OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE

    
Ps 89:3.—I have made a covenant with my chosen.
    
1 Cor 15:45.—The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
    
God made man upright, and entered into a covenant with him, forbidding him to eat of a certain tree in the garden of Eden, on pain of death, natural, spiritual, and eternal, and promising him, in case of continued obedience, life in its utmost extent. But, alas! man being in honour did not continue a night, but foully revolted from the obedience and allegiance he owed to his mighty Creator and bountiful Sovereign. Thus his misery was originally owing to the breaking of the covenant of works; and in that dismal state, he and all his descendants had remained for ever, if God, in the wonderful depths of his amazing love and grace, had not from all eternity devised a method of recovery, by entering into a covenant with his own Son as second Adam, head and representative of those destinated by sovereign pleasure to be heirs of salvation. Thus fallen man’s recovery, from the first to the last step thereof, is entirely owing to the fulfilling of that covenant entered into betwixt the Father and the Son from eternal ages, and in it the whole mystery of our salvation lies. And this covenant I shall endeavour, through divine assistance, briefly to open up unto you, from the texts now read.
    
In Ps 89:2, there is mention made of a building of mercy, which presupposes miserable ruins, and denotes that this building is intended for the benefit of an elect world ruined by Adam’s fall. Free grace and love set on foot this building for them, every stone in which, from the lowest to the highest, is mercy to them: from top to bottom, from the foundation-stone to the topstone, all is free and rich mercy to them. And the ground of this glorious building is God’s covenant with his chosen, I have made a covenant with my chosen. In which and the second text four things are to be considered.
    
1. The foundation on which the building of mercy stands: a covenant, a divine covenant, a sure covenant. The first building for man’s happiness, was a building of goodness, bounty, and liberality; but not of mercy, for man was not in misery when it was reared up: it was founded on a covenant too, the covenant of works made with the first Adam. This building soon fell in ruins; for being made with man, liable to change, his foot slipped, the covenant was broken, and the building tumbled down in an instant; there was no more safe dwelling there for Adam or his race, though most of them are still seeking shelter about the ruins of this first building, and will not come to the building of mercy. But this covenant is another, and of a different nature; the covenant of eternal life and salvation for poor sinners, the spiritual seed of the head of the covenant, to be given them in the way of free grace and mercy, and in which they are freed from the curse of the law and the wrath of God. The revelation and offer of this covenant unto the sons of men is called the gospel, announcing the glad tidings of life and salvation to ruined sinners.
    
2. The parties contractors in this covenant, I and my chosen, the last Adam. Both heaven and earth were concerned in this covenant; for it was a covenant of peace between them, at variance through sin. And accordingly the interests of both are consulted by the parties contractors.
    
(1) On heaven’s side is God himself, the party proposer, I have made a covenant with my chosen. Though he was the party offended, yet the motion for a covenant comes from him. The Father of Mercies beholding a lost world, his bowels of mercy yearn towards the objects that his sovereign pleasure pitches upon; and that mercy seeks a vent for itself, that it may be shewn to the miserable. But justice stands in the way of its egress, unless a method be found to satisfy its claim, in order to pave a passage for the free efflux of mercy. Then saith the Father “The first covenant will not answer the purpose; another expedient must be fallen upon. The lost creatures cannot contract for themselves; and if another undertake not for them, they must perish; they cannot choose an undertaker for themselves. I will choose one for them, and I will make the covenant with my chosen.”
    
(2) On man’s side is God’s chosen, or chosen One, for the word of God is singular; the son the last Adam. Who else as fit to be undertaker on man’s side; who else could have been the Father’s choice for this vast undertaking? No angel nor man was capable for it but the mighty One, Ps 89:19, whom the Father points out to us as his chosen, Isa 42:1.
    
(3) The making of this covenant between the parties, I have made a covenant with my chosen One. The Father and the Son made this covenant betwixt them; the bargain was completed by mutual agreement. The terms were on both hands fixed, and the compact closed between them, before the objects of mercy existed; even as the covenant of works betwixt God and the first Adam was made, before we breathed in God’s air. And therefore, by the by, ye would take notice, that in reference to covenanting with God, ye pretend not to make a covenant of your own, setting down such and such terms for life and salvation, which you will do. All that remains for us in that matter is to take hold of God’s covenant, Isa 56:6, to believe the promise, approve cordially of the covenant, and consent to it for our part as agreed betwixt the Father and the second Adam; so shall ye evidence that ye are of those in whose name Christ stood consenting to the covenant. This is our making of a covenant mentioned, Ps 50:5—“that have made a covenant with me by or upon a sacrifice,” viz. by laying their hands, by faith, on the head of the sacrifice, thereupon cut down in their stead; and so transferring the guilt ceremonially on the sacrifice; but really and spiritually approving of the device of salvation by a crucified Saviour, and falling in with it as the method of salvation for them.
    
The original calls it “cutting of a covenant,” or “striking a covenant;” being a covenant by sacrifice, confirmed with blood; wherein the party contractor on man’s side is both the priest and the sacrifice, the Father’s wrath the fire that burnt it, and divine justice the sword that cut it down, Zech 13:7. This is most lively represented, Gen 15:9, etc.
    
Before I go farther in the explication, I will speak a little to this observation, “That the foundation of all saving mercy to lost sinners is the covenant of grace, the covenant betwixt the Father and the second Adam.” To clear this consider,
    
1. It is the foundation of the first saving mercy that a poor sinner meets with; and that is the first grace given to the dead soul, viz. spiritual life, the new heart, the first resurrection, by which the soul is enabled to believe and embrace Jesus Christ, Ezek 36:26, “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” This is saving mercy, Titus 3:5, “According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Upon what bottom can this stone in the building be laid, but on the covenant betwixt the Father and Christ? No doing of the sinner can be pretended here, for life and salvation, since the sinner is really dead spiritually, and can do nothing; but it is a performing of the promise of the covenant to Christ, Eph 2:5, “Even when we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ.”
    
2. It is the foundation of the middle saving mercies. Look to the soul’s actual believing; it is the budding of a promise, a branch of that covenant, Ps 22:29,31, “None can keep alive his own soul. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness.” Compare John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” Justification is the fruit that grows upon it, Isa 53:11, “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” So is Sanctification; they are sanctified in Christ Jesus, in virtue of that covenant, as they were corrupted and defiled in Adam by virtue of the breach of the first covenant, 1 Cor 1:2; compare Ezek 36:25, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you.” This is an absolute promise with respect to the sinner. All their obedience itself, and persevering in holy obedience, are fruits of the covenant, Ezek 36:27, “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them,” Jer 32:40, “I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me;” and so belong to the promise of it, and are no part of the proper condition of it, which must go before partaking of the fruits of it.
    
3. It is the foundation of the crowning mercy, eternal life in heaven, Titus 1:2. To whom could this be promised before the world began, but to the Son of God in the eternal compact? So that the sinner comes to be partaker of it in him, as he is of death in Adam, John 17:2, “Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” Hence notwithstanding all the good works of the saints, wrought all their life long, they receive eternal life as freely, and as much a gift, as if they had nothing, Rom 6:21, “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Hence they who have done most for God, are as deep in the debt of free grace for their crown, as the thief on the cross, who believed in Christ and then expired. For all is made over to the several persons of the seed, upon one bottom of the covenant, the proper condition of which was fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
    
To confirm it, consider,
    
1. The justice of God could not admit of mercy to lost sinners, but upon the ground of this covenant; whereby, the repairing of the honour of the law by obedience and suffering was sufficiently provided for, Ps 40:6-7. The first covenant being broken, the breakers must “die without mercy,” Heb 10:28, unless salvation to them be brought about by another covenant, that shall repair the breach; which could be no other but that made with the chosen One.
    
2. All saving relation betwixt Christ and us is founded on that covenant. Christ obeyed and died; but what benefit have the fallen angels thereby? They were left hopeless for all that, and must encounter with unatoned justice. Why? Not that Christ’s doing and dying was not able to save them; the blood of infinite value can have no bounds set to its sufficiency: but because their names were not in that covenant, it had no relation to them, but to lost sinners of Adam’s race, Heb 2:16.
    
3. The very design of making that covenant was, that it might be the channel of saving mercy, in which the whole rich flood of it might run, for the quickening, purifying, blessing, fructifying, and perfecting of an elect world, lying under the bands of death and the curse by the breach of the first covenant, Ps 89:2, “Mercy shall be built up for ever;” compared with the text, I have made a covenant with my chosen. It was the Father’s design; and it was the Son’s design, Song 3:10. Men are apt to devise unto themselves other channels of mercy; but this being the only channel designed by infinite wisdom, here the sinful creature will find saving mercy flowing freely, but all other channels he will find quite dry.
    
4. Lastly, It has been the ground of all the saints’ expectations and hopes of mercy, in all ages. It was first published in the promise made to Adam, Gen 3:15, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent;” and that was the stay of the souls of the faithful till Abraham’s time: then it was more clearly discovered in the promise given to him, Gen 22:18, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” The ceremonial law, and the prophecies of Christ, pointed out very fully. And thus believers under the Old Testament built their faith of mercy on it. And since that time it has been most clearly and fully discovered in the gospel; and so the New Testament church have raised their faith of mercy on it.
    
Use 1. Behold here the freeness of saving mercy. There is a fountain of mercy opened to sinful creatures; and it was not only provided for them without any merit of theirs, but without so much as any application made by them for it, Rom 11:34. A covenant of grace is made betwixt the Father and his own Son as party-contractor on man’s side, who doth this for their salvation while they knew nothing about the matter. Here is rich and free grace.
    
Use 2. It is a vain thing to remain about the ruins of the old building, which stood on the covenant of works, and to expect mercy, life, or salvation there. Gal 2:10, “Man is not justified by the works of the law.” It is evident, that man must have mercy now, else he is ruined for ever, without any possible outgate from his misery. If the building of mercy could have been without a new foundation, why was it laid, and laid so deep? But a new foundation was not laid in vain, but because it was necessary that it should be. Therefore expect no mercy in the way of the first covenant. Mount Sinai shews only thunders and lightnings, the voice of the trumpet waxing louder and louder, and the voice of words, which sinners are not able to bear. There is no voice of mercy and grace but from mount Zion.
    
Use 3. What a wretched disposition in man’s nature is it, to be so much addicted to the way of the covenant of works? God saw that there was no hope for fallen man that way; therefore he made a new covenant to build mercy upon. But fallen man will not see it, but still aims to make a shift for himself that way. Our father Adam was well housed indeed in the first building, if he had managed well; but it was by his sin laid in ruins. Yet his sinful children still abide about these ruins, building cottages to themselves of the ruins, seeking righteousness as it were by the work of the law, Rom 9:32, and pretending to repair it for themselves. The Jews were never more addicted to the temple, than mankind naturally is to that building on the first covenant. The Jews, after their temple had been laid in ruins, never to be rebuilt, did notwithstanding, in the days of Julian the apostate, attempt to rebuild it; and ceased not, till by an earthquake which shook the old foundation, and turned all down to the ground, and by fire from heaven which burned all their tools, they were forced to forbear. Thus it fares with men with respect to the building on the old covenant; they will never give it over, nor cry for a Mediator in earnest, till mount Sinai, where they work, be all on fire about them. O the mischief of this practice! They thereby affront the wisdom of God, which found out this new way; they despise the grace, free love, and mercy of it; they trample upon the great salvation brought about by it, Heb 2:3. And withal they fight against their own interest; will not enter by the door that is opened for them, but hang about the door that is closed, and shall never be opened to them, and so perish. Thus they “forsake their own mercy,” Jon 2:8.
    
Use 4. Lastly, Quit the old covenant, then, and take hold of the new, that you may be personally entered into it. This you may do by taking hold of Christ, in the way of believing; for he is given for a covenant of the people, Isa 42:6. So the proposal of the covenant is made to you, Isa 55:3. And thus shall ye be lodged in the building of saving mercy; and mercy shall be built up to you for ever. But if you do not take hold of this covenant, ye are off the foundation of mercy, and can look for none of it. But to proceed in the explication of our texts:
    
4. The nature of the covenant made betwixt these glorious parties. Concerning which we may gather from the texts,
    
(1) The design of it, viz. life, the most valuable interest of mankind. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit, viz. to give life, life in perfection, to dead sinners, dead legally, and dead morally.
    
(2) The persons for whom this life was designed, the elect, I have made a covenant with my chosen. Christ is the head elect, or head of the company chosen to life. In one and the same decree, the Father chose Christ to be the head, and them to be the members. Hence we are said to be “chosen in him,” Eph 1:4.
    
(3) The representation. As in the first covenant Adam, the party contractor on man’s side, was a representative, representing and sustaining the persons of all his natural seed; so in this covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, the party contractor and undertaker on man’s side, is a representative, representing and sustaining the persons of all his spiritual seed. This appears from his being designed the second Adam, who was a type of him, Rom 5:14. As the first Adam, representing all his seed in the covenant of works, brought sin and death on them; so Christ, representing all his seed in the covenant of grace, brought righteousness and life to them.
    
(4) The condition of the covenant laid on the elect’s representative, to be performed by him in their name and stead. He was to be the last Adam, to take upon him man’s nature, to clothe himself with our flesh, and therein to go through with what the first Adam had stuck in; that is, to fulfil the covenant, by yielding perfect obedience to it, and suffering the penalty thereof in their room.
    
(5) The promise of the covenant, to be performed on that condition by the God of truth. This is implied in these words, I have made a covenant with my chosen: i.e., “I have engaged for such and such benefits, and have bound myself by solemn promise to my chosen, on condition of what I have required of him.” This promise contains whatever is necessary for the complete happiness of the mystical body, grace and glory.
    
5. Lastly, There is one thing more specially to be considered, according to these texts, belonging to the nature of this covenant, viz. that the party contractor on man’s side is the administrator of the covenant: The last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. As Christ was God he could not fail in the performance of his engagement; and therefore God took his single bond for sufficient security; and thereupon he was made administrator of the covenant, Matt 28:18. He entered on this office at the beginning, and intimated the covenant to fallen Adam in paradise, Gen 3:15, and will continue in that office till the last elect soul be brought in. The treasure put into his hand is the promises of the covenant, which are the reward of his own obedience and death, Col 1:9. Hence he bequeaths all the promised benefits by testament, and lives to be the executor of it. There is a fulness of the Spirit lodged in him, to be communicated to the elect dead in sins; and he is made a life-giving head unto them, John 1:4. Eternal life was lodged in him, 1 John 5:11, and it is communicated by him, John 17:2, as the great trustee and steward of heaven. In the faith of this, Adam called his wife Life, or an Enlivener, Gen 3:20. No wonder he should be called the covenant itself, Isa 42:6, since he is the head of the covenant, unto whom the elect are joined unto God in covenant, the condition of the covenant was performed by him, and the Father has put the promises of the covenant in his hand. This is good news to men, that the promised life is in the hands of the Mediator, who is of our flesh and bone.
    
The doctrine arising from the two texts, thus compared and explained, is,
    
Doctrine. “The covenant of grace for life and salvation to ruined sinners, was made with Christ the second Adam, and he constituted Administrator thereof.”
    
In handling this important subject, I shall consider,
    
I. The parties in the covenant of grace.
    
II. The parts of it.
    
III. The administration of it.
    
IV. Make some practical improvement.
    
I. I am to consider the parties in the covenant of grace. And these are the party contractor on heaven’s side, the party contractor on man’s side, and the party contracted or undertaken for.
    
FIRST, Upon the one side is God himself, and God only, as in the covenant of works. As the covenant was made from eternity, there was no other, and no occasion for any other, to see to the interests of heaven in this transaction. I think that God essentially considered was the party contractor in the person of the Father, Titus 1:2; Eph 1:3. Hereby the Son and the Holy Ghost have their part in the covenant on heaven’s side, as the party offended; and in the mean time a peculiar agency in this great work is attributed to the Father on that side, as there is unto the Son on man’s side. And that we may have some distinct view of God in this character in the covenant of grace, we must consider the following things.
    
