ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me; that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day." In this passage, these several things are either expressed, or evidently implied: 1. That there is a perfect agreement between the Father and the Son in the work of saving sinners. 2. That this agreement was made and established, previously to Christ's coming down from heaven. When he says, he came down from heaven not to do his own will, but the will of the Father which sent him; he is not to be understood, that he did not most cheerfully consent to this, so as to make it his own will or choice. He designs to teach ne, that he had no object to answer by coming into the world, different from that which was the object of the whole Trinity. 3. In this passage we learn, That the Father has given some sinners to Christ, in distinction from their fellow men. It is not here explicitly said, that they are given as a reward of his sufferings; but by comparing this with the passage in Isaiah, which we have been considering, it is evident, that these which are said to be given, are the same as the seed which he was to see, and the travail of his soul, and the portion which the Father promised to divide to him, because he poured out his soul unto death.— Mr. B. says, " All were given to Christ." p. 115. We grant, that Christ by dying set open the door of mercy Lefore all mankind; but the Father did not promise that he should actually have all mankind for a spiritual seed. It is evident, that when Christ first speaks of all which were given him of the Father, he contrasts them with some who did not, and who, he knew, would not believe. 4. It appears from this passage, that the concert between the Father and the Son, made it certain that these, who were given to Christ, should come to him. It appears they are given before they come, and

that their coming is the consequence of their being given. The verb giveth being in the present tense, does not alter the sense. If the Father should say to the Son, All the sinners which I give thee, shall come to thee or all the sinners which I have given thee, shall come to thee; both expressions would amount to the same thing,-they would imply that they were given before they came, and in order to their coming. But that which is in the present tense in the 37th verse, is put into the past tense in the 39th verse; and so it is in the 17th chap. v. 2. Coming to Christ, in this place, must mean becoming interested in him by a living faith. 5. It is evidently contained in this passage, that the concert or covenant between the Father and the Son, makes it necessary that all those who come to Christ; that all who become christians, should be kept from falling, and be eternally saved. The Saviour seemed to feel perfectly certain, that all whom the Father had given him, should come to him. His dependence was upon his Father's faithfulness, and not upon the goodness of these sinners. He made declaration of his own faithfulness when he said, " And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Moreover he declares it to be his Father's will, that of all which he had given him he should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Christ could not mean, that of all the human race he was to lose nothing, for it is manifest that many will be lost. I am not now

seeking to prove election, tho' it is intimately interwoven with our present subject. But letting the doctrine of election pass for the present, can the passage before us prove any thing less, than the certain salvation of all who come to Christ?

The promise which Christ made to his disciples, that he would send the Holy Spirit to abide in them, and also to reprove the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, was founded upon the covenant of redemption, in which each Person in the Godhead has his distinct office and work, yet all are mutually engaged to effect the salvation of those which were given to Christ to be his redeemed church. The prayer of Christ to his Father, contained in the 17th chapter of John, appears to be founded on the covenant which was between

them, concerning the salvation of sinners. In that prayer Christ speaks of losing one which was given him; but it is evident, that by being given him, in this instance, he meant no more than being given him as one of his apostles, and as a member of his own family while he was here on earth. To say, that he was given to Christ in any higher, or more appropriate sense, would be to make Christ unfaithful in what he declared he had undertaken to do. See John vi. 37-40.

