277. The Blood of the Everlasting Covenant

A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, October 2, 1859, By Pastor C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

The blood of the everlasting covenant. (Heb 13:20)

1. All God’s dealings with men have had a covenant character. It has so pleased him to arrange it, that he will not deal with us except through a covenant, nor can we deal with him except in the same manner. Adam in the garden was under a covenant with God and God was in covenant with him. That covenant he quickly broke. There is a covenant still existing in all its terrible power—terrible I say, because it has been broken on man’s part, and therefore God will most surely fulfil its solemn threatenings and sanctions. That is the covenant of works. By this he dealt with Moses, and in this he does deal with the whole race of men as represented in the first Adam. Afterwards when God would deal with Noah, it was by a covenant; and when in succeeding ages, he dealt with Abraham, he was still pleased to bind himself to him by a covenant. That covenant he preserved and kept, and it was renewed continually to many of his seed. God dealt with David, even the man after his own heart, only through a covenant. He made a covenant with his anointed; and beloved, he deals with you and me today still by covenant. When he shall come in all his terrors to condemn, he shall strike by covenant—namely, by the sword of the covenant of Sinai; and if he comes in the splendours of his grace to save, he still comes to us by covenant—namely, the covenant of Zion; the covenant which he has made with the Lord Jesus Christ, the head and representative of his people. And note, whenever we come into close and intimate dealings with God, it is sure to be, on our part, also by covenant. We make with God, after conversion, a covenant of gratitude; we come to him aware of what he has done for us, and we devote ourselves to him. We set our seal on that covenant when in baptism we are united with his church; and day by day, as often as we come around the table of the breaking of bread, we renew the vow of our covenant, and thus we have personal communion with God. I cannot pray to him except through the covenant of grace; and I know that I am not his child unless I am his, first through the covenant by which Christ purchased me, and secondly, through the covenant by which I have given up myself, and dedicated all that I am and all that I have to him. It is important, then, since the covenant is the only ladder which reaches from earth to heaven—since it is the only way in which God has fellowship with us, and by which we can deal with him, that we should know how to discriminate between covenant and covenant; and should not be in any darkness or error with regard to what is the covenant of grace, and what is not. It shall be my endeavour, this morning, to make as simple and as plain as possible, the matter of the covenant mentioned in our text, and I shall thus speak—first, upon the covenant of grace; secondly, its everlasting character; and thirdly, the relationship which the blood bears to it. “The blood of the everlasting covenant.”

2. I. First of all then, I have to speak this morning about THE COVENANT mentioned in the text; and I observe that we can readily discover at first sight what the covenant is not. We see at once that this is not the covenant of works, for the simple reason that this is an everlasting covenant. Now the covenant of works was not everlasting in any sense whatever. It was not eternal; it was first made in the garden of Eden. It had a beginning, it has been broken; it will be violated continually, and will soon be terminated and pass away: therefore, it is not everlasting in any sense. The covenant of works cannot bear an everlasting title; but since the one in my text is an everlasting covenant, therefore it is not the covenant of works. God made a covenant first of all with the human race, which went like this: “If you, oh man, will be obedient, you shall live and be happy, but if you will be disobedient, you shall perish. In the day that you disobey me you shall die.” That covenant was made with all of us in the person of our representative, the first Adam. If Adam had kept that covenant, we believe that each one of us would have been preserved. But inasmuch as he broke the covenant, you and I, and all of us, fell down and were considered after this as the heirs of wrath, as inheritors of sin, as prone to every evil and subject to every misery. That covenant has passed away with regard to God’s people; it has been put away through the new and better covenant which has utterly and entirely eclipsed it by its gracious glory.

3. Again, I may remark that the covenant here meant is not the covenant of gratitude which is made between the loving child of God and his Saviour. Such a covenant is very right and proper. I trust all of us who know the Saviour have said in our very hearts:—

‘Tis done! the great transaction’s done;
I am my Lord’s, and he is mine.

We have given up everything to him. But that covenant is not the one in the text, for the simple reason that the covenant in our text is an everlasting one. Now ours was only written out some few years ago. It would have been despised by us in the earlier parts of our life, and cannot at the very utmost be as old as ourselves.

