Wesley Corpus

“He will fulfil his covenant and promise which he hath made to a thousand generations:” The sum of which is, (as we find it expressly declared by the Spirit of God,) “The Lord will give grace” (more grace) “and glory; and no good thing will he withhold from them that live a godly life.” 60. This covenant of God I understand; but I have heard of another which I understand not. I have heard, “that God the Father made a covenant with his Son, before the world began, wherein the Son agreed to suffer such and such things, and the Father to give him such and such souls for a recompence; that in consequence of this, those souls must be saved, and those only, so that all others must be damned.” I beseech you, where is this written ? In what part of Scrip ture is this covenant to be found? We may well expect a thing of this moment to be revealed very expressly, with the utmost clearness and solemnity. But where is this done? And if it is not done, if there is no such account in all the Bible; which shall we wonder at most, that any serious man should advance, or that thousands should believe, so strange an assertion, without one plain text of Scripture to support it, from Genesis to the Revelation? 61. I suppose you do not imagine that the bare word cove nant, if it occurred ever so often in holy writ, is a proof of any such covenant as this. The grand covenant which we allow to be mentioned therein, is a covenant between God and man, established in the hands of a Mediator, “who tasted death for every man,” and thereby purchased it for all the children of men. The tenor of it (so often mentioned already) is this: “Whosoever believeth unto the end, so as to show his faith by his works, I the Lord will reward that soul eternally. But whosoever will not believe, and consequently dieth in his sins, I will punish him with everlasting destruction.” 62.