The Balm of the Covenant, Part 2
II.
It must be able to do these things at all times, and in all Ages, or else it will be but a temporary relief to some only, and not to all. Now that the Covenant hath this ability in all Ages, and is as able to relieve us now, as it was to relieve David in his day, fully appears by the Epithet given it in the Text, it is an EVERLASTING COVENANT. Yet hath he made with me an everlasting Covenant.
Time is the measure of other things; but Everlastingness is the measure of the Covenant. When the Lord espouseth a People to himself in Covenant, he betroths them to himself for ever, Hos. 2.19. and from that day forward they may say on good grounds, This God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death, as it is in Psal. 48.14. Nothing in nature is so firmly established as the Covenant is. Hills and Mountains shall sooner start from their basis and centre, and fly like wandering Atomes up and down in the Air, than this Covenant shall start from its sure and stedfast foundation, Isai. 54.10.
The Causes and Reasons of the immutability of the new Covenant, are
1. The unchangeable purpose of God, which is a sure and stedfast foundation. 2 Tim. 2.19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth who are his. The first act of Gods love to the creature is that by which he chuseth such a one to be his, and is therefore called the foundation of God, as being that on which he lays the super-structure of all other Mercies. And this stand sure, there can be no vacillancy or slipperiness in such a foundation: for he knows who are his; he knows them as his Creatures, and as his new Creatures in Covenant with him; as his by Election, and his by Covenant, Transaction and Compact. The purpose of his Grace before time, gave being to the Covenant of Grace in time, and is the foundation of it.
2. The Free Grace of God in Christ, is that which gives immutability to this Covenant. It is not built upon Works, but Grace: Therefore it is of faith, Rom. 4.16.that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed. This Covenant is not founded as the first was, upon the variable and inconstant obedience of man, but upon Grace which is a steady and firm foundation.
3. The suretiship of Christ gives everlasting stability to this Covenant. Heb. 7.22. He was made the surety of a better Testament, or Covenant:foreign ab. foreign pro mittere qua si foreign, in manibus. for foreign, signifies both, he struck hands, or engaged himself for the whole Covenant, and every condition in it, and that both on Gods part and ours; to undergo all our punishments, to pay all our debts, and to work in us all that God required of us in the Covenant of Grace: and all this under the penalty that lay upon us to have undergone. And this not as other Sureties, who enter into one and the same Bond with the principal, so that the Creditor may come upon which he will; but he lays all upon Christ, and relies wholly upon him for satisfaction, knowing he was able to perform it; and so under the Type of Gods Covenant with David, Christ is brought in, Psal. 89.19. Thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help on one who is mighty. Q. d. I know thy ability, my Son, thou art able to pay me, and therefore lay all upon thee.
It follows strongly from what hath been said, that the vertue of the Covenant decays not by time, as other things do, but it is at this day, and will be to the end of the World, as potent and efficacious a Relief to all Gods People, as ever it was to David, or any of the Believers of the first Ages.
And if so, certainly nothing can be more strongly supporting, or sweetly relieving in such a changeable World, than this he hath made with me, an everlasting Covenant. What David speaks of the natural Heavens, will be found true, of things over-spread and covered by them.Psal. 102.26, 27. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure, and all of them shall wax old like a garment: and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The Creature was, and is not; but my Covenant God is the same; his name is I Am, and his Covenant is the same that ever it was; which is the second Property or Ingredient of this compleat Remedy to the Saints Afflictions. The Covenant hath not only all Power, Vertue, and Efficacy in it self to relieve a distressed Christian, but it hath it in all Ages, as well for one as for another. The third and last follows, namely,