4. Having thus readily shown what this covenant is not, I may observe what this covenant is. And here it will be necessary for me to subdivide this point again, and to speak of it thus: To understand a covenant, you must know who are the contracting parties; secondly, what are the stipulations of the contract; thirdly, what are the objects of it; and then, if you would still go deeper, you must understand something of the motives which lead the contracting parties to form the covenant between themselves.

5. 1. Now, in this covenant of grace, we must first of all observe the high contracting parties between whom it was made. The covenant of grace was made before the foundation of the world between God the Father, and God the Son; or to put it in a yet more scriptural light, it was made mutually between the three divine persons of the adorable Trinity. This covenant was not made directly between God and man. Man did not at that time exist; but Christ stood in the covenant as man’s representative. In that sense we will allow that it was a covenant between God and man but not a covenant between God and any man personally and individually. It was a covenant between God with Christ, and through Christ indirectly with all the blood bought seed who were loved by Christ from the foundation of the world. It is a noble and glorious thought, the very poetry of that old Calvinistic doctrine which we teach, that long before the daystar knew its place, before God had spoken existence out of nothing, before an angel’s wing had stirred the unnavigated ether, before a solitary song had disturbed the solemnity of the silence in which God reigned supreme, he had entered into solemn counsel with himself, with his Son, and with his Spirit, and had in that council decreed, determined, purposed, and predestinated the salvation of his people. He had, moreover, in the covenant arranged the ways and means, and fixed and settled everything which should work together for the effecting of the purpose and the decree. My soul flies back now, winged by imagination and by faith, and looks into that mysterious council chamber, and by faith I behold the Father pledging himself to the Son, and the Son pledging himself to the Father, while the Spirit gives his pledge to both, and thus that divine compact, long to be hidden in darkness, is completed and settled—the covenant which in these latter days has been read in the light of heaven, and has become the joy, and hope, and boast of all the saints.

6. 2. And now, what were the stipulations of this covenant? They were somewhat like this. God had foreseen that man after creation would break the covenant of works; that however mild and gentle the tenure upon which Adam had possession of Paradise, yet that tenure would be too severe for him, and he would be sure to kick against it, and ruin himself. God had also foreseen that his elect ones, whom he had chosen out of the rest of mankind would fall by the sin of Adam, since they, as well as the rest of mankind, were represented in Adam. The covenant therefore had for its purpose the restoration of the chosen people. And now we may readily understand what the stipulations were. On the Father’s part, thus runs the covenant. I cannot tell you about it in the glorious celestial tongue in which it was written: I am forced to bring it down to the speech which is suitable to the ear of flesh, and to the heart of a mortal. Thus, I say, runs the covenant, in lines like these: “I, the Most High Jehovah, do hereby give to my only begotten and well beloved Son, a people, countless beyond the number of the stars, who shall be by him washed from sin, by him preserved, and kept, and led, and by him, at last, presented before my throne, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. I covenant by oath, and swear by myself, because I can swear by no greater, that these whom I now give to Christ shall be for ever the objects of my eternal love. I will forgive them through the merit of the blood. I will give to these a perfect righteousness; I will adopt these and make them my sons and daughters, and these shall reign with me through Christ eternally.” Thus runs that glorious side of the covenant. The Holy Spirit also, as one of the high contracting parties on this side of the covenant, gave his declaration, “I hereby covenant,” he says, “that all whom the Father gives to the Son, I will in due time quicken. I will show them their need of redemption; I will cut off from them all groundless hope, and destroy their refuges of lies. I will bring them to the blood of sprinkling; I will give them faith by which this blood shall be applied to them; I will work in them every grace; I will keep their faith alive; I will cleanse them and drive out all depravity from them, and they shall be presented at last spotless and faultless.” This was the one side of the covenant, which is to this very day being fulfilled and scrupulously kept. As for the other side of the covenant this was the part of it, engaged and covenanted by Christ. He thus declared, and covenanted with his Father: “My Father, on my part I covenant that in the fulness of time I will become man. I will take upon myself the form and nature of the fallen race. I will live in their wretched world, and I will keep the law perfectly for my people. I will work out a spotless righteousness, which shall be acceptable to the demands of your just and holy law. In due time I will bear the sins of all my people. You shall exact their debts on me; the chastisement of their peace I will endure, and by my stripes they shall be healed. My Father, I covenant and promise that I will be obedient to death, even the death of the cross. I will magnify your law, and make it honourable. I will suffer all they ought to have suffered. I will endure the curse of your law, and all the vials of your wrath shall be emptied and spent upon my head. I will then rise again; I will ascend into heaven; I will intercede for them at your right hand; and I will make myself responsible for everyone of them, so that not one of those whom you have given to me shall ever be lost, but I will bring all my sheep of whom, by your blood, you have appointed me to be the shepherd—I will bring everyone safe to you at last.” Thus ran the covenant; and now, I think, you have a clear idea of what it was and how it stands—the covenant between God and Christ, between God the Father and God the Spirit, and God the Son as the covenant head and representative of all God’s elect. I have told you, as briefly as I could, what its stipulations were. You will please note, my dear friends, that the covenant is, on one side, perfectly fulfilled. God the Son has paid the debts of all the elect. For us and for our redemption, he has suffered all of the divine wrath. Nothing remains now on this side of the question except that he shall continue to intercede, so that he may safely bring all his redeemed to glory.

