ftances of wrath and indignation against fin and finners: And whereas GOD, after Adam's fall, had promised a Saviour and Deliverer to his people; he added fignificative fhadows and types of the promised feed, that fhould deliver them from fin and the wrath to come. But this covenant Ifrael broke: They not only tranfgreffed the moral law, but alfo its ceremonial ordinances, which were fhadows of a new and better covenant; even these they perverted, and abufed. As it is written; To what purpose is the multitude of your facrifices unto me, faith the LORD? I am full of the burntofferings of rams; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats; they are a trouble unto me, I am weary to hear them: yea, they have chofen their own ways, and their foul delighteth in their abominations. Wherefore, bebold the days come, faith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the boufe of Ifrael, and the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with them when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, faith the Lord: But this is the covenant which I will make with the boufe of Ifrael and the house of Judah after thofe days, faith the Lord; I will put my laws into their minds, and in their hearts I will write them; and I will be to them a God, and they fhall be to me a people:

a people: and they shall teach no more every one his neighbour, and every one his brother, saying know the Lord; for they fhall all know me, from the leaft to the greatest; for I will be merciful to their unrighteoufnefs, and their fins and their iniquities I will REMEM

BER NO MOR E *.

Here we plainly fee that the promises of the covenant which God made with Ifrael in the wildernefs were conditional, and not to be fulfilled without their performance of the terms of that covenant: But the promises of the New Teftament, which he here mentions, are abfolute and fure, becaufe God himself engages to work all our works in us and for us. The former depended upon our doings, and perfonal obedience; but the latter depends only upon the grace, and power, and faithfulness of GOD, towards his chofen in CHRIST. Here he faith not, I will do this part of the covenant, and they fhall do that part; but he takes the whole of it into his own hands: For I, faith GOD, will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; not fet them before their eyes, and write them on tables of stone, as in the first covenant; but I will write them in their hearts: This is a fure and infallible way to make them understand the word of GOD, and keep it.Hence

Jer. xxxi. 31-35.-Heb. viii, &c.

Hence he further faith; they fhall all know me, from the leaft to the greateft; for they fhall not only be taught of man, but they shall all be taught of God: He adds, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their fins no more.

Therefore God, who cannot lie, nor deny himfelf, will do it, and alfo perfect it, for his great name's fake, in every one of his elect for whom CHRIST died, because he hath faid it: And this I shall endeavour to fhew further, from the following confiderations.

1. This covenant of grace, and promise of eternal life to God's chofen, was made before the foundation of the world; altho' it was not revealed to man till after the fall: Nor was there any occafion nor place for it, until, by Adam's tranfgreffion of the first covenant, fin bad entered into the world*. This truth is plainly fet forth, and exprefly declared to us in Scripture: For Paul, fpeaking of the faith of GOD's elect, and acknowledging the truth according to godlinefs, adds; in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promifed before the world began t. And as this promife of GoD was made before the world began, when man had no actual existence; it must be an abfolute promife,

Rom. v. 12.

† Tit, i. 2.

mife, requiring no condition of works on man's part: but it was an act of mere grace towards God's chofen in CHRIST: And he that affirms it may be changed, or broken, by any after acts of the creature, makes GOD a liar.- -Therefore,

2. There must be fome one to whom this promife was made on behalf of GOD's elect, before he created man; and this alfo the Scripture exprefly tell us was CHRIST. The WORD that was with GOD, and was GOD, who is alfo the only begotten Son which is in the bofom of the Father, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, was made flesh :And thus CHRIST was before Abraham, who rejoiced to fee his day; and he faw it, and was glad.

-Indeed as the fon of man, according to the flesh, he was the feed of Abraham and of David; but as the Son of GOD, who fhould come into the world to fave finners, he was before them both.

Therefore the promise of life to Abraham and his feed, thro' the righteousness of faith, was made and confirmed of GOD in CHRIST, to whom the promife was made+: Yea, all the bleffings which

+ Gal. iii. 16, 19.

GOD

GOD eternally purposed to give unto his people, were given into the hand of CHRIST. Who therefore may be confidered as a Trustee for every one of them: Thus GOD hath bleffed hiselect with all fpiritual bleffings in heavenly places in CHRIST. And of this the Apostle speaks exprefly; God, faith he, bath faved us, and called us with an holy calling; not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Chrift, before the world began. Therefore CHRIST must have covenanted with GOD for us before all time; and to him the promise of eternal life was given on our behalf, before the world was; and to us, thro faith, it is also now given in CHRIST: For which cause the life of believers is faid to be hid with Chrift in GOD.-Thus the promife of GOD to Chrift for his elect, was in confequence of CHRIST'S being taken into covenant with GOD for us; and hence the blood of CHRIST is called, the blood of the everlasting covenant *.In confequence therefore of this eternal engagement, or covenant of peace betwixt the Father and the Son, for his chosen among men; CHRIST came into the world, to fulfil all righteousness, and give his life a ranfom for them: For which caufe the promise of eternal life is fure to all the feed. CHRIST'S obedience is divinely full and his blood

and perfect;