80 THE POEM OF THE GOSPEL. regeneration, holiness and perseverance, as well as justifica- tion, adoption and glorification; we .must be saved from our sins, as well as from the wrath ,of God, if we are made truly happy. Jesus the Mediator saves his people from their sins; Mat. i. 21. as well as delivers from the wrath to come; 1 Thess. i. 10. These several blessings included in salvation, though they are all bcstówed freely by grace, yet have a connexion one with another, and dependence on each other ; therefore some of them are represented as foregoing, others as following : some as means, the others as the end. Faith, repentance, regeneration, pardon, justification, adoption, sanctification, obedience, the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and perseverance, may all be esteejned as means, with regard to the great and final blessing of glorification, which is the end ; and indeed, every foregoing blessingmay be reckoned in some sense, as a meanswith regard to that which follows. Again, some of the blessings included in salvation are to be wrought in us, as repentance, sanctification, &c. Others to be only bestowed upon us, as pardon of sin, adoption, eternal glory, &c. Those that are to be wrought in us, are sometimes set forth in scripture, as duties to be performed by us, to stir us up in a rational way to seek them ; and those that are only to be bestowed upon us, are set forth as blessings to be conferred in consequence upon such duties performed ; for God will save us still as intellectual creatures, under a moral government, and will have our rational powers used in obtaining and possessing this salvation ; and therefore it is sometimes set forth, as a pro- posed agreement between two intelligent beings,. God and man, and is called the new covenant, a better covenant, and thewordof reconciliation ; Heh. viii. 6. S. 2 Cor. v. 19. Upon these considerations the gospel or covenant of grace is sometimes represented as a mere declaration of grace, or an absolute promise in scripture, and sometimes as a conditional one. It is represented absolutely in these texts : Gal. iii. 8. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto 4braham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. Heb. x. 16, 17. l"/ns is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, sith the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them : 4nd their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Though the word co- venant does usually signify an engagement on both sides, yet it is sufficiently evident, that in the languageof scripture it does not always imply restipulation Or mutual agreement ; for it is applied to the day and the night, and their stated courses, to the beasts of the field, as inhabitants of this earth ; Jer. xxxiii. 20, 25. Gen. ix. 9, 10.
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