7. On the side of the Father this part of the covenant has been fulfilled to countless myriads. God the Father and God the Spirit have not been slow to fulfil their divine contract. And note, this side shall be as fully and as completely finished and carried out as the other. Christ can say concerning what he promised to do, “It is finished!” and the same shall be said by all the glorious covenanters. All for whom Christ died shall be pardoned, all justified, all adopted. The Spirit shall quicken them all, shall give them all faith, shall bring them all to heaven, and they shall, every one of them, without an impediment or hindrance, stand accepted in the beloved, in the day when the people shall be numbered, and Jesus shall be glorified.

8. 3. And now having seen who were the high contracting parties, and what the terms of the covenant made between them were, let us see what the objects of this covenant were. Was this covenant made for every man of the race of Adam? Assuredly not; we discover the secret by the visible. That which is in the covenant is to be seen in due time with the eye and to be heard with the ear. I see multitudes of men perishing, continuing wantonly in their wicked ways, rejecting the offer of Christ which is presented to them in the gospel day after day, treading under foot the blood of the Son of Man, defying the Spirit who strives with them; I see these men going on from bad to worse and at last perishing in their sins. I am not so foolish to believe that they have any part in the covenant of grace. Those who die impenitent, the multitudes who reject the Saviour, are clearly proven to have no part and no lot in the sacred covenant of divine grace; for if they were interested in that, there would be certain marks and evidences which would show us this. We should find that in due time in this life they would be brought to repentance, would be washed in the Saviour’s blood, and would be saved. The covenant—to come at once straight to the matter, however offensive the doctrine may be—the covenant has relationship to the elect and no one else. Does this offend you? Be offended even more. What did Christ say? “I pray for them: I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given to me: for they are yours.” If Christ prays for no one except for his chosen, why should you be angry that you are also taught from the Word of God that in the covenant there was provision made for the same people, that they might receive eternal life. As many as shall believe, as many as shall trust in Christ, as many as shall persevere to the end, as many as shall enter into the eternal rest, so many and no more are interested in the covenant of divine grace.

9. 4. Furthermore, we have to consider what were the motives of this covenant? Why was the covenant made at all? There was no compulsion or constraint on God. As yet there was no creature. Even could the creature have an influence on the Creator, there was none existing in the period when the covenant was made. We can look nowhere for God’s motive in the covenant except it is in himself, for of God it could be said literally in that day, “I am, and there is none beside me:” Why then did he make the covenant? I answer, absolute sovereignty dictated it. But why were certain men the objects of it and why not others? I answer, sovereign grace guided the pen. It was not the merit of man, it was nothing which God foresaw in us that made him choose many and leave others to go on in their sins. It was nothing in them, it was sovereignty and grace combined that made the divine choice. If you, my brothers and sisters, have a good hope that you are interested in the covenant of grace, you must sing that song—

What was there in me to merit esteem,
  Or give the Creator delight?
’Twas even so Father I ever must sing,
  For so it seemed good in your sight.

“He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy,” “for it is not by him who wills nor by him who runs, but by God who shows mercy.” His sovereignty elected, and his grace distinguished, and immutability decreed. No motive dictated the election of the individuals, except a motive in himself of love and of divine sovereignty. Doubtlessly the grand intention of God in making the covenant at all was his own glory; any motive inferior to that would be beneath his dignity. God must find his motives in himself: he does not have to look to moths and worms for motives for his deeds. He is the “I AM.”

He sits on no precarious throne,
Nor borrows leave to be.

