come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." The cove

nant is everlasting, in distinction from the covenant of works made with Adam, which lasted but a little while before it was broken and came to an end. The mercies of this covenant are not like those given to Saul, the predecessor of David, who for his disobedience had the throne taken from him; but they are the sure mercies of David; of whom the God of Israel says, "My covenant shall stand fast with him." This sure and ever-during covenant is proffered to all our wretched world; and they who become subjects of grace take hold of the covenant. Isa. lvi. 6.--When they take hold of it, then the covenant may, with propriety, be said to be between God and them,

If the God of truth has made such promises to his people, in the covenant which he has established with them; that he cannot fulfil these promises, without its issuing in their eternal salvation, then they will most assuredly be saved. Let us now candidly attend to the promises which belong to the covenant of grace, Here let it be remarked, that a promise made to one believer is made to every other believer, unless the promise be in its nature local and confined; or be made on some condition, which may be performed by one believer, and not by another. The promise to Joshua, "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee," is in the epistle to the Hebrews urged on all christians, as an argument why they should be content with such things as they have;

"for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." This promise is by the apostle applied to them, with as much freedom, as though it had been first delivered to them. This remark will lead us to see how that declaration, made to Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee," is in reality a promise to every believer. And if it be a promise to every believer, then no believer can fall away and perish. Grace is the thing which makes one a believer at first; a sufficiency of grace will therefore preserve him a believer. The language of the covenant of grace is, "They shall be my people, and I will be their God.' But how does it become certain that they will be his people? The Lord says, "I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me." The Lord makes them his people, by putting this fear in their hearts, and he preserves them his people, by keeping his fear in their hearts. "Who are kept by the power of

God."

The penitent sinner goes to Christ to be saved from all his sins; to be redeemed from all iniquity; and Christ undertakes as a Saviour and Redeemer, to perfect this most desirable deliverance. He is called "the believer's life." He says to his disciples, Because I live ye shall live also. The covenant of works did not necessarily secure to man grace to withstand temptations, or to be recovered out of them; but the new covenant is ordered in all things and sure. Here it is said, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to es

cape, that ye may be able to bear it." In this covenant, the faithfulness of God is pledged to his covenant people, either, first, to prevent temptation; or, in the second place, to give grace to resist its influence; or, in the last place, to recover their feet out of the snare. Joseph was enabled to resist the temptation wholly; and David, though taken in the snare, had a way made for his escape. How can that creature be finally lost, to whom the all-sufficient and faithful God has engaged, that with his temptations there shall be a way of escape? It is the duty of the saints on earth, to be as perfectly free from sin, as they will be in heaven; but the covenant contemplates that this will not be the case; therefore we find such a promise as this, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely." " And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father."

I shall now adduce one or two arguments, which serve to confine the views which have been given of the covenants of redemption, and of grace; and to establish the certain perseverance of the saints.

1. That every true believer will persevere unto the end, may be clearly inferred from the view which the scriptures give us of apostates. The apostle John, speaking of the antichrists of his time, says, They went out from us, but they were not of us for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us." The whole force of the apostle's argument, to prove that these

apostate professors were never real christians, will go to prove, that all other apostates were never real christians: for their apostacy from the truth, is all the proof which he brings to show, that they were not real brethren, when they were in the communion of the church. In the parable of the sower, the seed which sprang up quick and appeared to grow, but afterwards withered away, is said never to have had any root. From this account it is natural to infer, that all which withers away, and never comes to perfection, is without root. It is mentioned in the book of Job, as characteristic of a hypocrite, who is a man that has no true religion, that he will not always call on God. The inference is this, that if any man, who has once called on God, ceases from this duty, he makes it manifest that he was a hypocrite, even when he did pray. When Simon the sorcerer offered money to buy the gift of the Holy Ghost, Peter says, "I perceive that thou art in the gall, of bitterness and bond of iniquity." This sounds as though Peter had now detected the hypocrite; he now perceived what state he was in. When Paul, in his epistle to Timothy, had spoken of Hymeneus and Philetus, and the effect of their heresy in overthrowing the faith of some, he hastens to say, "Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his." This in its connexion expresses the idea clearly, that those, whose faith was overthrown, were none of them sealed with this seal, "The Lord knoweth them that are his." They might have said of themselves, that they knew they were his; and

their brethren, and even their ministers, might have told them, there was no doubt of them ;--but if the Lord had known them to be his, Hymeneus and Philetus would not have been able to overthrow their faith: for the foundation of God standeth sure, and men cannot overthrow it. If it were possible, the false Christs and the false prophets, spoken of by our Saviour, would have done it; but he spoke of it, as utterly impossible for them to deceive the very elect..

2. That every true believer will endure to the end, is capable of being proved from the view which the scriptures give of the trials of the church. The trials, through which the church passes in this world, are represented as answering a twofold purpose, to discover and purge out the drossy members, and to purge the remaining dross from the good members: But these trials are never represented as converting gold into dross. If they did, it could not be counted a matter of rejoicing, that the church had fallen into diverse temptations or trials. The Lord says to his church, Isa. xlviii. 10, Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." That which in the furnace burns up, instead of being refined, is reprobate silver; that is, it is not true and genuine. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." Trials will not destroy the church, but purify it; neither will they destroy the true believer, but will purify him. When the Lord sifts the house of Israel as corn is sifted in a sieve, not the least grain of the corn will be lost; it