for what would injure us, but our Saviour minds our Salvation first; this is all my Salvation, and all my Desire. 7. The Lord reserves to himself some Monuments of his former despotical Right, a Sovereignty in the disposal of some Blessings in the Covenant; as about all outward Blessings, Plenty, Peace, Prosperity; about the Time of effectual Calling into the Covenant; about the continuance under Legal Frames, or a spirit of Bondage; there is a May be as to many Mercies; in the Fifth Command, Honour thy Father, etc. that thy days may be long. God may give another Mercy for long Life: If a man give a pound of Gold for Lead, he breaks not Promise, especially where more need of it.  
The Second Part of the Matter of the Covenant is its Precepts and Commands: There is a beautiful Order also observable among them. 1. In a suitableness to our Condition: He lays not heavy Burdens and galling Yokes on the Necks of Children, but the most easy and facile; the Work and Employ of Angels, who perpetually praise God, is not charged on us, or such Personal War with Devils, the chaining and restraining of them: We are not fit to be God's Instruments in the great Revolutions and Messages they are, nor are the same things required of Infants and adult Persons, Pagans and Christians. 2. Precepts about our Life precede them about our Work; Faith that is the Appetite we live by, is first Commanded; Christ is the true Bread of Life, and Faith the fixed and determined Desire on him. Parents have as much Care about feeding their Children as afterwards when Men about their Calling and Trade. The subject of Faith is Man's Appetite, and Desire that is the faculty it resides in, the Gift of Faith is the Presentation of Objects or forming Ideas of God in Christ, that determines this desire alone upon him, Psal. 4. Who will show us any good? there's the Faculty, the Soul of Man as passive and recipient, Lord lift on me the Light of thy Countenance; there it's determined by Faith, that is the Exercise of Faith, Heb. 11.1. Faith is the evidence of things not seen; there the Object determining it the Gift of Faith, the way it is wrought is by presenting the Objects immediately to the Mind, the kindly entertaining these Objects is our Duty, and our first Duty, and the Duty of Self-preservation or Maintenance: We quench the Spirit who works them, we provoke him if we do not. 3. Precepts about External Ordinances precede Internal and Spiritual Exercise, Phil. Work in and about your own Salvation; as Camero well translates it, to which Ability of Spiritual Performance is annexed, I will work in you to will and to do. 1. Ordinances keep the mind from Distraction with worldly business; then our minds are retired to contemplate spiritual Objects only, they are helps to keep us from quenching the Spirit. 2. Hence Ordinances are the Means of working Faith, Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The Spirit presents the Ideas, of which the Words are signs to the Mind, Faith comes by hearing; therefore People ought to be Careful of their Choice of a Ministry, Understanding, Sound, and whom the Lord has sent, to whom he has given a Commission; thus the Word becomes the Seed of Regeneration, for beholding in this Glass the Glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same Image, 2 Cor. 3. It's Satan's Conclusion for deserted Souls to forsake Ordinances, or to abstain for want of Grace, and yet to continue in them without obtaining Grace is to lose their end. 4. Precepts about forbearing sin, Mortification, are before Practice of Godliness, Cease to do evil, learn to do well.  
3. An harmonious Order is seen in the Relation of these two to one another. 1. In the strictness of the Relation: The relation between God and the Creature is as soon broken and dissolved as this, they are inseparably, perpetually and universally united; no man has a right to the Promises that is not under Obligation to the Precepts: If a Man lives holily, never question his right to the Promises; if a Man has a Right to one Promise, he has a Right to all. 2. In the Sweetness and Comeliness of the Relation. (1.) There are more Promises than Commands; the Duty is but an Acknowledgement, a Quitrent, there are Promises for Ability, Exercise, Perseverance, Rewards to every Command. (2.) There is a Priority in the Promises, a Stock, some Talents, before we Trade. (3.) An Usefulness: We have Ability to Obey from the Promise, we have Knowledge what to do from the Precept: We have the Motive of Reward from the Promise, we have the Light and Conduct about the way from the Precept: We are kept from Despair by the Promise, and preserved from Presumption by the Command: We were undone if the Covenant wanted its Precepts.  