He does as he wishes in the armies of heaven. Who can stop his hand and say to him, “What are you doing?” Shall the clay ask the potter for the motive for his making it into a vessel? Shall the thing formed before its creation dictate to its Creator? No, let God be God, and let man shrink into his native nothingness, and if God exalts him, let him not boast as though God found a reason for the deed in man. He finds his motives in himself. He is self-contained, and finds nothing beyond nor needs anything from anyone except himself. Thus I have, as fully as time permits this morning, discussed the first point concerning the covenant. May the Holy Spirit lead us into this sublime truth.

10. II. But now, in the second place, we come to notice ITS EVERLASTING CHARACTER. It is called an everlasting covenant. And here you observe at once its antiquity. The covenant of grace is the oldest of all things. It is sometimes a subject of great joy to me to think that the covenant of grace is older than the covenant of works. The covenant of works had a beginning, but the covenant of grace had none; and blessed be God the covenant of works has its end, but the covenant of grace shall stand firm when heaven and earth shall pass away. The antiquity of the covenant of grace demands our grateful attention. It is a truth which tends to elevate the mind. I know of no doctrine more grand than this. It is the very soul and essence of all poetry, and in sitting down and meditating upon it, I do confess my spirit has sometimes been ravished with delight. Can you conceive the idea that before all things God thought of you? That when as yet he had not made his mountains, he had thought of you, poor puny worm? Before the magnificent constellations began to shine, and before the great centre of the world had been fixed, and all the mighty planets and various worlds had been made to revolve around it, then God had fixed the centre of his covenant, and ordained the number of those lesser stars which should revolve around that blessed centre, and derive light from it. Why, when one is taken up with some grand conceptions of the boundless universe, when with the astronomers we fly through space, when we find it without end, and the starry hosts without number, does it not seem marvellous that God should give poor insignificant man the preference beyond even the whole universe besides? Oh this cannot make us proud, because it is a divine truth, but it must make us feel happy. Oh believer, you think yourself to be nothing, but God does not think so of you. Men despise you but God remembered you before he made anything. The covenant of love which he made with his Son on your behalf is older than the hoary ages, and if you fly back when as yet time had not begun, before those massive rocks that bear the marks of grey old age upon them, had begun to be deposited, he had loved and chosen you, and made a covenant on your behalf. Remember well these ancient things of the eternal hills.

11. Then, again, it is an everlasting covenant from its sureness. Nothing is everlasting which is not secure. Man may erect his structures and think they may last for ever, but the Tower of Babel has crumbled, and the very Pyramids bear signs of ruin. Nothing which man has made is everlasting, because he cannot ensure it against decay. But as for the covenant of grace, well did David say of it, “It is ordered in all things and sure.” It is

Signed, and sealed, and ratified,
In all things ordered well.

There is not an “if” or a “but” in any of it from beginning to end. Free will hates God’s “shalls” and “wills,” and likes man’s “ifs” and “buts” but there are no “ifs” and “buts” in the covenant of grace. Thus the tenure runs: “I will” and “they shall.” Jehovah swears it and the Son fulfils it. It is—it must be true. It must be sure, for “I AM” determines. “Has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” It is a sure covenant. I have sometimes said, if any man was about to build a bridge or a house, if he would leave me just one single stone or one timber to put where I liked, I would undertake that his house would fall down. Let me, if there is anyone about to construct a bridge, have just simply the placing of one stone—I will select which stone it shall be—and I will defy him to build a bridge that shall stand. I should simply select the keystone, and then he might erect whatever he pleased and it would soon fall. Now, the Arminian’s covenant is one that cannot stand, because there are one or two bricks in it (and that is putting it in the slightest form; I might have said, “because every stone in it,” and that would be nearer the mark) that is dependent on the will of man. It is left to the will of the creature whether he will be saved or not. If he will not, there is no constraining influence that can master and overcome his will. There is no promise that any influence shall be strong enough to overcome him, according to the Arminian. So the question is left to man, and God the mighty Builder—though he put stone on stone, massive as the universe—yet may be defeated by his creature. Away with such blasphemy! The whole structure, from beginning to end, is in the hand of God. The very terms and conditions of that covenant are become its seals and guarantees, seeing that Jesus has filled them all. Its full accomplishment in every jot and title is sure, and must be fulfilled by Christ Jesus, whether man will or man will not. It is not the creature’s covenant, it is the Creator’s. It is not man’s covenant, it is the Almighty’s covenant, and he will carry it out and perform it, the will of man notwithstanding. For this is the very glory of grace—that man hates to be saved—that he is at enmity to him, yet God will have him redeemed—that God’s covenant is, “you shall,” and man’s intention is, “I will not,” and God’s “shall” conquers man’s “I will not.” Almighty grace rides victoriously over the neck of free will, and leads is captive in glorious captivity to the all conquering power of irresistible grace and love. It is a sure covenant, and therefore deserves the title of everlasting.