Consideration 1. God from eternity decreed the creation of man after his own image, and the making of the covenant with him. This whole dispensation was before the Eternal Mind, in all the parts and appurtenances thereof, though, by reason of making that covenant with a creature, it could not actually take place but in time, Acts 15:18.
    
Consideration 2. He also from eternity decreed to permit man to fall, and so to break that covenant, and thereby to involve himself and all his posterity in ruin. This fall he permitted for his own holy ends, purposing to bring about good from it.
    
Consideration 3. God is to be considered in this covenant as an offended God, offended with all the sins of all mankind, original and actual. In the first covenant God contracted with man as with a friend, without the interposition of a mediator: but in the second covenant it was not nor could be so; for man is considered in it as a fallen creature, a transgressor of the law, an enemy to God; and it is a covenant of reconciliation and peace, for those who had been at war with heaven.
    
Consideration 4. Yet he is to be considered as a God purposing and decreeing from eternity to manifest the glory of his mercy, free love and grace, in the salvation of some of the lost race of Adam, Eph 3:10-11. Without such a purpose of grace in God, there had never been a covenant of grace.
    
Consideration 5. Notwithstanding, we are to consider him in this matter as a just God, who cannot but do right, give sin a just recompense, and magnify his holy law and make it honourable. Upon the motion, then, of extending mercy to any of mankind, the justice of God interposeth, and pleads that mercy cannot be shewn, but upon terms agreeable to law and justice. And it was not agreeable either to the nature of God, or to his truth in his word, to shew mercy in prejudice of his exact justice, if a throne of grace is to be erected, it must not be set on the ruins of the justice of God. And therefore justice required,
    
(1) That the law which was violated be fully satisfied, and the honour thereof repaired, by suffering and obedience, the former such as may satisfy the sanction of the law and the latter the commanding part thereof. And this the sinners must either do for themselves or another in their room, who can be accepted as sufficient surety.
    
(2) That since it was man that sinned, it must be man also who must suffer and obey, that one nature may not sin, and another be put to suffering for it.
    
Thus lay the impediments in the way of mercy to fallen man, and who could have removed them but God himself? Man could not here have acted for himself; his ability to obey was lost; and ability to suffer what was due to him for sin, so as to exhaust it, and deliver himself, he never had. Angels were not able to bear the burden; their finite natures could not have borne so as to bear off infinite wrath. Therefore,
    
Consideration 6. Lastly, The Father pitches upon his own Son for this work, as one able to make way for mercy over all difficulties, and remove the impediments lying in the way of its egress, Ps 89:19. He was able for the work as being the Father’s Fellow, Zech 13:7, his equal, Phil 2:6, and so one of infinite power and dignity. And here four things are to be considered.
    
(1) The Father designed that his own Son, the eternal Word, should, for this purpose of mercy, take on man’s nature, and become man, Heb 10:5. He saw that sacrifice and offering would not answer the case, that the debt was greater than to be paid so easily, and the work greater than to be managed by a person of less dignity. Wherefore, that the darling attribute of mercy might not for ever remain vailed, he wills that the human nature be united to the divine in the person of his Son.
    
(2) He chooseth him to be the head of the election, being one thus in the decree of God raised up from among the people, Ps 89:19, and to be the last Adam, the federal head and representative of such as sovereign pleasure should pitch upon to be vessels of mercy, and enrol in the book of life, that they might have a head who was both God and man, Eph 1:22.
    
(3) He designed a certain number as it were by name to be the constituent members of that body chosen to life, whereof he was the designed head, and gave them to him for that end, Phil 4:3; John 17:9. They were a chosen company, whom sovereign grace selected from among the rest, on a purpose of love, and gave to Christ, the last Adam, for a seed, John 17:6: therefore they are said to be chosen in him, Eph 1:4.
    
(4) The Father proposed to him, as the last Adam, the conditions and terms of the new covenant, treating with the elect in him as with all mankind in the first covenant. Now, he has found one who is able to answer for the lost company, and treats with him in their name, for life and salvation to them, in a suitableness to the honour of law and justice.
    
Inference 1. The redemption of the soul is precious. The salvation of sinners was a work greater than the making of the world. The powerful Word commanded, and the last was done: but much more was to be done ere a sinner could be saved from wrath.
    
Inference 2. Think not that Christ is more willing to save you than the Father is. The will of Christ, his Father, and Spirit, are one. And one person of the glorious Trinity cannot be less willing to help poor sinners than another is. Which should incite and encourage you to come to God by Christ.
    
Inference 3. Behold the matchless love of the Father to lost sinners of Adam’s race, 1 John 3:1. The whole contrivance sprung from his free grace, shewing itself in greatest measure and exceeding riches of grace, Eph 2:7. Man lay in the utmost misery before him: a most miserable creature, needing help, but making no application to him for it, Rom 11:34, a sinful creature, having nothing in him to provoke to liking, but loathing; a criminal, upon whom justice demanded vengeance; one whose debt no creature was able to undertake for; therefore he gave his own Son, a gift in grace without a parallel.
    
SECOND, Upon the other side is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with the elect, his spiritual seed, Heb 2:13, the former as the party-contractor and undertaker, the latter as the party contracted and undertaken for; which is a good reason for his name Immanuel, Matt 1:23. The party-contractor then in this covenant with God is our Lord Jesus Christ. He managed the interests of men in this eternal bargain, and there were none of that party with him to help him, nor capable to do it. And he acted in a twofold capacity towards the making of this covenant, as the eternal Word, and the second Adam.
    
1st, As the eternal Word, having no nearer relation to man than as his Creator, and sovereign Lord, John 1:1-3. Our Lord Jesus Christ is now our near kinsman, the elder brother of the family of mankind, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; but from the beginning it was not so. He was from eternity the only begotten Son of God, and by voluntary dispensation only, for the relief of fallen man he became man, and so was allied to the house of Adam. Here let us consider what our Lord Jesus did as the eternal Word in this covenant, viz. his consenting to it, and the effect of that consent.
    
1. Let us consider what our Lord did as the eternal Word in making of this covenant. He consented to the proposals made by his Father, in order to the erecting of a new covenant with lost sinners of Adam’s race. God saw there was a necessity of a new bargain for the salvation of any of them; that the old covenant would not answer his purpose of mercy; and that this covenant could not be made unless his own Son became the head of it. Hereto the Son of God, for the glory of his Father, and the salvation of sinners, readily agreed; and gave his consent.
    
1st, That he should become man, by taking into a personal union with himself a holy human nature, according to the eternal destination of his Father, Heb 10:5-7. He consents to be incarnate, that all flesh might not perish; which was accordingly fulfilled in time, John 1:14. The two families of heaven and earth were at war, and no peace could take place betwixt them but through a Mediator. And where could a fit Mediator be found, a daysman meet to interpose betwixt such parties, who would not either be too high or too low, in respect of one of the parties at variance? Man or angel would have been too low in respect of God; and an unveiled God would have been too high in respect of sinful man. Wherefore the Son of God, that he might be a fit Mediator betwixt the parties, as he was by his eternal generation high enough, in respect of God, so he consents to become low enough in respect of man, by a temporal generation of a woman.
    
2dly, That he should be a second Adam, a head and representative of the chosen company, sustaining their persons, and acting in their name, Ps 40:6-7, “Mine ears hast thou opened,” or “bored,” as Exod 21:6; thereby intimating his consent to be the Father’s servant for ever, in the work of man’s salvation. It was evident the breach betwixt God and man was greater than to be taken away by a mere inter-messenger, which should go betwixt the parties, and so reconcile them with bare words. There could not be a covenant of peace betwixt God and sinners, without a reparation of damages done to the honour of God, and without honouring his holy law by an exact obedience as his subjects: and both of these were quite beyond their reach. The Son of God, beholding the strait sinners were brought to, while they could neither do for themselves, nor any in all the creation could afford them help, saith, “Lo, I come;” I am content to take their place, and put myself in their room, as a second Adam.
    
Thus was the foundation of the covenant laid, by the Father’s proposal, and the consent of his Son thereto, as the eternal Word.
    
2. Let us consider the effect of this consent of the eternal Word. He was thereby constituted Mediator betwixt God and man, as God-man in one person, 1 Tim 2:5. Having had the Father’s call thereto, and that call being accepted by his own consent, he was thereby established the great Mediator betwixt God and man, for making and keeping the designed peace between heaven and earth; through whom, and in whom, as a public person, God might enter into a new covenant with sinners of Adam’s race. Thus also was he constituted the second Adam, and representative of all the elect, with whom the Father might treat as one answering for them. And was constituted Mediator or Midsman betwixt God and sinners in two respects.
    
1st, He was constituted Mediator in respect of his natures. He was a substantial Mediator, as partaking of the nature of both parties. He was God equal with the Father from all eternity, and so stood related to heaven: he was designed to be man from eternity, and so stood related to earth. In this divine constitution, four things are to be considered.
    
(1) That he should be a real man, having a true body, and a reasonable soul, and not be so in appearance only, Heb 2:14, that so he might be capable to suffer, since without shedding of blood was no remission; and the divine nature could not suffer.
    
(2) That that body of his should not be made of nothing, nor of any thing but what belongs to Adam’s family, Ps 89:19; Gal 4:4; that so he might indeed be one of the family of Adam, Luke 3:38; a brother of those in whose name he was to act, Heb 2:11, and so the same nature that sinned might suffer.
    
(3) That that human nature should be united to his divine nature in the way of a personal union, John 1:14; the divine nature in the person of the Son marrying the human nature to itself, that the Son of God should become as really the Son of man, and of Adam’s family, as he was the Son of God, and of the family of heaven. And this to the end that what he might do or suffer in the name of his brethren, might be of infinite value and efficacy, as the deed of a divine person, Acts 20:28; 1 John 1:7.
    
(4) That that human nature to be thus united to the divine in the person of the Son, should be a holy thing; since sinful flesh was not capable of an immediate union with God; and that therefore, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, that substance of the body that was to be prepared for the Mediator, should be separated from all corruption and infection from the first Adam; and the soul and body should both be of a perfectly holy nature, Luke 1:35. This was necessary to qualify him to be Mediator, the last Adam; for had he himself been defiled with the least taint of sin, he could not have expiated the sins of others, Heb 7:26-27.
    
2dly, As by his consent to become man, he was constituted substantial Mediator; so by his consent to become last (or second) Adam, he was constituted official Mediator betwixt God and man, or Mediator in respect of office, 1 Tim 2:5-6. He had his Father’s call to the office, Heb 5:4, and having consented to and embraced the call, he was invested in the office, and treated with as such from all eternity, Prov 8:22-23.
    
Now was there one provided to take the desperate cause of lost sinners in hand: a glorious and a mighty One, with whom the new covenant of grace might be made, with safety to the Father’s honour and the case of perishing sinners: A fit hand, as partaking of both natures, and invested with that office, which he and only he was fit for. And this brings me to the second capacity wherein he acted in this matter. Then he acted,
    
2ndly, As the second Adam, head and representative of the election, by the Father’s destination and his own consent. What he did as the Eternal Word, made way for the covenant, and was, as it were, the preliminaries of the covenant: but it was in this capacity that the covenant was formally made with him, as appears from our texts already explained.
    
Now Christ standing in that capacity, as second Adam, head of the election, did two things, whereby he entered actually into the covenant with his Father.
    
1. He accepted the gift of the particular persons elected by name, from all eternity, by his Father, made to him, Heb 2:13, and in token thereof owns them in particular as his brethren, Heb 2:11. Like as the first Adam, in the making of the first covenant, stood alone without actual issue; yet had destinated for him a numerous issue, even all mankind, who should with him be comprehended in the same covenant; which Adam, virtually at least, accepted: so God, having chosen a certain number of lost mankind, he, as their original proprietor, gives them to Christ, the appointed head, to be his members, and comprehended with him in the second covenant, though as yet none of them had a being; and he accepts the gift of them, and is well pleased to take these in particular for his body mystical, for which he should engage in covenant to his Father, John 17:6,10.
    
2. Christ did in the name and stead of these particular persons elected unto life, and given unto him, consent unto the conditions and terms of the covenant, proposed by the Father for life and salvation to them. And thus the covenant was concluded, Ps 40:6-8; Isa 53:10. As the first Adam, representing all his natural seed, did in their name and stead consent to the terms and conditions of the first covenant, and so entered into that covenant for them; so the second Adam representing all his spiritual seed, did as a public person, in their name, consent to the terms of the second covenant. And as he had in the eternal decree taken on him their nature, so he did from all eternity put on their person, and answer to their names as being in law one person with them, even as the cautioner is with the principal debtor, and the husband with the wife in case of debt, who are one in the eye of the law; and, having heard all the demands of law and justice upon them, he struck hands with the Father, to satisfy all these demands to the utmost.
    
For clearing of this purpose, I shall shew,
    
1. That the second covenant was made with Christ, as the last Adam, head and representative of the elect.
    
2. Why it was made so with him.
    
First, I am to shew, that the second covenant was made with Christ, as the last Adam, head and representative of the elect. Consider,
    
1. Covenants typical of the covenant of grace were made with persons representing their seed. The covenant of royalty, a type of this covenant, was made with David, as representative of his seed; therefore the covenant of grace typified by it was made with Christ, as the representative of his seed. Hence in our first text the party covenanted with and sworn to is called David, which is one of the names of Christ typified by David, Hos 3:5, for which cause the mercies of the covenant are called “the sure mercies of David,” Isa 55:3. And this David is God’s servant having a seed comprehended with him in the covenant, Ps 89:4. To the same purpose it may be observed, that Phinehas’ covenant of priesthood was a type of the covenant of grace; and in it Phinehas stood as representative of his seed, typifying Jesus Christ representing his spiritual seed in the covenant of grace, Num 25:12-13. This is evident from Ps 110:4, where the everlasting priesthood promised to Phinehas has had its full accomplishment in Jesus Christ. Hereto may be added, that the covenant made with Noah and his sons was made with them as the heads of the new world, and representatives of their seed, Gen 9:9,11. And that this covenant was a type of the covenant of grace, and Noah therein a type of Christ, is clear from its being established on a sacrifice, Gen 8:20-21, from the nature of that covenant, viz. that there should not be another deluge, Gen 9:11; typical of the wrath of God against the elect, Isa 54:9-10, confirmed by the rainbow about the throne, Rev 4:3. Wherefore, since in the covenant of royalty, by which the covenant of grace is typified in our text, and in other covenants typical thereof, the parties with whom they were made stood as heads, public persons and representatives of their seed, it is evident, that the covenant of grace typified by these was made with Christ as the head and representative of his spiritual seed: for whatever is attributed to any person or thing as a type, hath its accomplishment really and chiefly in the person or thing typified.
    
2. This appears also from his being the last Adam, as he is called in the second text; the reason of which must be taken, not from the nature common to the first and last Adam, for all mankind partake of that; but from their common office of federal headship and representation, in the respective covenants touching man’s eternal happiness, which is peculiar unto Adam and the man Christ. Accordingly Adam is called “the first man,” and Christ “the second man,” 1 Cor 15:47. But Christ is no otherwise the second man, than he is the second federal head or representative in the second covenant, as Adam was the first federal head and representative in the first. Wherefore, as the first covenant was made with Adam, as the head and representative of all mankind, the second covenant was made with Christ, as the head and representative of all the elect.
    
3. The promises of the covenant were made to Christ, as the second Adam, head and representative of the elect, Gal 3:16, “Unto Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith,—And to thy seed, which is Christ.” I own that here is meant Christ mystical, the head and members: to them the promises are made, but primarily to the head, secondarily to the members in him; even as the promise of life was made in the first covenant to Adam, and to all his natural seed in him. And so the promise plainly stands, Isa 53:10-11, “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many: for he shall bear their iniquities.” Thus the covenant is said to be made with the house of Israel, the spiritual Israel, yet is directed, not to them, but to another person, Heb 8:10; the reason of which plainly appears in the promises being made to Christ, as their head and representative. Now, if the promises being made to Christ, as the head and representative of the elect, the covenant was made with him as such; for it is the covenant to which the promises belong, Eph 2:12; and he to whom they were primarily made, was no doubt the party contractor.
    
