Gods fidelity, the churches safety opened in a sermon preached before the lord major,…

1. The Covenant and grace thereof is free and absolute, not conditional and suspended upon the unstable will of man: It is not of him that willeth, or runneth, but of God that showeth mercy, and showeth it on whom he will, Rom. 9.15-18. Between God the Father indeed, and Christ as a second Adam, the Transaction of the Covenant was wholly conditional, he was to take from his Father a Commission in our nature, to lay down his life, and to take it up again, to fulfil all righteousness, to be made sin for us, to have our iniquities and the Chastisement of our peace laid upon him, before he could see of the travel of his soul, Yea he undertook not only for his own work, but for ours, By the preciousness of his blood he purchased, and out of the plenitude of his Spirit he supplieth unto us what ever grace is requisite unto our salvation. But I say as to us, the grace of the Covenant is thus far free and absolute, that no duties are required of us, which are not as branches of the same Covenant bestowed upon us: he hath promised to give a new heart, and to put a new Spirit within us, to take away the stony heart out of our flesh, and to give us an heart of flesh, and to put his Spirit within us, and to cause us to walk in his Statutes, to save us from all our uncleanness, to cleanse us from all our iniquities, Ezek. 36.25, 26, 27, 29, 33. and though he there tell us, that he will be enquired of by the house of Israel to do these things for them, ver. 37. yet we ⟨p. 18⟩know it is he only who poureth out the Spirit of Grace and Supplication, whereby we make this inquiry of him, Zach. 12.10. Gal. 4.6. Rom. 8.26. True indeed it is, that when we believe, it is we only that believe, and when we work, it is we that work, but our working is not the cause of his grace, but his grace the cause of our working: Certum est nos velle & facere cum volumus cum facimus sed ille facit ut velimus ut faciamus:¹