A Discourse of the Two Covenants

SECT. I. The Covenant made with Christ Personal, in regard of his Office.

§. 1. WE have formerly spoken of the Person that made this Covenant, whose Covenant it is, and who had a chief hand therein, it is the Lord's Covenant. We do now come unto the second thing, and that is the Persons that are taken into this Covenant, with whom this Covenant was made. The first Covenant was made with the first Adam, and with all the posterity that came from him by natural generation, and is therefore fitly called Foedus Naturae, the Covenant of Nature. The second Covenant is made with the second Adam, and with all those that are in him; and because it belongs not unto all, therefore is styled Foedus Gratiae, the Covenant of Grace: and this Scripture holds forth a threefold subordination of the persons received into this Covenant: (1) Christ; (2) those that are in Christ; (3) their seed also. The Apostle had proved in the former part of the Chapter, that men are justified by faith only, and not by the works of the Law, and that the same way of Justification that there was unto Abraham, God did intend to justify all the Elect by, for Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness; and he was herein the common father of all that should believe; For they that are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham, the father of the Circumcision, and of the Uncircumcision also; and therefore he received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of Faith, which he had being yet uncircumcised. Now Abraham being herein a common root, and father unto both Jews and Gentiles, there was but one way of Justification for both, and that forever. And whereas it is objected, that Abraham was justified by faith before the Law was given, but the Law being published, and that in the form of a Covenant, this do and live, this seems to disannul and to make void the promise, and the ancient way of Justification of Abraham, and to set up another: Now the Apostle comes to prove the stability and unchangeableness of this Covenant, from the manner and custom amongst men, and their transactions one with another. The word in the Greek signifies both a Covenant and a Testament, and therefore we render it for both; one in the Text, and the other in the Margent, pactionem, so Beza, Testamentum, so the Vulgar. Now if a man make a bargain, and confirm, ingross and seal it, and deliver it to the benefit of another, it becomes unchangeable, and irrevocable to the person that did it, and he is bound to it, and cannot revoke it: or if a man make a Testament, and then die, it is amongst men counted sacred, and no man can diminish or add thereunto. If men whose Wills are mutable, who may err and repent, do by their own acts disenable themselves to revoke their Covenants; much more the great God, who is in his Wisdom infinite, able to foresee all inconveniencies, that nothing can arise de novo, that he knew not of before; and who is in his purposes unchangeable, and cannot repent; surely if he make a Covenant, it is sure and stable, that no after-acts of his shall make it void and of none effect: but to Abraham and his seed was the Covenant thus made long before the Law was given; therefore the Law given afterward cannot make it void: and if the Covenant be the same, then the way of Justification and Blessedness must be still the same.

Here are three things to be expounded: (1) What is meant by the Promises? (2) How Abraham is here to be considered in receiving of the Promises? (3) What is meant by Christ here, this one seed to whom the Promises were made?

1. By Promises the whole Covenant of Grace is meant: He doth call it the Covenant in the former verse, and the Promise in the singular number in the verse following; and the reason is, because the main of the Covenant doth consist of Promises; they are many, Promises of this life and of the life to come, Promises absolute and conditional, Promises of Grace and to Grace; and they are therefore called better Promises; and so because in respect of the Fathers, their good things were even wholly contained in Promises, as the Ceremonial Law was contained in Ordinances, and they saw nothing in the one but in the Type, and nothing in the other but in the Promises; they did salute them afar off, and embracing them died in the faith of them, but they never received the thing promised, only as Abraham desired to see my days, says Christ, and he saw it, and was glad. And it is sometimes called the promise, because they are all one in Christ, being in him all yea and amen, as lines in a Center are one; follow any promise to its Original, as rivers unto the head and rise of them, and they will all lead you unto Christ: and yet they are Promises in themselves many, as the lines are in the Circumference, though but one in the Center, Ephes. 2.12. the Apostle Paul useth a quite different expression, Strangers unto the Covenants of promise; he doth as it were make the promise but one for substance, and the Covenants many; the Covenants are many, because of their manifold delivery, being severally renewed; and yet in all these in several ages the promises the same, as if but one promise.

2. How, and in what order, is Abraham to be considered in this Covenant, and in receiving this promise? In this Covenant Abraham stands as a public person, as a common root, or as a common Parent unto all the faithful unto the worlds end, as one that did receive the Promise not only for himself, but for all those that should after his example believe in Christ, and become his Children; and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful, and they that do believe are Abraham's seed, and also heirs of the Promise. For as Austin hath observed, there are three sorts of Fathers and of Sons, some are according to nature, and others are secundum Doctrinam, according to Doctrine; so Paul was father to Timothy, having begotten him by the Gospel; others secundum imitationem, according to imitation, as filii Abrahami nos sumus cujus fidem imitamur, we are Abraham's children if we imitate his faith. And this the Lord doth for a double end: (1) To put an honor upon his servant as a great reward of his faith, and therefore he changed his name, calling him the Father of many Nations, as one that was the root and first in the Covenant, and they all coming in at second hand, under Abraham's Covenant; and therefore Mic. 7.20. it is mercy to Abraham, and truth to Jacob; because in Abraham after a sort the Covenant did begin: not that to him the Covenant of Grace was first revealed, for it was made known unto Adam, and Abel was justified by faith, Heb. 11.3. but because unto Abraham was the clearest discovery of the Covenant, and the Lord did in the most solemn manner enter into Covenant with him, therefore it is mercy to Abraham, that being the foundation of making the Covenant, as his truth and faithfulness is of keeping the Covenant. (2) The Lord does it thereby to make Abraham as it were a Type of Christ, that it may be continued unto posterity, that the way by which God intended to dispense the Grace of the Covenant, was from one common head or root; as the first Covenant to the first Aam, and all his posterity; so the second Covenant with the second Aam, of whom first Abraham, and afterwards David were the fullest Types and resemblances. Thus that the Lord might honor Abraham his friend with the highest honor, as the root of all the Faithful, and that this manner of conveyance of the Grace of the Covenant from one common root might be made known, and thereby man's heart led unto Christ the root, and Prince of the Covenant; therefore it was made with Abraham as a public person, and the father of us all.

3. What is meant by Christ here the seed of Abraham, not seeds as of many? Here Interpreters are divided. There is a twofold seed of Abraham, to which they have an eye, according unto these two promises, In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed, Gen. 22.18. and Gen. 17.7. I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee; and answerably unto these they observe in Scripture a twofold Christ, Christ Personal, and Christ Mystical; so 1 Cor. 12.12. the whole Church is called Christ, and the sufferings of the Church are called the sufferings of Christ, and the fullness of the Church, the fullness of Christ, as Col. 1.18. Here, some say, is to be understood Christ personal, for two reasons: (1) The person to whom the promise is made is the same in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed, but this is by Abraham in reference to this seed. It's true, all the faithful as they are the seed of Abraham, they are blessed with faithful Abraham, but they are not that seed in whom all the Nations of the world shall be blessed, Gen. 22.18. that is in Abraham, as this seed should come out of his loins, and it refers us only to the person of Christ, which cannot be understood of Christ Mystical; therefore Ambrose saith of this promise, Impletum est in Christo, ideoque non in multis sed in uno firmata est promissio. (2) Because it is said verse the 17. the Covenant was made before of God, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , erga Christum, or ad Christum, in or to Christ, speaking of the same seed that he had spoken of in the verse before; now this promise and Covenant was not confirmed in Christ Mystical, but Christ Personal, in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen. And hence Pareus and divers others do conclude it to be understood, Individue de uno Christo, ex quo omnis spiritualis benedictio in fidelem diffluit, &c. Individually of Christ, from whom all spiritual benediction flows. Others do conceive it is to be understood of Christ Mystical: (1) From the order that is here mentioned, the promise is made first unto Abraham, and then unto his seed; therefore the seed here spoken of must be such a seed as comes to have a right to the promise as second, in order unto Abraham; but this cannot be Christ Personal, for he has not a right unto the Promise from Abraham, but Abraham from him, and therefore it must be understood of Christ Mystical, who are to look upon Abraham as the root, and themselves as branches. (2) They argue from the Apostles scope in this place, which is to prove that all the Faithful are justified by faith, in the same way that Abraham was: for the Covenant was not only made with Abraham, but with his seed also, and that seed is not many; for then the Covenants must be many; but whether they be Jews or Gentiles, if they do believe, they are all of them the seed of Abraham, one seed, and therefore come under the same Covenant, and must expect justification and life the same way, by virtue of the same Covenant. The reason seems very plain on both sides, and I do conceive that they have the truth between them, and that it is to be understood both of Christ Personal primarily and principally, and afterward Christ Mystical, and so many Divines do expound it: and that the Covenant made with Abraham was confirmed unto Christ and that herein the strength and stability of the Covenant stands, this is plain in the next verse; and that it is in this seed that Abraham is blessed as well as all the Nations of the Earth; for he is the root of all the Patriarchs, Rev. 5.5. called therefore the root of David; he did come out of Jesse, but yet he is the root also upon which David did grow; and we see that Abraham was justified by faith, and that was in this promised seed, called the seed of the woman (before he was called the seed of Abraham ) and therefore it was in him that the Covenant vouchsafed to Abraham was confirmed and established. And for the order here no man will wonder if he look upon Christ as the Son of Abraham, that he is set first with him and his seed, it is no more derogatory from Christ than that the mercies of the second Covenant should be called, The sure mercies of David, or that the Covenant should be made with David, and that he should sit upon the Throne of David, and succeed David in his Kingdom, and that he should plead the Promises made unto the Fathers, as if he did come under their Covenant, in the actual ministration of it, they being types of him, though he himself was the root and foundation of the Covenant, as the Psalmist speaks of Christ, Our Fathers trusted in thee, and thou deliveredst them. As the Son of David he is said after a sort to enter upon David's Kingdom, as the Son of Abraham upon his Covenant, and yet he is the root and foundation of the one as well as of the other. From all this it is plain here are three sorts of Persons with whom the Covenant is made: (1) Here is Christ Personally, with whom Abraham's Covenant is confirmed, the seed in which Abraham and all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed. (2) Here is Abraham the Father of the Faithful. (3) Here is another sort of seed, the faithful, and they are taken into the Covenant at second hand: and from hence we do learn that the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ Personal the Mediator; and then there being none in this Covenant but they that are one with him, they that are Christ's are Abraham's seed, therefore the Covenant is made with all the Faithful in the second place, as they are one with him, and with their seed.

§. 2. Thus the first person with whom the Covenant of Grace is made, is the Lord Jesus Christ, as God and man, and so the observation is this:

Doct. The Lord Jesus Christ as the second Adam is that person with whom primarily and principally the Covenant of Grace was made, and to whom primarily and principally all the promises of that Covenant belong. This Covenant made with Christ we see, Isa. 49.8. As the first Adam was the head of the first Covenant, so whatever is done in the second Covenant it is by Christ, and therefore he is said to be our Covenant, as he is our peace; for he is Caput Confoederatorum, the Head of the Confederates, not only by purpose in himself, but by promise; there was Grace given us before the world began, it could not be unto us in our own Persons before we were, and therefore it must be unto another as one that undertook for us: and therefore we read, Rev. 13.8. there was the Lambs book from the foundation of the world: the Lord gave the souls unto Christ that he should save, and Christ did write them down in his book as the persons that God the Father had given him, and he had engaged to save; and this Covenant of Christ took place immediately after the Fall, and by virtue thereof God pardoned all the sins of the ancient Saints, Rom. 3.25. Christ did keep the thing that he did Covenant, to pay the debt that we owed to God, and all was viz. transacted by God the Father and Christ in a Covenant way: so that as now Christ trusts God for the performance of his Promise, so God did trust Christ for the payment of his Debt; and therefore as the first Covenant was made with Adam God's friend, so the second Covenant was made with Adam God's fellow; and I know not what else can be the meaning of Prov. 8.22. To be set up or anointed as a King before the foundations of the Earth were laid. The same word is in Psal. 2.6. in reference to the Covenant, and the transactions that were between the Father and the Son before the World was. And this Covenant made between God and Christ hath two parts. (1) There is a Covenant with Christ as Mediator, ration muneris, in regard of his Office. (2) There is a Covenant made with Christ as the Churches Head, ration Corporis, as his body; there is a Covenant made with him alone, though it was made for us, yet not with us; and there is a Covenant made with him, and with us in him, but with him primarily as the Head, and with us as the Members, as we come under his Covenant.

1. There is a Covenant made with Christ Personal, Ration muneris, in respect of his Office, as Mediator, that he hath undertaken; and this we shall see is plain. Here is God the Father entering into Covenant with Christ, he did lay upon him an Office, and he made him a promise thereupon; an Office he did ordain him, 1 Pet. 1.18. he chose him and sealed him, add sanctified him, set him apart for this work, and laid a commandment upon him to execute it, Joh. 10.18. This Commandment I received of my Father: and to this the Lord added a promise: [1] Of assistance, Isa. 42.4, 6. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, I am by thee, and I will hold thee by the hand, and I will keep thee. [2] A promise of acceptance, I go to the Father, says Christ, Mat. 3.17. [3] Of deliverance, Isa. 53.8. Taken from prison and from judgment, he went down to the grave as a guilty person; but yet says, Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hell, under the power of death, but wilt show me the path of life. [4] Of Justification: He is near that justifies me: he was justified in the spirit: as he died as a public person, under our sins; so he rose, and when he arose he was justified, and declared to be accepted by the Lord. [5] A promise of success, Isa. 53.10. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand; and by his knowledge he shall justify many. He shall build his Church, the stone hewed out without hands, and shall break the Mountains and the Images to pieces, he shall build the Temple of the Lord. [6] Of a seed: He shall see his seed; the word in Hebrew signifies, a successive generation, as the Stars of Heaven, or the sand on the sea shore. [7] Of glory: He has a name above every name; crowned with glory and honor, and made the head over all things, Eph. 1.20, 21. and sits down at the right hand of God in glory. [8] Of Victory: The Lord will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong: He shall lead captivity captive; and shall reign till he has put all his enemies under his feet. [9] Of a Kingdom and Government, Joh. 5.22. Rev. 11.17. [10] Of Worship: Heb. 1.6. Phil. 2.10. Every knee shall bow to him.

And all these Promises the Lord confirmed by Oath to him. There is a twofold Oath, there is not only an Oath that God has sworn to us, that we may have consolation; but unto Christ also, for he was made a Priest by an Oath, Heb. 7.21. so that this Oath was in reference unto this great undertaking of the Priesthood. (1) Christ does accept this Office that he may be the Fathers servant in it; and he does promise obedience unto his Fathers will; he did not glorify himself in it, Heb. 5.1. Joh. 10.18. That all men may know that I love the Father. (2) According to this Covenant he is careful to perform all as God the Fathers servant in all his Government in the world; and to let no part of the will of God be undone. (3) Upon all these Promises he does exercise faith for their accomplishment; He is near that justifies me: and so when upon the Cross he cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why is God called the God of Christ, but by Covenant? he takes a new Covenant-right unto God for us. (4) Answerable unto this Covenant Christ doth follow God with Prayers, that he may have the glory and the victory that the Lord promised him, and that in the Covenant was made over to him before the World was, Joh. 17.4, 5. and that he might have all the glory that he now has in Heaven, Being sat down at the right hand of God, where he is exalted by Covenant, and is in constant expectation when his enemies shall be made his footstool: and the Lord will never cease shaking and working in the World, till the whole Covenant between God and Christ be fulfilled, and the Mystery of God finished.

The Covenant of Grace is in the New Testament commonly called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which does signify both a Covenant and a Testament, and it's so commonly translated: if we look upon it as a Covenant, so Christ is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a sponsor, or surety, Heb. 7.22. and if we consider it as a Testament, so Christ is appointed heir of all things, of all the Promises in the behalf of his people, that they are made first to him and to us in him.

1. We shall consider Christ in this Covenant as the Surety, and this very consideration of him as a Surety, implies and concludes a Covenant: The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is by the Learned derived from striking or taking hands one with another, as the manner was in making of Covenants in time past; and to strike hands is an expression of a Covenant, Prov. 22.26. Be not thou one of them that strike hands. Prov. 6.1, 2. If thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, thou art ensnared with the words of thy mouth. And so it is said, Though hand join in hand, yet the wicked shall not go unpunished. And therefore the Lord Christ by becoming a Surety did give his hand; that is, he did enter into Covenant with the Lord, and so his name is put into our bond, Gal. 4.4, 5. he is said, to be made under the Law, and that as a Covenant; and when the Apostle saith, He is the Surety of a better Covenant, whereas the main of Christ's Suretyship refers unto the first Covenant, the Covenant of Works broken; and therefore in respect of our debt he is the Surety of the first Covenant; yet the Apostle does not so express it, but of the better Covenant, because the commutation of the Person, the bringing in of a Surety does properly belong unto the Covenant of Grace, and it is a part of the Covenant of Grace that there should be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or a Propitiation, one to stand in our stead, or to make satisfaction to the Justice of God for the breach of the Covenant of Works; and therefore the whole Suretyship of Christ doth refer unto the Covenant of Grace, of which his standing in our stead, and paying our debt is a principal part.

