THE MOURNING CHRISTIAN’S HEAVENLY CORDIAL

Now though the illustrious marks and characters of such a righteous, serene, and happy government, did not fully agree to this day, nor would do so in the reigns of his ordinary natural successors, his day was not without many clouds both of sin and trouble; yet such a blessed day he foresaw and rejoiced in, when Christ, the extraordinary Seed of David, should arise and set up his kingdom in the world, and with the expectation hereof, he greatly cheers and encourages himself: “Although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant,” amp;c In which words four things are eminently remarkable.

1. Here is a sad concession of domestic evils.

2. A singular relief from God’s covenant with him.

3. The glorious properties of this covenant displayed.

4. The high esteem and dear regard his house had unto it.

1. Here is David’s sad and mournful concession of the evils of his house, both moral and penal. “Although my house be not so with God, (i.e.) neither so holy, nor so happy, as this description of a righteous and flourishing government imports; alas! it answers not to it: for though he was eminent for godliness himself, and had solemnly dedicated his house to God, as soon as it was built, yea, though he piously resolved to walk in the midst of it with a perfect heart, and not to suffer an immoral person within his walls; yet great miscarriages were found even in David’s house, and person, which God chastised him for, by a thick succession of sharp and sore afflictions. Tamar was defiled by her brother Amnon; 2 Sam. 13:23. Amnon was barbarously murdered thereupon, by the advice of Absalom, 2 Sam. 13:28. Absalom unnaturally rebels against his father David, and drives him out of the royal city, and perishes in that rebellion, 2 Sam. 15:1. Then Adonijah, another darling son, grasps at the crown settled by David upon Solomon, and per ishes for that his usurpation, I Kings 2:25. O what an heap of mischiefs and calamities did this good man live to see within his own walls, besides the many foreign troubles that came from other hands. How many flourishing branches did God lop off from him, and that in their sins too? so that his day was a day of clouds, even from the morning unto the evening of it; Ps. 132:1. “Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions.” Well might he say, “His house was not so with God.” But what then, doth he faint and despond under these manifold calamities? Doth he refuse to be comforted, because his children are gone, and all things involved in trouble? No, but you find,

2. He relieves himself by the covenant God had made with him: “Yet hath he made with me a covenant.” He looks to Christ: “There is more in the covenant than this my house before God,” as the Chaldee terms it. This little word yet wraps up a great and sovereign cordial in it. Though Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah be gone, and gone with many smarting aggravations too, “Yet hath he made with me a convenant”; yet I have this sheet-anchor left to secure me—God’s covenant with me, in relation to Christ. This under-props and shores up my heart.

This covenant was, without controversy, a Gospel covenant. It was David’s gospel; for all his salvation, and all his desire were in it; which could never be, except Christ had been in it, who is the salvation of all the ends of the earth, and the desire of all nations.

It is true, it was a more obscure and imperfect edition of the covenant of faith; yet clearer than those that were made before it. It came not up to the fulness and clearness of the discoveries made by Jeremiah and Ezekiel; but yet, in this covenant with David, God revealed more of Christ than had been ever revealed before; for the light of Christ, like that of the morning, increased still more and more, till it came to a perfect day. It is worthy our observation, how God made a gradual discovery of Christ, from Adam down along to New Testament times. It was revealed to Adam, that he should be the “seed of the woman,” but not of what nation, till Abraham’s time; nor of what tribe, till Jacob; nor of what sex and family, till David; nor that he should be born of a virgin, till Isaiah; nor in what town, till Micah. The first revelation of this covenant with David was by Nathan the prophet; afterwards enlarged and confirmed, Psalm 89. By it he knew much of Christ, and wrote much of him. He spake of his person (Psalm 45:6, 11; 8, 4–6); of his offices, both prophetical (Psalm 40:8–10), priestly (Psalm 110:4), and kingly (Psalm 2:6); of his incarnation (Psalm 8:5); of his death on the cross (Psalm 22:16, 17); of his burial (Psalm 16:8–10); resurrection (Psalm 2:7), and triumphant ascension (Psalm 68:18). There was the sun of the Gospel discovered, though in dark and typical terms and forms of expression. But if, out of this covenant, as obscure as its revelation was, David fetched such strong support and consolation, amidst such an heap of troubles, then the argument is good. a fortiori. What support and comfort may not we draw thence, who live under the most full and perfect display of it, in all its riches and glory? Enough hath been said to prove it a Gospel covenant; but if any doubt should remain of that, it will be fully removed by considering.