4. This federal headship of Christ, and his representing of the elect in the covenant of grace, is evident from his suretyship in that covenant, whereby he became Surety for them, Heb 7:22. Now, he was Surety for them in the way of satisfaction for their debt, and the punishment due to them; and that as for persons utterly unable to answer for themselves, so that he took the whole upon himself. Now, such a surety is a true representative of the parties he is Surety for one person with them in the eye of the law. Hence not only is Christ said to have been “made sin for us,” 2 Cor 5:21, to have had “our sins laid upon him,” Isa 53:6, to have “died in our room and stead,” 1 Tim 2:6; Rom 5:6; but also we are said to have been “crucified with him,” Gal 2:20; to be “made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Cor 5:21, yea, to “be raised up” and glorified “in him,” Eph 2:6; and to be “made alive in him,” as we “died in Adam,” 1 Cor 15:22. All which necessarily requires this headship and representation of his in the covenant.
    
5. Christ bears the name of the elect, being called by their name, even as they are by his; a plain evidence of their being one in the eye of the law, and God treating with Christ as their representative in the covenant. The elect are called Israel, viz. the spiritual Israel, Rom 9:6; and so is our Lord Jesus Christ, Isa 49:3, Hebrew, “Thou art my servant: Israel, in whom I will glorify myself.” This is plainly meant of Christ, Isa 49:6; and the sense is, thou art Israel representative, in whom I will glorify myself, as I was dishonoured by Israel, the collective body of the elect. And this may give light into that passage, Ps 24:6, compare Ps 24:7, etc. Thus the first man was called Adam, or man, as being the head and representative of all mankind, the person in whom God treated with the whole kind. Accordingly the elect are comprehended under the name of Christ, Gal 3:16; Col 1:24; as all men are under the name of Adam, Ps 31:5,11, “Verily every man (Hebrew: all Adam) is vanity.”
    
2ndly, I come to shew why the second covenant was made with Christ as a representative, the last Adam.
    
1. That infinite love might have an early vent, even from eternity. God’s eternal love to his elect vented itself in the covenant of grace, which is an everlasting or eternal covenant, Heb 13:20. Hence we find that covenant and that love of the same eternal date, Isa 55:3, “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, Hebrew: a covenant of eternity.” Jer 31:3, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, Hebrew: a love of eternity.” But since the elect are but of yesterday, the covenant of grace behoved to be like the covenant of works, but a yesterday’s covenant, a time-covenant, if it was not made with Christ as their representative; it could not have been an eternal covenant otherwise; the promise of eternal life, which is undoubtedly a promise of that covenant, could not otherwise have been of so ancient a date, as the apostle says it was, Titus 1:2, “before the world began.”—And how could an eternal covenant be made with time-creatures originally, but in their eternal head and representative? Or how could an eternal covenant be made personally with them, by way of personal application to them, had it not been from eternity made with another as their head and representative?
    
2. Because otherwise it could not have been made a conditional covenant at all, to answer the design of it. This covenant took place on the breach of the first covenant; and it is a covenant of life, Mal 2:5, life to dead sinners; the last Adam being made a quickening spirit. It was the great design of it, that dead sinners might have life, Titus 1:2. Now, in order to this, a holy, just God stood upon conditions, without the performing of which, that life was not to be given; and they were high conditions, Ps 40:6; 1 Thess 5:10. Now, how could an effectual conditional covenant for life be made with dead sinners, otherwise than in a representative? Can dead souls perform any condition for life pleasing to God? They must have life before they can do any thing, if it were ever so small a condition. Therefore a conditional covenant for life could not be made with sinners in their own persons; especially considering that the conditions were so high for life to the sinner, that man at his best state was not able for them, far less in his sinful state. Therefore, if such a covenant was made at all, it behoved to be made with Christ as the sinner’s representative, Rom 8:3-4.
    
3. That it might be a covenant of grace indeed, and not a covenant of works, to sinners themselves. It is evident, that the design of this covenant was to exalt free grace, and that it is framed so as to be a covenant of pure grace, and not of works to us, whatever it was to Christ, Rom 4:16; Eph 2:9. And thus indeed it is a covenant of pure grace, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, as representative, being the sole undertaker for, and performer of all the conditions of the covenant in the sinner’s name; whereby all ground of boasting is taken from the creature. But this is marred upon the supposition of the covenant being made with the sinner in and by himself, standing as principal party contracting with God, undertaking and performing the condition of the covenant for life: for how low soever these conditions undertaken and wrought by the sinner himself be, the promise of the covenant is made to them, and so, according to the scripture, it is a covenant of works, Rom 4:4-5. And there is no difference between Adam’s covenant and such a covenant, but in degree, which alters not the kind of covenant.
    
4. That the communication of righteousness and life to sinners might be in as compendious a way as the communication of death and sin was, Rom 5:19. God having made the covenant of works with Adam as the representative of his seed, sin and death was communicated to them all from him as a deadly head, having broken the covenant. This being so, it was not agreeable to the method of divine procedure, to treat with every one to be saved, by themselves as principal parties in the new covenant for life; but with one public person for them all, who should be, by his fulfilling the covenant, a quickening head to them, from whom life might be derived unto them, in as compendious a way as death from the first Adam. This was most agreeable to the way of him whose mercy is above all his other works.
    
5. That it might be a sure covenant, as entered into with a sure hand, Rom 4:16. The first covenant was made with a mere creature as principal party and contractor; and though he was a holy and righteous creature, yet he was so unstable in performing the condition laid on him, that the promise was lost. Wherefore the fallen creature was not fit to be the principal party, or party contractor, in the new covenant, wherein the promises were to be sure to poor sinners, and not to misgive. Therefore the Lord seeing them all a broken company, not to be trusted in this matter, he proposes to his own Son to be head of the new covenant, and therein to act for and in name of those given him for a seed; which being accepted, the business is made sure. God looked only to him for the performance of the condition, and the promises were made to him, and so are sure to all the seed, Gal 3:16. Compare Ps 89:28, “My mercy will I keep for him, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.”
    
Inference 1. What a spring of unspeakable comfort is it to believers, to look back into eternity, before the world was made, and to behold the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, standing as the last Adam, contracting with God in the second covenant! This may move them to cry, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Rom 11:33, and to shout, Grace, grace to the glorious contrivance, so full of grace. Here they may see,
    
1. The covenant on which their salvation depends, made with a near relation of theirs, even as was the first covenant by the breaking of which they were ruined. In the one stood the first Adam for them, in the other the second Adam. Why should they look as strangers towards the covenant of grace? The party contracting in it with God is their near kinsman, their elder brother, flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, Eph 5:30; nay, their Father, who is nearer to and has a more natural concern in them than a brother; even the second Adam, who is their second Father; in respect of which I think he is called “the everlasting Father,” Isa 9:6, compare Heb 2:13.
    
2. Their nature highly dignified; the human nature, however corrupt it is in the multitude that partake of it, yet pure and spotless in the second Adam, fit to enter into a new covenant with an offended God. Man’s nature, as it was defiled by Adam, became so abominable, that it could never again appear before God immediately to covenant with him; but in Christ it is so perfectly pure, that it was capable of an immediate union with the Godhead in his person, and so of covenanting with him immediately.
    
3. The covenant so stable and firm, that it cannot be broken, the Son of God himself, being the second Adam, contractor in this covenant. The first Adam being a mere creature, not confirmed, his covenant was liable to breaking, he was capable of failing, and did fail, in the performance of the condition: and so are all the covenants made with God upon conditions to be performed by sinful men: but in regard of the party-contractor, viz. the Lord Jesus, the covenant of grace is an everlasting covenant, it cannot be broken, Isa 55:3; Ps 89:30-34.
    
4. The covenant well-ordered in all things, as for the honour of God, so for their good in time and eternity. The second Adam, manager for them, was the Son of God, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid; he managed for his own family, his own children: so there was neither affection nor wisdom wanting in him. We may be sure then there is nothing in the covenant that their good would have required to have been kept out; and nothing out that their case required to be in. What remains then, but that by believing they approve of the covenant, and take the comfort of it?
    
Inference 2. The covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace are not two distinct covenants, but one and the same covenant. I know some great and good men have taught otherwise, alleging the covenant of redemption to have been made with Christ, and the covenant of grace to be made with believers; though they were far from designing or approving the ill use some have made of that principle. However, the doctrine of this church, in the Larger Catechism, is in express words, “The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.” From whence it necessarily follows, that the covenant made with Christ and with believers, or the covenant of grace and redemption, are one and the same covenant. Only, in respect of Christ, it is called the covenant of redemption; forasmuch as in it, he engaged to pay the price of our redemption; but in respect of us, the covenant of grace; forasmuch as the whole of it is of free grace to us, God himself having provided the ransom, and thereupon made over life and salvation to poor sinners, his chosen by free promise, without respect to any work of theirs to entitle them thereto. *
    
Inference 3. As all mankind sinned in Adam, so believers obeyed and suffered in Christ the second Adam. For as the covenant of works being made with Adam as a public person and representative, when he broke the covenant, all sinned in him; so the covenant of grace being made with Christ as a public person and representative, all believers obeyed and suffered in him, when he fulfilled the covenant, Rom 8:3-4; Gal 2:20.
    
Inference 4. Believers are justified immediately by the righteousness of Christ, without any righteousness of their own intervening, as all men are condemned from their birth upon the sin of Adam, before they have done good or evil in their own persons. So that they are righteous before God with the selfsame righteousness, which was wrought by Christ in the fulfilling of this covenant; which righteousness is imputed to them, not in its effects only, so as their faith, repentance, and sincere obedience, are accepted as their evangelical righteousness, on which they are justified; but in itself. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified; and faith, repentance, and new obedience, considered as conditions performed, are works and cannot found a title to justification.
    
Inference 5. The covenant of grace is absolute, and not conditional to us. For being made with Christ as representative of his seed, all the conditions of it were laid on him, and he has fulfilled the same. So what remains of the covenant to be accomplished is only the fulfilling of the promises to him and his spiritual seed; even as it would have been with the first Adam’s seed, if once he had fulfilled the condition of the covenant.
    
Inference 6. The way to attain to the enjoyment of all the benefits of the covenant of grace, is to unite with Christ the head of the covenant by faith. Being thus ingrafted into him, ye shall partake of that happiness secured to mystical Christ in the everlasting covenant; even as by your becoming sons of Adam by your natural generation, ye fall under that sin and death which passeth on all by the breaking of the first covenant, Rom 5:12.
    
Inference 7. The offer of Christ made to you in the gospel, is the offer of the covenant of grace to you, and of all the benefits thereof; and the embracing of Christ is the embracing of the covenant, and the personal entering into it. The covenant of grace held forth in the gospel, is the cord of love let down from heaven to perishing sinners shipwrecked in Adam, to save them from sinking into the bottom of the gulf, and to hale them to land. It is their duty to lay hold of the covenant by faith, Isa 56:4,6. And that is done by taking hold of Christ in the free promise, believing that he is held forth to you in particular, confiding and trusting in him for your salvation from sin and wrath, upon the ground of God’s faithfulness in the promise, “Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life,” John 3:16. For he is given for a covenant to you, Isa 49:8, and Isa 42:6. So receiving him you receive the covenant, he being the head of the covenant, who performed the condition, and to whom the promises were made.
    
Inference 8. The covenant of grace is a contrivance of infinite wisdom and love, worthy to be embraced by poor sinners with all joy, 2 Sam 23:5. O admirable contrivance of help for a desperate case! wonderful contrivance of a covenant with them who were incapable of coming into the presence of a holy just God, or to perform the least condition for life and salvation! A new bargain for life and salvation to lost sinners, on the highest terms, made with those who were incapable to come up to the lowest terms! Wisdom found out the way, viz. by a representative: the love of the Father engaged him to make the proposal; and the love of the Son induced him to accept it. Thus a sure covenant is made, and a firm foundation laid, on which the sinner may safely lay his whole weight, for upon it lies the weight of God’s honour, Isa 28:16.
    
Inference last, How sinful and dangerous must the course of those be who practically corrupt the covenant of grace, pretending to make a covenant with God, as parties contractors and undertakers, for life and salvation, instead of taking hold of God’s covenant; the carnal Jews did so corrupt it, looking for life and salvation, not for the sake of the promised seed alone, but for their obedience to the ceremonial and moral law: and thus do many to this day practically corrupt it. They think the covenant of grace is a promise of life and salvation upon condition of faith, repentance, and sincere obedience to the law: whereupon they consent to these terms, and solemnly undertake to perform them, and then, upon their (fancied) performance of them, they challenge life and salvation, as having done their part. This quite overturns the nature of the covenant of grace, Rom 4:4, and Rom 11:6. The sinfulness of it is great, as overlooking Christ, the great undertaker and party contractor by the appointment of the Father; and putting themselves in his room, to act, and do, and work for themselves for life. And the danger of it must be great, as laying a foundation to bear the weight of their souls, which divine wisdom saw to be quite unable to bear it, Gal 5:4. So the issue of such covenanting must be, that the covenanters shall lie down in sorrow. The true way of covenanting is, to take up the covenant of grace as a free promise of life and salvation, upon condition of Christ’s obedience and death performed already; to believe that promise with particular application to the sinner himself, i.e. that the sinner believe, that he shall have life and salvation, pardon of sin, repentance, sanctification, grace, and glory, and that upon the ground of Christ’s obedience and satisfaction only, Heb 8:10. Thus the covenant is held out, as a free and absolute promise, to sinners indefinitely, like a rope to a company of drowning men, that whoever believes it may by it be drawn forth out of the waters. We proceed to consider,
    
THIRD, The party contracted and undertaken for in this covenant. And as the party-contractor was a representative, so the party-contracted for was represented by him. And that these two, the represented and the contracted for, are of equal latitude, is plain from the nature of the thing: for those whom one represents in a covenant, he contracts for in that covenant; and those for whom one contracts in a covenant, made with him as a representative, they are represented by him in that covenant. It is evident also from the relation betwixt the two Adams, the former being a type of the latter. In the first covenant, those whom Adam contracted for, he represented; and those whom he represented, he contracted for: therefore those whom the second Adam contracted for, he represented; and whom he represented, he contracted for.
    
Now, the party represented and contracted for in the covenant of grace by our Lord Jesus Christ, was the elect of mankind; a certain number of the posterity of Adam chosen from eternity to everlasting life, Heb 2:11-13. In their person it was that he stood in making this bargain with his Father, in their name it was that he acted when he struck hands with the Father, as a surety to obey the law, and satisfy justice. And that these only could be so represented by him in this covenant, as being the objects of election, is evident from the last discourse, on the doctrine of election.
    
It will be proper, therefore, to shew how the elect were considered in this covenant and federal representation. They come under a threefold consideration, as sinners, as impotent sinners, and as objects of the divine love.
    
1. As sinners ruined in Adam, lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matt 15:24. In the first covenant God put all the flock of mankind under the hand of one shepherd, Adam. But he lost all the flock, and was never able to recover them again. God from all eternity had put a secret mark on some of them, whereby he distinguished them from the rest, 2 Tim 2:19. He saw them among the rest, gone from their pasture, wandering like poor waifs and strays, a prey to every devourer. And he proposeth a new covenant, whereby they might be put under the hand of Christ as their shepherd, to be by him sought out and brought back. And this our Lord Jesus accepted, though he well knew what it would cost him to save the lost sheep.
    
