(2.) That those who were to be taken into this covenant should receive grace enabling them to comply with the terms of it, fulfil its conditions, and yield the obedience which God required therein; for, by the ordination of God, he was to procure, and did merit and procure for them, the Holy Spirit, and all needful supplies of grace, to make them new creatures, and enable them to yield obedience unto God from a new principle of spiritual life, and that faithfully unto the end : so was he the surety of this better testament. But all things belonging hereunto will be handled at large in the place from whence, as I said, these are taken, as suitable unto our present occasion.
But some have other notions of these things; for they say that " Christ, by his death, and his obedience therein, whereby he offered, himself a sacrifice of sweet smelling savour unto God, procured for us the new covenant :" or, as one speaks, " All that we have by the death of Christ is, that thereunto we owe the covenant of grace; for herein he did and suffered what God requii'ed and freely appointed him to do and suffer. Not that the justice of God required any such thing, with respect unto their sins for whom he died, and in whose stead, or to bestead whom, he suffered, but what, by a free constitution of divine Avisdom and sovereignty, was ap- pointed unto him. Hereon God was pleased to remit the terms of the old covenant, and to enter into a new covenant with mankind, upon terms suited unto our reason, possible unto our abilities, and every Avay advantageous unto us; for these teniis are, faith and sin- cere obedience, or such an assent unto the truth of divine revelation as is effectual in obedience unto the will of God contained in them, upon the encouragement given thereunto in the promises of eternal life, or a future reward, made therein. On the performance of these conditions our justification, adoption, and future glory, do depend;
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for they are that righteousness before God whereon he pardons our sins, and accepts our persons as if we were perfectly righteous." Wherefore, by this procuring the new covenant for us, which they ascribe unto the death of Christ, they intend the abrogation of the old covenant, or of the law, — or at least such a derogation from it, that it shall no more oblige us either unto sinless obedience or punish- ment, nor require a perfect righteousness unto our justification before God,- — and the constitution of a new laiu of obedience, accommodated unto our present state and condition; on whose observance all the promises of the gospel do depend.
Others say, that in the death of Christ there was real satisfaction made unto God ; not to the law, or unto God according to what the law required, but unto God absolutely; that is, he did what God was well pleased and satisfied withal, without any respect unto his justice or the curse of the law. And they add, that hereon the ivhole righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us, so far as that we are made partakers of the benefits thereof; and, moreover, that the way of the commimication of them unto us is by the neiu covenant, which by his death the Lord Christ procured.: for the conditions of this covenant are established in the covenant itself, whereon God will bestow all the benefits and effects of it upon us ; which are faith and obedience. Wherefore, what the Lord Christ hath done for us is thus far ac- cepted as our legal righteousness, as that God, upon our faith and obedience with respect thereunto, doth release and pardon all our sins of omission and commission. Upon this pardon there is no need of any positive perfect righteousness unto our justification or salvation; but our own jiersonal righteousness is accepted with God in the room of it, by virtue of the new covenant which Christ hath procured. So is the doctrine hereof stated by Curcelteus, and those that join with him or follow him.
Sundry things there are in these opinions that deserve an exami- nation; and they will most, if not all of them, occur unto us in our progress. That which alone we have occasion to inquire into, with respect unto what we have discoursed concerning the Lord Christ as surety of the covenant, and which is the foundation of all that is asserted in them, is, that Christ by his death procured the new cove- nant for us; which, as one says, is all that we have thereby: which, if it should prove otherwise, we are not beholding unto it for any thing at all. But these things must be examined. And, —
(L) The terms oi procuring the new covenant are ambiguous. It is not as yet, that I know of, by any declared how the Lord Christ did procure it, — whether he did so by his satisfaction and obedience, as the meritorious cause of it, or by what other kind of causality. Unless this be stated, we are altogether uncertain what relation of
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the oiew covenant unto the death of Christ is intended; and to say that thereunto we owe the new covenant doth not mend the matter, but rather render the terms more ambiguous. Neither is it declared whether the constitution of the covenant, or the communication of the benefits of it, is intended. It is yet no less general, that God was so well pleased with what Christ did, as that hereon he made and entei'ed into a new covenant tuith mankind. This they may grant who yet deny the whole satisfaction and merit of Christ. If they mean that the Lord Christ, by his obedience and suffering, did meritoriously procure the making and establishing of the new cove- nant, which was all that he so procured, and the entire effect of his death, what they say may be understood ; but the whole nature of the mediation of Christ is overthrown thereby.