(3.) The Third thing the Order of the Covenant is discernible in, is about its Ends. 1. God's Glory. 2. Christ's Honour. 3. Sinners Salvation. For the first, God has his Sovereignty Exalted in the Obedience of his Son, for he and we, his Obedience and ours are both enjoined in this Covenant; it's more Glory to have such a Subject than ten Thousands of Angels; his Wisdom in its Contrivance how to save his own Justice and Truth, and yet save the Rebel; to be Just and Justifier of the Ungodly, is a Wonder of Wisdom: His Justice in his Son's Sufferings, his Mercy in Sinners Salvation. 2. Christ's Honour is highly Exalted: It's a Question among Divines, whether any Creature should ever have been so nighly United to God as that Humane Nature is, if Man had not fallen; if not, what an Honour to all the Humane Nature, especially the Man Jesus! suppose there should have been, what an Honour for a Man to be in such an Office, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, one Mediator, the Angels Sovereign and Sinners Saviour, to have a Fullness not only for himself but all Creatures! How wonderful is his Condescending Love, who by Union and Birth thus high, and yet became as a Worm and no Man, and his Exalted Glory, who was as a Root out of a dry ground, the Scorn and Contempt of the People, and became higher than the Heavens and Holier than the Angels, the Visible Image of the Invisible God, in his Incommunicable Attributes, to have Life in himself, an Independent Life when once given, the Wisdom of God, and the Power of God, all the Works of God being managed by him. 3. Sinners Salvation: It is wonderfully ordered to render their Salvation 1. Possible. 2. Easie. 3. Certain. 4. Suitable. The apparent Repugnancies were either from the Law, Lawgiver, Surety or Sinner. 1. The Law threatened present Death, but not Eternal, In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die: He did Die, the Eternity was founded on the Perpetuity of sinning and Heinousness of the Crime, not on the Letter of the Law; it spoke nothing against an Intervening Surety after the Sinner was once dead, to relieve him from that Death; It is appointed for all Men once to die; but the Law spoke nothing against a Resurrection. 2. The Lawgiver was satisfied, since his Truth in the Law was saved, since the Obedience and Sufferings of the Mediator did sufficiently evince the Holiness and Justice of the the Governor. 3. As to the Surety, having his Life wholly in his own Power, it was lawful for him to die; and since it was in his Power to Redeem his Brethren, to re-establish the Order of Divine Government, to glorify his Maker more than any thing done by Creatures yet could, there was a becomingness that he should; Decency makes a thing in some respect a Duty: It was in the Power of his Hand to relieve his Brethren. We cannot thoroughly Love our Brethren without doing what we can for Relief to their Misery: His Incarnation was an act of Choice, but once Man, and made under the Law, the Love of his Brethren was a Duty. 4. As to the Sinner, it's not only made possible but easy, for though Justification and Sanctification were both impossible to Man, the satisfying for past Gild, or the ceasing from sin, yet Christ having done both, no more remains but our accepting of him for our Mediator, and suffering his Spirit to do in us what he will; a Self-denial, a doing nothing is our principal Duty. The Sureness of our Salvation is to be next spoken to, and the Suitableness of it consists in the strict Union between the Commands and Promises, Holiness and Happiness must go together.  
The Sixth Property is the Sureness of it, so ordered and so guarded nothing can break it: 1. The clear Assertions of the Spirit of Truth confirms this: Isa. 55.3. The sure Mercies of David. Jer. 33.20. If my Covenant with Day and Night can be broken, so that they should cease, then may also my Covenant with David be broken. 2. The Nature of the Covenant confirms this; for there is nothing in the Matter impossible or unlawful: Not the former, for the Promises are so ordered that they render the Commands easy; not the latter, for the Will of God is the Measure of Duty to us; and tho' its Duties are inconsistent with our praeingagements in a Covenant with Hell and Death, yet that Covenant being unlawful, and its works contrary to what's our Duty antecedently to this, it no way renders this Covenant unsure. 