1 See Exercit. xxviii. in the preliminary dissertations to the " Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews."
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xxiii. 5; Jer. xxxii. 40. This declaration of tlie grace of God, and the provision in the covenant of the mediator for the making of it effectual unto his glory, is most usually called the covenant of grace. And this is twofold : —
1st. In the way of a singular and absolute promise : so was it first declared unto and established with Adam, and afterward with Abraham. The promise is the declaration of the jnirpose of God before declared, or the free determination and counsel of his will, as to his dealing with sinners on the supposition of the fall, and their forfeiture of their first covenant state. Hereof the grace and luill of God were the only cause, Heb. viii. 8. And the death of Christ could not be the means of its jyi^ocurement; for he himself, and all that he was to do for us, was the substance of that promise. And this promise, — as it is declarative of the purpose or counsel of the will of God for the communication of grace and glory unto sinners, in and by the mediation of Christ, according to the Avays and On the terms prepared and disposed in his sovereign wisdom and pleasure, — is for- mally the new covenant; though something yet is to be added to complete its application unto us. Now, the substance of the fii^st promise, wherein the whole covenant of grace was virtually com- prised, directly respected and expressed the giving of him for the recovery of mankind from sin and misery by his death, Gen. iii. 15. Wherefore, if he and all the benefits of his mediation, his death, and all the effects of it, be contained in the promise of the covenant, — that is, in the covenant itself, — then was not his death the p>rocuring cause of that covenant, nor do we owe it thereunto.
'2dUj. In the additional prescrij)tioii of the way and means whereby it is the will of God that we shall enter into a covenant state with him, or be interested in the benefits of it. This being vii'tually comprised in the absolute promise (for every promise of God doth tacitly requke faith and obedience in us), is expressed in other places by way of the condition required on our part. Tliis is not the covenant, but the constitution of the terms on our part, whereon we are made partakers of it. Nor is the constitution of these terms an effect of the death of Christ, or procured thereby ; it is a mere effect of the sovereign grace and wisdom of God. The things themselves, as bestowed on us, communicated unto us, wrought in us by grace, are all of them effects of the death of Christ ; but the constitution of them to he the terms and conditions of the covenant, is an act of mere sovereign wisdom and grace. " God so loved the world, as to send his only begotten Son to die," not that faith and repentance might be the means of salvation, but that all his elect might believe, and that all that believe " might not perish, but have everlasting life." But yet it is granted that the constitution of these terms of the covenant doth respect i\\Q federal transaction between
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the Father and the Sou, wherein they were ordered to the praise of the glory of God's grace; and so, although their coustitutiou was not the procurement of his death, yet without respect unto it, it had not been. Wherefore, the sole cause of God's inahing the new cove- nant was the same with that of giving Christ himself to be our mediator, — namely, the purpose, counsel, goodness, grace, and love of God, as it is everywhere expressed in the Scripture.
[4.] The covenant may be considered as unto the actual aj^plica- tion of the grace, benefits, and privileges of it unto any persons, whereby they are made real partakers of them, or are taken into covenant with God ; and this alone, in the Scripture, is intended by God's making a covenant with any. It is not a. general revelation, or declaration of the terms and nature of the covenant (which some call a universal conditional covenant, on what grounds they know best, seeing the very formal nature of making a covenant with any includes the actual acceptation of it, and participation of the bene- fits of it by them), but a communication of the grace of it, accom- panied with a prescription of obedience, that is God's making his covenant with any; as all instances of it in the Scripture do declare.
It may be, therefore, inquired. What respect the covenant of grace hath unto the death of Christ, or what influence it hath thereunto ?
I answer, Supposing what is spoken of his being a surety thereof, it hath a threefold respect thereunto : —
1st. In that the covenant, as the grace and glory of it were pre- pared in the counsel of God, as the terms of it were fixed in the covenant of the mediator, and as it was declared in the promise, was confirmed, ratified, and made irrevocable thereby. This our apostle insists upon at large, Heb. ix. 15-20 ; and he compares his blood, in his death and sacrifice of himself, unto the sacrifices and their blood whereby the old covenant was confirmed, purified, dedicated, or esta- blished, verses 18, 19. Now, these sacrifices did not procure that covenant, or prevail with God to enter into it, but only ratified and confirmed it ; and this was done in the new covenant by the blood of Christ.