2. God is said in Scripture to be the God of Christ; and Christ calls him not only his Father, but his God also, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, and my God. Now one Person cannot be said to be the God of another; the Father is not the God of the Son, but the Father, for the Godhead is equal in them both, and the Son thinks it no robbery so to be: therefore as he is the Son, the Father cannot be called his God, but as he is Mediator; and so that grand Promise, I will be thy God, is made to Christ, as well as unto us. Now how comes it to pass that God is the God of Christ? it is by Donation and Stipulation; the Lord bestows himself upon him, and he doth accept of him to be his God in Covenant: and so, though as he is the second Person, God is his Father; yet as he is the Mediator, and he comes into Covenant with him, so he is his God, and it is a new Covenant-right to God that Christ has taken as Mediator:

3. We have a Seal set unto this Covenant made with Christ: Sacraments are sealing Ordinances, and the great end of Baptism is sealing, He received the sign of Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of Faith; a seal of the righteousness which was his by Faith, and he is accepted of God thereby; and what Abraham had by Circumcision, the Saints have by Baptism. Now the most illustrious sealing of all other was in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus when he was baptized went straightway out of the water, &c. never any Ordinance was graced with such a Presence, the whole Trinity appeared in the work; and what was all this for, but to make way for that great sealing which was grounded upon the Covenant between the Father and the Son? This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So that in this the Covenant between the Father and the Son, was visibly sealed God's acceptation of him and of all the Saints in him.

4. The Scripture doth hold forth this Covenant unto us in the terms of it; Christ doth publish his commission unto the world, how the Lord had called and fitted him from the womb, made his mouth as a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me, and made me a polished shaft, and said Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified. And what is the service that the Lord called him to? to bring Jacob to him. But then the Lord having undertaken the work, and seeing how few of the Jews should be converted, he seems to complain, I have labored in vain: but yet he comforts himself, it was for God he did work, and his reward was with him. Now the Lord does enlarge his grant, not only to raise the tribe of Jacob, but also to be for salvation to the ends of the earth: I will give thee for a Covenant to the people, to establish the earth, and to cause them to inherit the desolate habitation, Isa. 49. We have in this Chapter related the very arguments that were between him and his Father, who said of him, Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified.

2dly. Why must such a Covenant pass between the Father and the Son in such a solemn manner? The Lord will deal with Christ in this great work in a Covenant way; 1. Because he will have Christ to be propounded unto the World as the second Adam: For God did intend to bring all the elect under one head, that as the offense was by one, so the free gift by grace might also be so; Rom. 5. God did intend that all man-kind should come under a double head, and so be presented unto him in the last Judgment, the first and second Adam; and therefore the Lord speaks as if there were but two men in the World, the first Adam, and the second; and the first Adam must be the Type of him that was to come: therefore as the first Adam had a Covenant made with him, and an Image stamped upon him for himself and for all his posterity, so must the second Adam also have; and therefore he must be the second Adam by Covenant made with him as a public person, and as a representative head, for all his posterity, that seed and generation that should be born of him.

2. That he might thereby advance the free grace of the Father and of the Son. (1.) The free grace of the Father is much exalted by it in two things. [1] In the motion of it; it came first from him, his taking of us actually into Covenant, is a part of the purchase of Christ, and he hath bought the Souls of the Elect, it is the price of his blood, and it is because he died that he doth not abide alone: but the taking of Christ into Covenant, it did not come first from Christ, but the motion was the Fathers; the Son can do nothing of himself: I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. [2. ] In his accepting a Covenant, it was free with him to make it, and therefore the obedience of Christ was free with him to accept; if Christ had offered himself, and had laid down his life, it is true, it was, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all that God in Justice could expect, and it was a price sufficient, for all that ever Christ did purchase; yet there is grace in the bowels of all this, because it was free with the Lord to accept of the righteousness of another to become ours: This gracious acceptation and imputation, the Lord doth show forth abundantly, in the Covenant made with Christ himself; for being a Covenant, it must be free. (2.) It doth also exceedingly advance the Grace of the Son in this, That Christ being God equal with the Father, having a perfect dominion over his own actions, and being Lord of his own life, having a power to lay down his life, as he saith, No man takes it from me, but I lay it down; That he should freely and voluntarily bind himself in a Covenant in this manner, to abase himself, to stand in our stead, to bear our sins, and to be under a Curse for us, and to consent unto this cheerfully and willingly, as a thing in which he is pleased and delighted, to show forth therein the love of his Father, and to his people, and to undertake all of it, and to bind himself thereunto by his own voluntary consent, who otherwise was not, could not be bound: For there is this difference between the Covenant of the first and the second Adam, the first Adam was bound to obey by a bond of creation, and he was bound to be subject; but the second Adam was not so, he was perfectly free, and yet he is willing by Covenant to be bound: And the Lord herein dealt, as Aelian hath a Story of Zaleucus, a Ruler in the City Locris, who had made a Law against Adultery, that it should be punished with the loss of both eyes, and his son was afterwards accused and condemned of the same offense, and the whole City in honor to his Father became Suitors unto him to spare his Son; but the story says, he did first put out one of his own eyes, and afterwards one of his Sons, and thereby satisfied the Law: And so between a just legislator and a merciful father he divided himself. Had the Lord so dealt with us, and laid part of the punishment upon us, and part upon Christ, we had been undone; but Christ undertook all for us, to pour out his soul to death, and bear the sins of many, being that to which he was not bound, and that which he could not have been forced to; and yet to make himself by Covenant a debtor, it exalts free Grace, nothing more.

3. The Lord's intention was in the whole work of Redemption, to deal with Christ in a judicial way, as he is the judge of all the World, that he may have his justice satisfied, Rom. 3.25. He doth all to declare his righteousness. Now in a way of justice, there are but two ways to make a man guilty of sin, and obnoxious to punishment, either from sin inherent, or imputed; and this of imputation, is either from a natural Union as it is in us, and therefore we are guilty of Adam 's sin; or by voluntary Union, and by way of suretyship, when one person free in himself, doth willingly take upon him the guilt of another man's offense, and subject himself unto the punishment for it: And either of these may be a ground of proceeding against such a person in justice. Now Christ hath in him no sin by nature, either inherent or imputed, he knew no sin, neither was there guile found in his mouth; though he were a Son of Adam, yet being begotten by the Holy Ghost, and not coming into the World, and descending from Adam in a natural way, and being God and man in one person, he could not naturally and necessarily come under Adam 's Covenant, but was in this respect separate from sinners; but by way of Covenant, and voluntary undertaking, so he was made sin for us, and so he was made a Curse, and so he doth confess our sins as his own, and so bears them, it being the guilt that he had taken upon him, and thereupon God dealt with him as an enemy, and laid upon him all the wrath that was due to Sin: Now the ground of all this dealing of God, was only the Covenant.

4. It is the Apostles reason, Rom. 4. for the justifying of a sinner by Faith, that the promise may be sure to all the Seed, because it puts the whole power and the righteousness by which we are justified out of ourselves in another; so it is here, the Lord will have the Covenant made with Christ, and engage him therein, that the promise may be sure to all the Seed; the Lord knew that we would fail him, and there was nothing to be expected from us; and therefore says, I have laid help upon one that is mighty, and one that is every way able to satisfy; and I have put it upon him, and from him I will expect it, he hath undertaken it: and therefore God doth take all our sins from us, and put them upon him; as it is said, God was in Christ reconciling the world, putting their trespasses upon him, but not upon them; and it is observable, though we come into the same Covenant with Christ in point of obedience, yet in point of satisfaction he takes only Christ's single Bond, and he will never ask anything of us till Christ fail him.

3 dly. When did the Lord make this Covenant with Christ, and when was it to take place? 1. This Covenant passed between God and Christ, the Father and the Son, before the World began. How many are thy thoughts to usward? Dan. 8.13. It is Christ that knew the thoughts of God whose name is Palmoni, qui secreta numerata habet peccata, who hath all our secret sins numbered. And what be those thoughts? It is sacrifice and burnt offerings thou wouldest not, &c. thoughts of satisfaction to the justice of God, and the redemption of the elect by a sacrifice; and they are no new thoughts, but such as God took up from eternity, and such transactions as past between God and Christ before his coming into the World; And then said I, Lo I come to do thy will, O God: In the beginning of his way I was set up, as a King, and Priest, and Prophet from eternity; and this not only in decree and appointment, but also by covenant and compact, and by mutual agreement between them: For all that vast eternity that they spent by themselves, was spent wholly in matter of delight, and that was double, (1) The Father and the Son delighted one in another: I was his delight daily. (2) The Son delighted in the salvation of man, and the same word is used in the Hebrew, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . And it is spoken of man fallen; for it is in the habitable parts of the earth, that is, of all mankind scattered throughout the whole face of the earth, wheresoever men dwell: And there was neither Angels, nor any part of the works of God mentioned, but this only; and this delight was while it was only in the expectation of it, in beholding the purpose of God and those vast thoughts of Glory that the Lord had laid up there. Titus 1.2. there is a promise of eternal life, which could not be but unto our representative, one that did enter into Covenant. And 'tis said, 2 Tim. 1.9. There is grace given us in Christ before the world began. 2. But yet this Covenant was not actually to take place till man was fallen. (1) It is a Covenant of reconciliation, and it doth suppose God and man at variance; and it was because the Children were partakers of flesh and blood, therefore he himself took part of the same, He was made under the Law, to redeem us that were under the Law: Our deliverance must be by Redemption, and the Covenant of Reconciliation. (2.) It must be by a Priest, one to offer a sacrifice, and it must be after man had lost all other sacrifices, that he must come. The blood of Bulls could not take away sin, Heb. 10. and yet it did take place immediately after the fall, Christ was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; not only as to the decree, but as to the efficacy; and it is by virtue of that agreement between God and Christ, that the Lord under the Old Testament pardoned all the Saints barely upon the word of Christ, before he had paid any part of the debt; and therefore, Rom. 3.25. Christ did not only die with reference unto the sins of the World, that were to come, but those that were past, and the men were in possession of all, because the justice of God was satisfied, though only in the covenant and promise between them; God looking upon Christ to come, and they exercising their faith upon Christ that was to come. And now satisfaction is given, Christ relies upon the Covenant between him and his Father for the application; as the Father took Christ's word for satisfaction and oblation before his coming. It is one of the greatest grounds of faith that is in the Word of God, that Christ is engaged by Covenant, as well as unto us; and therefore he being the Son, will be faithful to his Father: And also that God is engaged unto Christ as well as unto us, and therefore will be faithful to him also, and will not break with the Son; therefore surely his enemies shall be destroyed that rise up against the Kingdom of Christ; for he is engaged to make his foes his footstool: There are three things that are crying amongst men, (1) The cry of Blood. (2) The wages of a Hireling. (3) The will of the dead unperformed. Now here is all the Blood of Christ shed, and he as a Servant did all by Covenant, and Christ dying did give Legacies, that by the means of death, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal Life; it is a Testament confirmed by the death of the Testator: Surely it shall be performed, for it is a Covenant made unto Christ; and if you did love him, your hearts would rejoice more in the performance of it as to Christ, than unto yourselves.

§. 3. I come now unto the fourth particular in the opening of the point; That is, the Terms of the Covenant, as they did pass between the Father and the Son, and are set forth in the Scripture. A Covenant is an agreement upon certain Conditions unto which two persons, or parties, by mutual consent do freely bind themselves: So that in a Covenant properly, and so in this, there are four things. (1) The parties that make the Covenant must be free. (2) The Articles or Terms must be propounded. (3) There must be a mutual, free and full consent. (4) By this consent they are bound each to other.

1. In a Covenant the parties must be free, and in their own power; and therefore in Vows to God, or Covenants with men, if one under the power of another do Vow or Covenant, it is in his power under whom he is, to disannul and make it void. And therefore Divines do here commonly observe two things, (1) The difference between a Law and a Covenant; a Law being the act of a Superior that hath power over another, doth bind, whether the party bound thereby doth consent or no; for it is an act of the Will of a superior upon one that is subject to his will: but it is not so in a Covenant, it doth require consent in both parties. (2) They distinguish between the Covenant that passed between the first Adam, and that which God made with the second Adam: The Covenant made with the first Adam was such, that though his consent was necessary to make it a Covenant, else it had been only a command, yet unto this Covenant by the right of creation he was bound to consent, and consenting it was but his duty; and there was a duty which lay upon him antecedente • to consent unto that Covenant, and the terms that God should propound: But it was not so in the Covenant that God made with the second Adam, he was free to accept of the terms of the Covenant or no, when God had propounded them, so that there was no duty that lay upon him anteceeding his consent. So that the Covenant between God and man is not properly such a Covenant as is between God and Christ, and between man and man, in which each party is free, and not bound to anything but by his own consent. Now (1) consider God is free, and a debtor unto none; God the Father who hath the first and the great hand in the Covenant, and in propounding the terms thereof, is debtor to none: For he that is the first cause and the last end, of whom all things are, and to whom they are, he can be debtor unto none; but so God the Father is, of whom are all things: And that is Aquinas 's rule . (2) Christ is free and in his own power. [1] If we consider him as the Son, the second person, with whom properly the Covenant was made; for God did agree with the Son that he should take the nature of man upon him, and in that nature suffer and satisfy; and his very taking of man's nature was an act of obedience and duty that was due from the Son by Covenant, and he did it in reference to the will and command of the Father, as he did all other things, either doing, or suffering in that nature. John 1.2. The word is God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, Phil. 2.7. and therefore is free even as God himself, and is not bound unto any duty but by his own consent. [2.] If we consider Christ as man, in that he was not free; for he was bound unto the Law and to all the duties of it as he was a creature: It's true he having taken the nature of man, was by his Covenant bound to offer that nature as a sacrifice for God's satisfaction, and for man's sanctification, in that nature he was to be made sin, and to bear our Curse. If we do consider Christ as mere man, then he was bound indeed unto the Law by right of creation as well as we, but if we consider him as God and Man, so we cannot say that he is bound; for actiones sunt suppositorum: And our Divines generally say, that there is a communication of properties between the two natures; so that he does offer himself by the eternal Spirit, Heb. 4.14. All his actions and passions in our nature, are not only human but Divine, being from him who was both God and Man, and that he was no otherways bound to obey God in that nature, than he was to assume the nature; no Law did require that his obedience should be the obedience of God, and that God should be satisfied by the blood of God, and that he should suffer that did never sin; this was from the Covenant of God the Father, and the superabundan • grace of God the Son: And therefore when Christ saith, that he received a commandment to obey, it refers only to his obligation by covenant, and not by any antecedent duty that he did owe his Father.