3. The Party of the Covenant, GOD, the whole of it depending on Him, not us; if we consider his Mindfulness, Psal. 111.5. He will ever be mindful of his Covenant, etc. his Power, Righteousness, Wisdom, nothing can fail that he has undertaken: And if we consider the Form of the Covenant, he has undertaken all; Faith bears the room or place of a Condition in the Covenant of Grace; but this very thing makes it lose the proper Nature of one, that, It is God's Gift, Eph. 2.8. 1. The Beginning and Perfection of it, Heb. 12.1. 2. The Growth of it; Lord increase our Faith. 3. The Exercise of it; I believe, Lord help my unbelief: But if Faith should fail, the Unbelief of Man will not render the Faith of God of none effect; tho' we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he will not deny himself, 2 Tim. 2.13. but that he secures that it shall not, Jer. 32.40. They shall not departed from me. Hos. 14.5. He shall grow as the Lilly. I have prayed for thee that thy Faith shall not fail. 4. The Foundations of this Covenant demonstrates its sureness. The Decrees of God: The Love of God: The Death of Christ. (1.) The Decrees of God: Our duty is founded on his Legislative Will; the Commands contain what we should do, but the Promises are Results of his Purposes, what God will do: Psal. 2. This is God's decree, That the Heathen should be Christ's Inheritance, and the Ends of the Earth his Possession. And since Promises and Purposes are of so nigh a Kindred, it's not so improper to say Purposes give a Right that needs to be stigmatised with the Brand of Error and Heresy. (2.) The Love of God. I have loved thee with an everlasting Love: Nothing can hinder the impetuous Endeavours of Love among Creatures: Love is strong as Death, the Coals thereof have a most vehement flame. If these shadows of divine Love have such an Influence and Power to remove all Impediments that obstruct its desire, what can resist divine Love? (3.) The Death of Christ; this was the Fruit of the former: God so loved the World as to give Him to Redeem it, and what then will he not do for it? Eph. 1.13. Will ever he withhold the Inheritance, or any part of the Purchase, since he gave his Son to die a Sacrifice, that Love might communicate itself in a consistence with the Measures of Wisdom and Rules of Justice. 5. The Sealing of the Covenant renders it sure: The Death of Christ, Heb. 9 the Oath of God, Heb. 6. the Earnest of the Spirit, Eph. 1.13. the external sealing Ordinances, are all confirming Seals to render their Consolation solid and strong, that have fled to this Covenant as a Refuge. 6. The Covenant its having both Date and day of Payment annexed. Sacred Chronology contains the one, and the Prophetical Aeras contain the other, Psal. 102.13. Hab. 2.2. 1 Pet. 5.6. Rev. 22.12. There is a due Time, a fit Time, an appointed Time for every Person, Measure of Grace and Condition of the Church, and the Lord will never be slack concerning his Coming, 2 Pet. 3. he will not let any time be lost. The Knowledge of the time as to particular Persons he reserves as a Secret to himself, but the Time of Deliverances and Fulfillments of the Promises to the Church, he hath more communicated, and the Neglect of studying them must flow from an unconcernedness about her Affairs: There are two things certain about them. (1.) That there is a set time for great Promises to the Church. (2.) That many of them have their set times revealed; the Four hundred thirty years from the Covenant made with Abraham to the Coming out of Egypt; the Seventy Years from the beginning of the Babylonish Captivity to the end of it; the Four hundred and Ninety to the Coming of Christ in the Flesh: So the One thousand two hundred Sixty days, Forty two Months, the Time, Times, and half Time. But such is our Infirmity and weakness, that we may doubt of the time when it is on the very brink of fulfilment, as our Fathers did. 7. It is as sure as the Covenant of Redemption, which was made between Infallible Persons: For though they may be considered as distinct Covenants, yet the one is Foundation and Security for the other, it is like a subsequent Surety entering a Covenant with the Creditor, to pay for past Debt, and engage as Surety for future Credit; so that the Suretyship in the Covenants between God and Man, is what he undertakes in his own personal Covenant with God. He hath given him for a Covenant to the People. It is more sure than the Covenant of Nature, with Day and Night, etc. for by Miracles the one be disordered, but all Miracles are to confirm the Covenant of Grace, and assure us of its Truth.  