2. As impotent, and utterly unable to help themselves, in whole or in part, Rom 5:6. They were debtors, and utterly unable to pay one farthing of their debt; and criminals, and quite unable to bear their own punishment to the satisfaction of justice. Had it lain on them to have paid the debt or borne the punishment, they behoved for ever to have sunk under the load. Then said the Son of God, “I cannot see them perish; Father, I put myself in their room, I will answer for them; I will pay their debt, and bear their punishment; I will be the debtor and criminal in law-reckoning, as representing the criminals and debtors.” The representation is sustained, the payment of all is laid on him, and is looked for from no other hand, in whole or in part, either by the one or other party contracting, Isa 63:3; Ps 69:4. Yet,
    
3. As objects of eternal love, sovereign and free, given to Christ by his Father. The Father loved them, John 17:23, and therefore gave them to Christ, John 17:6. The Son loved them, Eph 5:2, and accepts of the gift, and represents them in the covenant, as a Father does his children, Isa 9:6, with Heb 2:13. This absolutely free love, and mere good pleasure, was the reason why they, and not others in the same condemnation by the breach of the first covenant, were represented by Christ in the second covenant; why their names were put in the eternal contract, when the names of others were left out, Luke 10:21. They were his Father’s choice and his choice; and so he became their representative. *
    
II. The second general head is to consider the parts of this covenant. These are the things agreed upon betwixt God and Christ, as the second Adam, and representative of the elect in the covenant. They may be taken up in two things, the condition of the covenant, and the promises thereof. I shall consider each distinctly.
    
FIRST, The condition of the covenant. The condition of a covenant or bargain is that part of it, upon the performance of which one’s right to the benefit promised is founded, his plea for it is established, as becoming due to him for his performance, according to the agreement betwixt the parties. For instance, the paying of such a sum of money, for such a commodity, according to the agreement of the parties bargaining, is the condition of a covenant of commerce, sale, or traffic; and the working of such a piece of work, or doing of such a deed, for such a reward, agreed upon by the parties, is the condition of a covenant of service or hire.
    
There is also what is called a condition of connection or order in a covenant, whereby one thing necessarily goes before another in the order of a covenant, without being the ground on which one’s right and title to that other thing is founded. As in the former instances, the buyer’s receiving of the commodity, and the hireling’s receiving of the reward, covenanted or bargained for, must needs go before the possession or enjoyment of them: but it is evident, that receiving is not the thing on which the buyer’s right and title to the reward is founded: therefore, though it may be called a condition of connection in the respective covenants, yet it cannot in any propriety of speech be called the condition of these covenants.
    
Thus in the order of the covenant of grace, the having of the Spirit must go before faith, faith before justification, justification before sanctification, and holiness before heaven’s happiness. These may be called conditions in the covenant of grace, viz. conditions of certain connection; and belong to the established order of the promises of the covenant, which are contradistinguished to the condition of the covenant. But such conditions can in no proper sense be called the condition or conditions of the covenant.
    
This being premised, we say, that the condition of the covenant of grace, properly so called, is Christ’s fulfilling all righteousness, owing unto God by the elect, in virtue of the covenant of works, and that as the last Adam, their head and representative. And here I shall,
    
1. Evince this to be the condition of the covenant.
    
2. Explain and unfold that righteousness, the fulfilling whereof was made the condition of the covenant.
    
First, I am to evince that this is the condition of the covenant of grace. This will appear, if ye consider,
    
1. Christ’s fulfilling all righteousness in the second Adam, is what the Father proposed unto Christ as the terms of the elect’s salvation, and upon which he founded his promise of eternal life to them; and not any work or deed of theirs, Isa 53:10-11. And says Christ, This cup is the new testament in my blood; as if he had said, All the promises of the covenant were written with my blood, it was the condition which procured them, and without which ye had never obtained them. And accordingly this is what Christ, as the second Adam, did from eternity consent to, undertake, and bind himself for, and in time did perform, Matt 3:15, “It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,” as it becomes a person of honour and credit to fulfil his bargain. Luke 24:26, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?” viz. as one ought to perform the condition of a covenant or bargain he has agreed to.
    
Objection. But the elect’s believing, holiness, and good works, were also fixed as terms of their salvation: and Christ undertook also that they should believe, etc.
    
Answer. Then at that rate, Christ performed the chief part of the condition of the covenant, and took it wholly on himself; but they perform another part of the condition, for which he became their cautioner. Thus the condition of the covenant of grace is divided betwixt Christ and the impotent beggarly creature: and so must the glory of their salvation be; for whosoever works part of the work, or pays a part of the price, without question so much of the reward and purchase is due to him. But none of the glory of it is due to us, 1 Cor 1:31; Zech 6:13; Rom 4:4-5, and therefore no part of the condition is performed by us. I own these things are secured in the covenant; but they are secured not in the conditionary part of the covenant, but in the promissory part of it, Heb 8:10.
    
2. This, and nothing done by the sinner himself, is that upon which a sinner’s right to eternal life is founded: upon nothing else can he safely found his plea before the Lord for life and salvation. And a sinner thoroughly convinced will find it so, Rom 3:24-25; Eph 1:7; Phil 3:9. The sinner standing trembling in the court of conscience, by faith gets under the covert of the Mediator’s righteousness, and dare oppose nothing to the sentence of the law, but Christ’s fulfilling all righteousness, giving up all other pleas for life and salvation. And believing is the pleading itself upon that ground, not the ground of the plea. It saith, “My Lord and my God,” in the promise, upon the ground of Christ’s fulfilling all righteousness only, as the condition of the covenant.
    
3. This is that alone by which the salvation of sinners becomes due or a debt. Now, it is not a debt to them; therefore they fulfil no part of the condition: but unto Christ; therefore he performed the proper condition of the covenant; for he who fulfils the condition of a covenant, the reward is of debt to him, Rom 4:4-5 compare 1 John 2:1; 2 Thess 1:6-7. We may see this even in the first Adam’s covenant, the condition whereof was perfect active obedience. Which if it had been fulfilled by Adam, eternal life to him and his would thereupon have become due or a debt to him. And hence it is, that Christ’s fulfilling all righteousness is the believer’s only plea for life and salvation: even as in case Adam had performed the condition of his covenant, the plea of all his posterity for life would have been founded on that performance solely, as being the only obedience that was the condition of that covenant; their personal obedience, at least after the performance of the former, being the accomplishment of the promise of the covenant, not of the condition. And so they would have had life, not for any personal deed or work of theirs, but freely, for the obedience of the first Adam, to which he did graciously make the promise of life in the first covenant.
    
4. Lastly, The covenant of grace doth so exclude our boasting as the covenant of works did not, Rom 3:27. But if any deed or work of our own be the condition of the covenant of grace in whole or in part, our boasting is not excluded; for life and salvation is of or by the fulfilling of the condition of the covenant, Rom 4:4, and so far as life and salvation is of or by any work of ours, there is room for our boasting, Eph 2:9, even as in the covenant of works, wherein life was by our works, not in the way of proper merit, but only by virtue of paction or covenant. *
    
Secondly. I shall explain and unfold that righteousness, the fulfilling of which was the condition of the covenant of works. And that we may have the more distinct view of it, I shall shew,
    
1. The parts of that righteousness.
    
2. The character which, upon his Father’s call, the Lord Jesus took upon himself, in the covenant, in order to his accepting and performing the condition of the covenant for his people.
    
1st, I am to shew the parts of that righteousness, the fulfilling whereof was made the condition of the covenant. And forasmuch as Christ undertook the performing of that condition in the room and stead of his spiritual seed, the debt of righteousness was and must be stated from the law or broken covenant of works, which they were lying under. For the law or covenant of works was so far from being neglected in the new bargain, that whatever it had to charge upon or demand of the elect, for life and salvation, was summed up and set down in the new covenant, and the full and complete payment thereof made the condition of that covenant, Isa 42:21; Ps 69:4. This may from thence be summed up in these three things, holiness of nature, righteousness of life, and satisfaction for sin, which make the whole of the condition of the covenant of grace, the price of the redemption of an elect world, which Christ the second Adam undertook from eternity, to accomplish in himself, in their name, room, and stead.
    
1. Holiness of nature. That the law required as a term of enjoying eternal life, condemning original sin and corruption of nature as well as of life, saying, “Thou shalt not covet.” For God being essentially and necessarily holy, nothing can be so contrary to him as an unholy nature. But Christ’s spiritual seed were as unable to reach this holiness of nature, as any of their brethren of Adam’s family; their nature was corrupt, and it was quite beyond their power to purify it, Prov 20:9. Wherefore, that the law might be satisfied in this point, it was settled as a condition of the covenant, That the second Adam representing them should be a man of a perfectly holy, pure, and untainted nature, fully answering for them that holiness and perfection of nature required by the law. It consists of two articles.
    
(1) That he as the second Adam should be conceived and born holy, for and instead of his spiritual seed, conceived and born in sin.
    
(2) That he should inviolably retain the holiness of nature for them, and in their name. *
    
2. Righteousness of life. This also the law required as one of the terms of life. The law given to Adam and all his seed, which they were obliged to obey in all points, by the tie of natural duty, and by covenant for life, was never fulfilled by them; and Christ’s spiritual seed as well as others fell short of it, Rom 3:23. The first Adam began the course of obedience, but he quickly fell off from it, and all his natural seed in him. But the justice of God, and the honour of his law, could not suffer the reward, the prize, the crown of eternal life, to be bestowed without running the race. The elect having no ability for running that race, it was made a condition of the second covenant, that Christ as a public person, their representative, should begin and perfect the course of obedience to the law in righteousness of life. This may be taken up in these three articles.
    
(1) That he, as the second Adam, should, in the name of those represented by him, obey the whole law.
    
(2) That every part of that obedience of his should be screwed up to the highest pitch and degree.
    
(3) That all this should be continued to the end, without the least failure in one jot of parts or degrees of obedience. *
    
3. Satisfaction for sin, Isa 53:10. The former two were in the condition of Adam’s covenant; but this was not: for their being no sin, no satisfaction was due. But the new covenant, supposing the first to be broken, behoved to be settled on the condition of a satisfaction, in virtue of the justice of God, and of his truth, who had annexed a penalty to the breach of the covenant of works. And in this part of the condition of the covenant the following articles were settled.
    
(1) That Christ, as a public person should satisfy for all comprehended in the covenant, all and every one of his spiritual seed, Isa 53:6.
    
(2) That he should satisfy for them, by suffering for them, and in their name and stead, Heb 9:22.
    
(3) That he should by suffering satisfy for them fully and completely, that the law might have no need to come back on them for any part of the satisfaction due.
    
(4) That he should suffer the same punishment that they should have suffered in virtue of the penalty of the broken covenant of works, from which this debt of satisfaction was stated; and that was death in its full latitude and extent.
    
(5) That he should suffer all this voluntarily, submissively, and out of regard to the wronged honour of God, willingly repairing it. *
    
2ndly, I shall shew the character which, upon his Father’s call, our Lord took upon himself, in the covenant, in order to his accepting and performing the condition of the covenant for his people. Jesus Christ, the second Adam, hath a manifold relation to the covenant, as he is called the covenant itself: but here I meddle only with those relations to it, which concerned the condition; and shall take them up in this threefold character, their kinsman Redeemer in the covenant, the Surety of the covenant, and the Priest thereof.
    
(1) Christ became the kinsman Redeemer in the covenant, Job 19:25. And there were four things which the kinsman Redeemer was to do for his kinsman, which he was not able to do for himself; all which Christ took upon him in the conditionary part of the covenant.
    
(1) He was to marry the widow of the deceased kinsman, to raise up seed to his brother, Ruth 3:9, compared with Ezek 16:8. So our kinsman Redeemer undertook in this covenant to marry the widow, to take on man’s nature in the fulness of time, marrying it to himself in a personal union with the divine nature.
    
(2) He was to redeem the mortgaged inheritance of his poor kinsman, Lev 25:25. Heaven and eternal life is the mortgaged inheritance. Our kinsman Redeemer took the burden of the redemption on himself, and agreed to pay the price of the purchase.
    
(3) He was to redeem his poor kinsman, brought into bondage, paying his ransom, Lev 25:47. Sinners had lost their freedom, and become slaves to sin and Satan. Our kinsman Redeemer agreed to give himself for them, for purchasing their liberty, 1 Tim 2:5-6.
    
(4) He was to avenge the blood of the slain kinsman on the slayer, Deut 19:12. All mankind was slain, and the elect of God among the rest. Our kinsman Redeemer undertook the avenging of their blood on Sin and Satan. *
    
(2) Christ became the Surety of the Covenant. This the scripture expressly teacheth, Heb 7:22. What suretyship is among men, many have known to their cost, to the ruin of themselves and their families. It is a man’s taking on himself the person of another in law, and binding and obliging himself to answer for what can be legally demanded of that other person. Against rash undertaking of this, Solomon cautioneth, Prov 11:15. It is twofold; suretyship by way of satisfaction for debt contracted, (Prov 21:26), by the party whom one is surety for; and suretyship by way of caution for some deed to be performed by the party for whom one is surety, Prov 20:16, “Take his garment that is surety for a stranger; and take a pledge of him for a strange woman;” that is, lest they will not perform, and the cautioner will be left in the lurch. Here I shall enquire, for whom and for what Christ became Surety in the covenant.
    
1st, For whom Christ became Surety in the covenant. Possibly it may be safely said, that Christ became God’s Surety to us in the covenant, taking on himself to see all the promises of the covenant performed to the seed, even to all believers. For in the case of one unknown to us, though in himself most faithful, a surety may be necessary, especially if the party be of a jealous and suspicious temper. It is certain that God’s promises are, in respect of his infallible veracity, most sure and firm, and cannot miss to be performed: but sinners are slow to believe, Luke 24:25. And if Christ be Surety for God unto us, it is for the same end that God has given his oath in the case, Heb 6:17-18.
    
But I doubt if the scripture calls Jesus Christ a Surety in that sense. In Heb 7:22, the only text wherein Christ is expressly called a Surety, it is undeniable that the suretyship respects his priestly office, Heb 7:20,22, and therefore his suretyship for us to God: whereas his suretyship for God to us cannot relate to his priestly office, but to his kingly office, in respect of which all power is given to him in heaven and earth, and consequently a power to see that all the promises be performed to his people. In two other texts only, we read of suretyship relating to the case between God and a soul; and in both the suretyship is not to, but for the soul, viz. Ps 119:122, “Be surety for thy servant for good,” Job 17:3, “Put me in a surety with thee.” The original expression is the same in the latter text as in the former. Whatever is of this, one thing is plain, that it doth not belong to the condition of the covenant, but to the promises of it; and therefore lies not here before us.
    
But Christ became our Surety to God in the covenant. Thus was he most properly, if not the only, Surety of the covenant. The covenant of grace was made with the spiritual seed in Christ, as their head and representative, and their Surety taking burden for them upon himself, Ps 89:19.
    
2dly, For what he became surety. This will appear by considering the nature of his suretyship. I spoke before of two kinds of suretyship. It was the first, the heaviest of the two, that our Lord undertook, viz. suretyship in the way of satisfaction for debt contracted, wherein the burden was wholly devolved on himself, and he was to be the sole actor and sufferer. The debt of the elect world was, by God’s eternal foreknowledge, stated from the broken covenant of works, in the whole latitude of its demands on them: and Christ became surety for it, and so did strike hands with his Father from eternity, to pay it completely. And,
    
(1) He became surety for their debt of punishment, which they as sinners were liable in payment of, as the original phrase is, 2 Thess 1:9. That was the debt owing to the divine justice for all and every one of their breaches of the holy law, whether original or actual. The demerit of their sins was an infinite punishment, as being committed against an infinite God. They were liable to bear the pains of death in the full latitude of it; to suffer the force of revenging wrath, to the full satisfaction of infinite justice, and reparation of God’s honour. This debt of theirs, Christ became Surety for, engaging his life for their life, which was lost in law, where there was not the least hope of escape, Ps 40:6-7 with John 10:18. In this suretyship there was an exchange of persons in law, which sovereign grace did admit, when it might have been insisted that the souls that sinned should die. And in virtue thereof Christ himself became debtor in law, bound to pay that debt which he contracted not, Ps 69:4. And there was a double translation made on Christ in the covenant, from the elect, with his own consent, as a foundation in law and justice for exacting the elect’s debt of him.
    