2. The terms of the Covenant or Articles of agreement that did pass between the Father and the Son, are contained in two things: (1) Something that the Father did require of the Son. (2) Something that the Father did promise the Son. 1. There is a service that the Father doth propound unto the Son, and that is double, (1) That he should take upon him the form of a Servant, The children being partakers of flesh and blood that he should take part of the same: He took not only the form of a Servant that he might be subject, but also of an evil Servant that he might be beaten; he was willing to take the body that the Father had prepared for him, that he might be bruised by him. (2) That in that nature he should perform whatever was necessary for the satisfaction of God, or the sanctification of man; and in all things he must be God's servant, do his will, and serve his ends, deny himself, humble and abase himself, that his Father may be exalted. Isa. 42.1. 1. He did whatever is required unto the perfect satisfaction of God. The Justice of God is twofold, (1) Remunerative justice, in reference unto the precept of the Law, as man was a creature. (2) Vindicative justice, in reference to the curse of the Law, as man was a sinner; and he that shall give a perfect satisfaction to Justice must perform both these. (1) In reference to the precept of the Law, and the Remunerative justice of God, so God did require of his Son that he should perfectly obey that Law that man had broken; and this obedience of Christ consists [1] In this, That it must proceed from a nature perfectly answering the Law, Heb. 7.26. he was holy and harmless, &c. [2] Holy actions; he did fulfill all righteousness, and it is becoming him so to do, He knew no sin, neither was there guile found in his mouth. [3] Herein he did continue, and persevere unto the end. He doth always the things that do please him, and these go unto God's satisfaction and to our justification; as by Adams actual disobedience many are made sinners, so by Christ's active obedience many are made righteous: And he saith, he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And the way of the Gospel doth not make void the Law but establish it, and there are two parts that Christ must act, to finish transgression, and make an end of sin, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness; and therefore the righteousness of the Law is said to be fulfilled in us, and it is the righteousness of the Law, and that which doth exactly answer the Law in all things: It is fulfilled in us, while it is imputed to us. (2) In reference to the curse of the Law and the vindicative justice of God, and herein are four things. [1] He must represent our persons, and therefore he is called a surety, that must stand instead of the debtor, as the sacrifice did die instead of the man: And he is said to bear our names in his heart, as the High Priest did upon his breast-plate, as one that represented all these before God; and therefore he is said to be made sin for us, and a curse for us, and to suffer the just for the unjust: for us, that is, in our stead: Therefore we need not say, how can one person make satisfaction for so many thousands? Truly there is a worth and an excellency in the person of Christ, equivalent to the persons of all the elect, and he did as their surety, represent them all before the Lord. [2] He must bear their sins, and all the guilt of them, 'tis all charged upon him; He was made sin for us that knew no sin. The greatest sinner, says Luther, Christ was, because he bore the sins of all the elect of God; God did make to meet on him the iniquity of us all. He did confess our sins as his own; Mine iniquities have taken hold of me: God did impute sin to him. [3] He must suffer our Curse: He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, when God made his Soul an offering for sin. [4] He must pay the utmost farthing, and that he did; of righteousness: Because I go to my father and you see me no more: It was an argument that the debt was paid; for the High Priest entered into the most holy place once a year; but I go to the Father where I should never have come, if I had not discharged the debt; and I have done it once for all, and therefore you see me no more. He is gone into Heaven, he was taken from Prison, he was put into the Grave as a Prison, and as a Malefactor; but to show that our debt was satisfied, the Lord sent an Angel as a public Minister of Justice, and did open the Grave, and gave him a release; he did lift up his head, having drunk of the brook in the way. And all this Christ did perform, not of his own will merely, and of his own accord; but he did it in obedience to a command, John 10.18. I lay down my life and take it again; for this commandment I received of my father: Thy law is in the midst of my bowels, it is the law of dying to be made a sacrifice: And he saith, Psal. 40.7, 8. In the volume of the book it is written of me, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , some do understand it of the Book of God's Decrees, and so this of Christ was first, the Lord priviledging him to be the Churches head; in the first page of this Book it was written of him that he should do his will: others understand it of the Book of the Scriptures, the Prophecies and Predictions of Christ in them; and the Lord, in them, did foretell what past between the Father and the Son at the Council Table of Heaven, before ever Christ came into the World; the Lord Christ said, Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldest not, it would not satisfy him; but thou hast told the World of me, that it was thy will that I should do it, and I am ready to obey, &c. Thus was Christ made under the Law as our surety, and laid down an answerable price unto whatever the Law and Justice of God could expect of us. 2. Christ did whatever is required unto man's sanctification. (1) He gathers them; Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold, them I must bring in; it is spoken as a duty that lay upon him, which God required of him, I must do it, it is the will of him that sent me, that of those that thou hast given, I should lose none, but raise them up again. (2) He must govern them, and erect a throne of grace in their hearts, and rule in them: Isa. 40.10, 11. His arm shall rule for him, and he shall feed his flock, as a shepherd gathers the lambs with his arm. (3) He sanctifies them, receives the spirit for them, and dispenseth it unto them, Isa. 42.1, 2. He is my servant, I put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. And therefore he went to Heaven as a public person, as the second Adam; and having himself received the Holy Ghost, he doth send forth the gifts and graces of it more abundantly; for Christ is in Heaven by virtue of Office, and it was necessary in that respect, that he should depart from us, because by Covenant he was to perform some acts of office in Glory, he was to go before and prepare a place for you. (4) To be their Advocate and plead their cause; and the word (as Cameron observes) is in opposition unto an accuser, Rev. 12.10. Satan is the great Accuser of the brethren, he doth accuse the brethren before God day and night: And we see, Zac. 3.1, 2. Satan stands at his right hand, as the manner of accusing was in ancient times (as we see in Jobs instance) but Christ makes answer for them; there is a difference between Christ as a surety, and as a public person, who in the Law is to present another, and act for him as in his stead, as an Attorney or an Ambassador. (5) Christ is their Intercessor, he offers their sacrifices, and attains all mercies for them: He offers them sacrifices mixed with his own odors; for his blood is a speaking blood, and it is always sprinkled before the mercy seat. (6) He must come again and fetch them, and present them unto his Father, as a glorious Church before Men and Angels, saying, Here I am, and the Children that thou hast given me: and this Chrysostom doth conceive to be the Kingdom, that is, the Church, which Christ shall give up unto his Father, 1 Cor. 15.24. 2. Now follows the promise, if Christ doth perform this in obedience to his Father, not seeking his own glory, but the glory of him that sent him, God doth assure him (1) of assistance in his work, he shall have all the power of God engaged to carry him through it, as Isa. 42.4, 6. I will hold thy hand, and thou shalt not be discouraged, Isa. 45.1. (2) Of acceptance, a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor, and therefore compared unto odors; the presentation of it should be sweet unto God, Rev. 8.4. (3) Of deliverance, that he should not lie under the guilt of sin, but be justified, Isa. 50.8. For the debt was paid, and the bond was cancelled, justified in the spirit, nor under the power of death, it was impossible he should be held by death, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, &c. (4) He should have a seed, Psal. 72.22. His name shall be continued amongst his posterity. Isa. 5.3. He shall see his seed, and who shall declare his generation? (5) He shall have rule and dominion; a Kingdom, John 5.22. not only in the Church, but over all things to the Church, a providential, as well as a spiritual Kingdom, Eph. 1. last, Isa. 42.4. He shall set judgment in the earth, Mic. 4.3. He shall judge among the Nations, and he shall govern as King of Saints, Rev. 11.17. (6) He shall have a worship and a glory, Isa. 5.5. Nations shall run to thee, because I have glorified thee: A name above every name, a worship from Men and Angels, Heb. 1.6. and a public honor, as the Author of all their salvation at that last and great day, when he shall the judge the World in righteousness, and shall come to be admired in his Saints, who shall be with him in Heaven forever: For they shall enter into their masters joy, and this is the reward the Lord promises Christ for his services with which he comforts himself, Isa. 45.4.

3. Unto these Articles both parties agree, and 4. they are bound by their own consent. (1) Christ doth accept of this office upon the Fathers terms, and doth freely submit unto the Fathers will; he takes the nature of man, and in that nature subjects himself, Isa. 50.5. He gave his face to the smiters, and he did the work that the Father sent him to do, and he failed not in a tittle thereof; and he doth it freely and cheerfully, 'tis as his meat and drink, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. And he is now in Heaven by virtue of office, as he is God the Fathers servant, as our 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. (2) Upon these promises he doth exercise faith, and his soul rests upon them, Isa. 5.7, 9. The Lord will help me, my God shall be my strength, he is near that justifies me, he will not leave my soul in hell; and upon the Cross he cries out, My God, &c. It is his God by Covenant; Christ is the highest pattern of believing, and as a public person trusts God for all the benefits of the Covenant for himself and us. (3) The promises of this Covenant he doth follow by a continued Prayer; for he doth obtain it by Prayer, as we do, Psal. 2.8. Ask of me, and I will give thee, &c. John 17.4. Now glorify me, now let the glory of the Godhead shine forth in the human nature, the time of my suffering being ended. (4) All the glory that Christ has now in Heaven and Earth, is nothing else but in performance of this Covenant, that the Father made with him, God hath exalted him, and he hath received the promise of the holy Ghost, Act. 2.33. Christ must first suffer, and afterwards enter into his glory, and he hath fulfilled it, and the Lord hath given him as a light to the Gentiles, and for salvation to the ends of the earth. (5) He is in constant expectation of the full accomplishment hereof, when the glory of Christ in his mystical body shall be full, and his joy full, and his sufferings full, and his enemies perfectly subdued, and his people perfectly glorified, and all this by virtue of the Covenant that past between God and him, grounded upon the love and faithfulness of God in Covenant, being a God that keeps covenant forever.

§. 4. Now the Uses and Corollaries that follows from this part of the Covenant, which was made with Christ in reference unto the trust that he hath undertaken, are many, and of very great use both for matter of instruction, and of practice.

Use 1. This gives us a great light into the election of Christ. The Scripture doth commonly assert, that he is the elect of God, chosen both to duty and glory, a work that he was to do, and a reward that he was to receive, and we are said to be chosen in him, Ephes. 1.4. which notes properly the order in which God elects his Saints. First Christ God and Man, as the head, as primus foederatus, the prime sederate, after whom, and in whom, in the order of nature all the body are elected, so that the grace of election begins first in Christ our head, and descends unto us in him, it notes the order in which we are elected, and not the cause of our election; not that we were first elected, and then Christ chosen by occasion of our fall; but he is the first born in the womb of God's election, The first born amongst many brethren. Now the election of man is an act of sovereignty, and merely comes under the will of God, He has mercy on whom he will have mercy: And as the Potter has power over the clay, &c. But Christ as God could not come under an act of his will, as election is, but by his own consent, Ephes. 1.5. It is according to the good pleasure of his will, he is appointed Heir of all things, as he was the Son, he was haeres natus, a born heir, that being an act of his nature; but as the head of the Church, so he was, hares constitutus, a constituted heir, and comes under an act of God's will. Christ was elected to be God's great servant in reference unto man, and that under a double consideration, (1) as a surety, (2) as an Advocate, or a common person: And in these two I conceive Christ as our representative is set forth, (1) as a surety, that did undertake to do a thing for another, and doth by his own consent bind himself thereunto, and when he hath done it for the party, then he is discharged of his bond, and the party also for whom he was bound unto the performance: And in this sense Christ was made sin for us, and laid down an answerable price for us; (2) as a common person, as one who personates another, and acts his part by the allowance and authority of Law; so that what he doth, is by the Law reckoned to be done by the person whom he represents, and a possession taken by him, stands good in Law, as if it had been taken by the other: And this the Lord hath made Christ unto us, that according unto all sorts of Laws among men, our redemption and salvation by him might be to declare his righteousness; that by all sorts of legal considerations amongst men it might hold good in a way of Justice: And unto these two great ends, as a double representative of all men as the second Adam, Christ was elected, and we in him, as in a common head. Now, though man as a creature subjected unto the sovereignty of God, comes under an act of his will, yet the Lord Christ being the Son, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, did not; and therefore as he did not suffer without his own consent, (for a sacrifice it could not be unless voluntary, the person having a power over himself and his own actions, and therefore the Lord did not by his authority impose it upon him whether he would or no) so his being chosen to it was by his consent, that as he did choose you together with the Father, and had an equal hand in your election, I know whom I have chosen, and as you were from eternity given unto Christ by his Father in your election, thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; so did Christ also consent unto his own election, and it was not merely by the appointment of the Father as an act of his will and sovereignty, as the election of man was; but the Father did appoint him, and Christ did consent unto that appointment and determination of the Father before the World began; and therefore as he became a surety by his own will, so he was by his own will appointed a surety and a common person for all the elect of God. And herein we see the great ground of the Covenant between God and Christ, before the World was: God did not choose Christ as a person that was to be chosen, as he did choose you, but The word was with God, God was the word, John 1.2. and there were transactions and consultations between God and Christ before the world was, and upon the Fathers motion, and the Sons consent, he was chosen unto this great service, and you in him; so that the Covenant between the Father and the Son, doth reach as high as to be the great ground of the election of Christ unto this great service and office that he hath undertaken: For God did not impose it upon him as an act of his dominion, but barely by his own consent; and as he did not call him unto the execution without his own consent, so his own consent did concur unto his election, for election is an act of the will of God, and of his sovereignty; and as he was the Son, he could not come under an act of his will but by his own consent.

[Use 2] 2. We may hence see how deep the plot of our Redemption and Salvation by Christ was laid; it was not a thing occasionally taken up, and barely to serve a turn, but it was a plotted thing. I confess the Scriptures do hold forth the Incarnation of Christ to be the ground of his redeeming men that were sinners; He came to seek and to save that which was lost; and when we were weak, God commended his love to us in this, that he died for the ungodly, &c. But the foundation of this was laid in a deep counsel between the Father and his Son, at the Council-Table in Heaven before the World was; and the Covenant of man's Redemption was made with our surety before the Covenant of your Creation was made with you: And so much those two words, Prov. 8.22, 23. the Lord possessed me, and the Lord anointed me, do necessarily import; and that word also, Mic. 5.2. His goings forth as from the days of eternity: Which, as Calvin expounds it, refer unto the Mediator as being head of the Church, and not unto his eternal generation, as is commonly expounded; and this is the ground of Christ's delight with the sons of men before the World was, as those whose names he had covenanted to bear, and whose persons he had engaged himself to represent before the Father: And this shows how the design of God from everlasting hath been to save sinners, and to glorify himself in a way of mercy, and grace, through a Mediator: And it is the consideration hereof, that is the greatest engagement in the World to sinners to come in and return to him, because God is in Christ reconciling the world, &c. For he did undertake to represent your persons as your surety and representative, before the world was. (1) This Covenant made with Christ could not indeed actually take place as unto us till man was fallen, because it was in the hand of a Mediator, and required satisfaction by way of a sacrifice; but yet though it be last in execution, it was first in intention; and the Covenant of Works made in your creation, is only called the first Covenant in reference unto the relation and discovery of it unto us; but it was the Covenant of Grace in Christ that was the first Covenant in itself, and first past between the Father and the Son from everlasting; and this shows how exceedingly the heart of God was engaged in it, before you were, before you had need of a Surety, for the Lord to appoint one, and enter into a Covenant with him to perform this work, for God to create the World first, and bring men into it, and for the Lord to take notice of man's necessity, of a help meet for him, before man did observe any such want of himself, this was an argument of great love and care of God towards man; but to provide not only a meet help, but a meet Mediator, and to take care to provide for your salvation and his own glory therein, before he did proceed to your creation, this shows how strangely his heart was set upon this great design of glorifying himself in the World in a way of Grace in your Salvation. (2) If he had only taken up this purpose in himself, it had set forth much love and good will; (for his Purposes and Decrees are immutable as himself is, and there can nothing arise, de novo, that should cause him to change his purpose;) but more, that he proceeded herein to a treaty with his Son about it to be his Servant in this great work, to bring Jacob again unto him; and made a solemn Covenant pass between these glorious persons about it, and that those thoughts should delight them before the World began, and that the Lord should bespeak his Son with all the terms of dearness that can be to undertake this service; Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee; and therefore being his Son, it was only an office fit for him; and as being his Son, there was all fitness in him, so there was all dearness to him; and by this Christ did, upon this motion of the Fathers, undertake this service, and there was a solemn Covenant passed between them, Jer. 30.21. And thus the Lord did as it were bind himself and his Son unto this great work of your Salvation before the World was, not only laying his love, but also his faithfulness to pawn, though not in a Covenant to you before you were, yet in a Covenant to his Son; and therefore there was a promise of eternal life given us in him before the World began. (3) When he doth Covenant with Christ to be a Priest, it is a Covenant that he confirms by an Oath, to show that he doth never intend to alter and change his resolution, Psal. 110.4. The Lord has sworn and will not repent, &c. This Priest was made by an Oath by him that said unto him, Thou art my Son; the Lord swore and will not repent, and this was from everlasting; for then it was that Christ was first appointed or set apart to become a Priest. Now all this shows, how much the heart of God was in it: For the Word of God is as true as his Oath, and as infallible, and therefore if he had but said it, it had been enough, for there is a greater stability in his Word than there is in Heaven and Earth; but yet it is observed by Divines, that between the Word of God and his Oath there is this difference, though the Lord speaks the word, yet there may be some secret and tacit condition, or some subsequent declaration of the mind of God. As for Nineveh God said, Within forty days Nineveh should be destroyed; yet there was an implied condition of repentance, which being performed, the Judgment was not executed. And so to Eli, I said that thy fathers house should walk before me forever, but now I say Be it far from me; and so the promise is reversed; and it may be that is the meaning of the expression in Numbers, You shall know my breach of Covenant: But if God swears, it shows the unchangeableness of his counsel, an absolute act that nothing can arise de novo, and nothing can be supposed that can cause God to change it; he will never have a relenting thought for the pardon of sins, and saving of sinners forever; and therefore he swore, and made him a Priest by an Oath; and this Oath some conceive to be the seal of God, by which he did in a solemn manner set apart his Son for this great office, and designed him to it from everlasting: John 6.27. Him hath God the father sealed: So that as he has sealed up his decrees concerning you, that they can never receive an alteration or change more, how changeable soever you be; as 2 Tim. 2.19. The foundation of God remains sure, having this seal, the Lord knows who are his; so he hath sealed up also his Covenant with Christ, and that by an Oath: Now if it were but a Kings Seal, who could reverse it? But this is the King of Kings. (4) We see that their hearts were much in it; for neither of these persons ever repented of it to this day. [1] If God the Father would have repented, a man would have expected that it should have been when he came to make his Son an offering for sin: Oh! what relenting thoughts, and rolling of bowels had Abraham when his Son must die, and he himself must have a hand therein, and become the executioner? So it pleased the Father to bruise him, and Matt. 26.29. there is a necessity or an impossibility spoken of, and it lay wholly in the will of God; for so he adds, not my will, but thy will be done: If God could have changed his Will, Christ might have lived, and the Cup passed away; but God had covenanted to make him a surety, he had made him a Priest by an Oath, and his will could not change, he could not repent of it; therefore this Cup he must drink. Thus Isa. 53.5. the same word is used, and it signifies, to beat a thing to pieces as in a Mortar; and God was pleased with it. Ephes. 5.2. The offering of Christ was to God a Sacrifice of a sweet savor; What made it so? Only the end; Finis dat mediis amabilitatem, the end gives sweetness to the means: Had it not been for that, the Lord must needs have abhorred it. [2] And Christ accepts of the Covenant and never repented; he did never call back his word, or change his engagement; he had the law of dying written in the middle of his bowels; as it was the pleasure of the Lord, so it was his; with desire have I desired it; and I have a baptism, and I am straitened till it be fulfilled.

