our Lord useth concerning a less indissoluble conjunction, Matt. xix. 6, "What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

2. The grace of justification is neither suspended nor violated; it admits neither of intercision nor recision, neither of pause nor period. There is nothing between justification and glorification in the apostle's sentence, but the conjunction and, Rom viii. 30. There is nothing between a justified soul and glory, but a mere passage into it.

We may be allowed to triumph with the holy apostle in the forequoted chapter, Who shall bring an accusation against God's elect? "It is God that justifieth." But what though you be at present justified, may some say, is there not a possibility of being unjustified again? may not the righteousness of the righteous be taken from him? may you not be condemned hereafter? But, "Who is he that shall condemn us? it is Christ that died:" as if the apostle had said, The love of God towards his justified ones is not grounded upon their purity, loveliness, or perfection, but it is founded in their Redeemer, which Redeemer hath done enough, both to bring them into a justified state, and to keep them in it for ever; it is Christ that died to free them from sin, it is Christ that is risen again for their justification; "that is at the right hand of God," to deliver them from all their enemies; that maketh intercession for them, for their perseverance. God loves nothing but the communications

of himself; so far as any thing partakes of the divine image, so far it partakes of divine favour and complacency; so that whilst a good man bears a resemblance unto God, so long he shall be accepted of him, and embraced in the arms of his love; and that shall be for ever, as we shall see under the next head. Until you have blotted out all the image and superscription of God out of a godly soul, until you have rased out all the stamps and impressions of goodness; in a word, until you have rendered him wicked and ungodly, you cannot pluck him from the embraces of God; which thing men and devils shall never be able to do, as I have partly showed already, and shall yet show more at large.

It is true indeed, that Adam fell from a just state, though not from a justified state; for that supposes sin formerly committed. But this is no great wonder, for he had his righteousness in himself, and his happiness in his own keeping; but the condition of believers is now more safe and firm, as depending not upon any created power or will, but upon the infinite and effectual help and strength of a Mediator, which will never fail.

3. The covenant of grace is everlasting. It hath pleased God to enter into a covenant of grace and peace with every believing soul; which, I suppose, I need not go about to prove, all Christians acknowledging it, though they do not all agree in one notion

of it. Now this covenant, wherein God engages himself to be their God (for that is the summary contents of it on his part) is expressly called by the apostle "the everlasting covenant," Heb. xiii. 20. And again, Jer. xxxii. 40, "I will make an everlasting covenant with them:" which covenant, and the everlastingness of it, are fully explained in the following words, "I will not turn away from them to do them good:" the inviolable nature of this covenant is also expressly asserted in that famous passage, Jer. xxxi. 31, 32, "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, which my covenant they brake:" as if he had said, "I will make a covenant that shall not be subject to breaches. In the former covenant with their fathers, I gave them laws to keep, which they kept not: but, in the new covenant, I will give them also a heart to keep my laws:" it is not possible that covenant should be broken, one principal part of which is a heart both able and willing to keep it. The similitudes which God useth in the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh verses of that chapter, do also further confirm and illustrate this doctrine of the everlastingness of this covenant of grace.

Under this head let me glance at three things. 1. The Mediator of this covenant lives for ever, "and lives to make intercession for believers," Heb. vii. 25, and from this the

apostle argues, that they shall be saved to the uttermost, or ever-more, as the margin reads it. From this also the apostle argues the unchangeable state of believers, as we observed before out of Rom. viii. 34. Christ Jesus is always heard and accepted of the Father in all the requests that he maketh to him, according to that in John xi. 41, 42, "Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee, that thou hast heard me, and I know that thou hearest me always." If these things be so, then the perseverance of the saints is built upon a most certain bottom, is secured against the very gates of hell; for Christ hath prayed for them that they may be where he is, John xvii. 24, and, in the mean time, that they may be kept "from the evil," ver. 15, "and that their faith fail not," Luke xxii. 32.

2. The promises of this covenant are immutable, they are in Christ Jesus yea and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20. God, who is truth itself, will not, cannot be unto his people as a liar, or "as waters that fail," as the prophet's phrase is. The infinite fountain of grace and truth cannot possibly become like one of the brooks which Job speaks of, which seem to be full of water, and are so at a certain winter season, but when the poor scorched Arabian comes to look for water thence in summer, he goes away ashamed, because they are now vanished, they are consumed. out of their place, Job vi. 19, 20. Now the promise is concerning not only grace, but the

final perseverance of it: if he promise pardoning grace, it is in these full and satisfying expressions, "I will remember their sin (any one of their sins) no more," Jer. xxxi. 34. If he promise purging and purifying grace, it is in the like amplitude of phrase, "that they may fear me for ever;" and again, "they shall not depart from me," Jer. xxxii. 39, 40, with many other places of like importance.

3. God is said, 2 Cor. vi. 16, to dwell in the souls of his people, in opposition to a wayfaring man," who turneth in to tarry for a night," Jer. xiv. 8. God indeed hath promised, that it shall be said to them that were not his people, "Ye are the sons of the living God, Hos. i. 10, but never on the contrary; he hath no where threatened them that are the sons of the living God, that it shall at any time be said to them, Ye are not my people. True indeed, as to external profession, church-membership, mere covenant holiness, and outward communion, God doth many times disinherit and reject them that were so his people: but, as to true godliness, participation of the divine image, internal and spiritual communion, we may confidently say with the apostle to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. i. 9, "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord;" or, with the same apostle to the Thessalonians, 1 Thess. v. 24, "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it:" do what? why, that which he