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24
GODS ELECTION
OF MEN
IN JESUS
CHRIST. [SEEM.
St.
tament; Ps.
,xl.
7.
"
Lo,
I
come,
in
the
volume
;
or
rather
,the
beginning
of
the book it
is
written
of
me
:
I
delight
to do thy
will,
O
my
God." Whether
this book be
the secret
book
of
life,
or the public
book
of scripture,
I
will
not here determine
;both
are true.
And
so
it
is
written
also, in
the history
of
the
life of
Christ;
for he
speaks often
with sacred pleasure;
that
he
came
to
do
his
Fafher's
will,'
and
to
take
care of
those
whom
the
Father
had
given him,
to keep them from perishing,
and
to
raise
them
up
at
the
last
-day.
Now
this
is
what
our
divines
generally
call
the cove-
nant
of redemption,
even
these
sacred
transactions be-
tween
God
the
Father,
and
his Son
Jesus
Christ,
before
the foundation of the
world
;
and I think the
scripture
calls
it
the
covenant
;
Ps.
lxxxix. 28.
When the Psalm-
ist
has
represented
Christ,
under
the
character of David,
as chosen
of God
from among
the
people, to lay our help
upon
hire, he
adds,
"
my
covenant
shall stand
fast with
hint, saith
the Lord,
his
seed
will
I
make
to
endure
for
ever
;
and though
they may
sometimes
fall
into
sin;
yet
I
will
not
suffer
my
faithfulness
to fail
:
my
covenant
will
I
not
break,
nor alter
the thing
that
lias
gone
out
of
my
lips.
Once have
I
sworn
by
my
holiness,
that
I will
not
lie
unto David,"
that
is,
I
NVill
fulfil
the promises
that
I
have madè
to my
Son,
the
true
David, the king
of
Is-
rael,
or
the head
of
my
chosen
people
;
for
I
have
con-
firmed this
covenant
with
him, by
divine solemnities.
And
I am
sure, the
five
first verses
of
the seventeenth
of
John,
wherein
our
Saviour pleads
with his
Father, carry
in them the plain
language of
á
covenant,
ai
every Leader
may observe.
The
only thing which
remains
on this
head,
is
briefly
to run over the articles
of
this
covenant, or the mutual
engagements between
God
the
Father,
and
his Son
Je-
sus
Christ:
First
then,
let
us
consider what
it
was
Christ under-
took,
as
the chosen Saviour
of
his
people.
The
"
only
begotten
Son
of
God,
who
lay in the bosom
of
his
Father,
and
had
glory
with him
before
the
world
was ;"
John
i.
'18.
and
xvii. 5.
agreed to
"
come
forth
from
the
Father,
and
to come
into
this world,
and
to be
'emptied
of
that
glory for a season
;"
John
xvi.
28.
Phil.
ii.
7.
"
to
take
flesh
and blood upon
him
;"
Heb.
ii. 14.
"
to
be
horn
of