[1] Their guilt was transferred on him, Isa 53:6. All the sins of all the elect were at once imputed to him, and so became his, as his righteousness became ours, viz. in law-reckoning, 2 Cor 5:21. So that though he was absolutely without sin inherent, he was not without sin imputed to him, till in his resurrection he got up the discharge, Heb 9:28, having done them away, and cleared the debt by his death.
    
[2] The curse due to them for their sins was transferred on him, Gal 3:13. The sentence of the law binding them over to bear the revenging wrath of God for all their sins, till justice should be satisfied, was with his own consent laid upon him. And in virtue hereof his blessed body was hanged on a tree, and the sentence of the broken law, Gen 2:17, was executed on that body and holy soul, Gal 3:13.
    
O heavy, yet happy exchange! heavy for Christ the Surety, but happy for poor sinners. Here is what is got on either hand by the exchange of the persons of Christ and his redeemed ones. All the sins of the redeemed are charged on Christ, for the satisfaction of justice by suffering for them: and all Christ’s righteousness, for life and salvation, is reckoned on their score, 2 Cor 5:21. The curse of the law comes on him for their sake: and the blessing of the gospel comes on them for his sake, Gal 3:13-14.
    
(2) He became Surety for their debt of duty and obedience, Matt 3:15. The law as a covenant of works, though it was broken by sinners, who thereby had incurred the penalty, neither lost its right, nor ceased to exact the obedience which at first it required of man, as the condition of life. The sinner was still bound to perfect obedience, and on no less or lower terms could have eternal life, Luke 10:28. The paying of the debt of punishment might satisfy as to the penalty of the bond: but there is yet more behind for him who will meddle in the affairs of the broken company. How shall the principal sum contained in the original contract be paid, the debt of obedience to the law for life and salvation? The honour of God could not allow the quitting of it: and they were absolutely unable to pay one mite of it, that was current in heaven, Rom 5:6; Eph 2:1. They were quite as incapable for the doing part, as the suffering part. So Christ became Surety for this debt of theirs too, the debt of obedience to the law as a covenant, which was and is the only obedience for life and salvation to the sons of men. Whatever the law can demand of them in this kind, holiness of nature or righteousness of life, he strikes hands for the payment of it, Ps 40:7-8.
    
And here also there was an exchange of persons in law, as to Christ and the elect; he sustaining their person in the eye of the law, sisting himself for them to answer for every item of this debt, as their Surety. And in virtue thereof he became the law’s debtor for that obedience which was owing to it by the elect: which debt he owned to be lying upon him by his circumcision, Luke 2:21, compared with Gal 5:3. *
    
(3) Christ became the Priest of the covenant, Heb 7:20-22,28. He undertook that office, and put on that character, at his Father’s call, Heb 5:4-6, to the end that he might perform the condition of the covenant. A priest is a public person, who deals with an offended God, in the name of a guilty company, for reconciliation, by sacrifice which he offereth to God upon an altar, Heb 5:1, being thereto called of God, that he may be accepted. So a priest speaks a relation to an altar, an altar to a sacrifice, and a sacrifice to sin. Here I shall inquire, for whom Christ became a Priest, and what need there was of his becoming a Priest in this covenant.
    
1st, For whom he became a Priest. He became a Priest for sinners, Heb 8:1. Where there is no sin, there is no need of a priesthood: So Christ’s priesthood speaks men to be guilty creatures, needing an atonement and reconciliation. And he became a Priest for those sinners whose names were in the covenant, and them only, that is, for the elect, whose names are written in heaven: for being the Priest of the covenant, he must be their Priest, and theirs only, who were comprehended in the covenant. In a word, he became the Priest of the spiritual Israel in the covenant; that Israel for whose behoof the covenant was made. *
    
2dly, What need was there of Christ’s becoming a Priest in this covenant. The necessity of it will appear in these four things.
    
(1) They were sinners, and there could not be a new covenant made without provision for removing of their sin; and that required a priest, and one that was able to remove sin, and repair the injured honour of God. And such a one was Christ.
    
(2) Sin could not be removed, without a sacrifice of sufficient value, which they were not able to afford. The new covenant was a covenant by sacrifice, Ps 50:5, and it could not be obtained without sacrifice; it behoved necessarily to be written in blood, Heb 9:22. Christ becoming a priest, gave himself a sacrifice, for establishing the covenant, Eph 5:2, and so it is the New Testament in his blood, shed for the remission of the sins of many.
    
(3) No sacrifice could be accepted, but on such an altar as should sanctify the gift to the effect of the removing of sin. And who could furnish that but the Son of God himself, whose divine nature was the altar, from whence the sacrifice of the human nature derived its value and efficacy, as infinite, Heb 9:14.
    
(4) There behoved to be a priest to offer this sacrifice, this valuable sacrifice unto God upon that altar: else there could have been no sacrifice to be accepted, and so no removal of sin, and so no new covenant. And who could that be but the Son of God only? Since himself was the sacrifice, and himself the altar, he himself alone could be the Priest. *
    
Inference. From all that has been said on the head of the condition of the covenant, ye see the price of sinners’ salvation, the ransom of souls, the only valuable plea that a sinner can have for mercy, namely, the condition of the covenant performed by the Mediator. Let it be the great concern of your life, to be interested in it in a saving manner, as reckoned of God to have been performed for you. If it be not reckoned on your account, what will it avail you for life and salvation? Be concerned then for the imputation of that righteousness unto you. It is offered in the gospel unto you, that the holiness of Christ’s nature, the righteousness of his life, and the satisfaction of his death, shall be yours, yours freely, as a free gift of righteousness, believe it, and lay your souls’ weight on it by faith, and it shall be imputed to you.
    
SECOND, We proceed now to consider the second part of the covenant of grace, viz. the promise. This covenant is a proper covenant: and in it there is a promissory part, answering to the conditionary part which we have now explained. And it is God’s part of the covenant, as the other was the Mediator’s part; and is that which our text, I have made a covenant with my chosen, doth principally and expressly bear; compare Ps 89:4, “Thy seed will I establish for ever.” The promise of the covenant is the bond of promise, whereby God has obliged himself to give the benefits specified in the covenant, and to make them forthcoming, upon the consideration of the performance of the condition. And forasmuch as the condition performed by Christ was strictly meritorious of the benefits promised, the promise is firm and binding, not only in respect of the truth and faithfulness of God, Titus 1:2, but also in respect of his justice, 2 Tim 4:8, which requires the Mediator’s obedience to be rewarded according to the promise made in the covenant.
    
Of what weight and importance the promissory part of the covenant is, will appear by these considerations.
    
Consideration 1. The covenant of grace hath its name from this part of it, Eph 2:12. It is called, “covenants of promise.”
    
Consideration 2. The covenant itself is by the Holy Ghost described as a cluster of free promises of grace and glory to poor sinners, without any mention of any condition, Heb 8:10-12.
    
Consideration 3. The promises of the covenant are the purchase of Christ’s blood, the fruit of his fulfilling all righteousness in his birth, life, and death.
    
Consideration 4. The great design and end of the covenant is accomplished in the performance of the promissory part of the covenant: and that is the glory of God, and the salvation of sinners, Rev 10:7.
    
Consideration 5. The happiness and comfort of all God’s elect, for time and eternity, depends on the promises of the covenant, Titus 1:2.
    
Consideration 6. The glory of the man Christ, as Mediator of the covenant depends on the promise of the covenant.
    
Consideration 7. God has sworn the promise of the covenant, Ps 89:3; Heb 6:17. *
    
For clearing of this weighty point, we shall consider the promises of the covenant in general, and then take a more particular view of them.
    
First, I am to shew what are the promises of the covenant of grace in general. They are promises made by God himself in that covenant, upon the consideration of Christ’s fulfilling the condition of the covenant, as the onerous cause thereof, whereby he has secured all happiness to the elect, after Adam and his children had lost it by the breach of the first covenant, and hath also secured all means leading thereunto. These promises, in respect of the parties on whom they have their direct and immediate effect, are of two sorts.
    
1. Some of them have their direct and immediate effect on Christ himself, the head of the covenant, who in his own person performed the condition of it; such as the promises of assistance in his work, of a numerous offspring to be given him, and a name above every name, as the reward of his work, Heb 12:2.
    
2. Some of them have their direct and immediate effect on Christ’s spiritual seed and members, comprehended with him in the same covenant; such as the promises of the new heart, regeneration, cleansing from the defilement of sin, etc.
    
Secondly, To whom the promises are made. We may take up this point in these two things.
    
1st, The promises of the first sort, viz. those that have their direct and immediate effect on the person of Christ, were made to Christ himself, Isa 49:7. And they were made to him as head of the covenant, the second Adam, the representative of his spiritual seed.
    
2ndly, The promises of the second sort, viz. those that have their direct and immediate effect on Christ’s spiritual seed, the elect, are made to Christ primarily, and to the seed secondarily. They are made to both, but first to the head, then to the members through him.
    
1. They are primarily and chiefly made to Christ. Though they have their immediate effect on the elect, they are made immediately and chiefly to him. This appears by several documents from the word of God.
    
1st, The express testimony of the apostle, Gal 3:16, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made,—and to thy seed, which is Christ.”
    
2dly, Christ is by the covenant constituted heir of all things, Ps 89:27; Heb 1:2. And that must needs be in virtue of the promise of the covenant, which he purchased by his fulfilling the covenant.
    
3dly, As God promised life in the covenant of works to Adam’s children upon condition of his perfect obedience, which is evident from death coming on them by his disobedience; so he hath promised life in the covenant of grace to Christ’s spiritual seed, upon condition of his obedience.
    
4thly, All the promises that have their direct and immediate effect on the elect, are a part of the reward made over to Jesus Christ in the covenant, Heb 12:2, compared with Isa 53:10. They are all the price of blood to him, the purchase of his obedience and death, and therefore called the new testament in his blood.
    
This is a point of great weight, and serves both to inform our minds and direct our practice. For hence may fairly be inferred,
    
(1) That the promises are not made to the believer’s good works, but to Christ’s works, and to the working believer in and through him, Rom 4:4. They are absolutely free to the believer, and not of debt to him, and therefore are not made to his works.
    
(2) That the free grace whereby the dead elect are quickened, and made to believe, and unite with Christ, is conveyed to them in the way and sure tenor of a promise, as well as the grace that follows faith, Ezek 36:26.
    
(3) The way to be personally and savingly interested in the promises of the covenant for time and eternity is to embrace Christ by faith, and thereby unite with him, 2 Cor 1:20.
    
(4) When through deadness and darkness of Spirit, or some conscience-wasting guilt, the faith of the promise is failed in you, and ye cannot fasten your hold upon it again, because ye see no good in yourselves, embrace Christ again, and the promise in him, notwithstanding all your first unworthiness and guilt, and stand not off from the promises till you be in better case, Ps 65:3.
    
(5) The true way to plead the promises is, to plead them through Jesus Christ, to plead the accomplishment of them to ourselves for his sake, to come to God in the name of Christ, and to crave the fulfilling of the promises, John 16:23-24.
    
(6) Lastly, This may confirm and strengthen the faith of believers as to the accomplishment of the promises to them.
    
2. These promises are made to the elect, Christ’s seed, secondarily, in and through Christ, 2 Tim 1:9. As he has the chief and fundamental interest in them, so they have a derived interest in them through him, in respect of their legal and mystical union with him. *
    
Let us therefore take heed to ourselves, lest standing off from the free promise of life in Christ, we go about to seek our salvation another way. Let us be denied to all confidence in our own works, as we would not thrust ourselves into the room of Christ, and so he become of no effect to us.
    
[The author next proceeds to take a particular view of the promises of the covenant of grace, which he treats of as peculiar to Christ, and as common to his spiritual seed; for all which we must refer the reader to his View of the Covenant of Grace, under the titles, Of the promises peculiar to Christ, and, Of the promise of eternal life to the elect, considered in three periods; where they are handled more largely than in this work.]
    
III. The next general head is, to consider the administration of the covenant of grace. Since this covenant is that which the salvation of the whole spiritual seed depends on, and according to it all the dispensations of God towards them, for carrying on and completing that love design, are regulated; and since it was withal a compact entered into betwixt the Father and the Son before the world began, and so in itself a great secret, Ps 25:14, it is necessary that there be an administration of it, whereby it may be rendered effectual, for the behoof of those in whose favour it was entered into. Wherefore the administration of it was devolved on Christ, the second Adam: and he hath it as one of his prerogatives, by the covenant itself, made over to him in the promissory part of the covenant, particularly by the promise of a glorious reward of his work in fulfilling the condition, John 5:27. It was for this cause the last Adam was made a quickening spirit, as saith our second text. And so he is “given for a covenant of the people,” Isa 49:8; which imports the constituting him Administrator of the covenant, whereby the people, any people, Jews or Gentiles, may become God’s people, and receive all the benefits of that covenant-relation to God.
    
Now, that Christ is, by the authority of heaven, constituted or made the covenant, imports these two things.
    
1. He is constituted and settled, by the authority of his Father, Administrator of the covenant. As he had the burden of purchasing the promised benefits, so he has the honour of distributing them, according to the measures laid down in the eternal purpose of God, with respect to the conferring of these benefits. None of the benefits of the covenant are to be had, but out of his hand: he received them from his Father, and sinners must receive them from him. That this is the meaning of this phrase, is evident from the following words, declaring the end of his being given for a covenant of the people: “To establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages,” Isa 49:8, compare Isa 42:6-7, “That thou mayst say to the prisoners, Go forth.”
    
2. The whole of the covenant is in him. An administrator of one’s goods must have them in his custody; he must have a power over them, as Joseph, who was to furnish the people corn, had all the granaries of Egypt at his command. Our Lord Jesus is such an Administrator of the covenant, as has the whole of the covenant in himself: so that he who has Christ has the covenant; and he that has not Christ has no saving part or lot in it.
    
For opening of the administration of the covenant devolved on Christ, we shall consider these three things, the objects, the ends, and the nature of this administration.
    
FIRST, who are the objects of this his administration, the parties to whom he is empowered, by commission from his Father, to administer the covenant. The elect only were the parties represented by the second Adam; and to them only is the administration of the covenant effectual to their salvation. But mankind-sinners indefinitely are the objects of the administration. The extent of it is not founded on election, but on the sufficiency of Christ’s obedience and death for the salvation of all; nor is it regulated by election, but by the fulness of power in heaven and earth given to Christ as the reward of his work, his obedience even unto death.
    
To confirm this truth, which is glad tidings for all sinners of Adam’s race, hearing that Christ is empowered by commission to give them, and every one of them the covenant, and all the benefits of it, to their eternal salvation, the following things may be considered.
    
1. The grant made of Christ by the Father, as the ordinance of God for the salvation of lost sinners of mankind. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, many of them were bitten by fiery serpents: in that case God instituted an ordinance for their cure, viz. a brazen serpent lifted up on a pole. And he made a grant of it to all who would use it for that purpose of healing, for which it was appointed of him, by looking to it, without excepting any that needed healing, Num 21:28. So all mankind being bitten by the old serpent the devil, and sin as his deadly poison left in them; God has appointed Jesus Christ the ordinance of Heaven for their salvation, and has made a grant of him as such, to all of Adam’s lost posterity who will make use of him for that purpose, by looking to him in the way of believing, without excepting in this grant any, if they are but of the world of mankind, John 3:14-16.
    