12. Furthermore, it is not only sure, but it is immutable. If it were not immutable, it could not be everlasting. That which changes passes away. We may be quite sure that anything that has the word “change” on it, will sooner or later die, and be put away as a worthless thing. But in the covenant everything is immutable. Whatever God has established must come to pass, and not a word, or line, or letter, can be altered. Whatever the Spirit vows shall be done, and whatever God the Son promised has been fulfilled, and shall be consummated at the day of his appearing. Oh if we could believe that the sacred lines could be erased—that the covenant could be blotted and blurred, why then my dear friends, we might lie down in despair. I have heard it said by some preachers, that when the Christian is holy, he is in the covenant; that when he sins, he is crossed out again; that when he repents, he is put in again, and then if he falls he is scratched out once more; and so he goes in and out of the door, as he would in and out of his own house. He goes in at one door and out of another. He is sometimes the child of God, and sometimes the child of the devil—sometimes an heir of heaven, and immediately an heir of hell. And I know one man who went so far as to say that although a man might have persevered through grace for sixty years, yet should he fall away the last year of his life—if he should sin and die so, he would perish everlastingly, and all his faith, and all the love which God had revealed to him in the days gone by would be for nothing. I am very happy to say that such a notion of God is just the very notion I have of the devil. I could not believe in such a God, and could not bow down before him. A God who loves today and hates tomorrow; a God who gives a promise, and yet foreknows after all that man shall not see the promise fulfilled; a God who forgives and punishes—who justifies and afterwards executes—is a God that I cannot endure. He is not the God of the Scriptures I am certain, for he is immutable, just, holy, and true, and having loved his own, he will love them to the end, and if he has given a promise to any man, the promise shall be kept, and that man once in grace, is in grace for ever, and shall without fail by and by enter into glory.

13. And then to finish up this point, the covenant is everlasting, because it will never expire. It will be fulfilled but it will stand firm. When Christ has completed all, and brought every believer to heaven; when the Father has seen all his people gathered in—the covenant it is true, will come to a consummation, but not to a conclusion, for thus the covenant runs: The heirs of grace shall be blessed for ever, and as long as “for ever” lasts, this everlasting covenant will demand the happiness, the security, the glorification, of every object of it.

14. III. Having thus noticed the everlasting character of the covenant, I conclude by the sweetest and most precious portion of the doctrine—the relationship which the blood bears to it—THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. The blood of Christ stands in a fourfold relationship to the covenant. With regard to Christ his precious blood shed in Gethsemane, in Gabbatha and Golgotha, is the fulfilment of the covenant. By this blood sin is cancelled; by Jesus’ agonies justice is satisfied; by his death the law is honoured; and by that precious blood in all its mediatorial efficacy, and in all its cleansing power, Christ fulfils all that he stipulated to do on the behalf of his people towards God. Oh, believer, look to the blood of Christ, and remember that there is Christ’s part of the covenant carried out. And now, there remains nothing to be fulfilled except God’s part, there is nothing for you to do; Jesus has done it all; there is nothing for free will to supply; Christ has done everything that God can demand. The blood is the fulfilment of the debtor’s side of the covenant, and now God becomes bound by his own solemn oath to show grace and mercy to all whom Christ has redeemed by his blood. With regard to the blood in another respect, it is to God the Father the bond of the covenant. When I see Christ dying on the cross, I see the everlasting God from that time, if I may use the term of him who always must be free, bound by his own oath and covenant to carry out every stipulation. Does the covenant say, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put within you a right spirit?” It must be done, for Jesus died, and Jesus’ death is the seal of the covenant. Does it say, “I will sprinkle pure water upon them and they shall be clean; I will cleanse them from all their iniquities?” Then it must be done, for Christ has fulfilled his part. And, therefore, now we can present the covenant no more as a thing of doubt; but as our claim on God through Christ, and coming humbly on our knees, pleading that covenant, our heavenly Father will not deny the promises contained in it, but will make everyone of them yea and amen to us through the blood of Jesus Christ.