Use. 3. Thence we see the ground of the pardoning of all the sins of the ancient Saints under the first Testament, Rom. 3.25. Heb. 9.15. The debt was not paid, and the Sacrifice was not offered, and yet their sins were pardoned, and their souls saved; it was by virtue of the Covenant and engagement of Christ unto God the Father; there was blood of Bulls and Goats, and that could only signify Christ, but could not satisfy God; but when Christ came and performed the Covenant, now he satisfied for the transgressions under the first Testament, and in this respect he was a Lamb slain from the beginning, (though offered in the latter days of the World) because the Covenant immediately from the fall of man took place, and God looked upon him by virtue of this Covenant as our surety, and required all of him.

Use 4. It is a mighty ground of Faith that all shall be performed; for if these glorious persons could break Covenant with you, yet they will not break one with another; therefore surely (1) on God's part all his promises unto Christ shall be made good, every knee shall bow taken him, all his enemies shall become his footstool, all the persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down, and the stone without hands shall fill the earth, and the Mountain of the Lord shall be exalted upon the top of all the Mountains, and the Kingdoms of the earth shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord. And Zach. 6.8. There is a spirit that in a way of providence will never leave stirring up the spirits of men, till this great work be effected: For the Lord hath said, Sit thou at my right hand, till I have made thy enemies thy footstool: And he shall have a name written upon his right hand and forehead, King of Kings and Lord of Lord's. (2) On Christ's part, if he might disregard us now he is in Heaven, yet his Covenant and engagement is unto the Father of Heaven, he hath promised and vowed obedience; and therefore, as he hath as our surety performed all that which he was bound to in his state of humiliation, so he will also do in his state of exaltation and glory, apply all the benefits of his death, and attain all for you that he hath purchased for you, and will come again to fetch you; for he arose as your surety, and he is exalted as your representative, and is gone to Heaven as your forerunner; and therefore he will surely gather in his Saints, complete their number, and perfect their Graces, and their light; The light of the moon shall be as that of the sun, and the weak shall be as David, for courage and boldness in the cause of God; and the stronger Christian that was before as David, shall have even the courage of an Angel of God before him.

5. When you see God making good his Covenant unto Christ in any of the parts of it, rejoice in it: If you loved me you would rejoice, because I go to the father; Love does divide griefs, and multiply joys: He is your Husband, your Head, your Friend, and Surety; in the good that is bestowed upon him you may have a share. Now when the Lord plucks down Enemies, defeats Counsels, shakes Mountains out of their places, works great changes in the earth, the foundations are cast down, all this is but to make a place for the throne of Christ, that he may be exalted in the earth, and that this Stone may fill the earth, Rev. 11.16, 17. There be great breaches made by God in the World; but the Saints do rejoice in them as Paul did, though he Preached the Gospel in much affliction; yet so Christ be Preached and exalted, whatever become of me, I do and will rejoice. So though I undergo never so much, yet all this while God is performing his Covenant unto Christ, for his sake we should be glad.

Use 6. Pray unto God that he would perform his Covenant to his Son, Phil. 2.5. The things of Christ are, and should be very precious to a gracious Soul; and a man should seek unto God for the accomplishment of all things concerning his Son; and there are no Prayers that come up unto the Lord with so much acceptation as those do: If you desire to know whether Christ prays for you in Heaven, and takes care for you, see what affections he works in you, to pray to God for the accomplishing of the promises made unto Christ: while he was upon the earth, his great care was for you, when his death drew near, yet he takes care to comfort you, John 14.1. And when he was near his sufferings, yet he lays up prayers for Peter beforehand; and now he is in Heaven, he is not so taken up with his own glory, but that his care is towards his people; he hath seven eyes and seven horns, perfection of wisdom and power for your good: Now as he lays out himself for you, so do you for him also, and press God with his engagement to his Son, and he can deny thee nothing, let thy prayers be for the Kingdom of Christ, and the accomplishment thereof, say Thy Kingdom come, Let the Lord reign, and let his name be exalted, and let his coming in glory be hastened, when he shall be made glorious before men and Angels; let us always say, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

SECT. II. The Covenant of Grace made with Christ, as the Churches Head.

§. 1. THat the Lord Jesus Christ is the person with whom primarily and principally the second Covenant is made, must be considered two ways, (1) In respect of the Office that he hath undertaken. (2) As he is the head of the Church, and makes up one body with them. And these two are to 〈◊〉 distinguished, and have in the Covenant distinct considerations; for there are some promises that belong unto Christ alone, as made unto his office, the promise of bringing Jacob to him, of assistance and acceptance in the work of justification by his righteousness, and the honor of having a name above every name, and the Angels of God to worship him, of a resurrection from the dead, without seeing corruption; which though promised unto David, yet never was fulfilled unto any of the Types, but in his own person, as the Apostle sets it forth, Acts 13.36, 37. For David saw corruption: And there are other promises that are made unto him as he is our Head, and to us in him, in which together with him, we have a share, and are made partakers. And there are some acts of office which belong unto him alone, which though we have benefit by, yet we have no share in; for redemption belongs unto him alone, and there is no other name given under Heaven, but one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus: and as there is but one Mediator for satisfaction, so but one for intercession also; for none hath to do with the Censer to offer Incense upon the Golden Altar, that hath not also to do at the Brazen Altar to offer sacrifice; and though in our justification, Justitia Mediatoris, the righteousness of the Mediator is imputed unto us, yet not Justitia Mediatoria, not the mediatory righteousness: The righteousness of the Mediatorship belongs to him alone, who is Jehovah our righteousness. Therefore this first branch of the Covenant, though it were made with Christ for us; (for whatever he was, and whatever he did was for us, for us he descended into the lower parts of the earth, and for us he ascended far above all Heavens) yet it was not a Covenant made with us formally; for the acts were to be performed by him without us, and the promises made unto him, though for our good, yet were not made unto us: But the Covenant that now we are to speak of, is the Covenant of Grace made with us, but with Christ primarily and principally and with us in him, as he is the head and we his members.

Doct. The Covenant of grace made with the Saints, is primarily and principally made with Christ, as he is the Churches head, and the second Adam. In the opening of this Doctrine, I will (1) give you some Demonstration for the proof of it. (2) Give you the Reasons or Grounds of it. (3) Answer some Objections that may arise against it. (4) Make Application of the point. 1. The arguments and demonstrations for the proof of it are many. 1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the second Adam; Adam is said to be the type of him that was to come: Now wherein did this type lie? The first Adam was a public person, a representative head; and there were two things that made him so. (1) He received a Covenant for his posterity; the Covenant was made with them, but with them in him; therefore in him all sinned. (2) There was an Image laid up in him, not only for himself, but for all his posterity; and they did all bear the Image of the earthy: so is Christ the second Adam, being a public and common person in both respects, as he had a Covenant made with him; and therefore as we are said to bear the Image of the heavenly, 1 Cor. 15.49. so he is said also to be given as a Covenant to the people, Isa. 42.6. Therefore as the first Covenant was made primarily and immediately with the first Adam, so was the second Covenant made primarily and immediately with the second Adam also.

2. How do all the Saints come into the second Covenant? How does a man become a Covenanter here? How does a man become a Covenanter in the first Covenant? It is by Union with the first Adam; we must be one with him, before we can sin in him; and therefore Angels are not guilty of Adams sin, nor men of the Angels sin; because they were not one with them, they came not under their Covenant. So all men do come under the Covenant of Grace, as they are one with Christ the head of the Covenant, Gal. 3.29. If you be Christ's, you are Abraham's seed, and heirs also of the promise: so that as there is not a new Covenant made with every man that is born into the world, but the old Covenant made with Adam in his Creation stands still in force, only (as soon as a man is born and becomes a man, he is one with the first Adam, and is so reckoned and counted by God, as under this representative head;) so there is not a new Covenant made with every believer, for they all come under Abraham's Covenant, and David's Covenant, even the same Covenant that was made with Christ, only they become one with him as members of his body, and so they are represented and counted by God as under this head, and so under this Covenant; therefore in Conversion there is a double change. (1) Moralis, moral, which is a change of a man's Covenant, because there is a change of a man's head; and then (2) Realis, real, or a change of a man's Image, because there is a change of a man's spirit, and a man receives another spirit different from the spirit of this world: but then there is this difference, Our Union with the first Adam is natural and necessary, we being originally contained, and seminally represented in him; but the other is voluntary and by consent, as between a man and his surety, who are one in conspectu fori, in legal account, by the mutual consent of both parties. Christ out of his free love consenting to represent us, and we by an Almighty Power (the Spirit of God giving an effectual power to the will), consent unto Christ to be one with him, and to be represented unto God by him: so then, as Christ has the preeminence in all other things, as he is first elected, and we in him; so he is primus foederatus, the first federate, and we in him, and no otherwise in the Covenant but as we are one with him: for if there be a Covenant made between two, and yet afterwards another by consent of parties be taken into the same Covenant; it must be granted, that he was not first in the Covenant, but came in by consent, and at second hand.

3. In whom the righteousness of the Covenant is, with him primarily the Covenant was made; but the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found in Christ alone; he is made unto us of God, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption, and therefore he is the surety of the Covenant: he is one that did strike hands with the Lord, and did engage himself for our debt. Now in a suretyship there are two things: (1) The principal one that is chiefly bound to pay the debt, and of whom in a legal way the creditor will expect it. 2. In case of failure of the party, the surety is engaged for it as truly as if it were his own: now in the first respect Christ is not so properly a surety, for God did never make a Covenant with Christ with any intention to exact or expect anything of us: but I have laid help upon one that is mighty, which is a word often used of Christ: he is called the mighty God, Isa. 9.6. and Psal. 45.3. Gird thy sword O most mighty; as if the Lord had said, I know that these will fail me, and are every way unable to pay, therefore I will lay it upon a substantial person, one that has ability to give me satisfaction, and of him will I expect the debt. But in the second respect it is, that Christ is said to be the surety, as one that has undertaken to pay in our stead what we were never able, neither could it be expected from us; Christ became a surety of the second Covenant and every part thereof, he did not only undertake to satisfy God in his Law and Justice, both in reference to the Precept and the Curse that all lay upon him as his debt, he being made sin for us, and a curse for us, and we by the imputation of it as being in him are excepted from it; for in his justification we were justified also; for he died as the surety of the Covenant, and so he rose, and therefore is said, 1 Tim. 3.16. to be justified in the spirit: as he is said to be quickened in the spirit, to offer himself by the eternal spirit of the godhead; and being raised thereby, he is said in his resurrection to be justified, because that did declare that the debt was paid; and therefore God sent an Angel as a public Officer and Minister of justice to roll away the Stone, and to let him out of Prison, and therefore, 1 Cor. 15. the Apostle doth reason from the resurrection of Christ, that if he be not risen, we are yet in our sins, but Christ being risen, and thereby justified, we also are justified and accepted, because that did declare that the debt was paid by our surety, and he receiving a discharge, in him we are discharged also: Moreover, as the surety of the Covenant, he hath not only undertaken to pay our debt, but also to work in us whatever God requires of us should be done by us in the Covenant of Grace; so Pareus says, he was a surety, spondens Deo populi nomine fidem & obedientiam: So that the righteousness of the Covenant being only to be found in him, and to be made ours by imputation, and a gracious acceptation, as we are one with him; thence it doth plainly appear, that the Covenant is made with him in the first place, and we come to have an interest in the everlasting righteousness of it at second hand, as we are one with him; and so we are made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. 5. last.

Quest. But is not the righteousness of the Covenant required of us also?

Answ. It is true, that perfect obedience in nature and life is required of us, as well as of Adam in the state of innocence, and so far as we come short of it, we sin; but yet in the Covenant of Grace it is not required as the righteousness of the Covenant, and as that righteousness by which I am to stand righteous before God, (as afflictions in the Covenant of Grace, are not laid upon the Saints for satisfaction to God, but for correction, &c. ) but it is required and that perfectly, 2 Cor. 7.10. That we should cleanse ourselves from all filthiness, and perfect holiness in the fear of God, to manifest the truth of our union with Christ. The branch cannot bear fruit of itself; without me, saith Christ, you can do nothing; and you do hereby manifest that you are one with me: As James 2.24. Abraham was justified by works; according to James, a man is justified not by Faith only, and yet Paul saith, that a man is justified by Faith alone, without the works of the Law, Rom. 4. A man's faith doth justify his person before God, and a man's works do justify his faith before men, and it is that we may show forth the virtues of him that hath called us, and that it may appear that our union with Christ is not a notion, and no more, but that it is real and powerful; and our Faith is lively, because it is a working Faith; and this righteousness now imputed unto us, as we are in him, he will never leave till he hath perfected in us, Ephes. 5.27. That he may present us unto himself without spot or wrinkle; this is a work that he hath undertaken unto his Father, but yet so as the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found in him alone, and made to be imputed only as we are one with him in God's account and acceptation; so that still the Covenant is made with him primarily, because in him only the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found, and comes unto us at second hand.

4. All the promises of the Covenant are made unto him primarily, and unto us only at second hand, and as we are one with him; they are made first unto him, and therefore they are called the sure mercies of David, and Ephes. 1.3. God has blessed us with all spiritual mercies in heavenly places in Christ: 2 Cor. 1.20. they are made in him, that is, unto us as we are in him, and so they are accomplished: If the promises of God were by deed of gift only from the free grace of God, they might be made unto us immediately, for God may give to whom he will; but they are all of them a jointure, or an endowment upon a Marriage, which can neither be either rationally or legally claimed without an interest in the person. All the Promises are as the lines and circumference, they all meet in union with Christ as the center; for they are all made unto Christ, and unto us only so far as we are members of Christ, Gal. 3. last. Being Christ's we are become heirs of the Promise, and no otherwise. God deals with a people in this, as a Father takes an inheritance of a Child in his infancy, or it may be unborn, and he keeps it in his own hands for him till he comes to years, and then puts him into possession thereof: So it is with the Saints, they are maintained a long time in the womb of God's election, before they are brought forth in a work of calling and regeneration; and being called, they are not capable of receiving of many of the promises, they are in their infancy, but yet these promises are conveyed from God to Christ as an inheritance, which he receives as a public person, a common Father in their behalf, which in God's time he will put them also in possession of.

5. All the graces of the Covenant be first bestowed upon him: The Spirit, as the Oil, is poured first upon the head, and afterwards it runs down upon the skirts of his garments, Psal. 133.2. So Psal. 45.7. He is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, and 1 John 2.20. We receive an unction from the holy one; Joh. 1.16. Of his fullness we receive grace for grace. 1 Joh. 5.11. God has given us eternal life, and that life is in his son: It is laid up in him as in a common treasury, even the whole Image of God, that he doth intend to bestow upon us in grace and glory, it is given unto us, and laid up in him for us, but yet it is in him, and not in us; he has received the spirit without measure, he is the Son of righteousness, and our healing is in his wings. There are, as you may see, three steps or degrees of conveyance in this life, (1) The living Father as the fountain. (2) Christ saith, I live by the Father. And it is given him to have life in himself, as the channel or way of conveyance. (3) You live by me: All the graces of the Covenant do actually belong unto him, and unto us, as we are one with him, and therefore it is commonly called the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, as that which is originally in him, as in the fountain or principle, and conveyed unto us only by union; as we are members of his body, so we have an influence from him as the head, and no otherwise.

6. All the privileges of the Covenant do primarily belong to him, and unto us only as we are in him; he is the Son, and from him we receive power to become the Sons of God; he is the heir, and we co-heirs with him, Rom. 8.17. He has put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, &c. This is spoken primarily and principally of the man Christ Jesus, he is called God's servant, and in him we are servants also; he is a King and a Priest, and we are made by him Kings and Priests unto God the Father, Rev. 1.6. he is the first beloved, and we in him; he first accepted, and we in him; he first justified, and we in him; he first overcomes, and we in him; we overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our Testimony; we sit together in heavenly places: He judges the world, and we in him; and when we come to Heaven, we shall but enter into our Masters joy. Thus everything that concerns the Covenant belongs first unto him, and then unto us; and therefore we may safely conclude, that the Covenant made with the Saints of Christ, it is with Christ primarily and principally, and with us at second hand.