2. The Mediator’s commission for the administration is conceived in most ample terms, Luke 4:18-19; Isa 61:1-2. He is to administer the covenant, not only to the meek, poor, brokenhearted, but to the captives, the blind, bruised, prisoners, slaves, and broken men who have sold their inheritance. What sort of sinners can one imagine to be excepted here? These terms are too general to admit of any exception as to sinners of mankind.
    
3. The ample powers given him as Administrator of the covenant. All power in heaven and in earth is granted to him, Matt 28:18. So there is none on earth excepted from his administering the covenant to them; the indemnity which the Father has put in the hands of his own Son to dispense, hath no excepted persons of mankind in it, but he is to dispense it to any of them all whom he will, John 5:21-22. And it is remarkable, that upon this fulness of power committed to the Administrator of the covenant, the general offer of the gospel is founded, Matt 11:27-28, and Matt 28:18-19. All without exception are declared welcome to come and suck of these full breasts of divine consolations contained in the covenant.
    
4. His executing of his commission in an unhampered manner, administering the covenant indifferently to any sinners of mankind; not this or that party of them, under this or the other denomination, but mankind in general, Prov 8:4. So the gospel in which the covenant is administered, is good tidings to all people, Luke 2:10; and the gospel-feast is made unto all people, Isa 25:6. Accordingly he gives his apostles commission in most ample terms, than which one cannot imagine more extensive, Mark 16:15, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
    
5. Consider to whom Christ stands related as a Saviour by office. He is the Saviour of the body only, Eph 5:23, being considered as actually saving from sin and wrath. But considered as an official Saviour, he is the Saviour of the world, as he is expressly called, 1 John 4:14; John 4:42. And his salvation is called the “common salvation,” Jude 3.
    
6. Lastly, If it were not so, then there would be some of mankind-sinners excepted, for whom there would be no manner of warrant to believe in Christ, or take hold of the covenant, more than there is for devils: which is contrary to the scriptures, John 3:16; Mark 16:15. *
    
Use. Know ye then that our Lord Jesus is empowered to administer the covenant of grace to you, and each one of you. There is a Saviour provided for you, to whom you have a right, and to whom you may have access for life and salvation. Ye have heard much of the promised benefits of the covenant: let none say, they are excluded from them. On the contrary, whatever ye are or have been, your name is in Christ’s commission for administering the covenant; and ye must either take that covenant, or perish as despisers of it.
    
SECOND, What are the ends of this administration, or the business thus put into Christ’s hand.
    
1. To bring sinners into the covenant personally and savingly, Isa 49:5.
    
2. When they are brought in, to be the sole manager of them, according to the covenant, till death, John 5:22.
    
3. To complete the happiness of his covenant-people, according to the covenant, in another world, Eph 5:27; Col 1:22.
    
These are the ends of this administration committed to Jesus Christ; this is the work that he hath to do as administrator of the covenant. And the putting it in his hand was a method of grace at once adapted to the glory of God the offended party, the comfort and safety of sinners who had given the offence, and the honour of the Mediator the glorious Peace maker. *
    
THIRD, I come to consider the nature of this administration. And hereof we may have a view, by observing Christ’s relations to the covenant, in which he stands as Administrator of it. We have seen already, that Jesus Christ, as party-contractor on man’s side in the covenant, became the Mediator of the covenant, both substantial and official; that with respect to the conditionary part of it, he became the kinsman Redeemer in the covenant, the Surety of the covenant, and the Priest, the atoning Priest thereof. It remains that we consider his relations to the covenant as he is Administrator of it, which respects the promissory part thereof. And thus he bears a fivefold relation to the covenant, viz. the Trustee, the Testator, the Prophet, the King, and Intercessor of the covenant; each of which is a syllable of that name above every name, given him of the Father. *
    
From what has been said of the administration of the covenant, we make the following inferences.
    
Inference 1. As the covenant is well ordered in itself, so it is well ordered in point of its administration; and so it is ordered in all things, 2 Sam 23:5. Many a good bargain is marred as to the success of it by mismanagement, through the unskilfulness and unfitness of him into whose hands it is committed. But the covenant is put into the hand of an infallible Administrator, perfectly fit to deal with all concerned therein, and so cannot miss of an issue agreeable to the design of it. Two things are of fatal consequence in such matters. (1) Unskilfulness; and (2) Want of power and ability. Through either of these in the manager, a promising contrivance may be marred in the management of it. The administration of the covenant of grace is a matter that requires the utmost skill, considering the difficulty of the thing in itself, and the ill disposition sinners are of with relation to it. But Jesus Christ is infinitely wise, and nothing can escape his foresight or observation, Col 2:3. He knows well the fit times and seasons, and has “the tongue of the learned, that he should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary,” Isa 50:4. There are many adversaries, set to oppose and counteract the design of the glorious contrivance, the administration of which is put in his hand: the whole force of hell is banded against it. But he is sufficiently enabled to carry it on over the belly of them all: all power in heaven and in earth being given him. And therefore one may conclude, that when the mystery of God shall be finished, the issue will be found exactly to answer the eternal plan.
    
Inference 2. While the covenant is administered to you, it is Jesus Christ himself with whom you have to do in that matter; he is the great Ambassador of heaven to you and each one of you, in this matter of the covenant, Heb 12:25. Ye would then look above ministers and ordinances unto himself, and regard them as persons and things by which Jesus Christ himself is treating with you, and regard him as your party with whom ye have to do. If ministers go beyond the bounds of their commission, ye may safely so far disregard what they say or do in that manner: but to fill your hearts with prejudices against them, on account of such and such faults ye espy in them, especially on the account of doing their duty, and so make yourselves very easy as to the ordinances by them administered, and to slight these ordinances under pretence that ye can spend the time otherwise to as great advantage; this is but to look on them as divided in their ministration from Christ, and so to cheat your own souls, 2 Cor 5:20; Luke 10:16. What God then has joined, it will be dangerous so to put asunder. If ye took Christ himself for the party dealing with you, as indeed he is, it would engage you to take good heed how ye entertain the administration of the covenant among you.
    
Inference 3. They who would partake of the covenant, must come to Christ by faith, Isa 55:3, for that effect. He has the administration of it in his hand: so it is from him we must get it, with all the benefits and privileges of it. The whole of it is in him; so uniting with him we have it, and only that way we can have it. As is your interest in Christ, so is your interest in the covenant of grace; if he is yours in the way of special interest, your souls being married to him; then the privileges of the covenant are all yours, and the covenant is the security ye have for them, if ye are strangers to Christ, ye are strangers to the covenant of promise too, and so without hope and without God in the world.
    
Inference 4. Such as are personally entered into the covenant in a saving manner, and would improve the covenant for their daily needs, must still be coming to Christ for that end; since he is the Administrator of it, all the benefits of it are dispensed by his hand, John 1:16. So the life of a Christian comes to be a life of faith: forasmuch as the whole supply afforded them from heaven is benefits of the covenant, and the riches of the covenant are in Christ’s hand as Administrator of it; and the way of believing in Christ is the way appointed for receiving them from him. So the more a Christian is in the exercise of faith, the more he employs the Administrator; and the more he employs him, the more liberally he shares of the things of the covenant.
    
Inference 5. Sinners have abundant encouragement and security for their coming into the covenant, by believing in the Lord Jesus. We are not called to come to enter into a covenant with an unveiled God, the rays of whose glory in his holiness, justice and truth, and all his other perfections, might quite damp and dispirit the guilty creature; but as Christ as a second Adam has made the covenant with his Father, and fulfilled it in the whole of the condition thereof required on our part; so it is put in his hand, who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, to administer it unto any of the family of Adam; and in him we have the whole of it. Here all is ready for us, suited to our case. And we have his word of the gospel for our security, Matt 22:4, and John 6:37. And well may we trust him, believing the Son, believing his word, since the Father has trusted him with the whole administration of the covenant.
    
Inference 6. Lastly, There is no man who has the offer of Christ made him in the gospel, but if he continue in his sin, and die in it, he will perish with a witness, without all shadow of excuse, John 15:22. The covenant is the contrivance of Heaven for salvation to lost sinners: in the administration of it, none are excluded from the benefit thereof; the net is spread out for even the worst of sinners, wherever the gospel comes. There is enough in the covenant for the worst of cases; the promises of it are made suitable to the sinner’s case, both in respect of sin and of misery; so that whatever is their case, in the covenant there is a suitable cure. And that the sinner may at once lay hold on all, God has given Christ as the covenant to the people, making the embracing of Christ, the short and sure way for the sinner to have all. In him is lodged the quickening Spirit: so that by applying to him we may have life. They must then be left inexcusable who reject the offer of Christ, and will not come to him, that they may have life, John 5:40.
    
And now having opened to you the doctrine of the covenant of grace, that covenant on which the salvation of our souls depends, in discoursing of the parties in it, the parts of it, and the administration of it, I shall shut up the discourse on this subject, with a twofold use of the whole.
    
Use 1. Of trial. Let every one put the question to himself, What interest have I in this covenant? Are ye personally brought within the covenant of grace in a saving manner, or not?
    
For your help in this inquiry, I shall offer you some marks or characters of those who by grace are personally instated through faith in the covenant of grace, before the Lord, under Christ the second Adam as their head.
    
1. They are such as have fled for refuge from the covenant of works to the covenant of grace, Heb 6:17-18.
    
2. They are such as cordially approve of and acquiesce in the plan of the covenant, as suited to the honour of God, and to their case in particular, 2 Sam 23:5.
    
3. Having the discovery made to them of the covenant as made from eternity betwixt God and the second Adam, and in the gospel offered to them, they will satisfy themselves with Heaven’s draught of it in their covenanting, so far as they understand it, and not go about to add to it, or diminish from it, Acts 9:6.
    
4. The love of God in Christ, is habitually predominant in them, Prov 8:17, “I love them that love me.”
    
5. Jesus Christ, the head of the covenant, is their head with their own consent.
    
6. The condition of the covenant, as fulfilled by Jesus Christ, is the alone ground of their confidence before the Lord, as to acceptance with God for time and eternity, and as to any of all the benefits of the covenant they look to partake of, Phil 3:3.
    
7. The promises of the covenant are a satisfying portion to their hearts, 2 Sam 23:5.
    
8. The spirit of the covenant is in them; and that is another spirit than what the men of the world are actuated by, Ezek 36:27.
    
9. The laws of the covenant are in their hearts the holy law of the ten commandments, the eternal rule of righteousness, Heb 8:10. *
    
Use 2. Of exhortation to sinners and to saints.
    
FIRST, Let sinners be exhorted to come into this covenant, by embracing it personally for themselves, so as they may be instated therein to all saving purposes. This covenant is brought to, and set before you in the gospel; so that you and every one of you must either be receivers or refusers of it. O refuse it not, for the refusing is dangerous beyond expression. Take hold of it, and embrace it, for it is your life: come, enter into it without delay. Ye are under the covenant of works, O sinners! where ye can have no life nor salvation. But the door of the new covenant is opened unto you, come, flee from the covenant ye were born under, and are living under; and let the sacred knot be cast this day, by your entering within the bond of the covenant of grace, accepting and embracing the offered covenant, to the instating of you personally in it, to all the purposes of life and salvation, grace and glory, by it.
    
But that ye may more clearly perceive the duty ye are called to, and may not walk in the dark, in your aiming at embracing the covenant, and that the motives to it may have the more weight, I shall,
    
1. Lay before you, by what means it is that a soul embraceth the covenant of grace, and is instated in it effectually to salvation.
    
2. Offer some motives to press the exhortation on sinners to enter personally into the covenant.
    
First, I shall lay before you, by what means it is that a soul embraceth the covenant of grace, and is instated in it effectually to salvation. This, in one word, is by faith in Jesus Christ, Acts 16:31. The covenant is held forth in the gospel to you: God saith to every one of you, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” And to state you in it personally, and to close the bargain with you, to all the intents and purposes of salvation, all that is required of you is to hear, that is, to believe, Isa 55:3. He that believeth is within the covenant of grace personally and savingly; he that believeth not, is still under the covenant of works, where the first Adam left him. This is the hand that takes hold of the covenant; thereby one signs the covenant for himself, and closes the bargain for his own salvation. This is the mouth of the soul, by which it consents to the covenant; and God becomes your God in covenant, and ye his covenanted people. So when we call you to embrace the covenant, and enter into it personally, all that we call you to is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
    
That believing on Christ should be the appointed mean of entering sinners into the covenant of grace, is very agreeable to the nature and end of that great transaction. For,
    
(1) Hereby the grace of the covenant is preserved entire in the dispensation of the covenant; and by that means the promise is made sure to all the seed, Rom 4:16. Faith is contradistinguished to works, as grace is to debt, Rom 4:4-5. If any work or doing of ours were that upon which we were instated in the covenant, and got the right to the promise, then the covenant, and benefits of it, would be of debt to us, contrary to the very design of that method of salvation, which is to exalt the free grace of God, and cut off all boasting. But the nature of faith on Christ is adapted to the exalting of grace, inasmuch as it is a grace purely receiving, not giving; taking all from Christ, without money and without price; laying the stress of the soul’s acceptance with God wholly on what Christ has done and suffered; and renouncing entirely all doings and sufferings of our own in that point.
    
(2) Hereby the sinner enters into the covenant, by uniting with Christ, who was the representative with whom it was made, John 10:9, and so the unity of the covenant and the representation in it, are preserved. If men entered into the covenant another way, as by accepting such and such properly called terms to them proposed, and promising for themselves the performance of them, the representation in the second covenant is marred, and there would in effect be as many covenants of grace, as there are persons embracing it at different times; at least Christ’s covenant would be one, and ours another. But the covenant of grace being made with Christ, as the second Adam, in the name of all such as should be his, it is evident, that the only way of one’s personal entering into such a covenant, must be by becoming his, standing related to the head of the covenant, as our head: and it is by faith, and no work or consent of ours differing from faith, that we are united to him, and become members of his body, Eph 3:17.
    
But here ariseth a weighty question, necessary to be touched, for clearing your way into the covenant, viz. What is that believing, by which one unites with Christ, and so enters into the covenant of grace? Believing, in the scripture use of the word, is trusting a word, person, or thing. And hence the scripture phrases of believing to, and believing in, i.e. having trust to and in; phrases, however unusual with us in conversation, yet ordinary both in the Old and New Testament. It is the trusting a word, as to report, Isa 53:1, in God’s words, Ps 106:12. It is trusting a person: thus the Israelites “believed the Lord and his servant Moses; Hebrew: believed in the Lord, and in Moses his servant.” Job 4:18, Hebrew: “He believed not in his servants,” i.e. trusted them not. And it is the trusting a thing too, Job 39:12, “Wilt thou believe him,” viz. the unicorn? Hebrew: “believe in him,” i.e. trust in him. Deut 28:66, Hebrew: “Thou shalt not believe in thy life.”—And thence I conclude, that saving faith is, in the general, the trusting of a word, and of a person and thing held forth in that word.
    
Now, there is a twofold word to be believed by all those who would enter into the covenant of grace in a saving manner, namely, the word of the law, and the word of the gospel. The believing of the former is a faith of the law; and of the latter, a faith of the gospel. The faith of the law is the work of the Spirit of God, as well as the saving faith of the gospel, though wrought by him in a very different manner. The former he works by the law, as a Spirit of conviction and bondage, convincing of sin and misery, Rom 8:15 with John 16:8. The latter he works by the gospel, as a quickening Spirit, a Spirit of saving illumination and adoption.
    
Whosoever then would enter into the covenant of grace, must, in the first place, have a faith of the law; which therefore is necessary to be preached to sinners. And by it a man believes three things.
    
