K E E P E R. 379 not ; therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not confumed. * I£ GOD changed from his Purpofe in faxing a Man, when ever the Man, left to his own Will, would change from the Delire of being fasted; he muff renounce the ftrongeft Believer upon Earth, in five Minutes after he had committed him to himfelf. The poor Creature wouldfoon be confurned. However ; GOD's People are not fet upon'lippery Places, but upon a Rock, upon a fure Foundation, a tried Corner_lone, Elegy, and Precious; and, refting there, they 'hall never be confounded. " The Soul once born of the I-Toly Ghoít (lays an ableWriter) is never unborn from that Day forward.Regeneration is a divine Aft, which, having once paffed upon the Soul, Rands good for ever, and is phyfically incapable of Reiteration." The Redeemed are not bought with the Blood of Chrf, that the Devil might run away with the Purchafe ; for they are KEPT, not by their own Power, but by the POWER of GOD through Faith unto Salvation. The LORD never made that fort of ever- lofting Covenant, which a poor, weak and filly Worm might fruftrate ; nor can be reduced to any imaginable Dilemma, which his infinite Wifdom did not forefee, and for which his infinite Strength did not provide. Archbilhop Leighton well obferved, that " the Tenor of an external Covenant with a People (as the Jews particularly found) is fuch, as may be broken by " Man's Unfaithfulnefs, though GOD remain faithful and true : But the newCovenant of Grace makes " all lure on all hands, and cannot be broken ; the " LORD not only keeping his own Part, but likewife performing our's in us, and for us, and eftablifhipg us ; that as He departs not from us firft, fo we shall not depart from him. I will betroth thee to me, fays " the Lord, FOR EVER. 'Tis an indiffoluble Marriage, which is not in Danger to be broken either by Divorce " or Death." f Known unto GOD (lays the Apoftle) are all his Works from the Beginningof the World. He ì1e1, iii. 6. Gcîjment. on I get. ii. io. knew
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