7. Lastly, the great and principal respect that God hath in this Covenant is to him alone, and unto us only as we are in him, in all the transactions of the Covenant. (1) In all the service that we tender unto God, by virtue of this Covenant, God doth not primarily respect it as it comes from us, but as it comes from Christ, as fruit in him, Joh. 15.2. 1 Pet. 2.5. as the Lord doth not merely make that a ground; for Christ says, I do not say that I will pray the father for you, for the father himself loves you; he would thereby pitch their faith upon another ground, to assure them, that the prayers he makes in our behalf are answered, and that it is the love of the Father, as well as the mediation of the Son; but he loves them in him also, and therefore respects their prayers principally as they do proceed out of the Angels hand. (2) In all the mercies of the Covenant, the primary respect is unto him, and it is bestowed upon you only for his sake: For thine own sake, and for thy words sake: Which Glassius and some others do apply unto Christ, that Word of the Father; though it may be meant, as others do expound it, for his own promise sake, respecting his truth, Mic. 7. last. therefore Zach. 1.14. though they pray never so long, Seventy years, yet it is never accomplished till Christ prays, and then the Lord answers the Angel with good words, and comfortable words, he is by and by zealous for Jerusalem: And therefore Daniel says, Hear the prayer of thy servant, cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. Now if all things that concern the Covenant be in this manner made unto Christ primarily, and unto us only as we are in him; to him for his own sake, and unto us only for his; this doth plainly show, that the Covenant of Grace, though it be made with the Saints, yet it is primarily and principally made with Christ.

§. 2. Now we come to the Grounds, why this Covenant must be made with Christ first, and with us only as we are members of Christ, and in him. 1. Because the Covenant of Grace is a transcript of the eternal purpose of God in election, and doth fully set forth the way how the ends of God's electing love should be effected. Now the ends of God's electing love are (1) The praise of the glory of his Grace. (2) The glory of his Son. (3) The holiness and happiness of the Saints. These ends are suitably accomplished by this Covenant, Ephes. 1.3, 4, 5. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ, according as he has chosen us in him. Here three things are observable, (1) It is spoken of Christ as Mediator, as God-man; for in him we are blessed, in him we are chosen; but our blessings proceed from Christ as Mediator. (2) The order of the election, we are chosen in him, that is in him as the head; and therefore he is first elected, as he is first beloved: In whom I am well pleased; well pleased with his people, all the members of Christ, but first with Christ, and with them only as they are in him, and one with him. (3) According to this order, so are all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace dispensed; for he hath blessed us in him, as he hath chosen us in him; according to the order of election, such is the order also of benediction: Now the blessing of the Covenant of Grace being only in pursuance of the Election of God, the Order of God therein must be answerable to the Election, which is first of Christ, and afterwards of all the Saints of God in him. It's true, there is but one Election, as there is but one Covenant; but yet there is an Order in Election, as well as there is in the Covenant; first Christ is elected, and we in him; as the Lord entered into Covenant first with him, and with us in him as a head. Here consider [1] that the great and the highest end of the counsel of God in Election next unto his own glory, was the glory of his Son; for this is the Order of God, that the Father may be glorified in his Son, and the Son glorified in the Saints; and in the last day Christ shall be admired in them that believe, 2 Thes. 2.10. and that in the glory of Christ God the Father may be glorified, and that God may be all in all, when the Son also is subject to him. Therefore they that make Christ to be chosen only, in remedium peccati, and bring him in only by accident for the reparation and restitution of man fallen, I think, entertain an opinion dishonorable to Christ, and far below that great plot of God in Christ's Election. He is said to be the first-born of every creature; which I conceive not to be spoken simply of Christ as God, but as Mediator; it is said before, that he is the image of the invisible God: If it be spoken of him as God, then he is equally invisible with the Father; but as Mediator in whom all the glorious Attributes of God do shine forth, so he is the Image of God; and so I conceive it to refer to the Election of Christ, as being Jesus the first-born in the womb of Election; the like unto that is Prov. 8.23, &c. and in the first going forth in his Decrees towards the creature, therefore Christ was first elected; and the highest ends of God in the counsels of Election, next unto the glory of himself, was the glory of his Son. [2] This glory of the Son he doth intend to accomplish two ways. (1) He will in the fullest manner communicate himself to the Son, he will in the highest way delight in him; there could not be towards any creature the fullest communication and communion, because all communion is founded in union, and the higher the union, the more glorious the communication: Now between God and the creature there was a natural union, as between the cause and the effect; and there was a voluntary union by Covenant; and answerable to these was the communication of God to the creature either ordine naturae, or gratiae; but yet there being a higher union, this must make way for a higher communication; and therefore God intending to communicate himself to his Son in the highest way, he doth first in order privilege him to be personally united to a created nature, and in this nature he can take full delight, which he could not do in any mere creature whatsoever; for the more of God is in any creature, the more God can delight in it; and the less of God, the less delight: Now it is only in Christ, that the fullness of the Godhead doth bodily dwell, and he is his Image, therefore there can be a full delight in none but in him; he charges his Angels with folly, not with actual but possible folly, but yet the human nature of Christ is impeccable by reason of its union; for actiones sunt suppositi, and therefore in him he takes full delight. (2) God did intend to glorify his Son, by making him the fountain of all that goodness and glory that ever he did intend to bestow upon the creatures, that he should be a fountain of all good unto the creature upon whom he set his love, suitable unto their condition and necessity. [1] If the elect Angels retain their integrity and keep their first habitation, abide in the truth, Christ should be to them medium confirmationis. [2] If man be fallen, he shall become unto him medium reconciliations. And this I conceive to be the Order of the Election of God, he doth choose Christ as the person to whom he will in the fullest manner communicate himself, and in whom he will glorify himself in the highest way, and as that person that shall be the fountain of all good to the creature suitably unto their necessity and condition, whatever they be; if they stand, to confirm them, if they fall, to repair them: And so he was first chosen and elected, and they in him as in their head; and so the Lamb hath a Book of life, as well as the Father, and he saith, all these are mine, and mine are thine; there is not a soul in God's Book that is not in Christ's Book, they were chosen in him, and given unto him in their Election. Now the Covenant of Grace is but a Copy or counter-pain of this electing love of God; it must therefore proceed in the same way that election doth; election is first of Christ as the head, and of us in him.

2. The new Covenant was given in the hand of a Mediator, Gal. 3.19. therefore after the fall • there could be no Covenant made with man immediately, but with a second, or a middle person, a days man, that might lay hold upon both. This is evident, 1. from the necessity of a satisfaction, some have very curiously disputed, Utrum Deus per potentiam absolutam potest peccata remittere sine satisfaction? Whether God could pardon sin without satisfaction, merely out of sovereignty and prerogative? But Christ saith, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt: And it seems to me to silence all such disputes, when I consider, that every creature is subject to the will of the Creator, by the Law of his creation; for there are many acts of sovereignty, that belong to the Creator. (1) To appoint the creature an end, and to give it a Law, which may bring it unto this end. (2) That this Law every creature is bound to obey, and yield obedience to, from his own election and choice: For it must be reasonable service, Rom. 12.1. and a man must choose the way of truth. (3) That every aberration or deviation from this will of the Creator, hath an evil and an iniquity in it, being an undue act, that doth intrinsically carry with it great obligation to punishment. (4) That the same Law-giver that hath power to give the Law, hath also power to threaten, and inflict a Curse, and punishment for the transgression of that Law. (5) Mans sin being willful, (a chosen transgression) the punishment whereof he was before instructed in, he doth most justly bring himself under that Curse and punishment that God had threatened upon such a transgression: For God was his judge, having given him a Law; as before he was his Creator, in giving him a being: he was subject to his will, as his Creator; and was subject to his sentence, as his Judge. (6) This sin God could not suffer to go unpunished. [1] In testimony of his holiness, that he might show that he was of purer eyes than to suffer it, Hab. 1.13. and that no evil could dwell with him, Psal. 5.6. being that which he hates, and therefore can be contented with nothing but its destruction, [2] Because of the Covenant wherein the truth and faithfulness of God was engaged, The day thou eatest thou shalt die: He had established a Law against sin, which he could in no wise abolish, for Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather than one tittle of it. It was strange if that which did provoke the justice of God unto the execution of the Law, should procure the abrogation of the Law; therefore here is only place for a punishment to be inflicted, but none for a Covenant to be established, without a Mediator: For the old Covenant is broken, and till there be a way found to satisfy the Curse of the first Covenant, there can be no place for a second. Now this satisfaction must be in ourselves, or in some other that shall undertake it, by the appointment and acceptation of God in our behalf. In ourselves it is impossible, the redemption of a Soul is so great; for whatever man can do for time to come, is but a debt; and to pay a debt or service that we owe at present, will not satisfy for a debt that we contracted before; and the demerit of sin is infinite, being against an infinite God; infinite glory is debased, and infinite justice despised; and man is but finite in his being, and his services are all but finite, and between finite and infinite there can be no proportion; therefore there can be no satisfaction; for satisfaction is that which is equivalent, &c. Wherefore if the Lord will be satisfied, it cannot be in a man's self, therefore it must be in a Mediator: And whereas there is a double need of a Mediator, one of Intercession, and the other of satisfaction, there is such a one required; and so was Christ. Thus the second Covenant is a Covenant of friendship, Abraham my friend; and it is a Marriage Covenant, the bride the Lambs wife; and God could not take a creature into his bosom immediately, unless his Justice were satisfied; for by the rules of his government he must destroy them, he could not covenant with them, or propound any terms of reconciliation to them, the Curse of the first Covenant must be born, and thereby abolished. Thus God could not enter into Covenant with man immediately, but it must be by a Mediator, that should bear the Curse, and satisfy the Covenant. 2. This Curse being born, and satisfaction being made, God could not enter into Covenant with man immediately in the second Covenant, for he did intend it should be an everlasting Covenant, that by which all the elect should be saved; This is all my hope, and all my salvation, says David, &c. Now there is no creature that is intrinsically unchangeable, either in his being or working; the best of the creatures, the Angels, are subject to change, he is said to charge them with folly, not with actual, but with possible folly all of them; for they be of themselves, and in their own nature subject to change; and so was man before his fall: Therefore much more must he be so afterwards. If the Lord should have received a satisfaction for his sin in Christ, and afterwards left him in the hand of his own Counsels, man would have immediately brought himself into the same condition, and would have had great need of a new satisfaction, and so Christ might have suffered often, and have become, as the beasts were, a daily sacrifice; therefore Christ is called the surety of the better Covenant, not only a surety of the old Covenant in paying our debt, but of the better Covenant in undertaking our duty, that by the one he may deliver us from sin, and by the other he may confer upon us immortality and life. And thus God could not, looking upon man as fallen, enter into a Covenant of Grace and reconciliation with him immediately, without a surety, for satisfaction to pay the debt he owed; and therefore it must a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator, and so the Lord enters into Covenant with Christ the surety, and takes his word for both, which we were never able to perform; and so he doth sweeten the heart of man to draw near to God, and in him we have access with boldness, but not in ourselves immediately.

3dly. In him alone is the righteousness and the holiness of this Covenant laid up, and therefore with him only must this Covenant be made, and could be with none other: (1) As to the righteousness of the Covenant, we see with whomsoever the Lord made a Covenant, the righteousness of the Covenant was laid up in him, that he had an original power from God to perform the duties of that Covenant; as God made a Covenant with the Angels, and therefore their fall was a voluntary defection from the Law of their Covenant; They abode not in the truth, but left their first habitation: But we find that all the Angels fell • ot, but only those that had a hand in, and did consent to the transgression; and from • ence we do rightly conclude, that the Covenant was made with every particular Angel for • imself, and not with any common head, but that everyone stood by his own righteous • ess; but men being to come into the World successively in their several generations, and 〈◊〉 have their being from another, and not all at once, therefore the Lord doth make a Cove • ant with them by a common head, a public person, for them, and in him the righteous • ess and grace of the Covenant must be deposited; and therefore God condemns man by impu • ation of another's sin, and he justifies man by imputation of another's righteousness, and therefore though the woman were first in the transgression, yet mankind is not said to sin in her, • ut in Adam, who was the common head. Now unto man fallen there could not be a righteousness laid up in any other; for [1] the righteousness of the second Covenant must be a perfect righteousness, such as may make satisfaction, not only for the sins of a few, but of all the elect of God, not only under the New-Testament, but under the Old; not only those that had been committed before, but such as have been since, those that are past, and those also to come; and this he could never do, unless there were a dignity and worth in his person answerable to, and beyond all the persons whom he did represent: Therefore there must be a worth in Christ's person above all the Saints, and infinitely beyond theirs; and if he stands in our stead, he must make God amends, and that is only as being God and Man by the hypostatical Union; for the person being God-man he is most worthy. Now all his sufferings and obedience became the sufferings and obedience of him that was God-man; and thus he became a Son of righteousness, the righteousness of his human nature being the righteousness of God, not the essential righteousness of the Divine nature, which is infinite, and cannot be imputed to a creature; but the righteousness wrought in his human nature, unto which the Godhead gave an efficacy and excellency, and so he is a full and perfect fountain of righteousness; as the Sun is a fountain of light to the World, so is his righteousness to all the elect of God. [2] The righteousness of the Covenant must be an everlasting righteousness, or else the Covenant could never be an everlasting Covenant; for if the righteousness of the Covenant be broken, the Covenant itself is made void, as we see in the Covenant made with Adam, and the Angels; but such a righteousness could not be laid up in any mere creature, which is in its nature subject to change; therefore it's said in Job, God put no trust in the Angels; even the Angels that fell not, the election of God kept them from falling, and they are now confirmed by Christ, by whom as ministering Spirits they are employed in the second Covenant, and kept that they fall not, he being the head of all principalities and powers. [3] The righteousness of this Covenant must have a merit with it, or else it will never answer God's end nor our necessity; for if Christ had paid the old debt, and we had been restored into the primitive state, this had not answered the riches of God's Grace in the new Covenant, nor man's necessity: there is not only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a redemption, price to be paid, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a purchase to be made of an inheritance, the adoption of Sons to be attained, and a Glory to be bestowed: Now this could not be in any of the creatures, for they were all bound unto the Law, and when they had done all that was commanded, they were unprofitable servants, it was no more than was due; and for themselves only, they had no righteousness to spare to another; and if they had, it would not answer this legal debt, there is nothing of a sinner can give a legal merit; this only can be from him, the excellency of whose person doth exempt him from the Law, unless by voluntary submission he be made under the Law, and by his subjection is the Law glorified more than all the transgressions of the creature could abase it. (2) The grace of the Covenant could be laid up in no other, and God will not deal with man, being a sinner, immediately in anything, the grace as well as the righteousness must be in another, as a middle person between God and Man, by whom all must be bestowed. [1. ] It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. [2.] The Spirit could be received in its fullness from no other; the Spirit without measure was in him. [3] It could be derived by no other; the fullness that we do all receive must be dispensed by daily and continued supplies from him, Phil. 1.19. for in us it shall not be perfect in this life; and who can dispense it, but he that hath the Knowledge and Wisdom of a God, and an eye over all the earth, according to the condition and necessity of his people? and he can give them out of himself suitable and seasonable supplies; and though he be in Heaven, he can be touched with our infirmities.

4thly. The Covenant must be made with Christ, and with us in him, because this makes much unto the Honor of Christ the Prince of the Covenant: Christ is said to be Head of the Church, Col. 1.18. and he is not only a head of Influence but of Eminence, and that in all things; and therefore in Scripture all names of precedency and priority are given him; in a building he is the foundation, in a Tree he is the root, nay he is the root of David, and therefore David was by him, David did not bear the root, but the root him. There was a double honor that God bestowed upon the first Adam. (1) He was caput forense, a legal Head, as a Covenant was made with him, and (2) Naturale, a natural head, as an Image was laid up in him: Now we deny unto Christ one part of his glory, unless we acknowledge him to be first in the Covenant, a common head of representation, as well as in receiving an Image for us. Therefore, Rom. 11.16. it is the honor of Abraham, that the Covenant after a sort in reference unto his family began in him; but in this Abraham was but a Type, and it must be fulfilled in Christ, who was to be the Father of many Nations, and in him all Nations should be blessed, and is therefore called wonderful counselor, everlasting father, &c. They all come under his Covenant, as all the Saints did under Abraham's; and therefore even the Gentiles also are called Abraham's seed; and so all that come under Christ's Covenant are called his seed; he shall see his seed, and he shall at last day present them to God, with this expression, Here am I, and the children thou hast given me.

5thly. This doth exceedingly advance the grace of the Second Covenant: for God to enter into Covenant with man after his fall and breach of his first Covenant was a great mercy, and to be taken into the same Covenant with Abraham was a great mercy; but it is one of the highest mercies, that Christ is given as a Covenant, to stand under the same Covenant with the Son of God. (1) Under all blessings, whatever we receive, we receive not apart from Christ, but as one with him; we are justified by his righteousness, sanctified by his spirit, receive his Image here, and in Heaven we enter into our Masters joy; all not apart from him, but as one with him. (2) All the blessings of the Covenant we may claim in Christ's right, by virtue of the Covenant made with him for us; and therefore, to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God; even to them that believe in his name. And Dan. 9.17. For the Lord's sake; for the Covenant is the same between God and Christ, that is between God and us. (3) We perform all the duties of the Covenant as accepted in the person of Christ; the Lord receives them all from the hand of Christ, who is engaged by Covenant to perform them, Hos. 14.8. In him is all our fruit found. And therefore, Joh. 15.2. it is bearing fruit in him, and they are received as they come out of the Angels hand: All our obedience is looked upon by God as the obedience of Christ, and all our sufferings as the sufferings of Christ unto this day; all our hope is in our head.

