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"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, faying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting "love therefore with loving-kindnefs have I "drawn thee "." That fame fovereignty of love, which was at firft difplayed in the choice of this "nation not defirable," was confpicuous in their continued prefervation, although they were ftill provoking the God of their mercy. How lively a figure of the permanent manifestation of the fame adorable character towards all his fpiritual Ifrael! It is only because he "refts in his "love," and because this love ftill triumphantly overlooks our continued demerit, that he does not deftroy us.

The Ifraelites are taught to afcribe their redemption from Egypt, not merely in general, but in all the feveral fteps of it, to fovereign grace. The frequent repetitions, in the hundred and thirty-fixth Pfalm, are by no means "vain repetitions." This is the principal note in their anthem of praife; "For his mercy endureth for ever." For it is not fo much the defign of God, that his people fhould commemorate the deliverance itself, as the cause of it. Without this, he hath no glory; men view even his greatest works only in a felfish light, as fubfervient to their interest, not as difplaying his adorable perfections. In this pfalm, his mercy is celebrated in thofe things in which it may appear there was no mercy; in overthrowing Pharaoh and his hoft, in deftroying Sihon and Og. But as his mercy was difplayed towards If

rael

a Jer. xxxi. 2, 3.

o Zeph. ii. 1.

rael in the literal deliverance; it fhadowed forth his special mercy towards his redeemed people, in the destruction of, all their fpiritual enemies, that they may "ferve him without fear."

But they were not only to celebrate his fovereign mercy in the various fteps of one deliverance; they were to afcribe all their deliverances to the fame caufe. As we have already feen, they needed a perpetual difplay of the fame unmerited love P.

11. Is the faithfulness of God to his promise another ground of fecurity to his people? Similar was the difplay of his faithfulness to the typical Ifrael. They dealt unfaithfully towards him. But without confidering their guilt as an obstacle to the manifestation of his grace, he "remember"ed his holy promife 4." Thus had they reafon to teftify, after long experience; "There hath "not failed one word of all his good promise "which he promised by the hand of Mofes his "fervant "."

God would not fuffer Balaam to curfe Ifrael, notwithstanding all his facrifices; nor would he himself curfe them, notwithstanding all the devices employed by that wicked prophet to subject them to divine indignation, by feducing them to fin. He was forced to exclaim; "Surely there "is no inchantment against Jacob, neither is "there any divination against Ifrael." Long after

p Numb. xiv. 19. s Numb. xxiii. 23.

q Pfal. cv. 42.

Kings viii. 56.

after this event, the LORD reminds Ifrael of it, that they might be convinced of the rectitude of his conduct, and of his faithfulness towards them: "O my people, remember now what Balak king "of Moab confulted, and what Balaam the fon of "Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, "that ye may know the righteoufnefs of the "LORD." On this part of their hiftory, Mofes makes the following reflection: "The LORD thy "God would not hearken to Balaam: but the "LORD thy God turned the curse into a bleffing "unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved "thee "" And is it not thus that he still deals with his true Ifrael? Satan, like his fervant Balaam, tempts the faints to fin, accufes them to God, and exerts himself to the utmost to prevail with God to curse them, by breaking his gracious promife. But their loving father overrules the temptations of this adverfary, and even their falls, for their good. By these he teaches them watchfulnefs, humility and dependence on himself. He increases their stock of Chriftian experience: and thus, in various refpects, "turns the curfe into a bleffing."

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111. The ftability of the covenant was another ground of the fecurity of Ifrael. When God defcribes them as "pining away in their ini"quity in their enemies lands," he adds; "If

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they fhall confefs their iniquity,-then will I "remember my covenant with Jacob, and alfo

t Micah vi. S

Deut. xxii. 5.

"my

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my covenant with Ifaac, and alfo my covenant "with Abraham will I remember; and I will "remember the land. The land alfo fhall be left "of them, and fhall enjoy her Sabbaths, while "fhe lieth defolate without them: and they fhall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; be"caufe, even because they defpifed my judg"ments, and because their foul abhorred my fta"tutes. And yet for all that, when they be in "the land of their enemies, I will not caft them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy "them utterly, and to break my covenant with "them: for I am the LORD their God v." Thus we perceive, that the fevereft vifitations of the Jews, even that of their captivity in Babylon, were within the compafs of the everlasting covenant; not meant for difannulling this, but in fubferviency to it. Even when he remembered the land, fo as to caufe it to enjoy thofe fabbatical years which had been neglected through the difobedience of his people, he at the fame time remembered his covenant with them, overruling their adversities for their good. The covenant he remembered, being that made with Abraham, was, as to its principal fubftance, the fame covenant of grace made in Chrift with all the fpiritual Ifrael. Hence the rod, with which he fmote them, was the chaftening of fons.

That covenant of royalty, which God made with David, was an illuftrious type of the covenant of grace. It was indeed one fpecial medium

Lev. xxvi. 39-44.

of

of the adminiftration of this covenant under the Old Testament; and eminently fubfervient to the more fpiritual and glorious administration of it under the New. In this covenant of royalty, God gracioufly engaged to his fervant, that he fhould never want a man to fit on his throne. This covenant he confirmed by his oath: "Once have I "fworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto "David. His feed fhall endure for ever, and his "throne as the fun before me w." In reference to Solomon it is faid: "I will be his father, and " he shall be my fon." Even his great apoftacy was not to deprive him of this parental love, as God declared to David: "If he commit iniquity, "I will chaften him with the rod of men, and with "the ftripes of the children of men; but my "mercy fhall not depart away from him, as I "took it from Saul, whom I put away before

"thee "."

These two princes, Saul and David, appear as emblems of the firft, and of the laft Adam. The characters of the legal, and of the evangelical covenant, are illuftrated by their hiftory. Saul was acceptable to Ifrael, as pleafing the carnal eye, but not approved of God; David was chofen of Him, but despised by the people, who were fubjected to him only in confequence of the difplay of his power, and the reduction of the house of Saul. The kingdom was loft to Saul, and to his pofterity, on account of one act of difobedience; and fo completely loft, that there was no poffibility

w Pfal. lxxxix. 35, 36.

x 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15. y 1 Sam. x. 23, 24