The Seventh Property is its perfection or Allness as to Salvation and Desire. There are two things to be premised to the proof of it. (1.) The difference between these two Alls. (2.) In what respects the Covenant contains them. 1. The All of Salvation is less than the All of Desire; Pardon and Sinlesness will completely save us, but not satisfy us. Adam needed not Salvation before he perished, but his Desire was not completely satisfied. 2. They differ as Food and Physic, as the Religion of sinless Angels and sinful Men, the one is Vital, and becoming a perfect Healthful State; the other is Medicinal, a remedial Religion, to restore us to Life and Health; the Desires of the one are often to be corrected, mortified; the other to be nourished, and still strengthened, the Desire or Appetite still increasing with the Reception. (2.) In what respects the Covenant contains them. 1. The Revelation and Discovery of them. 2. It's the Instrument of Conveyance, and gives a Right to them: And hence 3. It ●●●●s the Soul with assured Hope of them, Rom. 8.23. We are saved by Hope. For the third thing, the proof of this; the proof of the latter contains the former, as the greater Blessing doth the lesser. Man can never have his desire satisfied until he be sav'd: And indeed the Disease of Hunger and uneasy craving will also be removed when we are saved: For such a desire is a great piece of Misery. But a plenteous Redemption will bring a plentiful Salvation; the fullness of Grace and Truth that is in Christ will remove the Emptiness of the Creature, and all is contained in the Covenant. 1. All that is in the Earth is promised, Gold, Silver, fine Linen, Feasts of fat things, Honey, 2 Cor. 3. All things are yours. God thinks not this Old World good enough, therefore he will make it New for them, 2 Pet. 3. Rom. 8. 2. Heaven also, and all that is in it; and this is more than we desire; we would never have dreamed of it, if the Promises had not contained it, and given some preventive discovery. For Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, nor hath it entered into the Heart of Man to consider what, etc. Isa. 64.4. 3. All in God. I am thy God, contains more than any man can infer from it: Who would have dreamed of concluding a Resurrection out of it? Mat. 22.32. Christ being ours, contains all our Salvation; and God being ours contains all our Desire; they are both ours by virtue of this Covenant that contains a Covenant of Peace and War, they are offensive and defensive with us, all our Enemies theirs, Omnipotency is on our side. In a Covenant of Traffic and Commerce all they have in their All-sufficiency, by sending of our Prayers the Ships of Desire, may be obtained freely. In a Marriage Covenant, There will I give thee my Loves; that is beyond all. It is on this account Gen. 33.9.11. that Jacob retorts on Esau's Enough, I have All, because God was his God, though Esau more Riches: The English wrong the word, translating it Enough.  
I shall conclude this with these Motives. 1. We may do it. 2. We must do it, as a Duty and a Mean. 3. Whenever we do, God accepts, Heb. 8. Deut. 26.17. It would never enter into our Hearts without his Spirit: Our saying, I am thine, is but the Echo of his Voice. 4. God delights in it, Jer. 30.24. 5. We can do it: (1.) From Ability already received. It is a true Article of the Synod of Dort, That every Man may do more good than he does; though we have no spiritual Power by Nature, and I doubt much whether any Moral Power either. For there is a great difference between what Man actually is by Heavens common Gifts, and what Man is by Nature. All the External Ordinances of Religion lie under our Power, abstaining from External Vices, Lying, Swearing, Murder, Adultery; else the Magistrate could not justly punish Criminals. We may, as Job, make a Covenant with our Eyes, and so with all our Senses and Organs, that lie under the power of our Will; when restraint is removed from Conscience, often they lie under our Power to employ them about things that tend to our Souls good: We can covenant to do what is within our Power, to God as well as we do to Men; and would we have God to work Miracies where there is no need? to exercise a Supernatural Power, where Natural Powers can do? Which were to disorder the Harmonious Method of his beautiful Providence, to work Extraordinary in us what Ordinary assistance can do: He has promised Special Grace on our engaging in this, Phil. 2.12, 13. Work out your own Salvation, etc. and I will work in you, etc. He commands that we should try him in this very point, Mal. 3.10. Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts. All Believers have set their Probatum to it, that God was always faithful to his Promise. (2.) Because we engage not in our Own strength, Isa. 45.24. Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I Righteousness and Strength: Christ is Man as well as God, and in his Office as Mediator he stands on our side as well as Gods: Behold I and the Children which God hath given me: He is called the whole Covenant Himself, Isa. 42.6. 
* Gillespy on the Covenant, p. 467.  In Practicals we commonly fall short in giving Christ his own room in the Covenant. 1. He is the Root and Original of it: We ought not to deal with God as if it had its first rise when it first entered into our Heart. 2. He is the principal Party; we should not drudge him after us as an Assistant, and we the principal Creditors of the Promises, and the principal Debtors of Duty, Isa. 59.21. If we give Christ his own place, we will find Covenanting with God an easy and comfortable thing. The Lord grant we may find it so. Amen.  
FINIS.