6thly. From the great inconveniences that must needs follow upon the Doctrine, that the Covenant should be first made with us, and Christ only come in but at second hand to make up our defects. (1) Thereby Christ should in a great measure lose the glory of his headship; for if it be an honor to Christ to be a Head by receiving an Image, then it is an honor also first to receive a Covenant, as it was of the first Adam. It is as great a sin, and therefore must needs be as dangerous a Doctrine, to look unto ourselves only for a Covenant, as it is to look into ourselves only for an Image. (2) This will in a great measure take away the ground of our communion with Christ. 1 Jo. 1.3. our fellowship is with him, we have a communion with Christ in his righteousness, privileges and victories; and the ground of this communion is only the Covenant: We have communion with Adam in his sin and curse, because the hand-writing of our Fathers is ours; so the ground of our communion with Christ in his righteousness is, as he is a representative head, and as we come under his Covenant; and therefore his obedience is ours, his sufferings ours, we suffered with him, we died in him, rise with him, because we are under the same Covenant with him. (3) In this does the stability of the Covenant of Grace lie, it is an everlasting Covenant and unchangeable, because it is made with an unchangeable head: Adams Covenant, and so that of the Angels was subject to change, because the persons were changeable with whom the Covenant was made; if the Covenant were primarily made with us, then our unfaithfulness might break the Covenant, as Adams did; but our Image is not blotted out by our sins, as Adams was; because the fountain of it is not within us, but in another; and he hath said, because I live, you shall live; so our unfaithfulness makes not the Covenant void, because it is not made with us, but with him, and with us in him; and because he keeps the Covenant, it must needs remain sure to all the seed; so that as our sins blot not out our Image, so they break not the Covenant, because Christ is the root and the head in the one as well as in the other: and so it is every way more honorable for Christ, and comfortable for us, that the Covenant should be made with him, and he be the person upon whom the principal engagement should lie, and upon us in the second place; that so, though we be unfaithful, yet the Covenant may remain sure, rather than to bring in Christ in this Covenant but as our surety and servant barely to supply our defects.

[Object.] §. 3. The Covenant is chiefly seen in the promises of it, and is therefore called The covenant of promise, and preferred before the old Covenant, because stablished upon better promises; and therefore that which in this verse is called the promise made to Abraham and his seed, is verse 17. called the Covenant; so that the nature of the Covenant is chiefly seen in the promises thereof, the Covenant being nothing else but a confluence and collection of promises, as the Sea is of Waters, and all the promises meet in the Covenant, as the beams in the Sun, or lines in the Center. Now there are many promises in this Covenant, that cannot be made first unto Christ, and then to us; for there are some promises made unto Christ alone, and cannot belong unto us, but unto him only, virtute muneris, by virtue of his office; namely, that he should see no corruption, that he should by his knowledge and righteousness justify many, that he should see of the travail of his soul, and should die as a grain that he might not abide alone. So there are many promises that belong to his members only, and cannot be made to Christ; as the promise of giving Christ, yea, even the promise of Christ himself is but part of this Covenant, and the very bestowing of Christ is a fruit of the Covenant: How then can the Covenant be made first with Christ, when it is by this Covenant that Christ is given? And there are some promises that cannot be applied to Christ without dishonor to him, the promise of pardon of sin, giving repentance, taking away the heart of stone, healing backsliding, and pouring upon them clean water, that they shall be cleansed from their filthiness: now to say that those promises are made to Christ, which suppose corruption and imply imperfection, were very dishonorable to Christ, who hath no sin to be pardoned, no corruption to be purged, no backsliding to be healed, no grace to be perfected: But he hath a fullness in him, and that fontis, of a fountain for himself, and to overflow upon all his members: How can these promises be looked upon as made unto Christ the head of the Covenant?

[Answ.] 1. In the Covenant made with Christ, God the Father's giving him is to be considered two ways: (1) As it is an honor unto him. (2) As it is an act of special grace and mercy unto us. (1) As it is an honor done to him, and so the first promise of giving Christ is made to Christ, Isa. 42.6. the Lord doth promise to give him as a Covenant to the Nations: For the Lord's intention was from eternity, to glorify his Son, and to exalt him as the Prince of the second Covenant; for God's intention was to glorify himself in Christ two ways. [1] In a way of mere grace, by conferring upon his human nature, the highest honor and excellency that a created nature was capable of by the personal union with the Godhead; which Divines commonly call gratia unionis, the grace of Union, that thereby there might be the fullest communication of the Godhead upon him, and the highest complacency and delight in him. [2] In a way of reward. [1] As a reward of his own obedience unto the will of his Father, therefore God hath highly exalted him. [2] As a reward of his sufferings for his members; for by the acceptation of the righteousness of Christ for them, and imputing it unto them, Christ is rewarded, by whom they have access with boldness to the throne of Grace; which though it be justice unto Christ, yet it is mercy unto us: And thus will the Lord make Christ the fountain of all good unto his elect, and this is as you have heard, first promised unto him, that the Lord will prepare him a body, give him a human nature, take him into personal Union with himself, and in that nature give him unto man with a Covenant and an Image; and so the giving of Christ is by promise, first made unto him, and his coming in the flesh is but the fulfilling and the accomplishment of this promise.

(2) We may consider it as an act of special grace and mercy unto us, and so to us, Isa. 9.6. a son is born, and to us a child is given: So he is the promised seed unto the Saints, that promise which all the Saints of old lived in expectation of, that waited for the consolation of Israel; so the giving of Christ unto the World, is by promise made unto the Saints; and so the giving of Christ unto the Saints, hath its foundation laid in a promise made unto Christ, to give him as an head, with a Covenant and an Image; and having promised this unto Christ, now he adds a promise unto the Saints, that he would give him so unto them, as the work of vocation in bringing of souls home unto Christ. It is not so properly and formally a promise made to us, as it is to Christ, That God would let him see his seed, and prolong his days upon earth, and give him the heathen for his inheritance, &c. and all in pursuance of that ancient Covenant between the Father and the Son, when he did agree with him for all the elect, and choose them in him as their head; and all that is done in time is the fulfilling of what the Father did promise the Son, and they come unto us only at second hand, as we are looked upon as one with Christ; and so the Lord giving us unto Christ, and Christ unto us, and we being apprehended of him, he gives us faith to apprehend him again. So it is in this, but so, that the very giving of Christ is by promise made first unto Christ, and then unto us, as the other great promises are, I will be thy God; he is first Christ's God, and then our God, and he is his God as Mediator no way but by Covenant, and our God in him. And I will send my spirit; he hath the promise first made to him to receive it in its fullness, and dispense it, and it is conveyed unto us only as we are one with him our head. So the promise of Christ also is made unto him first as a point of special honor, and unto us as a special favor.

2. For the other sort of promises of pardoning of sin, giving grace and repentance, they are made first unto Christ, as the price of his blood, and part of his purchase, and of that reward that the Lord did intend to bestow upon him; for God gives no souls to Christ but those that he hath purchased; and bestows no grace upon them, but it is done unto Christ as a reward of his purchase, and service, and as a perfecting of his mystical body, till they come unto the fullness of the age of the stature of Christ; for the Church itself is a purchased possession, whether it be in grace or glory; and therefore Christ looks upon all graces, and all privileges, as part of his due from God the Father, and that they should be bestowed upon them for whom he laid down a price. And therefore we read that though Christ, while he was upon earth, was a man of sorrows, and had little comfort in this World; yet he did take delight in this, the fulfilling of the promises unto him in the conversion of Souls, and perfecting Saints. When the Woman of Samaria was converted, he said, 'Twas his meat and drink to do the will of his father, he rejoiced in spirit that souls were converted, and that the mysteries of the Gospel were revealed unto babes. And Joh. 11.15. when he called Lazarus from the Grave, they said, he is dead, and he said, I was glad for your sakes, to this end that you might believe; he rejoiceth that there was an opportunity to add unto their faith, and that it might grow and increase one degree more: It was the joy of his heart to see of the travel of his soul. And there are three things that Christ hath respect unto herein. [1] His sufferings past, and therefore he doth in his intercession always sprinkle his blood before the mercy seat, his blood is a speaking blood, he hath laid down the price, and therefore surely he expects the purchase. [2] It is the joy of his heart now he is in Heaven, to see the graces of his people grow and flourish, it is the meat that he is said to seed upon, as we see Cant. 5.2. I have mingled my wine with my milk, and eat my honey, &c. and thou art the fairest amongst women, thou hast ravished me with one of thine eyes; &c. It's a joy to the Angels when a soul is converted; and a joy to the Ministers, the Angels upon earth, when they grow in grace, and stand fast in the faith: And if the servants and children of the Bridegroom rejoice in it, how much doth the Bridegroom himself rejoice in it? [3] In reference to the glory that is to come, at the day of Judgment he comes to be admired in his saints, and afterwards he doth present the Church unto God the Father; which some conceive to be the giving up of his Kingdom, that God may be all in all; and he shall have an eternal glory that shall be reflexed upon him from the Saints, who shall sing forever hallelujah unto him, who is the head and King of Saints: Therefore all these promises are made first unto him, and do principally belong unto him, and he is most concerned in them, that if they be not fulfilled he shall be the greatest loser by them, lose his sufferings past, and his delight for the present, and his glory to come; so that in the performance of them, God hath a special respect to Christ, and they belong unto us, and are fulfilled unto us only as we are in Christ, and no otherways. 2. There is in these promises an active and a passive, a giving and a receiving; (1) They are made unto Christ as the giver, and unto us only as those that must receive all things from him, the Oil is poured first upon his head; and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand; of his fullness we receive grace for grace; he hath given him power over-all flesh, that he may give eternal life unto those that are given him: he gives repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins; he washeth them and sanctifies them, for he is the prince of life, Act. 3.15. the author and the finisher of our faith, the Captain of our salvation, that in all things he may have the preeminence. (2) The passive part of these belong unto the Saints, but it is as they are one with him, and as they have an interest in all this grace received by their head, that it may by him be dispensed unto them; for 1 Joh. 5.11. he hath laid up all their life in him, for all the promises are made unto his seed, though in a different order, and in different respects, some promises made formally to him, and some promises fulfilled in his members.

[Object. 2] This will bring Christ under both Covenants; for we heard before, that he came under the Covenant of works, he was made under the Law, and now this Doctrine doth bring him also under the Covenant of Grace.

[Answ.] Indeed no mere man can stand under both Covenants, no more than he can be born of two Mothers: The two Covenants are the two Mothers, and a man can no more be under both Covenants, than it's possible for him to grow upon a double root, to be a member of the first, and at the same time to be a member of the second Adam: But the Lord Jesus Christ came under both Covenants. (1) The Covenant of Grace was made with him from all eternity, and therefore there is a promise made, and eternal life given us before the World began; and it was in this Covenant, that Souls were given to Christ, all that he should save, and therefore he hath a Book of Life: Those that were given him in Covenant, he took their names, and upon this Covenant he did rejoice in the habitable parts of the earth, before there was either earth or inhabitant. And it was the Covenant of Grace that was first made, and was first intended, as being stablished between God and Christ before the World began; as a Parent may make a Covenant, or take a Lease in behalf of his Child before he is born, or in being: but this Covenant was not actually to take place, it being a Covenant of reconciliation, and in the hand of a Mediator, till the first Covenant was broken, and then comes in the manifestation of the second Covenant, life and immortality being brought to light by the Gospel. (2) But when this Covenant was to take place, Christ finds all mankind under the Covenant of their Creation, and that broken, and they brought under the curse of it; and now the Covenant of Grace cannot take place, unless he will come under the first Covenant, and thereby abolish it; the sin against the first Covenant could never be pardoned, unless he be made sin; and the curse of the first Covenant could never be satisfied, unless he be made a Curse; and the Covenant itself never abolished for any, unless he be made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law as a Covenant, that they may be translated, Gal. 4.5. Only there is this difference, Christ being under both Covenants, man was first under the Covenant of Works, and Christ came in in the second place, as our surety, standing in our stead, paying our debt, and therefore he puts his name to our bond by his own free and voluntary condescension. We were first sin, and he was made sin for us; we a curse first, and he made a curse for us; so we were first under the Covenant of Works, and he did freely subject himself to be made under the Law: he took our nature, that he might communicate his to us; so he takes our Covenant, and subjects himself to it, that he might impart unto us his Covenant, and bring that into the World. But as for the Covenant of Grace, it was made first with him, and we come under this Covenant only by Union with him; his voluntary union with us as our surety, brought him under our Covenant; and our voluntary union with him as our head, brings us under his Covenant: The curse came upon him by our Covenant which we were first in, and the blessing comes upon us by virtue of his Covenant in which he was first.

SECT. III. Christ's Headship in the Covenant applied.

[Use 1] §. 1. IT instructs us first to observe the rich and free Grace of God, that hath given his Son as a Covenant to the Nations, which mercy the Prophet Isaiah exalts; To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the giving of his person was the highest honor, and the greatest gift; but yet it will be more heightened in our thoughts, if we consider the ends for which he is given, and the glorious retinue of all grace that follows him: For he is given as a head with a Covenant, and an Image, and we admire God that hath laid up all grace in Christ to dispense unto us, that of his fullness we may receive grace for grace: This is to give him but half of his glory, as he is the Churches head, and the second Adam; for he doth bring a Covenant into the World as well as an Image, and in this respect happily amongst others, he is called the Angel of the Covenant.

1st. It is a free gift; there are three things in a gift, (1) It is not ex debito, of debt, God did not owe unto man a Covenant, it was all free grace, it was that made him enter into a Covenant at first, barely to sweeten man's obedience; and therefore that man might be willing to be bound to obey, God himself is content to be bound to reward him: But when man had broken the first Covenant, and was perfidious before God, now to enter into a second Covenant, this makes the Grace of God the greater, because otherwise he should have perished under the curse of the first. (2) It is not ex pretio, by price; there is no price, that did purchase the Covenant; though all the benefits and blessings of the Covenant are purchased by Christ, yet the Covenant itself is grounded only upon free grace; and it is this Covenant that is the ground of all the acts of Christ, and the acceptation of them all is grounded only upon free Grace in the Covenant and compact between him and his Father. (3) Not ex merito, of merit, from anything that we can do; for there is not the least blessing in the second Covenant but it is of Grace, and the reward is not reckoned of debt, but of grace; and if all the benefits of the Covenant be so, much more the Covenant itself, from whence comes all the grace we have to do anything pleasing in the sight of God.

2dly. The greatness of the gift is seen in the love of the giver. There was a love manifested in the first Covenant; but yet it was not such by which he did intend that any of the Sons of men should be saved: He has said, That by the works of the law shall no man be justified; and the inheritance is not by the law, &c. But the second Covenant did proceed from God's electing love, which is exactly suited thereunto; for Ephes. 1.3, 4. he doth observe the same order in the benediction, that he did in election: And the more difficulties love breaks through, the greater it is, Cant. 8.7. Now our Covenant-breaking might provoke God to withdraw his love; and yet the greatness of his love is seen in the duration of it: The first Covenant was broken, and thereby that love was turned into hatred, and God became our enemy, as common love will end in everlasting hatred; but this is from his everlasting love, and therefore it is an everlasting Covenant.

3dly. The greatness of it is seen in our necessity. We were (1) under a Covenant broken, and therefore under the curse of it. (2) It was a Covenant without a Mediator; for God could not enter into Covenant immediately with us being fallen, as we have heard at large; therefore there was in the first Covenant no commutation of the person; we must answer for it in our own persons; the soul that sins, must die. (3) A Covenant that promises no spark of repentance. (4) A Covenant that promises no mercy or acceptance upon repentance; and therefore man had been left in a remediless condition, even as the Devil at this day, being bound in the chains of darkness, 2 Pet. 2.4. which is nothing else but the curse of their Covenant. Now in this condition, it is the Gospel of Christ, the Grace of God that brings salvation, Tit. 2.11. Life and immortality is brought to light thereby.

4thly. Consider the excellency of this Covenant. The first Covenant indeed is that under which the Angels stand, by which they do enjoy happiness and glory; but this is the Covenant under which Christ stands, of which he is the Glory, the Prince, the Messenger; the Mediator of a better Covenant, which the Angels admire, and were it offered to them, would change their Covenant, and cast away their own righteousness, that they might come under the Covenant of Grace, by which Covenant the Saints enjoy all their happiness and glory in Heaven, and have the promises of the life that now is, and that which is to come.

5thly. That Christ is given as a Covenant, doth heighten the promises thereof, and make them of a far more glorious nature, than those under the first Covenant: For I will be thy God, and thou shalt have an interest in all that is in me for thy good; as truly as it is mine for my own glory: The promises are infinitely heightened, because he that is the Prince of the Covenant was worthy and capable, which no mere creature could be.