15. Then, again, the blood of the covenant has relation to us as the objects of the covenant, and that is its third light; it is not only a fulfilment as regards to Christ, and a bond as regards to his Father, but it is an evidence as regards to ourselves. And here, dear brothers and sisters, let me speak affectionately to you. Are you relying wholly upon the blood? Has his blood—the precious blood of Christ—been applied to your conscience? Have you seen your sins pardoned, through his blood? Have you received forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus? Are you glorying in his sacrifice, and is his cross your only hope and refuge? Then you are in the covenant. Some men want to know whether they are elect. We cannot tell them unless they will tell us this. Do you believe? Is your faith fixed on the precious blood? Then you are in the covenant. And oh, poor sinner, if you have nothing to recommend you; if you are standing back, and saying “I dare not come! I am afraid! I am not in the covenant!” still Christ bids you to come. “Come to me,” he says. “If you cannot come to the covenant Father, come to the covenant Surety. Come to me and I will give you rest.” And when you have come to him, and do not doubt that his blood has been applied to you, then your name stands in the red roll of election. Can you read your name in the bloody characters of a Saviour’s atonement? Then you shall read it one day in the golden letters of the Father’s election! He who believes is elected. The blood is the symbol, the token, the down payment, the surety, the seal of the covenant of grace to you. It must always be the telescope through which you can look to see the things that are far off. You cannot see your election with the naked eye, but through the blood of Christ you can see it clearly enough. Trust in the blood, poor sinner, and then the blood of the everlasting covenant is a proof that you are an heir of heaven. Lastly, the blood stands in a relationship to all three, and here I may add that the blood is the glory of all. To the Son it is the fulfilment, to the Father the bond, to the sinner the evidence, and to all—to Father, Son, and sinner—it is the common glory and the common boast. In this the Father is well pleased; in this the Son also, with joy, looks down and sees the purchase of his agonies; and in this must the sinner always find his comfort and his everlasting song,—“Jesus, your blood and righteousness, are my glory, my song, for ever and ever!”

16. And now, my dear hearers, I have one question to ask, and I am finished. Have you the hope that you are in the covenant? Have you put your trust in the blood? Remember, though you imagine, perhaps, from what I have been saying, that the gospel is restricted, that the gospel is freely preached to all. The decree is limited, but the good news is as wide as the world. The good spell, the good news, is as wide as the universe. I tell it to every creature under heaven, because I am told to do so. The secret of God, which is to deal with the application, that is restricted to God’s chosen ones, but not the message, for that is to be proclaimed to all nations. Now you have heard the gospel many and many a time in your life. It runs thus: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Do you believe that? And is this your hope—something like this: “I am a sinner. I trust Christ has died for me; I put my trust in the merit of his blood, and, sink or swim, I have no other hope except this.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to your cross I cling.”

You have heard it; have you received it in your heart, and laid hold on it; then you are one of those in the covenant. And why should election frighten you? If you have chosen Christ, depend upon it he has chosen you. If your tearful eye is looking to him, then his omniscient eye has long looked on you; if your heart loves him, his heart loves you better than you can ever love, and if now you are saying, “My Father, you shall be the guide of my youth,” I will tell you a secret—he has been your guide, and has brought you to be what you now are, a humble seeker, and he will be your guide and bring you safe at last. But are you a proud, boastful, free willer, saying, “I will repent and believe whenever I choose; I have as good a right to be saved as anyone, for I do my duty as well as others, and I shall doubtlessly get my reward”—if you are claiming a universal atonement, which is to be received at the option of man’s will, go and claim it, and you will be disappointed in your claim. You will find God will not deal with you on that ground at all, but will say, “Go away, I never knew you. He who does not come to me through the Son does not come at all.” I believe the man who is not willing to submit to the electing love and sovereign grace of God, has great reason to question whether he is a Christian at all, for the spirit that kicks against that is the spirit of the devil, and the spirit of the unhumbled, unrenewed heart. May God take away the enmity out of your heart to his own precious truth, and reconcile you to it and then reconcile you to himself through THE BLOOD of his Son, which is the bond and seal of the everlasting covenant.