Christ.

So much for the first thing propofed, which was to give you fome views of the covenant

of grace.

The fecond thing was to fpeak a little of the faithfulness of God engaged in the covenant, which is here resembled to the rainbow about the throne in colour like an emerald. For the illuftration of this head, I fhall 1. enquire what the faithfulness of God implies. 2. How far this faithfulness is engaged in the covenant.

For the firft, I fhall clear it in the following particulars. 1. God's covenant of grace or promise is no hafty or indeliberate deed, but the refult of his eternal purpofe and council. Men many times fpeak before they think, and when they have past their word, they would be content to eat it in again, because they speak frequently before they confider matters truly. But no fuch thing is incident to God; his promise is nothing else but a revelation of his council and purpose of grace before the world began; and therefore every word he speaks is fure, and stable, like mountains of brafs which cannot be fhaken. 2. God thinks as he fpeaks in his covenant and promife. I remember it is given as the character of a true citizen of Zion, that he speaks the truth in his heart, Pfal. xv. that is, his words and his thoughts agree together, the one is the exact tranfcript or copy of the other: And if this be the character of the citizens of Zion, much more is it fo of Zion's God and King, who defires truth in the inward part: He does not fay one thing and think another, he hates all difingenuity in others, and therefore cannot be guilty of it himself: His words are fo much the picture of his heart, that

we

we may lawfully and warrantably look into his heart. in and by the words of his mouth.

3. God cannot forget his covenant and promife. Men will many times make promises, and forgetthem as foon as they are made; but it cannot be fo with God, he is ever mindful of his covenant, his mercy and truth is ever before his face; and therefore it is an unjust reflection on a God of truth, to fay, or think that he has forgotten to be gracious. A woman may fooner forget her fucking child, than God can forget his children, or his promife made to them; he remembers every good word or thought of ours, and has a book of remembrance for them; furely then he will not, he cannot forget his own word of promife. 'Tis true, Ifa. xliii. 26. we are commanded to put him in remembrance; and accordingly David, Pfal. cxix. 49. fays to God, Remember the word, upon which thou haft caufed me to hope. But this is not to be understood, as if God needed to have his memory helped by us; but only to put us to our duty, to quicken us to faith and fervency in prayer, according to the direction, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. For thefe things will I be enquired of by the house of Ifrael, that do it for them.

I may

4. God cannot change his mind: our unbelieving hearts are ready fometimes to fuggeft, that when God made the promise, he might have thoughts of grace and love in his heart, but perhaps now he has altered his way of thinking; his thoughts have taken another turn: but this cannot be, for he is of one mind, and who can turn him? There is no variableness, or fo much as a fhadow of turning with him, he is the fame to-day, yesterday, and for ever. Pfal. cii. 25, 26, 27. Of old thou haft laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of VOL. II.

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thy

thy bands: they fhall perish, but thou shalt endure; all of them fhall wax old as a garment; as a vesture shalt. thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the fame, and of thy years there is no end. Whatever changes there may be in his carriage towards us, yet there can be no change in his heart, confequently no change or alteration in his covenant.

5. As God never changes his mind, fo he never broke his word; he always performs what he promifes. Many a time the believer has found him better than his word, but never worse than his word. This is what Joshua obferved in his laft fpeech to Joh. xxiii. 14. And ye know in all your hearts, and in all your fouls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord our God fpake concerning you, but all are come to pass to you, and not one thing bath failed thereof. As if he had said, I appeal to your confciences, if he has not been a faithful God in performing his promise to you. Thus fee wherein the faithfulnefs of God confifts.

you

For the second, to wit, How far the faithfulness of God is engaged in the covenant of grace? I anfwer, it is fo far engaged, that he has given all the fecurity that it is poffible for God to give. For, 1. his covenant is fubfcribed, even with his own blood. God, as it were, dips his pen in the heart-blood of his own Son, and therewith fubfcribes the covenant. Hence the blood of Chrift is called the blood of the teftament. This is the New Testament in my blood. 2. The covenant of grace is not only fubfcribed but attested by a glorious Trinity in the capacity of three witneffes, 1 John v. 7. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghoft and these three are one. 3. It is a fealed

:

bargain,

bargain, fealed with the oath of God, wherein he hath pledged his very life for the performance of it: he gave his oath to the covenant-head, Pfal.1xxxix. 35. Once have I fworn by my holiness, I will not lie unto David. He gives his oath to the feed of Christ, Heb. vi. 17. God willing more abundantly to fhew to the heirs of promife the immutability of his counfel, confirmed it by an oath. It is fealed with the death of the teftator, Heb. ix. 16, 17, 18. It is fealed with the facraments of baptifm and the fupper, which are like the delivering of earth and stone up⚫on an infeftment: and that moment that a finner takes hold of it, he feals it upon the heart by his holy Spirit, Eph. i. 23. In whom after ye believed, ye were fealed by the Holy Spirit of promife, which is the earneft of our inheritance. 4. This covenant or teftament has the faithfulness of God fo far engaged in it, that for further fecurity it is regiftred in heaven amongst the antiquities of the land afar off, Pfal. cxix. 89. For ever, O Lord, thy word is fettled in heaven, registered upon earth, in the volume of his book, which is a more fure word of prophecy than an immediate voice from heaven; and therefore, we do well to take heed to it, as to a light fhining in a dark place. This much for the fecond thing propofed.

The third thing in the method was to take a view of this covenant of grace, and the faithfulness of God engaged therein, under the fimilitude and representation of a rainbow furrounding the throne in colour like an emerald. And here I shall endeavour to do these three things: 1. View the covenant under the fimilitude of a rainbow. 2. Enquire why this bow is faid to be round about the Kk 2 throne,

throne. 3. Why it is faid to be in colour like an emerald.

1. I fay, I fhall view the covenant of grace under this metaphor of the rainbow in the text. 1. Then, the rainbow was of God's fetting, I have fet my bow in the clouds. So the covenant of grace is of God's making: I have made a covenant with my chofen. Hear and your foul fhall live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, even the fure mercies of David. I will make with them an everlafting covenant, and I will never turn away from them to do them good. Beware of thinking that the covenant is of your mak-. ing. It is indeed our duty to take hold of God's covenant, and to come under engagements, thro' the grace thereof to obferve all the duties commanded in the law; but do not think, that your engaging or promifing and covenanting do make or conftitute the covenant of grace. No, it is God that both makes the covenant, and leads our heart and hand in taking hold of it, and in engaging to these duties of obedience, which are confequential unto our being in covenant with the Lord, Heb. viii. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the boufe of Ifrael, I will put my law into their mind, and write it in their heart: and I will be to them a God, and they Shall be to me a people. The covenant of grace is as much of God's making, as the forming of the bow in the clouds, which cannot be done by the hands of men.

2. The bow was fet in the clouds upon God's smelling a sweet favour in Noab's facrifice, as you will fee in the close of the viii. and ix. chapters of the book of Genefis: So here, upon Chrift our bleffed Noah's engaging to make himself a Sacrifice to juftice in our room and ftead, and God fmel