condition of the covenant of redemption. It was the meritorloua oTOund, laying a foundation in justice for the fulfilment of the promises made to Him by the Father. But in other cases, by condition we merely mean a siyie qua non. A blessing may be promised on condition that it is asked for ; or that there is a will- ingness to receive it. There is no merit in the asking or in the willingness, which is the ground of the gift. It remains a gratui- tous favour : but it is, nevertheless, suspended upon the act of askino-. It is in this last sense only that faith is the condition of the covenant of grace. There is no merit in believing. It is only the act of receiving a proffered favour. In either case the necessity is equally absolute. Without the work of Christ there would be no salvation ; and without faith there is no salvation. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
The Promises of the Covenant.
The promises of this covenant are all included in the comprehen- sive formula, so often occurring in the Scriptures, " I will be your God, and ye shall be my people." This involves the complete restoration of our normal relation to God. All ground of aliena- tion, every bar to fellowship is removed. He communicates Him- self in his fulness to his people ; and they become his by entire conformity to his will and devotion to his service, and are the special objects of his favour.
God is said to be our God, not only because He is the God whom we acknowledge and profess to worship and obey, as He was the God of the Hebrews in distinction from the Gentiles who did not acknowledge his existence or profess to be his worshippers; but He is our God, — our infinite portion ; the source to us of all that God is to those who are the objects of his love. His perfec- tions are revealed to us as the highest knowledge ; they are all pledged for our protection, blessedness, and glory. His being our God implies also that He assures us of his love, and admits us to communion with Himself. As his favour is life, and his loving kindness better than life ; as the vision of God, the enjoyment of his love and fellowship with Him secure the highest possible exalta- tion and beatification of his creatures, it is plain that the promise to be our God, in the Scriptural sense of the term, includes all con- ceivable and all possible good.
When it is said that we are to be his people it means, (1.) That we are his peculiar possession. His delights are with the children
366 PART ui. ch. n. — the covenant of grace.
of men. From the various orders of rational creatures He ha,« chosen man to be the special object of his favour, and the special medium through which and by which to manifest his glory. And from the mass of fallen men He has, of his own good pleasure, chosen an innumerable multitude to be his portion, as He conde- scends to call them ; on whom He lavishes the plenitude of his grace, and in whom He reveals his glory to the admiration of all holy intelligences. (2.) That being thus selected for the special love of God and for the highest manifestation of his glory, they are in all things fitted for this high destiny. They are justified, sancti- fied, and glorified. They are rendered perfectly conformed to hia image, devoted to his service, and obedient to his will.
§ 6. The Identity of the Covenant of G-race under all Dispensa- tions.
By this is meant that the plan of salvation has, under all dispen- sations, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the Christian, been the same. On this subject much diversity of opinion, and still more of mode of statement has prevailed. Socinians say that under the old economy, there was no promise of eternal life ; and that the condition of salvation was not faith in Christ. The Remonstrants admitted that the patriarchs were saved, and that they were saved through Christ, i. e., in virtue of the work which the Redeemer was to accomplish ; but they also questioned whether any direct promise of eternal life was given in the Old Testament, or whether faith in the Redeemer M^as the condition of acceptance with God. On this subject the "Apology for the Confession of the Remon- strants" says^ concerning faith in Jesus Christ, "Et certum esse locum nullum esse unde ajipareat fidem istam sub V. T. praeceptani fuisse, aut viguisse." And Episcopius^ says, "Ex his facile col- ligere est, quid statuendum sit de qusestione ilia famosa, An vit;« aeternge promissio etiam in Vetei-i foedere locum habuerit, vel ])otiiKs in fffidere ipso comprehensa fuerit. Si enim speciales promissiones in fcedere ipso veteri expressse videantur, fatendum est, nullam vita^ Eeternse promissionem disertam in illis reperiri. Si quis contra sentiat, ejus est locum dare ubi ilia exstat : quod puto impossibile esse. Sed vero, si promissiones Dei generales videantur, fatendum ex altera parte est, eas tales esse, ut promissio vitae aeternae non subesse tan- tum videatur, sed ex Dei intentione earn eis subfuisse etiam credi debeat."
1 Edit. Leyden, 1630, p. 91.
3 Jtutitutiones Theobgicce, lib. in. iv. 1; Worki, Amsterdam, 1650, vol. i. p. 156.
§6.] THE IDENTITY OF THE COVENANT OF GllACE. 367
The Baptists, especially those of the time of the Reformation, do not hold the common doctrine on this subject. The Anabaptists not only spoke in very disparaging terms of the old economy and of the state of the Jews under that dispensation, but it was neces- sary to their peculiar system, that they should deny that the cov- enant made with Abraham included the covenant of grace. Bap- tists hold that infants cannot be church members, and that the sign of such membership cannot properly be administered to any who have not knowledge and faith. But it cannot be denied that in- fants were included in the covenant made with Abraham, and that they received circumcision, its appointed seal and sign. It is there- fore essential to their theory that the Abrahamic covenant should be regarded as a merely national covenant entirely distinct from the covenant of grace.
The Romanists assuming that saving grace is communicated through the sacraments, and seeing that the mass of the ancient Israelites, on many occasions at least, were rejected of God, not- withstanding their participation of the sacraments then ordained, were driven to assume a radical difference between the sacraments of the Old Testament and those of the New. The former only signified grace, the latter actually conveyed it. From this it fol- lows that those living before the institution of the Christian sacra- ments were not actually saved. Their sins were not remitted, but pretermitted, passed over. At death they were not admitted into heaven, but passed into a place and state called the limhus patrum^ where they remained in a negative condition until the ^coming of Christ, who after his death descended to hell, sheol, for their de- liverance.
In opposition to these different views the common doctrine of the Church has ever been, that the plan of salvation has been the same from the beginning. There is the same promise of deliverance from the evils of the apostasy, the same Redeemer, the same con- dition required for participation in the blessings of redemption, and the same complete salvation for all who embrace the offers of divine mercy.
In determining the degree of knowledge possessed by the ancient people of God, we are not to be governed by our own capacity of discovering from the Old Testament Scriptures the doctrines of grace. What amount of supplementary instruction the people re- ceived from the prophets, or what degree of divine illumination was granted to them we cannot tell. It is, however, clear from the writings of the New Testament, that the knowledge of the
368 PART m. ch. n. — the covenant of grace.
plan of salvation current among the Jews at the time of the advent, was much greater than we should deem possible from the mere perusal of the Old Testament. They not only generally and con- fidently expected the Messiah, who was to be a teacher as Avell as a deliverer, but the devout Jews waited for the salvation of Israel. They spoke as familiarly of the Holy Spirit and of the baptism which He was to effect, as Christians now do. It is, principally, from tlie assertions of the New Testament writers and from their expositions of the ancient Scriptures, that we learn the amount of truth revealed to tliose who lived before the coming of Christ.
From the Scriptures, therefore, as a whole, from the New Testa- ment, and from the Old as interpreted by infallible authority in the New, we learn that the plan of salvation has always been one and the sam.e : having the same pi'omise, the same Saviour, the same condition, and the same salvation.
The Promise of Eternal Life made before the Advent.