Page:Harmony of the divine attributes displayed in the redemption and salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ.pdf/33

                                 (33) follows, verse 17, 18. The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand. Whatever sad aspect this scripture may have to the dispisers of Christ, yet it hath a merciful aspect to all the chosen of God, and all that desire to cleave to the Lord Jesus : yea, there is here a foundation of faith laid for all that hear the joyful sound, that whatever sinful and miserable meeting and agreements there are betwixt hell and them, betwixt death and them, yet it cannot stand before this glorious meeting, that was designed to break up and dissolve the opposite meetings, that stand in a conitrariety thereto. There are many black unions which this blessed union does dissolve, and there is no dissolving of them, but by this blessed meeting. There is the black union betwixt the sinner and the law, which is the foundation of the black union betwixt the sinner and his sin: For, when the union betwixt him and the law is disabled, then the union betwixt him and his sin is dissolved, according to Rom. vi 14 Sin shall not have domination on over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Now, what is the covenant of grace? Why, Mercy and Truth meeting together, Righteousness and Peace kissing each other in Christ: Jesus, is the substance, the marrow, the kirnel of the covenant, of grace; and it is this blessed meeting, that dissolves the union betwixt the sinner and the law, and so betwixt the sinner and his sin. O! view the glorious design of this meeting ! They met together that you might be separate from your sad associates ; by nature you and the devil had met together, and you was a slave to him, and it is the virtue of this meeting in Christ, that dissolves that; The heed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. The world and you had met together, and you took pleasure in your wicked companions, or else was wholly drowned in worldly affairs; O it is the faith of this meeting that dissolves that! This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith The curse of God and you had met together, and you lie under that curse, till in the faith of this meeting, you shall see, that Christ hath become a curse for us. This meeting is designed