3. The eximious properties and characters of the covenant, as we find them placed in the text; and they are three, viz.

1. Everlasting.

2. Ordered in all things, and

3. Sure.

1. It is an everlasting covenant, or a perpetual covenant, a covenant of eternity; not in the most strict, proper, and absolute sense; for that is the incommunicable property of God himself, who neither hath beginning, nor end; but the meaning is, that the benefits and mercies of the covenant are durable and endless to the people of God: for Christ being the principal matter and substance of the covenant, there must be in it everlasting righteousness, as it is called. Dan. 9:24, everlasting kindness, Isaiah 54:8, everlasting forgiveness, Jer. 31:34, and in consequence to all these, everlasting consolation, Isaiah 51:11. In all which, the riches and bounty of free grace shine forth in their greatest glory and splendour.

2. It is a conevant ordered in all things, or orderly prepared, disposed, and set, as the word imports. Every thing being here disposed and placed in the most comely order, both persons and things here keep their proper place: God the father keeps the place of the most wise contriver and bountiful donor of the invaluable mercies of the covenant; and Christ keeps the proper place both of the purchaser and surety of the covenant and all the mercies in it; and believers keep their place, as the unworthy receivers of all the gratuitous mercies and rich benefits thereof, and the most obliged creatures in all the world to free grace, saying, Although my house, yea, although my heart and my life be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant. And as persons, so things, all things in this covenant stand in the most exquisite order, and exact correspondence to each other. O it is a ravishing sight to behold the habitude and respect of the mercies in the covenant, to the sins and wants of all that are in it. Here are found full and suitable supplies to the wants of all God’s people. Here you may see pardon in the covenant, for guilt in the soul; joy in the covenant, for sorrow in the heart; strength in the covenant, for all defects and weaknesses in the creature; stability in the covenant, for mutability in the creature. Never did the wisdom of God shine forth more in any contrivance in the world (except that of Christ, the surety and principal matter of the covenant), than it doth in the orderly disposal of all things in their beautiful order, and comely proportions in this covenant of grace.

3. It is a sure covenant, or a covenant safely laid up and kept, as the word imports; and upon this account the mercies of it are called, “The sure mercies of David,” Isaiah 55:3. And so, Ps. 89:28, speaking of this very covenant, God said, “My covenant shall stand fast with him”; there shall be no vascillancy—no shaking in this covenant. And verse 34, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Every thing is as its foundation is. Now, God’s covenant being founded in his unchangeable counsel and purpose, wherein there can be no lubricity, and Christ being the surety of it, it must needs be, as the text calls it, a sure covenant, wherein the faithfulness of God is as illustriously displayed, as his bounty and wisdom are in the two former properties of it. And such a covenant as this, so everlasting, aptly disposed, and sure, must needs deserve that precious respect and high esteem from every believing soul which David here doth pay it in.

4. The singular and high valuation he had of it, when he saith, “This is all my salvation, and all my desire,” or as some translate, “all my delight,” or pleasure, i. e. here I find all repaired, with an infinite overplus, that I have lost in the creature. Here is life in death, fulness in wants, security in dangers, peace in troubles. It is all my salvation, for it leaves nothing in hazard that is essential to my happiness; and all my desire, for it repairs whatever I have lost or can lose. It is so full and complete a covenant, that it leaves nothing to be desired out of it. Oh, it is a full fountain! Here I repose my weary soul with full satisfaction, and feed my hungry desires with sweetest delights; so that my very soul is at rest and ease in the bosom of this blessed covenant. Thus you have the parts and sense of the text. The notes from it are three,

(To be Continued)

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