statements regarding the sovereign arrangements of providence is this
taught. These were brought into view, and their continuance promised, in
the covenant made with Noah. In that covenant it was secured that the
waters of another flood should not overflow the earth. In that too it
was promised, that summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, should not
cease. The covenant, therefore, as well as these ordinances, its
results, was ordained. And accordingly was ordained, all connected with
its dispensations. From the use of a term employed in prophecy in
reference to the waters of the sea, this, moreover, appears. "Fear ye
not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have
placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it
cannot pass it."[486] The term here rendered _placed_, in this passage
means _appointed_; and in the two following passages is applied to the
covenant. The statement, "He appointed a law in Israel,"[487] hence
declares the institution of his law as a decree. And the demands of the
covenant being those of the law, even as his law, the covenant it
intimates as ordained, not merely by his high authority, but according
to his sovereign will. And thus too are expounded David's last
words,--"He hath made with me," or rather _appointed for me_, "an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure,"[488] as
intimating not merely his cleaving to God's covenant, but his
recognition of that covenant as according to his good pleasure, in all
things decreed.

That covenant was established. "God said unto Noah, This is the token of
the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is
upon the earth."[489] In such terms--literally applicable to intelligent
and moral beings--but in figure transferable to the lower creation too,
God spake of good intended for living creatures of every kind. That all
the latter could apprehend his benevolent purposes, the words cannot
intimate, but they do declare that by a beneficent ordination he had
made provision for all. The beasts of the field, and the fowls of
heaven, in common with man, enjoy the benefits of an animal life. With
him they are subjected to the operation of causes acting according to
the sovereign purposes of God, and with him, they are employed by the
Lord of all in their varied spheres to fulfil his will. But he, by his
great Creator, favoured highly above them, is called to obedience in a
way to th