The name of this covenant we will not now stand to contend about; but the existence of a covenant between the Persons of the Godhead, concerning the salvation of those who are saved, I think is very evident. We have spent the more time to prove the existence of such a covenant, because we view it as a truth which holds an important place in the scheme of man's redemption. This covenant must be considered as made in eternity. As God is an eternal Being, who has no variableness nor shadow of turning, whatever he does in time, he must have always purposed to do. The apostle, writing to Timothy, teaches us, that those who were then called with a holy calling, were called according to the purpose and grace which were given them in Christ Jesus before the world began. This has a manifest reference to the covenant between the Father and Son, and to its existing before the creation of the world. Mr. B. says, "According to your representation of this subject, the covenant of redemption which you suppose was made in eternity, is the new covenant, I suppose, in contradistinction from the covenant of works, which was made with Adam in Paradise." p. 218. Every covenant, which God ever made with his creatures, existed in his own mind from eternity. This was the case with the covenant made with Adam. Covenants take their names of new and old, former and later, according to the order in which they are manifested to creatures. The covenant of grace, which is called new, is the fruit of this covenant of redemption; but is perfectly distinct from it. The covenant of redemption is between the Persons of the Godhead; the covenant of grace is between them, and repenting believing sinners. The covenant of redemption was fully made before the world began; but the

covenant of grace was made with none, until after the creation and fall of man. The author of Letters in replying to my Sermon, has confounded this distinction, and his reader would naturally suppose that there was none kept up in the Sermon itself.

But it is time that we bring this matter to a focal point, that we may see how the existence of the covenant of redemption, will establish the doctrine of the certain perseverance of the saints. Here is a covenant between the Persons of the Trinity, concerning the salvation of sinners. Every covenant, properly so called, is conditional. This is the case with the covenant of redemption. But as the Persons covenanting are Di- ́ vine Persons, and all united in the essence of the Godhead, there cannot be the least possible doubt of their fulfilling their covenant engagements. In this cove nant, the second person in the Godhead engaged to become Mediator in the human nature. He covenanted, in this nature to obey the law, and endure its curse, and thus to magnify the law and make it honorable.➡ The sinless perfection of the human nature of Christ, was essential to the fulfilling of the covenant of redemp tion; but there was also a covenant engagement, to secure this perfection. This is made evident by what we find, Isa. xlii. 6. "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." Now let us inquire,-Was there any engagement made that the Son, by offering himself a sacrifice for sin, should actually save any sinners? think nothing can be more evident than this; that a church of redeemed sinners was promised him. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. The Father, to whom it belongs in the economy of redemption, to have mercy on whom he will have mercy, is represented as having given some of the lost race of Adam to his Son, in such a sense, that the Son can claim them as his promised reward. These the Father has engaged by the influence of his Holy Spi rit, to draw to his Son. All the Father giveth me shall come to me. If these never were effectually drawn to the Son, so as to become united to him, the engagement of the Father would fail, and the covenant of redemption

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would be broken. These which were given him by the Father, and which come to him, he stands engaged to receive and to keep, so that no one of them shall be lost. "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing." If one sheep is lost from the fold, the Son disobeys the will of his Father, and breaks covenant with him. In his mediatorial character he is invested with universal dominion, having power over all flesh, that he might be able to give eternal life to as many as were given him. John xvii. 2. In his prophetic office, he stands engaged to provide them with instruction; in his priestly office, to present his own blood before the mercy seat in their behalf, and make intercession for them, and particularly to pray the Father for the descent and indwelling of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to lead them into the truth, and to keep them in the love of God. As a king he stands engaged to rule over them, to defend and protect them, and deliver them out of the hand of all their enemies. This covepant also necessarily implies an engagement on the part of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, to descend in conformity to the intercession of Christ; to draw to him those given him by the Father, and to abide in them forever; to convince them of sin, and to manifest to them the things of Christ; and in this way to be employed in perfecting the union between him and his members.

Now it is evident, that the covenant of redemption is made between the Persons of the Godhead, and them alone. If these Divine Persons keep and fulfil covenant engagements to each other, all the good promised in the covenant will be fully realized. The covenant was made concerning sinners of the human race, but it was not made with them. They had no voice in the matter. Neither was there any such proviso in this covenant, as there was in the oath which Abraham laid upon his servant, whom he was about to send to obtain a wife for his son. In that oath the servant said, "Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me :' Abraham replies, "If the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath." But when, in relation to the covenant of redemption, it

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