Such is the glorious prospect, which religion, as a system of infallible truth and divine certainty, sets before the believer in Christ. Several considerations unite their force to prove this prospect of future blessedness, to be in every respect worthy of Him, who gives it, and fully calculated to ascertain the hopes of those who entertain it. The basis of the expectation is the well ordered covenant, or that irreversible stipulation in the contracting parties, by which the Father hath agreed “to give eternal life to as many as he hath given” to the Son. John, xvii. This title-deed is sealed with the blood of the Surety of the New Testament, who became responsible for fulfilling all its conditions. The testament supposes the death of the testator; without which, it has no force. And the testament, solemnly executed by that event, implies a bequest of blessings, the transfer of which must take place in perfect conformity to the will of the testator; which will is a perfect transcript of the covenant of redemption agreed upon “in the counsel of peace which was between both” the Father and the Son before all worlds. The work finished upon the cross by the Mediator, was the accomplishment of that “obedience unto death,” which he had stipulated to render to law and justice, in doing and suffering the will of the Father. Psal. xl. Heb. x. The believer, who receives God’s testimony respecting this transaction, “lays hold of the covenant” to save him from death; apprehends the Mediator’s righteousness as his title to glory, and sees the inheritance now secure by a reversion of the forfeiture incurred through the disobedience of Adam. Here is firm footing. On this rock the believer founds his salvation and builds his prospects, which ought never to be obscured by doubts and uncertainty, since the expectations, which the gospel teaches him to entertain, spring from a hope that is “sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the vail.” Heb. vi. 19.