Heaven Opened: The Riches of God's Covenant of Grace

Tue providence of God hath led me to the publication of the ensuing treatise, much beyond my first intentions. a

There came to my tangs a Synopsis of the covenant of grace on God’s part, with a Soliloquy annexed — both penned by the worthy author of that

-form of man’s covenanting with God, inserted in

my Vindiciz Pietatis, — attended with the author’s desires, and of divers other christians, that this also might be incorporated into the same book.

These desires, neither being able to resist, nor — willing to deny, I prepared some meditations to be premised, with a purpose to have put forth another edition of that book with this addition; but finding it to grow into too great a bulk to be there inserted, both this on God’s part, and the former on man’s part, come into thy hands in this distinct treatise, followed with my prayers — that the good land, whereof some clusters are here presented to thee, may be thine inheritance. See and take.

Thine, because the Lord’s
covenant servant,

R. ALLEINE.
July 8, 1665.

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Goop news from heaven! the day-spring from on high hath visited this undone world! After a deluge of sin and misery, behold the bow in the cloud! the Lord God hath made and established a new

covenant, and this is it that hath cast the first

beam on the dark state of lost and fallen man, and hath brought life and immortality to light. This covenant is the hope of sinners, the riches of saints, the Magna Charta of the city of God. The forfeited lease of eternity renewed; God’s deed of gift, wherein he hath, on fair conditions, granted sinners their lives, and settled upon his saints an everlasting inheritance.

Hear, O ye forlorn captives, who have sold yourselves to eternal bondage, spoiled yourselves of all your glory, sealed yourselves up under everlasting misery, you are dead in your sins, guilty before God, under wrath, under a curse, bound over to eternal vengeance. But behold, there is yet hope in Israel concerning this thing; the Lord God hath taken compassion upon, you, hath opened a way for you to escape out of ail this misery and bondage. Lift up the hands that hang down, comfort the trembling

A3 Fi knees; an ark, an ark hath God prepared, in which is salvation from the flood; a covenant, a new covenant hath he made and established, which, if you lay hold on it, will recover all you have lost, ransom you from death, redeem you from hell, and advance you to a more sure and blessed condition, than your original state from which you have fallen. This is the hope of sinners; this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.

Glorious tidings, good news indeed! but what is this covenant? Or what is there that is given and granted therein? Why, in sum, there is all that heaven and earth can afford; all that can be needed or desired; and this, by a firm and irrevocable deed, made over, and made sure to all that will sincerely embrace it.

Particularly, God hath in his covenant granted and made over,

First. Himself. ane

Second. His Son.

Third. His Spirit.

Fourth. The earth.

Fifth. The angels of light,

Sixth. The powers of darkness.

Seventh. Death.

Eighth. The kingdom.
Ninth. All the means of salvation.

Tax Lord God hath made over himself in this covenant. That is the great and comprehensive promise, “I will be their God,” Jer. xxxi. 33. Iam God, and what I am, it is all theirs; myself, my glorious incomprehensible essence, all my glorious attributes,

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7 °- God IfSAR COVENANT. 7, 9

my omnipotence, my omniscience, my wisdom, my righteousness, my holiness, mine all-sufficiency, my faithfulness, &c. I will make over myself to them to be henceforth and for ever theirs.

Their Friend, their Portion, their Sun, their - Shield.

I. Their Friend. I was angry, but mine anger is turned away; I was an adversary, I had a controversy with them, but I am reconciled; I have found a ransom, the quarrel is composed, my wrath is appeased, I am friends with them: “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more,” Jer. xxxi. 34. I will take away their iniquity and receive them graciously; ‘‘ I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from them,” Hos. xiv. 4. ‘‘ Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, goodwill towards men.” Fury is not now in me; favour and friendship, Jove and goodwill, is all they may henceforth expect from me. Sinners, what is there to be feared? what is there dreadful, but an angry provoked God? Thence is sorrow and anguish, thence is famine, and pestilence, and sword; thence is death and hell: he doth not know what the wrath of God means, who does not see in it all the plagues above ground, and all the vengeance of eternal fire. Whatever terrors or torments have seized upon thee; upon thy body upon thy soul; whatever losses, crosses, vexations,

“afflictions, plague thee on this earth; whatever horror and anguish, whatever amazing, confounding torments are like to meet thee, and feed upon thee in the lake beneath, thou mayest say of all, This is the wrath of God. That day the Lord says to - thee, Fury is not in me, he saith also, Fear shall be no more to thee. That hour the Lord saith, I am thy Friend, death and hell vanish The day is broken, the shadows fly away. And this is one thing included in that promise, I am their God, I am their Friend. a

II. Their Portion. Fury cease; fears vanish; friendship, favour, life granted. But what shall he have to live upon? Man was never intended to be a self-sufficient; he was created under a necessity of dependence on something without him, not only for the continuation of his being, but of the comfort of his being; he cannot live upon the air, though he hath escaped the fire: the soul of man is too big for all the world; like Noah’s dove, it can find no rest below, and where shall it find it, or on what shall it subsist? Why, God will not starve his friends; he who hath saved their lives will find them a livelihood; because there is no other to be found, he himself will be a livelihood to them; their portion, their maintenance, and their heritage for ever, As their deliverance is from him, so their dependence shall be on him; he is their substance, and on him is their subsistence; he writes himself, ‘* The portion of Jacob,” Jer. x. 16. and as such his saints accept him; ‘* The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance,” Psa, xvi. 5. he is their bread and their water, their stock and their store. The Lord gives portions to his enemies; not only the young ravens, but the old lions and tigers; the worst of men do seek their meat from God; they “have their portion in this life, whose bellies thou fillest with thy hid treasure,” Psa. xvii. 14. They have their portion; some of them have their portion in the city, others a portion in the field: to some he gives a por. tion of gold, to others a portion of worldly glory, to others a portion of pleasures; by all these he deals as the father of the prodigal, he gives them their portion, and sends them away. “But whilst he gives portions to these, he is the portion of his saints; he makes over and settles himself upon them, ag their inheritance for ever: they shall never be in want whilst there is in him to supply them; they shall never be in straits whilst there is in him to relieve them: all their wants be upon me. The Lord is their Portion, and he is a sufficient portion: “« With thee is the fountain of life,” Psa. xxxvi. “In thy presence is fulness,” Psa. xvi. The Lord God is all things to them, enough and to spare: “In my father’s house there is bread enough, and to spare.” He that hath all things below God, but not God, hath nothing; he that hath - nothing besides God, but hath God, hath all things; enough and to spare: filling up, and running over; there is still more to be had, if more could be held: the soul hath never enough, till it hath more than enough; is never full till it runs over: while it can contain and measure and number all that it has; this is its judgment of all.

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