1. That he is a sinner, a breaker of the law’s commands, liable to divine vengeance. The law pronounces him a guilty man, and he believes the report of the law concerning himself in particular; and so, by this faith, his heavy and sorrowful heart echoes back to the voice of the law, Guilty, guilty! Rom 3:19. This faith is a divine faith, founded upon the testimony of God in his holy law; and rests not in the testimony of men, whether spoken or written. The Spirit of God as a Spirit of bondage, brings home the law to the man’s conscience, and persuades him, that that law is the voice of the eternal God, and the voice of that God to him in particular; and so convinces him of sin upon God’s own testimony. And thus he believes—
    
(1) That his life and conversation is sinful and corrupt, displeasing and hateful in the sight of a holy God, according to the divine testimony, Rom 3:12, “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one.” He believes, what is true, that his omissions and commissions are to him innumerable; his righteousness and unrighteousness are both together sinful and displeasing to a holy God; that he is gone out of the way of God, and is walking in the way of destruction and misery.
    
(2) That his heart is full of mischief and iniquity, according to the divine testimony, Jer 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” He sees those hellish lusts there, which he little noticed before. The law shining into the heart, discovers them; and pressing the man, irritates them; so as he believeth that he has such a mystery of iniquity in his heart, as he could never before believe to be there, Rom 7:9.
    
(3) That his nature is quite corrupted, according to the divine testimony, as one “dead in trespasses and sins,” Eph 2:1. And so his soul echoes back to the law’s testimony, “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,” Ps 51:5, crying, Unclean, unclean. He sees that his disease is not accidental, but natural and hereditary; and so that his nature cannot be mended, but must be renewed. And so he believes, not only that he does no good, but that he can do no good. And in all these respects he sees and believes himself to be an object loathsome in the sight of a holy God, loathsome in respect of his life, heart, and nature too.
    
2. By the law man believes, that he is a lost and undone sinner, under the curse of the law for his sin, Gal 3:10. He no more looks on the curse of the law as some strange thing, belonging only to some monsters of wickedness, and far from him. But the Spirit of God brings home the dreadful sentence of that broken law, and applies it close to him, as if he had said, thou art the man. And he groans out his belief thereof under the felt weight thereof, like a man under the sentence of death, Rom 7:9.
    
3. By it a man believes, that he is utterly incapable to help himself, and so that he must inevitably perish for ever if he get not help. He believes, that he cannot, by all his doings and sufferings, remove the curse of the law from off him, according to the divine testimony, as being “without strength,” Rom 5:6, nor change his own nature, heart, and life, in a right manner, according to that infallible testimony, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil,” Jer 13:23. He believes himself to be a dead man spiritually; legally dead, and morally dead, as the apostle testifies of himself in that case, Rom 7:9.
    
This is the faith of the law: and the effect of it is a legal repentance, whereby the soul is broken and bruised with fear and terror of the wrath of God, grieves and sorrows for sin as a ruining and destructive evil, seriously desires therefore to be freed from it, despairs of salvation by itself, and seriously looks out for relief another way, Acts 2:37 and Acts 16:29-30. Thus the law is a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ; and the faith of the law makes way for the faith of the gospel. Not that this legal faith or legal repentance is the condition of the soul’s welcome to Christ and the covenant of grace; our access to Christ and the covenant is proclaimed free, without any conditions or qualifications required in us to warrant us sinners of mankind to believe in Jesus Christ. But they are necessary to move and excite us to make use of our privilege of free access to Christ and the covenant: so that the sinner will never come to Christ nor embrace the covenant without them.
    
In calling you then to embrace the covenant, ye are called indirectly, and by consequence to this faith of the law, to believe that ye are sinners in life, heart, and nature; lost and undone, under the curse; and utterly unable to help yourselves. Yet this is not saving faith.
    
Saving faith, which unites to Christ, is the faith of the gospel: for the gospel only is the ministration of righteousness, 2 Cor 3:9. It is in it that the righteousness of faith is revealed unto faith, to be believed, Rom 1:17. That is the word which gives the sinner the only notice of a Saviour, of the atoning blood, and the new covenant in that blood. And hence it is that it is the only word by which saving faith is begotten in the hearts of lost sinners, Gal 3:2. In this word of the gospel the Lord Jesus, with all his benefits and covenant, is to be believed on and embraced by faith, Rom 10:8. And the word of the gospel being received by believing, we have Christ and his covenant, with all the benefits of it; faith being indeed the echo of the quickened soul to the word of grace that bringeth salvation, Mark 1:15; Isa 53:1; Gal 3:2; a trusting of the word of the gospel, the person, viz. the Saviour, and the thing therein held forth to us to be believed on for salvation.
    
This is that believing by which we are united to Christ, and entered into the covenant of grace. So the question being put, how shall I personally enter into the covenant of grace in a saving manner?—I answer in the following particulars.
    
1st, You must believe that there is a fulness of salvation in Christ for poor sinners. This is the constant report of the gospel concerning him, Eph 3:8; Heb 7:25. He is therein held forth, as an able Saviour, able to save men from their sins, and from the wrath of God. His merit is a sufficient defence against the tempest of fiery wrath that incensed justice is ready to cause to fly forth against transgressors, Isa 32:2. His spirit is sufficient to sanctify the most unholy, 1 Cor 6:11. The righteousness he fulfilled as the condition of the covenant is so valuable in itself, and in the eyes of his Father, that it is sufficient to procure justification, sanctification, and all other saving benefits to sinners, who in themselves deserve death and damnation. So that they are happy who are in him, and they shall never perish, but have everlasting life; and they shall be eternally secure under the covert of his righteousness, as a sufficient defence. Believest thou this?
    
This is the general faith of the gospel, which, being without particular application, doth not unite the sinner to Christ, nor enter him into the covenant; and may be found in reprobates and fallen angels, as being only an assent in general to the truth of the doctrine of the gospel, Matt 13:20-21 and Matt 8:29. But it is necessarily prerequisite to a faith of particular application, by the nature of the thing; for I must first believe a saying to be true in itself, before I can trust to it for my part; and I must first believe a thing to be good in itself, before I can believe it is good for me. But where this faith is carried forward to uniting with Christ, it issues in an ardent desire of union and communion with Christ, an high esteem of him and his covenant, and a longing for his righteousness, as a hungry man for meat, or a thirsty man for drink.
    
2ndly, Ye must believe that Jesus Christ, with his righteousness and all his salvation, is by himself offered to sinners, and to you in particular. This is the plain voice of the gospel, Isa 55:1; Rev 22:17; Prov 8:4. But, alas! few believe it; yea, none will believe it to purpose, till the Spirit of the Lord make it plain to them, and persuade them by an inward illumination. Many secure sinners hear the gospel, and are glad of the offer: but they discern not Christ’s voice in it; they hear it not as the voice of Christ himself to them, but as the word of men; hence it hath no due authority upon their consciences, and so they pass it over lightly.
    
But where true faith is a-working, the word of the gospel-offer is by the Holy Spirit inwardly brought home and applied to the soul in particular, with power, as the word of the Lord himself, and not of men, whereby the man is assured that it is the voice of Christ, and to him in particular, 1 Thess 1:5 and 1 Thess 2:13. And so the man applies it to himself by believing. This is necessary; for without it there can be no receiving of Christ, and the soul can see no solid ground of faith: For it is evident, that there can be no receiving aright, where the sinner does not believe the offer to be made to him in particular. And here begins the application of faith, an application tending to union with Christ.
    
Wherefore, if ye would unite with Christ, and so enter into the covenant of grace, sist yourselves before the Lord as condemned sinners under the curse of the law; and hear and believe the word of the gospel as made to you condemned and cursed sinners in particular. And so it will come to you as the offer of a pardon to one under sentence of death, as the rising sun to one sitting in darkness, and the shadow of death. And let not your heart misgive by unbelief, but believe the offer, to be made to you, as it is indeed, (Isa 55:3) by Christ himself.
    
3rdly, Ye must believe that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, and your Saviour in particular, by the Father’s appointment and his own offer; and that, by the same appointment and offer, his righteousness the condition of the covenant, and eternal life the promise of the covenant, are yours: Yours, I mean not in possession, but in right thereto, so far as ye may lawfully and warrantably take possession of, and use them as your own to all intents and purposes of salvation. Think not this too much for you: it is no more than what is necessary to saving faith in Christ. If you believe only in the general that Christ is the Saviour of the world, and don’t believe that he is your Saviour in particular, what do ye believe more than devils do? They believe that he is Jesus a Saviour, Mark 1:24. Ye must needs believe that he is your Saviour, if ye would go beyond them, and consequently that his righteousness and salvation is yours, in the sense before opened; for where Christ is given, all is given with him, Rom 8:32. How can you take or receive him as your Saviour, if he is not yours indeed? A man may take possession fraudulently indeed of what he does not believe to be his by right: but no man can fairly and honestly claim and take possession of what he does not believe to be his own. Certainly God must first give Christ to us, before we can receive him, John 3:27. Giving on God’s part, and receiving on ours, are correlates, and the former must needs go before the latter. Therefore believe firmly, that Christ is your Saviour in particular, his righteousness is yours, and eternal life is yours.
    
4thly, Ye must wholly trust in him as your own Saviour, and in his righteousness as made over to you, for his whole salvation to you in particular, upon the ground of God’s faithfulness in his word. This is that saving faith, or believing on Christ Jesus, by which a sinner is united unto Christ, and personally entered within the covenant of grace, Acts 16:31; Isa 26:3-4; Rom 1:17; Phil 3:9; Gal 2:16; Acts 15:11; 1 Thess 2:13; 1 Cor 2:5. This, according to the scripture, is a sinner’s receiving and resting upon Christ for salvation, as saving faith is defined in our Catechism. And this is indeed believing and nothing but believing, according to the scriptural use of that word.
    
1. I say, this is plainly believing in the scriptural use of that word. It is a trusting of or in a person, viz. Jesus Christ, and God in him, the personal object of saving faith, Acts 16:31;—a trusting in a thing, viz, the righteousness of Christ, the ultimate real object of faith, Rom 1:17, therefore called faith in his blood, Rom 3:25—and a trusting in a word, viz. in the record and testimony of God, the word of the promise of the gospel, John 3:16, the proximate or nearest real object of faith. And all this for the great purpose and end of salvation.
    
2. This is the receiving of Christ alone for salvation, John 1:12. God has appointed Christ Saviour of the world, and your Saviour: you hear that published in the gospel, and you believe accordingly, that he is your Saviour, by his Father’s appointment and his own offer: thereupon you trust on him, and on him alone, for salvation, and all you need for salvation. Is not this a receiving of him for your part in the character of a Saviour, wherein his Father sent him to you? a taking of him to yourself as he is offered to you? an using of him as your own Saviour by the divine appointment and offer, as trusting him for the ends for which that offer and appointment was made? Thus your whole case is put in his hand, with heart and goodwill; and you truly receive him as appointed for and offered to you.
    
3. This is resting on Christ alone for salvation, according to the scripture, Isa 26:3. Neither can one imagine what way a person can rest on a word, or a soul can rest upon a person, but by trusting them, or trusting in them. See 2 Chron 32:8 and 2 Chron 14:11. So I conclude, that this trust in Christ is that believing on him, by which the soul is united to Christ, and brought into the covenant in a saving manner. And for opening of it, consider the import of this trust.
    
(1) It imports not only a willingness, but a sincere and earnest desire to be delivered from sin and wrath; a desire to be sanctified as well as to be justified; to be delivered from the reigning power, pollution, practice, and inbeing of sin, as well as from the guilt of it, Rom 7:24-25. For it is trusting on Christ, not for the half of his salvation, viz. salvation from wrath only, as many do who are by no means desirous to part with sin; but for the whole of it, even salvation from sin too, the principal part thereof, Matt 1:21. Faith is a believing with the heart and affection of the soul. The whole salvation of Christ is the believer’s choice: it is the end he desires to compass, and the trust of faith is exerted as the means to compass that end.
    
(2) A renouncing of all confidence in all that is not Christ or in Christ, as to that matter particularly. Faith overturns self-confidence, law-confidence, and creature-confidence, to build on a quite new ground, Phil 3:3, and Jer 16:19. For it is a trusting in Christ and his righteousness wholly, a trusting or believing with all the heart, Prov 3:5 and Acts 8:37. The believer is carried off the works of the law, to the blood of Jesus, for his justification; and out of himself too, unto the Spirit of holiness, for sanctification; being persuaded that no doing or suffering of his own can procure to him the pardon of, or atone for the least transgression; and that he is not able truly to mortify one lust, more than to purge away the guilt of one sin, Matt 5:3 and Isa 45:24. Thus is the sandy foundation overturned, that the soul may build on Christ the Rock.
    
(3) A hearty approbation of the plan of salvation according to the covenant, manifested in the gospel, as suited to the divine perfections, and to the case of sinners, and their own case in particular, Matt 11:6 and 1 Cor 1:23-24. Without this, no man that knows what God is, what sin is, and what is the worth of his own soul, will ever venture his salvation upon it. One’s trusting his salvation to Christ and his righteousness, speaks him to be well pleased therewith, as what one may safely trust to, and that in the sight of a holy just God. And this is that rejoicing in Christ Jesus which makes an illustrious part of the believer’s character, Phil 3:3. It implies,
    
[1] An eyeing of Jesus Christ in this matter as a crucified Saviour, having fulfilled all righteousness, according to the stated condition of the covenant, 1 Cor 2:2. This is the view that faith takes of Christ, while the sinner stands trembling before a holy God, beholding him as lifted up on the cross, as the brazen serpent was on the pole in the wilderness, Isa 45:22. So faith is called faith in his blood, Rom 3:25, his righteousness whereof the shedding of his blood was the completing part, being the only spring of the believer’s hope.
    
[2] A real persuasion of the sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness, to save sinners, and them in particular, from sin and wrath; to answer for them before a holy just God in the eye of his holy law, and procure for them eternal holiness and happiness, Phil 3:9. There is no saving faith without this; Christ’s ability must be believed, and that with application to your own case, Matt 9:28. And in order to this, faith fixes its view on Christ’s righteousness, as the righteousness of God, and so of infinite value and efficacy, Phil 3:9; 1 John 1:7. The reason why the gospel, and no other doctrine whatever, is the power of God to the salvation of sinners, is because therein is revealed the righteousness of God unto faith, Rom 1:16-17; and that is the only righteousness suited to the divine perfections and the sinner’s case.
    
[3] An acquiescing in that way of salvation for themselves, Matt 11:6. The believer sees the sufficiency and safety of it, and he hath a cordial liking of it for the way of his salvation. The mystery of Christ is to him the power of God, and the wisdom of God, 1 Cor 1:24. His soul pronounces them safe and blessed that are in it; he desires for his own part to be found in it, Phil 3:9, and is persuaded he would be well, saved from sin and wrath, if he were in it.
    
(4) A betaking one’s self unto Christ and his righteousness alone, for salvation from sin and wrath. This is done by this trusting on him and his righteousness wholly, Ruth 2:12. The sinner believing that Christ is his Saviour and that his righteousness, is made over to him by free gift, and withal that this his Saviour, with his righteousness is sufficient to save him from sin and wrath, doth accordingly trust on Christ and his righteousness, for salvation from sin and wrath.
    
(5) Lastly, An affiance, confidence, or trust on Christ and his righteousness, that he will save us from sin and wrath, according to his promise. That faith is an affiance, confidence, or trust, is evident from the whole tenor of the holy scripture. So it is expressly called, Isa 26:3-4, and Isa 50:10; Ps 28:7, and Ps 118:8-9; Heb 10:35. And that it is a particular trust, viz. that Christ will save us, is evident from the nature of the thing: for he that trusts in a person for a thing, hath surely a persuasion of the same degree with the trust, that that person will do that thing for him. And hence where the party trusted doth fail, the party trusting is confounded and ashamed, as being disappointed in that which he trusted he would do for him: and since the trust of faith is never disappointed, therefore it is observed, that the believer shall never be ashamed, Rom 10:11; 1 Pet 2:6; 2 Tim 1:12; which plainly imports the trust of faith in the Lord to be, that he will do for the sinner what he trusts him for, otherwise there would be no place for this shame in any case. *
    
Secondly, I come now to offer some motives to press the exhortation on sinners to enter personally into the covenant.
    
