But again, and finally. To follow the example of God in Covenanting, is obligatory through life, and in all ages. The Lord sware in order to give men an assurance of the immutability of his purposes of mercy. "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself."... "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us."[616] And in order that men may arrive at the assurance of hope, they ought to have recourse to the use of this, as well as every other means of grace. The man who attempts prayer but once, does not give complete evidence of possessing the spirit of prayer; in order to show this, he must pray habitually. The individual who attempts to hope, must repeatedly have recourse to the exercise, before he have pleasing evidence of the existence within him of the hope that maketh not ashamed. Those who would be assured of the love of God being shed abroad in their hearts, must have it in habitual exercise within them; and those who would have the comforting evidence of their being in covenant with God, must feel themselves drawn by his example, frequently to acknowledge themselves as devoted to him. It is self-evident, that every time that the people of God take hold on his Covenant, he, after some manner, makes a covenant with them. Every act of Covenanting, therefore, on the part of the saints of God, and especially on the part of the believer himself, affords an instance of the Divine example inviting him again to the duty. And since the Covenant of God from eternity, anticipated all the engagements of time, to these believers are drawn by the ever-memorable example presented by that. But the example of God in former ages, also extends to all succeeding times. The covenant which he made with Abraham, was to include men in the later as well as former ages. And if the swearing of an oath then, by the Lord himself, was to be imitated by his people under any dispensation, it was to be, therefore, imitated during the last. And even as the covenant with Abraham, the Everlasting Covenant--the origin of that, afforded the giving of the oath of God as an example to be followed throughout the whole lapse of time, even until those who were given to the Son should be brought by him to that glorious inheritance to which they were chosen. FOOTNOTES: [600] Exod. xx. 2. [601] Gen. xvii. 2. [602] 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. [603] Gal. iii. 16; see also ver. 15, 17 [604] Luke i. 72, 73. [605] Ezek. xx. 37. [606] John xvi. 23, 24. [607] Eph. v. 19. James v. 13. [608] Ps. xxii; see ver. 22. [609] John xvii. 26. [610] Exod. xx. 11. [611] Lev. xix. 2. [612] Heb. x. 23. [613] John xii. 26. [614] John xviii. 37. [615] Phil. ii. 11. [616] Heb. vi. 13, 17, 18.