^dhj. He thereby underwent and performed all that which, in the righteousness and wisdom of God, was required ; that the efi-'ects, fruits, benefits, and grace, intended, designed, and prepared in the new covenant, might be effectually accomplished and communicated unto sinners. Hence, although \\e p)rocured not the covenant for us by his death, yet he was, in his person, mediation, life, and death, the only cause and means whereby the whole grace of the covenant is made effectual unto us. For, —
odly. All the benefits of it were procured by him ; — that is, all
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194 ON JUSTIFICATION.
the grace, mercy, privileges, and glory, that God hath prepared in the counsel of his will, that were fixed as unto the way of this com- munication in the covenant of the mediator, and proposed in the promises of it, are purchased, merited, and procured by his death ; and effectually communicated or applied unto all the covenanters by virtue thereof, with others of his mediatory acts. And this is much more an eminent procuring of the new covenant than what is pre- tended about the procurement of its terms and conditions ; for if he should have procured no more but this, — if we owe this only unto his mediation, that God would thereon, or did, grant and esta- blish this rule, law, and promise, that whoever believed should be saved, — it were possible that no one should be saved thereby ; yea, if he did no more, considering our state and condition, it was impos- sible that any one should so be.
To give the sum of these things, it is inquired with respect unto which of these considerations of the new covenant it is affirmed that it was procured by the death of Christ. If it be said that it is with respect unto the actual communication of all the grace and glory prepared in the covenant, and proposed unto us in the promises of it, it is most true. All the grace and glory promised in the cove- nant were purchased for the church by Jesus Christ. In this sense, by his- death he procured the new covenant. This the whole Scrip- ture, from the beginning of it in the first promise unto the end of it, doth bear witness unto ; for it is in him alone that " God blesseth us with all spiiitual blessings in heavenly things." Let all the good things that are mentioned or promised in the covenant, expressly or by just consequence, be summed up, and it will be no hard matter to demonstrate concerning them all, and that both jointly and seve- rally, that they were all jyrocured for us by the obedience and death of Christ.
But this is not that which is intended ; for most of this opinion do deny that the grace of the covenant, in conversion unto God, the re- mission of sins, sanctification, justification, adoption, and the like, are the effects or procurements of the death of Christ. And they do, on the other hand, declare that it is God's making of the cove- nant which they do intend; that is, the contrivance of the terms and conditions of it, with their proposal unto mankind for their re- covery. But herein there is ohhh uyisg. For, —
(1.) The Lord Christ himself, and the whole work of his media- tion, as the ordinance of God for the recovery and salvation of lost sinners, is the first and ptrincipal promise of the covenant; so his exhibition in the flesh, his work of mediation therein, with our de- liverance thereby, was the subject of that first promise, which virtu- ally contained this whole covenant : so he was of the renovation of
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it unto Abraham, when it was solemnly confirmed by the oath of God, Gal. iii. 1 6, 1 7. And Christ did not by his death procure the promise of his death, nor of his exhibition in the flesh, or his coming into the world that he might die.
(2.) The making of this covenant is everywhere in the Scripture ascribed (as is also the sending of Christ himself to die) unto the love, grace, and wisdom of God alone ; nowhere unto the death of Christ, as the actual communication of all grace and glory are. Let all the places be considered, where either the giving of the promise, the sending of Christ, or the making of the covenant, are mentioned, either expressly or virtually, and in none of them are they assigned unto any other cause but the grace, love, and wisdom of God alone ; all to be made effectual unto us by the mediation of Christ.
(3.) The assignation of the sole end of the death of Christ to be the 2>f'ocurement of the neiu covenant, in the sense contended for, doth indeed evacuate all the virtue of the death of Christ and of the covenant itself; for, — First, The covenant which they intend is no- thing but the constitution and proposal of new terms and conditions for life and salvation unto all men. Now, whereas the acceptance and accomplishment of these conditions depend upon the Avills of men no way determined by effectual grace, it was possible that, not- withstanding all Christ did by his death, yet no one sinner might be saved thereby, but that the whole end and design of God therein might be frustrated. Secondly, Whereas the substantial advantage of these conditions lieth herein, that God will now, for the sake of Christ, accept of an obedience inferior unto that required in the law, and go as that the grace of Christ doth not raise up all things unto a conformity and compliance with the holiness and will of God de- clared therein, but accommodate all things unto our present condition, nothing can be invented more dishonourable to Christ and the gos- pel ; for what doth it else but make Christ the minister of siri, in disannulling the holiness that the law requires, or the obligation of the law unto it, without any provision of what might answer or come into the room of it, but that which is incomparably less worthy? Nor is it consistent with divine wisdom, goodness, and immutability, to appoint unto mankind a laiu of obedience, and cast them all under the severest penalty upon the transgression of it, when he could in justice and honour have given them such a law of obedience, whose observance might consist with many failings and sins; for if he have done that now, he could have done so before : which how far it re- flects on the glory of the divine properties might be easily mani- fested. Neither doth this fond imagination comply with those testi- monies of Scripture, that the Lord Clirist came not to destroy the law, but to fidjil it ; that he is the end of the law; and that by faith