6thly. This makes the promises of it sure unto all the seed; for with Christ, God cannot break Covenant; and there is nothing in this Covenant but is purchased as well as promised; and the righteousness is everlasting, sin can never spend it: Heb. 7.22. Surety of a better testament: A surety not only of the old Covenant to pay the debt, but also of the new to perform the duty; so that God expects all from him, and accepts all as it doth proceed from his hand.

2. This instructs us also that we are to admire, honor, and exalt the Lord Jesus, given as a Covenant to the Nations; 1st. That he would consent thereunto; for whatever Christ is made for us, and whatsoever he is given to us, is by his own consent; and there is a concurrence of his will with God the Father's therein; for as he is the Son, he is God equal with the Father, and thought it no robbery so to be; and therefore he cannot come under an act of God's will, but by his own consent; whence in the very election of Christ, there is a concurrence of the will of Christ unto it; Christ's generation is an act of nature, but his election is an act of will; and as Christ is God, he cannot come under an act of God's will, without his own consent: He is said, to be foreknown, and foreordained before the world began; and to be appointed heir of all things: God having an absolute dominion over us, we being in his hand, as clay in the hand of a Potter, our election is merely an act of his sovereignty, God having absolute power to appoint us to what end he will, as well as to give us what being he will: but it is not so in the election of Christ, nor in any of the consequents of his election, he coming not under an act of God's will but by his own consent. Hence, that Christ should come under this Covenant, and be made a Covenant unto us, doth exceedingly exalt the Lord Jesus. We look upon it as a great condescension in God the Father, that when he had made his creature he would be bound to him, and not only be his God by creation, but also by stipulation; he pays debts that owes none, he forgives debts as not valuing them: But the condescension of Christ is exceeding great, to enter into Covenant by way of obedience and subjection; and this honors God more than the obedience of all the creatures in Heaven and Earth, that his Son should be in subjection to him; and this honors the Law more than anything else, that he that is the Lord of the Law, should be made under the Law; and that he that was equal with God in nature, should come under the counsel of his will; it is much more than for all the creatures to obey him, that did owe all that they were by the right of their creation: for all the Stars to veil their faces before the Son, it's nothing; but for one Sun to be willing to be Eclipsed, that the other may shine: for all the Subjects in Kingdom to serve a Prince is nothing, but for a Prince equal with himself in state and honor, to come and be a Servant and wait upon him on his knees, and be at his command, honors him more.

2dly. That hereby you should have the benefit of this eternal transaction between the Father and the Son before the World began, and of that mutual agreement that was between them; for the whole Covenant was in reference unto you: Christ came into the World under an engagement, and therefore he saith, Lo I come to do thy will; and the Lord calls him his Servant, I will bring forth my righteous servant the branch, and by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; and it was a service undertaken and consented unto, and that which he was appointed before the world began, 1 Pet. 1.20. And of this I conceive these places of Scripture are to be understood: John 17.6. Thine they were, and thou gavest them unto me: And Rev. 3.8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the lambs book, &c. It cannot be spoken of election, for though election being an act ad extra, is common unto all the persons, and therefore the Son and Spirit had a hand in the choice, as well as the Father; I know whom I have chosen; yet that is an act of Christ as God, but this is spoken of him as he is the Mediator: as he is the Lamb, so he hath a Book of life, which can be understood no otherwise, but in reference unto the Covenant that the Lord did work with him as Mediator, and in reference to the Souls that the Lord did then indent with him for to save, all those that he had chosen unto life, that were in the Covenant between Christ and him, and he did give unto Christ by Covenant, and Christ did therein transcribe their names out of the Lord's Book of election into the Lambs Book, which is a mere transcript of the Father's Book of life: And thus you have the benefit of this great transaction between the Father and the Son, by virtue of this Covenant; and thereby you become part of Christ's care, and have your names written in his heart, from all eternity, and thereby have, as it were, a being in Christ, before you had a being in yourselves; he bore you in his bosom, had your names in his Book before the World was.

3dly. That to introduce this Covenant of Grace, Mercy and Reconciliation (for it was not to take place till after the fall) he should put himself under another Covenant, and that upon the worst terms, a Covenant broken; and so he must not only come under the duty, but also under the curse of it, be made under the law, to redeem us that were under the law: To undertake the duty had been much, to fulfill all righteousness; but to bear the curse, to be made a curse for us, was more: But above all, to lie under the guilt as an offender, that was the greatest abasement; to be reputed a sinner by men, and to have sin imputed to him by God; to be made sin, and to confess your sins as his own, Psal. 40.2. to be circumcised and stand in the Temple for purification, as if he were born in sin, and for the iniquity of us all to meet upon him, is a greater condescension: Had Christ undertaken to have been, when that Covenant was broken, but a Mediator by way of intercession and entreaty, being beloved of God, and powerful with him, as the Woman of Tekoah was with David for Absalom, and the Saints are so Ministers one for another, pray one for another, that you may be healed; yea, and the Angels also, for they are Interceders with the Lord, in the behalf of his people, Dan. 4.17. had the Lord Christ but improved his power and interest with God, that when we had broken the first Covenant, he would have tried us with a second, to see if we would be more • aithful unto God in that, than we had been in the first, it had been a great mercy, and a wonderful act of love, so far to have appeared for us: but for the Lord Christ to become a surety, that is, a Mediator of satisfaction, to pay our debt, and not to do it by and by, but to come into bond to do it hereafter, and in the mean while to stand in our stead, and to be looked upon as engaged unto God for what we did owe, this still was a far greater condescension in Christ: For to bring in the Covenant of Grace that it might take place for us, he must come under another Covenant, and into that also upon the worst terms that could be.

4thly. When the Lord had brought in this second Covenant by coming under the first, fulfilling it, and thereby abolishing it, cancelling the hand-writing that was against us, and nailing it to his Cross. Now had he in the second Covenant, only undertaken the commanding part, which is that which is honorable in it, and laid upon us the others, that we had stood bound unto God to obey; and so have left us under a better Covenant, the former being taken out of the way, it had been less: but in this new Covenant he must undertake all, and be all in all in the Covenant; not only that he undertakes to dispense all from God unto us, and is the great steward therein, the sun of righteousness, (for God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, John 5.11.) but as all the glory that God will bestow he doth dispense by Christ, so all the duties that we owe to God Christ hath undertaken for, even both parts of the Covenant; his faithfulness is engaged to us, that we shall have acceptance with God, and all blessing • •• om him; and unto God he is engaged, that he shall have all duties; and therefore we be •• fruit in him, Joh. 15.5. and without me you can do nothing: I can do all things through Christ strengthening me, Phil. 4.13. He works in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure; and upon him is all our fruit found: And he hath engaged himself to work all your works in you and for you. Our duties are his, though we do them, for he enables us to do them; we move but as we are moved, we act but as we are acted; the duty is ours, but the efficacy is his, from him alone we have the supply of the spirit that enables us to bear fruit unto God; and he is engaged to present us unto his Father, without spot or wrinkle, because he doth give up his Kingdom unto the Father, that God may be all in all. Thus Christ is the surety of a better Covenant.

3. Hence believers should learn to know their place and station under the second Covenant, that they come in only as accessories into this Covenant, only at second hand, under the grace, and favor, and acceptance of another, and no otherwise. We commonly, through our ignorance of the Covenant of Grace, do think, that when the first Covenant was broken, Christ did come and pay the debt, and satisfy the Curse for us, and as a Mediator, did procure God to make a new Covenant with us, as if we were the persons with whom this Covenant was made, and to whom the grace, mercies, privileges and promises of the Covenant do belong; only Christ as Mediator, by satisfying of the debt of the first Covenant, and taking it away, did procure it for us: But we are herein utterly mistaken, for he hath so brought in, a second Covenant, that he himself is the primus foederatus, the first federate therein, and hath the same place as the second Adam, that the first Adam had in the first Covenant; it was made primarily with him, and it comes upon all his posterity in the Curse of it, only as they are in him; in him all have sinned, Rom. 5 2. So all the Saints are said to be the seed of Christ the second Adam, and the Covenant is made with him, and all the graces of the Covenant, and the promises of the Covenant are made unto him as unto the head, and unto us only as we are in him, and no otherwise; so that it is by our Union that we come under Christ's Covenant, and thereby have a right and title unto all the promises of the Covenant, and privileges thereof, In him are all the promises of God yea, and Amen, and your duties and obedience are no further accepted, than as they are done in him; we have access in the beloved, we are justified, and sanctified in him, accepted and glorified in him; even our glory in Heaven is not properly our own, we enter into our Masters joy. And it is of great concernment that we should know our place in this Covenant, (1) that we may give Christ the Glory, which is part of that name above every name that God hath given him, that he should be the Prince of the second Covenant, the second Adam, that he should be the foundation of foundations; The foundation of God remains sure, that is, the election of God, as he hath chosen us in Christ, who is the foundation upon whom all the building of the Church is laid; and therefore is the corner-stone in a double sense, [1] Lowest, as that which bears the stress and weight of the whole building, as it is, Isa. 28.16. 1 Pet. 2.6. And [2] as it is the top of the building, and so in the resurrection, he is glorified and manifested to be the head of the corner: It hath been the great thing that the Lord aims at in all things, That men might glorify and honor his Son, as they honor the Father: This is God's great purpose in the Covenant of Grace, that in everything Christ might be exalted; if there be any duties to be done, the Soul is to look upon Christ as engaged in it, and it belongs unto him only, as he is one with Christ; and therefore the strength and supply must come from him alone: and therefore behold the man whose name is the branch. If any service be to be accepted, it belongs unto Christ, and it is accepted of us no otherwise, but as it comes out of the Angels hand; and if it be never so mean, yet as it comes from Christ it shall be accepted, though but a Cup of cold water, if offered in the name of Christ, and by his hand unto the Father: And if any promise be to be fulfilled, the Soul looks upon Christ and his worthiness, and God's engagement to him for its performance; it is in him that all promises are accomplished; and this hath made Christ all in all, so sweet unto all the Saints; God would have us look on him as all in the new Covenant, and to give him the honor, and the preeminence, which we shall never do, unless we know our own place and station. (2) This is the only way to abase us, and to keep us low in our own eyes. Consider thy place and tenure in the second Covenant, thou holdest by another, and comest in under this Covenant only upon his account; thou art by sin cut off from God, the fountain of all blessings, and thou must receive nothing from him immediately, but in the hand of a Mediator. It is as a King gives some great thing to a stranger at the request of a Favorite, the man can only look upon himself as one that hath received his favor, • ut it is not for his own sake but for another's; my person is not accepted as in myself, but in him, nor my duties, but as in him; if God speak to us it is by him, and if we speak to God it is by him; so that we have nothing to do with God immediately, nor receive anything from him immediately, but it is through the Angels hand, the Angel of his presence, and it belongs to us only by Union; the debt i • paid in him, and our duty performed in him. Here is nothing but matter of self-denial and abasement for us, and we have a continual need, for there is a proneness in all men being brought unto God, to be too forward to c • me unto him in their own names, and not to exercise thoughts of Faith upon their Priest, by whom they have access to God, as they should do; and there is no way to keep the Soul humble more than this . (3) It is of great use for a man to know his place and station for his consolation. [1] In this, that it being the Covenant made with Christ, a man comes under Christ's Covenant, which is a better Covenant than that which Adam had given him, or of the Angels themselves, he now stands under the same Covenant that Christ himself is under as Mediator. [2] It is of great consolation in this, that whatever is required in the Covenant, he is the surety; so that the Lord hath laid help upon one that is mighty, and it is primarily required of him, and of us in him, as he hath undertaken for us; therefore though we want ability, yet there is strength in him, and he is engaged to dispense it; there is no worthiness in us, but there is enough in him, and he is engaged by Covenant to present it to his Father; for all the duties of the Covenant are required first of him, and all the promises of the Covenant are dispensed first unto him.

[Use 2] §. 2. The second Use is of Exhortation. If the Covenant of Grace be made with Christ, then if you would have an interest in Christ's Covenant, you must become one with him. Thou art bound unto God by a double bond, of creation and stipulation; and that Covenant under which thou art by nature, makes thee one with the first Adam; and that bond of the Covenant hath held the Devil in chains of darkness, which none can loose, but he that loosed the pains of death; he can loose the chains of darkness, the curse and bond of the Covenant, and that is by a translation into a better Covenant; which is only by Union. And to allure you and speak to your hearts, consider the glories of that Covenant that was made with Christ, into which I desire you to be translated. (1) In this Covenant the Lord shall be thy God, as he is Christ's God, and thy Father, as he is Christ's Father. (2) Thou shalt be freed from the dominion of the Law. The law has dominion over a man whilst he lives, but, saith Paul, I through the law, am dead to the law; all that is good in the Law thou shalt have, but all that is evil and hurtful thou shalt be freed from. (3) From the guilt and dominion of sin; from the guilt of sin, for here is a righteousness without works in this Covenant, God justifies the ungodly; and from the dominion of sin, Rom. 6.14. Sin shall not have dominion over thee. (4) By this Covenant the Spirit is given in all the gifts and graces of it, 2 Cor. 3.6. (5) By this Covenant the Angels are your servants, and all the creatures are yours. (6) By this Covenant the World stands, and the government of the World is changed, Isa. 49.8. He has committed all government to the son, John 5.22. a Kingdom he hath received from his Father; and there is yet a further addition to his dominion that he is to receive when all the persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down, Dan. 7.14. and when the residue of the Gentiles shall come in, Isa. 66.19. Pul, Lud, and they that have not heard of his name shall come unto him; for the coming in of the Jews shall be a new resurrection, even life from the dead.

If this be so, that the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ as the second Adam, then there are not two Covenants, one made with Christ, and another with the Saints, but as they make up one body with him, so it is one and the same Covenant under which they both stand; only in this Covenant Christ hath the preeminence, he being the head and we the members, and therefore it is made with him primarily, and with us as in him; so that without an interest in him, we have no title to it.

1. Consider that Christ is not alone in this Covenant, it was not a Covenant made with him for himself, but as a common person, a representative head, a second Adam, that thereby he might become an everlasting Father to all the elect of God; but the Covenant was made with him for your sake, and that you might come under it, as you were under the Covenant of the first Adam: And therefore the Lord is said, to give him as a Covenant to the Nations, Isa. 42.6. and chap. 49.8. The Covenant was not therefore made with him for himself, but for our sake. It's questioned amongst Interpreters, Why Christ is called the Covenant itself, and not the person with whom it is made? I find in Scripture, that when the Lord would express anything eminently, he doth it in abstracto, in the abstract, that being put for the concrete with a commutation also of the subject, the faithful fail, [it is fidelitates] from the sons of men: So Psal. 68.19. He shall lead captivity captive; that is, a multitude captives: And Ezek. 44.6. Thou shalt say unto the rebellion, that is, to the rebellious house, &c. Pride is put for the person that was eminently proud. So when the Lord would express the eminent and great hand that Christ hath in the Covenant of Grace, he doth say, he is the Covenant itself; as he is said to be our righteousness, our sanctification, our reconciliation, and our peace; because these are gloriously wrought by him, and he hath the chief and only hand in them; and so he is here said to be the Covenant, and that in two respects. (1) Because the Covenant is made with him in himself, and for his own sake but made with us as in him, and for his sake: as fire is hot in itself, and the Sun light in itself, and all things else by participation, as they receive from these; so Christ is the Covenant, because it is with him in himself originally, and with us but as we are one with him. (2) Because all parts of the Covenant lie upon him, whatever is to be done in it; if the Covenant be to be made, he is the Mediator of it; if it be to be confirmed, he is the witness of it, Isa. 55.4. if to be published, he is the Angel; and if to be performed, he is the surety: And he is not a surety as other sureties are, that enter into one and the same bond, so as the creditor may seize on whom he will, the debtor or the surety, and on the debtor first, for him we commonly call the principal; but in this Covenant God takes Christ's single bond for us all, that so he might be sure of satisfaction; and therefore he is said, to lay help upon one that is mighty, one able to pay, and so to discharge us; so God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses.

2. If you have not an interest in this Covenant, you are undone; for all the happiness that the ancient Saints had, was by an interest in that Covenant, and all the glory that they or we shall have, is by virtue of this Covenant. All the benefits of this Covenant are branched into these three sorts, (1) Promises, (and they belong to none but the heirs of promise). (2) Graces. (3) Privileges. Gal. 4. we read there of a company of men that are Abraham's seed, the children of the free-woman, that are begotten under the Covenant of Grace; and there is no promise, or grace, or privilege, whether in this life, or the life to co •• , that belongs unto any but those that are in the Covenant, and have accepted it, as it appears in the matter of the Sacraments, in that of the Lord's Supper, for a man's self, and that of Baptism for his child; if a man be not himself within the Covenant, the seal can do him no good, no more than if a man that had gotten the writings of an heiress, should conclude that he should inherit the Lands, because he hath the writing; whereas the ground thereof is interest in the person first, and being made one with her, then he doth seize upon the Land by a legal title, and never till then; so they are Abraham's seed, to whom the Sacraments do belong: And for that of Baptism, the Lord gives a title from the parent to the child, he doth not so in the other, Acts 2.39. And the thing signified in Baptism (the Soul being passive in a Child) hath as good ground by God's Covenant, as by the man's profession, yea better (the man's profession being fallible) than he can have any other way; and it is a man's own interest in the Covenant, that gives him title unto all those privileges: There are indeed membra praesumptiva of the Church of God, to whom these privileges do in appearance belong; but not in truth and in reality, unless they are within the Covenant.