1. Being out of this covenant, ye are under the broken covenant of works, which makes your state a deplorable one. Some stand off from the gospel covenant, because they do not incline to come under a covenant with God. But, alas! they do not consider, that there never was nor will be a moment of their life wherein they were or are free from a covenant with God. Ye are born under the covenant of works, and the bond of the covenant is fast wreathed about your necks, as long as ye are out of the covenant of grace: for the two covenants divide the whole world between them, Rom 6:14; and there is no getting out of the bond of the first covenant, but by marrying with Christ, and so coming under the bond of the second, Rom 7:4. And of the broken covenant I may say, that it is strong to command, curse, condemn, and kill those under it, Gal 3:10, but absolutely barren as to the affording strength for duty, life, or salvation, Rom 8:3.
    
2. Ye are all under the covenant of grace externally and by profession, as being baptized in the name of Christ, Gal 3:27. Why will ye not really be what you have professed to be, members of Christ, believing in him, within the bond of the covenant in a saving manner? Why will ye aggravate your own condemnation, by professing to take hold of the covenant, and yet before the Lord keeping your necks out of that yoke?
    
3. It is a most honourable covenant. The parties in it confederate are God and his own Son Jesus Christ, and in him the general assembly of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. And seemeth it a small thing to you to be confederated with these?
    
4. It is a most precious covenant, being a covenant in the blood of the Son of God, 1 Cor 11:25. It could not be purchased otherwise: heaven and earth, set at odds by the breaking of the first covenant, could not be united again at less expense. Slight it not.
    
5. It is a most advantageous covenant, and most suitable for you. It is most advantageous for time and for eternity, 1 Tim 4:8. There is no case you are or can be in, but there is a suitable help for it in the covenant. Yea, it is suited to your inability for the duties of it, not by loosing the bond of the holy commandments, but promising strength, Ezek 36:27, and to your fickleness and native instability, John 10:28-29.
    
6. It is freely offered to you, and every one of you, Rev 22:17. Not only is there a warrant for your entering into it, but that warrant is intimated to you, and ye are invited, yea commanded, to come in, Luke 14:23; 1 John 3:23.
    
7. Jesus Christ himself is appointed Administrator of it to you, Isa 61:1. Regard it for the sake of the glorious Administrator. He is Heaven’s Ambassador to you and every one of you, in the matter of this covenant: so that if ye refuse it, ye must refuse it at his hand.
    
8. He administers it to sinners very honourably, taking them to himself, that he may bring them into the covenant, admitting them into it by union with himself.
    
9. Lastly, Without this covenant there is no salvation, Eph 2:12. Either ye must be in it, or perish for ever. When the first covenant was broken, there was a second made for the help of sinners; if ye refuse the second, there is not a third. It is the last ship bound for Immanuel’s land.
    
Wherefore let this be a time of your embracing the covenant; and ye that have embraced it before, renew your acceptance of it, that ye may get it sealed by the sacrament.
    
(1) Stir up the faith of the law in your own souls, as a preparative to the faith of the gospel.
    
(2) Set before you the promises of the gospel, and believe on Jesus Christ, in whom they are all yea and Amen.
    
(3) Lastly, In solemn prayer to God, be as express and particular as may be in these things, and so solemnly enter into the covenant in express words before the Lord, Isa 44:5.
    
SECOND, and lastly, Let those who have personally entered into the covenant of grace, and are now by faith instated in it, walk worthy of the covenant, walk as becomes the covenant, Phil 1:27. Look to the covenant which ye are taken into, and let your life and conversation be agreeable thereto.
    
1. Be holy in the whole of your life, 1 Pet 1:15. Holiness is the great end of the covenant, next to the glory of God. It is the holy covenant ye are brought into; holiness goes through the whole of it, and the design of it was to make sinners holy. And ye must evidence the reality of your being in it by holiness, holiness of heart and life, Ps 24:3-4. An unholy life, and an unsanctified heart in which sin rules and reigns, will be a decisive evidence of estrangedness from the covenant.
    
2. Turn not back to your former lusts in your state without the covenant, 1 Pet 1:14. The men of the first covenant live, and cannot but live in their sins, because death domineers under that covenant: and living lusts feed on their souls as worms do on the dead body. But under the covenant of grace, life reigns; and the soul being thereby restored to life, will cast off these, Col 3:7-8. Beware of backsliding and apostacy. It is dangerous to the last degree, Luke 9:62, “No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” That is the way hypocrites pull off their mask, 1 John 2:19. Remember Lot’s wife. But true believers shall be saved from it, Heb 10:38-39, “Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” Wherefore, “hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy Father’s house,” Ps 45:10.
    
3. Mix not again with the world lying in wickedness, but carry yourselves as a separate company, under a new covenant, and a new head, Acts 2:40, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” If ye are really brought into the covenant, ye are come out from among them: shew that it is so, by your keeping at a distance from them. The grace of the covenant secures it as to all true believers, Ps 12:7. And,
    
(1) Choose not their company, Ps 26:4-5. It is dangerous as a pest-house, 1 Cor 15:34. Many of the truly godly have been wounded in their soul and conscience deeply thereby; witness Peter in the high priest’s hall. Many who have had very fair appearances once a-day, have been ruined by ill company, Prov 13:20, “A companion of fools shall be destroyed.” There is no eviting it altogether in this life, 1 Cor 5:10. But take heed ye have God’s call, and then may ye expect the divine protection. Why will ye choose their company? they are not going your way.
    
(2) Conform not to their way, Rom 12:2. Ye have declared yourselves of a different, yea, a contrary society; why then will ye do as they do? To walk according to the course of this world, speaks one to be a child of wrath, not a child of the covenant. Being come into the covenant, your privilege is beyond others: it is expected then that ye should do more than others, who have not your privilege, Matt 5:47. The privilege is very singular, ye must then be singular in your walk, in comparison of the world lying in wickedness, though you should be wondered at, Zech 3:8; 1 Pet 1:4.
    
4. Remember that ye are no more your own, but the Lord’s by covenant, 1 Cor 6:19-20. God has offered his covenant unto you, ye have entered into it: so ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Let this be an answer to the temptations that ye will meet with; say to them, as Jephthah did to his daughter, Judg 11:35, “I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.” If others say, their tongues and themselves are their own, and they have no Lord over them, ye cannot say it: for if you have come into the covenant, ye have said, as Isa 44:5, “I am the Lord’s.” And if you are his, you must be for him only, wholly, and for ever.
    
5. Espouse the interests of the covenant, saying, “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” Matt 6:10. Have common friends and enemies with the God of the covenant, Ps 16:2-3, and Ps 119:21. Your own interest is in it: and if it be really so, the interest of Christ’s kingdom in the world will be yours, and ye will fight against the devil, the world, and the flesh, as the adversaries of the covenant. They are very low in the world at this day, and in this island; though the nation is under the bond of solemn covenants to God, that bond is little regarded, backslidings are multiplied, and the generation is dealing treacherously with a witness. If ye have embraced the covenant of grace for your own souls, it will natively produce a well tempered concern for the covenanted reformation of yourselves and the land.
    
6. Pursue earnestly the ends of the covenant. These are the destruction of sin, and the service of the Lord, Luke 1:74. Christ came “to destroy the works of the devil;” hold to this end of the covenant in yourselves and others. Study mortification of your own lusts in the first place: labour to break the power of sin in others, according as ye have opportunity, and to weaken Satan’s interest in the place wherein you live. Serve the Lord diligently in the duties of inward worship, and in the duties of morality, first and second table duties: and as we have access, stir up one another thereto.
    
7. Lastly, In all ye do, act as under the influence of this covenant, and not of the covenant of works. Be evangelical in all your duties, and the whole strain of your conversation. The covenant is a covenant of grace: let the grace, mercy, and love of the covenant, be your great motives to obedience, 2 Cor 5:14. To pretend to embrace the covenant of grace, and in the mean time to serve the Lord as bondmen, just for fear of punishment and hope of reward, is to run back to the old covenant.
    
More particularly, walk worthy,
    
1. Of the parties in the covenant, Col 1:10, “Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” The confederates in the covenant of grace, which ye are taken into, are the most glorious and honourable parties that ever entered into a covenant together; even God and his own Son the second Adam, under whom believers come in as members under the head. View the glory and majesty of these parties, the infinite wisdom, love, and grace to poor sinners, wherewith this transaction was managed from eternity; and consider yourselves as taken into the same covenant with them, and ye must see that ye have need to take heed to walk worthy of such confederates. And,
    
1st, Gratitude obliges to this. Should not the poor sinful creature, considering itself taken into the communion of God and his Son’s covenant, look on himself as highly honoured, beyond whatever he could have expected? 1 John 1:3, and ought he not thereupon to be careful to walk worthy of that honourable society? to carry as becomes that honourable character?
    
2dly, The unsuitable walking of those taken into the covenant reflects dishonour on the glorious parties into whose covenant he is taken, Rom 2:24. While men give up their names to Christ, and yet walk in the way of sin, they bring up an ill report on the ways of God, and cause the graceless world to blaspheme the glorious name. Then,
    
(1) Study to walk so as to “be followers of God,” Eph 5:1. Labour to imitate him in all his imitable perfections. He is your God, and ye are his people, if ye are really within the covenant; and surely a people will strive to conform to the nature and will of their God. Be compassionate and merciful to those in misery, ready to do good to all as ye have access, yea even to your very enemies: so shall ye prove yourselves children of the God of the covenant, Matt 5:44-45.
    
(2) Conform yourselves to the example of the Head of the covenant. They to whom Christ’s death brings salvation, will follow the example he left us in his life, 1 John 2:6, “He hath left us an example that we should follow his steps.” He has writ a fair copy of a life for our imitation, John 13:15, and will have his people learn of him, Matt 11:29. We are apt to follow examples in things suited to our nature. Christ’s example is every whit perfect, and no other is so: and what example should have more influence on the members than that of the Head?
    
(3) Labour to maintain actual communion and fellowship with God in Christ, Song 3:5. The covenant puts men in a state of communion with God, 1 John 1:3. That is a great privilege, but ofttimes much misimproved by God’s own children, who fall secure and indisposed for converse with God, Song 5:3, grieve the Spirit, and so provoke him to depart; regard some iniquity in their heart, and so mar the course of influences, and their own access to God.
    
(4) Be heavenly in your frame and walk, Phil 3:20. God is in heaven, your head Christ is in heaven, and your treasure is there: why should not your heart be there too? The due frame of a communicant, that has taken hold of the covenant is set down, Song 3:6, “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, and all powders of the merchant!” And it is sad to see those who are in the covenant grovelling among the dust of this earth, like those that are without; to see the heavenly seed like the seed of the serpent. Set your affections then on things above, and not on things on the earth.
    
Lastly, Let it be your greatest care to please God, to give content to the heart of Christ, Col 1:10. It should be your great question, “What shall I render to the Lord?” Let the love of the Father and the Son influence you to this manner of walking. And let God’s displeasure be to you the most horrible thing, that you would rather venture on the displeasure of the whole world than his.
    
2. Walk answerable to the parts of the covenant. And,
    
1st, To the condition of the covenant performed by Jesus Christ, viz. his fulfilling all righteousness, in his being born holy, living holy, satisfying justice by his death and sufferings, to procure you the promises of the covenant. And,
    
(1) Let the stress of your acceptance with God all along lie upon that, and that only, Phil 3:3. Whatever you look to obtain from God, whether for time or eternity, let all your confidence for it be laid on that ground only. Whatever you go to seek from God, whatever sacrifice you offer to God, or do for him, let it be laid on that altar, as ever ye would have it accepted, Col 3:17. It is not only when our duties are ill performed, but when they are best done, that we must place our confidence here: for our best duties will otherwise be unacceptable.
    
(2) Walk humbly as debtors to free grace, 1 Tim 1:15. Look to the rock whence ye are hewn, and the hole of the pit whence ye were dug. See Ezek 16. Remember, whatever be your attainments, gifts, or graces, ye are decked with borrowed feathers: be not proud of them. The condition on which any promise is performed to you, you could never perform: the price of the least mercy you could not pay. Only Jesus Christ has set up the poor bankrupt again.
    
(3) Walk in love, Eph 5:2, “Walk in love” to God in Jesus Christ. This is the fulfilling of the law: and there is the greatest reason for it, both for what he is in himself, and what he is to us. One flame is fit to kindle another. Such love was never seen among creatures, as God has shewn to man; and shall it not inflame our hearts? Walk in love to one another, and in love to mankind.
    
(4) Walk thankfully. The whole life of a Christian should be a life of thankfulness, 1 Pet 2:9. Eternal life is won by Christ’s fulfilling the condition of the covenant; it is received in the firstfruits of it, and possessed in Christ the head, by faith. What then remains but to express our thankfulness in a well-ordered life, for the unspeakable free gift?
    
2dly, To the promises of the covenant; they are “great and precious,” 2 Pet 1:4. Happy are they that have them for their security, and all that are within the covenant have them so.
    
(1) Live upon them, let your souls feed on them, and account them the great stock ye have to trust to, Ps 119:162. This must be done by believing them, and that with application. However little you have in hand, ye have a full covenant of promises, which are Heaven’s bills and bonds, that make a good stock. And so reckon, that though ye have nothing, yet ye possess all things, viz. in Christ; ye have them in the promise, Col 2:10, “Ye are complete in him.”
    
(2) Resolutely set about every duty in the faith of the promise. It will be too hardy to venture on the least without it: and the hardest and most difficult may be ventured on with it, 2 Tim 2:1. God calls his people to no duty, but what the covenant has furniture for in the promise. And in the faith of it the weak is made strong, and without it the proud helpers stoop.
    
(3) Resist temptations in the faith of the promise. The least of them is able to lay us by, if the Lord do not stand by us: the shock of the most violent of them may be endured, and one come off safe, if encountered in the faith of the promise, Eph 6:16. It is the promise in the hand of faith that keeps the tempted safe, and makes his resistance successful.
    
(4) Bear crosses, trials, and afflictions in the faith of the promise, Ps 27:13. There is no getting forward to heaven, but by the way of the cross: these deep waters must needs be swimmed through; but the faith of the promise will bear up the head, and keep from sinking. It will bring in comfort from the covenant, when other streams are dried.
    
Lastly, Die in the faith of the promise, Heb 11:13. That is the last battle to be fought: and then the time draws near of the full accomplishment of the promise to the Lord’s people; and that is a special season of exercising faith on the promises.
    
3dly, and lastly, Walk suitably to the administration of the covenant, which is a most happy one, as being lodged by the Father in Christ’s hand. And,
    
(1) Go to Christ for all you need. To whom should we go but to him, since he is Administrator of the covenant, and all is in his hand? Whether you need light, life, strength, or whatsoever is necessary for time or eternity, go to him for it.
    
(2) Be obedient to his laws, the laws of the covenant. If he administers the covenant effectually to your salvation, he is your King and Lord, and ye must receive the law at his mouth, Ps 119:6.
    
(3) Submit to the discipline of the covenant. If ye meet with crosses, afflictions, and trials, take them kindly, blessing God that they are not curses, effects of revenging wrath.
    
(4) Believe that all ye meet with is well ordered. It is so, for it is the product of the wisdom of the great Administrator of the covenant.
    
(5) Lastly, Do your endeavour amongst all, as ye have access, to advance the covenant; that those who are without, may be brought in; and that those who are within, may be edified. For Christ is to administer the covenant to whosoever of mankind sinners will receive it.
    
Thus, by the mercy of God, I have treated fully of the covenant of grace, and laid before you the principal things relating to it; having formerly treated of the covenant of works. In the first covenant, see your misery; in this see the remedy, and apply it by believing. You have here had the mystery of salvation by Christ opened up at large. May the Lord himself open your understandings to understand it, and your hearts to receive it; and save you from slighting it: for so it will be a witness against you.