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comes fubfervient to grace, and the laws of the material fyftem direct to heaven. And should we not afpire to the friendship of that Being, whofe voice. shakes the earth, and whofe eyes are as a flame of fire? Should we not approach his footftool, humbled in the duft of repentance, and trufting in the propitiation of him, who hufhed the infinitely more dreadful thunder of divine refentment, and, in his own blood, quenched the lightening of vindictive wrath? Poffeffed of intereft in his availing merit, and conformed, as far as human infirmity will permit, to his bleffed example, we need fear nothing. Though the earth was removed, and the hills carried into the midst of the fea; though the waters thereof should rage and fwell, and the mountains shake at the tempeft of the fame; yet, fafely anchored on the rock of redeeming merit, and lodged in the arms of God's everlasting love, we fhould be equally free both from danger and from dread. Let the inferior thunders grate upon the ear; let fublunary lightenings flash terror on the eye, fo we are enabled to take shelter beneath the hiding place of a Redeemer's righteousness, and his fpirit, in gentleft accents, whispers comfort to the heart. Happy they, who thus dwell beneath the defence of the Moft High, who abide under the fhadow of the Almighty, and to whom his faithfulness and truth are a fhield and buckler!

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THOUGHTS

ON

PERSEVERANCE.

MANY of God's dear people are frequently

afraid, that, on account of their own weaknefs, and the power of their fpiritual enemies, they fhall at length make fhipwreck of faith, and totally fall away. Yet perhaps none ftand more fure and fafe than thofe, who think they cannot ftand at all: for "Happy is the man who feareth always," Prov. xxviii. 14. Happy the foul that is poffeffed of that holy fear, which drives him to the Lord, keeps him vile in his own eyes, and causeth him to be ever de pendent upon the word and promife of a faithful God, and makes him rejoice with trembling, and tremble with hope.

But we are affured from the oracles of unerring truth, that the righteous fhould hold on his way; and he that hath clean hands," he (whofe actions are pure, in confequence of his heart being purified by faith) "fhall be ftronger and stronger," Job xvii. 9. As this doctrine is a fource of comfort and fupport to the children of God, I fhall humbly offer fome arguments to prove it, which have been matter of ferious meditation, and, I truft, of confolation to my own mind.

I. The economy of the covenant of grace.The covenant is faid to be "ordered in all things, and fure," 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. This the holy Pfalmift triumphed in, even in the profpect of death; this enabled him to look the king of terrors in the face with compofure and ferenity; this emboldened him to play on the hole of the afp, and to put his hand on the cockatrice den, Ifa. xi. 8. Feeling his mortal powers

powers decay, he rejoiced in the approaching profpect of that glory, to which, by virtue of this wellordered covenant, he poffeffed a valid and unalienable right.

All believers have one and the fame title to glory; all are equally interested in the bleffings of the covenant; and, it being fure, it follows, that none of thofe, whom God deals with, in a covenant way, can finally perish, or it could not be termed well-ordered, or fure. The apoftle calls it "a better covenant,' Heb. viii. 6. better than that made with Adam. Our firft parents were capacitated to ftand, and continue in obedience to their Sovereign; but, being mutable, they fell, no grace being promifed to fecure their ftanding. But believers ftand and are upheld by the veracity and immutability of God that cannot lie. The covenant of grace, then, is a better covenant, and established upon better promifes, which affure the people of God of grace to help in every time of need. It will, methinks, be hard to prove how it can be called a better covenant, if thofe that are in it may (as fome fuppofe) fall away.

II. The death of Chrift is another argument to prove this point. Chrift is the head of his Church under the covenant of grace, as Adam was of all mankind under the covenant of works; as fuch, he graciously undertook for all his people, and, by his active and paffive obedience, he fully fatisfied the law and juftice of God on their behalf, and opened a new and a living way for their return to God here by faith, hereafter by fweet and bleffed fruition. Nor did he die for all; for there were fome, when he died, fuffering in their own perfons the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude, ver. 7. It would be blafphemy to fay he died for those who were then in torment: this is the natural product of Arminianifm. We allow the Scripture fays, "he tafted death for every man," Hebrews ii. 9. p Tavros cannot fignify for all, but for every one. If we attend to the apoftle's

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apoftle's strain of meaning, it is evident, he speaks of many fons being brought unto glory. Chrift is not ashamed to call them his brethren. "Forafmuch, then, as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he alfo himself likewife took part of the fame, that by death he might deftroy death," &c. Those he reprefented in his obedience unto death, are his brethren, the members of his body myftical, and he tasted death for every one of them. Hence we are warranted to conclude, every one of his brethren or people fhall be faved. To fay, all may be faved, is in effect to affirm that none fhall: a thing that only may be, may furely not be; and if there is but a peradventure for our falvation, it is easy to prove no foul ever can be faved. Our Saviour fays,

All that the Father hath given me, fhall come to me; and him that cometh, I will in no wife caft out, but will raise him up at the laft day," John vi. 37-44. In which words is contained, 1. the doctrine of election; 2. of faith; 3. of glorification, in order to which, perfeverance is abfolutely neceffary,. and must be implied.

When we confider Chrift to be God, he must know for whom he fuffered; and if we alfo confider the greatnefs, merits, and efficacy of his fufferings: he could not undergo all in vain but it would (with reverence I fpeak it) be in vain, if thofe he died for were finally to mifcarry.

III. The work of the Spirit.-When the Spirit begins, he carries on his work in the hearts of his people, till they are made meet for the inheritance prepared for them above; for he has engaged in covenant to bow the wills, to regulate the powers, and fanctify the affections, of all the elect; to lead, guide, ftrengthen, and direct them through this wilderness; and he never leaves the fubjects of his grace, till he puts them into the arms of the Redeemer in glory. To this purpose Chrift fpeaks, John iv. 14. "Whofoever drinketh of the water

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that I fhall give him, fhall never thirst. But the water that I fhall give him, fhall be in him a well of water fpringing up (aure, bubbling, and ftill afcending with energy and conftancy, till it bubble up) into everlasting life." Pertinent to this point, alfo, is what the apoftle fays, "He that establishes us with you, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath fealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. Those that are established and anointed, and have the fealing and earneft of the Spirit, cannot fall away. This is again mentioned in Ephef. i. 13, 14.

IV. We may argue from God's faithfulness and immutability. That immutability is an effential attribute of God, the Scriptures abundantly affert, Mal. iii. 6. Heb. i. 12. Worthy our attention is what an excellent author fays upon the unchangeablenefs of God: "Could he ever be changed, it must be by others, or himself; by others it cannot be, not being in the power of any; how can the thing made have power over him that made it? Nor by himself: if fo, it must be for the better, or the worse; for the worse it cannot be, for then he must cease to be the most perfect being, or ceafe to be God: nor for the better; for how can he be better, who is already abfolutely the beft?" Jenks's Medit. vol. ii. edit. 2. p. 29.

God having beftowed his grace upon his people, he never takes it from them; his unchangeablenefs will not admit of it: "The gifts and callings of God are without repentance," Rom. xi. 19. "If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be faved by his life," Rom. v. 10. If when we were strangers and enemies to God, and the way of falvation revealed in the gofpel, his grace reached us, and proved victorious in fubjecting us to his will; much more, being made willing to love, follow, and obey him, we shall be faved and preferved

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