3. This is not a Covenant that is conveyed by nature, but by consent. Consider here, (1) that there is a twofold Union, the one natural, and the other voluntary, and by way of suretyship: now we come under Adams Covenant by nature, our union with him being natural; for we are born under it; but the Covenant of the second Adam is not so; and therefore we come under Christ's Covenant freely and by consent, for our new birth is voluntary, and our consent is free; we are drawn and yet we come, for God's drawing makes men willing to come; and therefore faith is commonly expressed by consent; whoever will let him come, Rev. 22. There is therefore no way of getting into Christ's Covenant but by our consent, by laying hold of his Covenant, Esa. 56.4. and this is that I would exhort you to; the word in the original signifies to take fast hold of a thing, and that strongly and with all a man's might, as in Job 2.3. it is said of Job, that he did hold fast his integrity; Satan and his friends would have plucked it from him, and have made him to conclude against himself, that he was an Hypocrite, and his heart unsound before God, but he yet held it, and said, I will not part with my integrity till I die; and so Job 8.15. it's said of a Hypocrite, that made himself a house of gifts, and common graces, and outward performances, and upon this house he leans, puts all his confidence; and when God by the way comes and shows him the deceit of it, and that it is but a sandy foundation upon which it is built, the self-flattery of his own spirit, and that it is but a Castle in the Air, and will do him no good, in the evil day the storm will overflow his hiding place, yet the man holds it fast, he will live and die with them, and will not cast away his own righteousness: it is such a taking hold of the Covenant that is here meant, with all a man's heart and might. But you will say, What is it for a man to take hold of Christ's Covenant? We have formerly heard, that there are two ways of conveyance, either by way of gift, or by way of dowry. The promises and all the graces of the Covenant, yea the Covenant itself is not bestowed upon us, as a man would give a gift to another without any farther relation; but it is by way of a dowry, which you cannot have without the person: so it is here, Christ in the Covenant is a common person, a second Adam; and if we have an interest in him, and be represented by him, the Covenant belongs unto us; but there can be no benefit in his Covenant, without interest in his person. As we see the ground and intendment of union is, that there may be a communion, and a communication; and all communion is grounded upon union, and is the fruit of it; it's our union with the first Adam that brings us under his Covenant; wherefore as soon as a man becomes a man, his Covenant and the curse of it takes hold on him; and therefore Infants die: so it was the union of Christ with us that brought him under our Covenant; he was made of a woman, under the Law: had he not been one with us, he could never have stood in our stead living and dying; so it is our being one with him, that gives us an interest in his Covenant, and brings us under it.

(2.) The terms and condition of this union is, that you shall receive and accept him, and give up yourselves to him: I am my Beloveds, and my Beloved is mine: you must cut off your right Hand, and pluck out your right Eye, deny yourselves, that nothing shall be exalted in the heart but Christ; and nothing must be dear to a man in comparison of Christ; he must sell all to buy the Pearl, Matt. 13.45. and part with it with joy, not only part with a man's sins, but his righteousness, and privileges, and take them up by a new title; as Paul, he suffered the loss of all things, but found them all in Christ, and attained them by a far better and more glorious title. A man must do it as you do in Copy-holds, a man must bring in his old Copy into the Court, and there must be a surrender made, and then you shall take it up again, and have a new, and a better state in it, &c. A man must part with sin as a snare, and with self as a sacrifice, and lay them all down at Christ's feet, he must be his utmost end, that gives order and measure to all the means tending thereunto, &c.

(3.) The will of man is desperately shut against Christ, and against this way of closing with him, partly from a man's ungodliness, because it is the highest way in which God will be honored, and partly because a man hates the terms and conditions that Christ must be received upon; a man cannot give up all unto Christ, sin is sweet and self is dear, and the great God of the world, the Idol that a man has worshipped all his life time; now for a man to come and change his God, it is that which the will of man is hardly brought unto; and therefore Christ puts it upon the will, John 5.40. You will not come to me: whoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely; I would have gathered you, but you would not. The Lord does knock at this everlasting door, and men bar the door against him, and harden their hearts, and will rather cleave to the Law, and seek to patch up a broken Covenant, and will venture their eternal estates upon it; nay if they be convinced that there is no life to be had elsewhere, they will venture to sit down in a state and way of death, rather than they will come unto Christ that they may have life.

(4.) When the Lord brings a man into the bond of Christ's Covenant, and he becomes an heir of Promise, there is an almighty power put forth upon the will to persuade it, and to open the heart to accept of Christ, and to be subject unto him upon his own terms: Gen. 9.27. The Lord shall persuade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Sem: which all the rhetoric of the Angels in Heaven, and Ministers the Angels upon Earth could never do; none but the Spirit of Christ can open the heart, it is alone in his power that has the Keys of Hell and Death, praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati, giving power to the will to choose Christ, and so determining a man's will upon this glorious object, that a man seeing Christ to be the chiefest of ten thousands, he also desires him, and so by preventing grace he does work the will, and by assisting grace he works, the deed, that a man chooses the Lord for his portion, and as that which above all things he desires to enjoy, and place his happiness in, and unto him he cleaves with full purpose of heart forever, Act. 11. 23. And thus a man looking upon Christ as the person in whom there is a Covenant and an Image laid up, and seeing the glory of that Covenant, and the beauty of holiness that is in that Image, of both he desires to be made partaker; but there is the greater excellency, because the person goes with them; there is an excellency in the dowry, but there is more in the person; the soul thus accepting of Christ and catching at the terms of the Covenant, as a dying man does at anything, looks upon it as a golden Septer held forth to him by the law condemned, and as the brazen Serpent exalted upon the Pole to a sin-stung soul; and the heart does greedily and with all its might take hold of it, as a man would do a Cord let down as the only means to pluck him out of a dungeon, or to save him from drowning and perishing.

Now to give you some arguments to enforce this, that men should take hold of Christ's Covenant. 1. He is given by God the Father as a Covenant to the Nations, Isa. 49.8. And it will prove a high act of unthankfulness not to accept of him as a gift from God; their sin was much aggravated, John 1.11. He came to his own, and his own received him not; a man does not receive Christ that does not take him in this manner as offered by God the Father as a Covenant; our ends in taking of Christ should answer God's ends in giving of him; now God did give him as a Covenant and an Image, and we should receive him for both those ends, and the Lord has used all means to enforce you to it that you may lay hold of this Covenant: he did so with Adam at first, Adam still thought that his former Covenant continued, and would have given life, and therefore he still had a mind to the Tree of Life; but God to let him see there was no hope by that Covenant, sent an Angel there with a flaming Sword, and all that man might come to Christ, who is the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of God, and came in the place of the old Tree of Life; and he hath taught men, that by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified; and that that way to Heaven is stopped and that door bar'd forever; God sets the guilt of sin and terrors of the law upon any man that would be justified by his works.

2. It is Christ's Covenant, and therefore lay hold of it; for Christ is the standard of all excellency, and the more anything relates to him or holds forth of him, the more glorious it is: The second Temple was more glorious than the first, because of Christ's presence in it, and John Baptists Ministry the greatest of all that were born of women, and yet the least in the Kingdom of God was greater than he: and therefore to you that believe he is precious; and when he shall reign over Israel, and they be converted to him, he shall be the glory of his people Israel. How should we therefore lay hold of him, and take him as worthy of all acceptation!

3. Consider the glory of this Covenant. (1.) In it thou hast an interest in God, in all the persons in Trinity; for, I will be thy God is the grand promise thereof. Now to have the Lord for a man's God is to have an interest in infinite mercy, and power, and grace; the God of my mercy and the God of my strength, &c. and have the Lord thine in a way of communion and fruition, that the Lord will impart himself so as to become my portion, the Covenant of Grace being a Covenant of Friendship: and this is much more if we consider, it is not in our own but in Christ's right, and therefore I having naturally no distinct title unto God, yet being under his Covenant he is become my God, as he is Christ's God; I ascend unto my Father and your Father, my God and your God. (2.) This Covenant brings in a righteousness beyond that of the Angels; [1.] It is the righteousness of God, and not merely of a creature. [2.] It is a righteousness that sin can never spend, an everlasting righteousness; it is a Garment that will cover all the sins of the Elect of God; a Sun of righteousness, that though it enlighten all the Stars and the Earth, yet every day it goes forth as a Bridgroom out of his Chamber, as full of glory as ever it was. [3.] It is a Covenant by which Heaven is opened, which was before shut against all the sons of men: we have access with boldness into the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and a living way which he has consecrated through the veil, &c. when Heaven was shut by sin, there was no way to open it, but the Lord himself to descend from Heaven, and to take upon himself a created nature; so that the way to Heaven is by Christ's Incarnation and Satisfaction in the Flesh, and it is the way that Christ has made new, because the old way was shut and man cast out of Paradise, (a Type of Heaven) and it is a new way, because it shall never wax old as the former Covenant did; and a livingway, because it gives life unto the Passenger that walks to Heaven in it; and in the way of the Law there is no Life to be found; but this is a living way, a man finds life in it, though the Law indeed was a way to Heaven, but a man must bring life with him that will walk in it. And by this opening of Heaven we have a double benefit: [1] All good comes out of Heaven to us: [2] We ascend up to Heaven to receive the mansions that are prepared for us; and so Heaven is our home, our House not made with hands, and all by this Covenant. (4) It is by this Covenant that a man hath the service of all the Angels, and the inheritance of all the creatures; it's Christ whom the Angels serve, and they ascend and descend upon the son of man; there was no such thing under the first Covenant, they were our fellow servants, but our servants they were not, till the grace of the second Covenant was made manifest: it is first Christ that they serve; the Lord bringing his only begotten Son into the world, he saith, and let all the Angels of God worship him; and of all the creatures 'tis said, all things are yours; for they are Christ's Inheritance, and ours only as we are in him; there is dominium Politicum and Evangelicum, a Politick and Evangelic dominion: they have the use and the good of all the creatures. (5) It's by this Covenant that your Government of the World is changed and committed into another hand; the Lord hath committed all judgment to the Son; Christ is now King of Nations, as well as of Saints; and he has as Mediator a providential Kingdom, as well as a Spiritual, he is the Head over all things to the Church, a head of Guidance, as well as of eminence; the Keys of Hell and Death are committed to him, the Government is upon his Shoulder, as the great Officer that the Lord employs; and it is our happiness, that he that is our Head and Husband, hath the rule of all things in his hand: should the Lord have continued to have governed the world, he must without a Mediator, have destroyed it according to the first Covenant, and the rules of his Government; therefore the Lord saith, I cannot go before you, but I will send mine Angel, take heed of him and obey his voice; and it's the happiness of the world that the Lord Christ reigns; Let the earth rejoice, &c. (6) It is by this Covenant that the world stands: he upholds all things by the word of his power; had not he put under his hand, the Earth had melted and come to nothing; he establishes the earth; for the curse of the first Covenant coming upon the creatures, must have received them all. Yet that's not all, but that the earth should stand firm, and that by his word he shall raise the earth, and elevate the creatures, this is much more; for there is an earnest expectation of all the creatures for a deliverance, as well as of the Saints; and hence we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth. What change soever shall be made in the creatures at the last day, whether in substance or in quality, it shall be perfective not destructive; for it is a promise that the Saints expect, and pray for, and all the creatures do groan and wait for, when the glory of the Sons of God shall be made manifest.

[Use 3] §. 3. It's for consolation: it is this in which the soul lives, and the privation thereof is the death of the soul in Hell, where it is utter darkness. Now as in the first Covenant there is a life of Comfort in the duties of it, he that doth them shall live in them; so there is the second Covenant also, and therefore the just is said to live by faith; as the other by doing shall live in it, so he shall by believing; in believing, he shall live not only a life of holiness, but a life of comfort: and therefore as the second Covenant is the better Covenant, because it is established or founded upon better promises; so the comforts that do flow from those promises are higher, and more glorious consolations: and therefore all the ordinances and promises of it are called the breasts of consolation, out of which a man may suck and be satisfied; the comforts of the second Covenant are strong consolations, that which is powerful and able to bear up the spirit in the greatest assaults of temptation, either from sin or Satan: and it is everlasting consolation and good hope through grace; and such were not the comforts and consolations of the first Covenant. But the more immediate any mercy and comfort is, and the nearer it is to the fountain of Consolation, the sweeter it is; now Christ is the fountain of Consolation, and is therefore called in the abstract the Consolation of Israel: and the more immediate the Lord appears in ordinances, the more sweet and powerful they are, as it shall be in the Ordinances of the later days, Rev. 21.22. I saw no Temple there: all dark discoveries of God that were in former ages shall be done away: and yet it is not spoken of Heaven; for verse. 3. it is, the Tabernacle of the Lord is with men, and a Tabernacle is to be removed, and no abiding habitation; verse. 23. The glory of the Lord and the Lamb shall be the Light thereof, and therefore no need of the Sun or the Moon, that is, of any creature influences or comforts, but it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Lucerne, such a light as doth not make it a perfect day, it is a light that doth argue its night still, in comparison of what it shall be when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise in glory; and yet this more immediate presence made them both more sweet and more powerful, and that makes glory so infinitely sweet, because the comfort that we shall have there, shall come in immediately from the Lord: here though Ordinances, and Providences, and Comforts be sweet, yet they are conveyed by the creature, and therefore they lose much of their sweetness and glory; but then he will make us to drink of the Rivers of his pleasures. Now for a man's comfort to come in from Christ immediately, by partaking with him in the same Covenant, and the promises thereof, to have it in the same Fountain with the Lord of Life, the consolation of Israel, it doth very much sweeten them unto the soul; and therefore it's a Christians wisdom to drink his comforts as near the Fountain as he can, and the greater cordials they will prove, and the more reviving: and therefore be you much in these things, and your souls shall live; they are the most quickening and reviving considerations that are in the whole Book of God. To be much in creature comforts, whether in delighting in them or depending upon them, is a snare. It's said of Asa, That in his sickness he sought not to the Lord; and the reason is given, because his heart was wholly in the Physicians, and his hope and expectation from them. But to be in these consolations is your duty; because as Hezekiah observes, by, or upon, these things men live, by such experiments as these are, by such promises, and in all these is the life of my spirit. And this was David's consolation at the last when he came to die, 2 Sam. 23.5. Though my House is not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting Covenant, in all things ordered and sure; there is a threefold property of the Covenant that he takes comfort in, it was everlasting, it was sure, it was ordered in all things; the word in the Hebrew is the same with that in the Proverbs, chap. 16. 1. The ordering and disposing of the heart is from the Lord: and the word is used in a double sense in the Scripture, sometimes for the furnishing of a Table, and for the ordering and marshalling of an Army, 1 Sam. 4. they put the Battle in array, everyone keeps his rank; and so it is in this Covenant, everything keeps its place, Christ is first in it, and then faith in its place, and the Saints in their places, and there is much comfort to be taken from this order of the Covenant; and this will appear to us in several particulars, for God is not the God of confusion but order; and this being the greatest and the most glorious work of God, there is the fullest and the most perfect order to be imagined, and therein the wisdom and goodness of God doth exceedingly appear.

1. It's a great honor that the Lord has put upon his people, that they should be conformed unto the image of his Son, so that they should stand before him in the Covenant of his Son, and have in their place and degree the same right and claim to mercy that Christ has. The Scripture makes Christ the Sun in the Firmament of all excellency; and the more anything partakes of him, the more glorious it is; as the second Temple was, and Johns ministry, the Law and the Prophets were till John, but afterwards the Gospel comes, which was a clearer discovery of Christ; and they were all eclipsed; though the Law had much more outward pomp and glory, yet because it did discover Christ but darkly in comparison of the Gospel, therefore that is said to exceed in glory; and so in Scripture the Saints do ascribe glory one to another as they are in Christ, and according to their priority in Christ, as the Apostle says, Rom. 16.7. Who were in Christ before me, and Paul saith in another place, I was like one that was born out of due time, because last of all he appeared unto me, 1 Cor. 15. and therefore Austin saith, It abated his earnest desire of some principal part of his own good works, because nomen Christi non erat ibi, the name of Christ was not there: had the Lord put man fallen under the Covenant of the Angels, that fell not, it had been an honor, and put them into the same condition with them; but it is far beyond it to put them under the same Covenant that was made with him whom the Angels worship; and the highest honor that we have by Christ is our union with him; and our legal union standing before God in the same Covenant with him is the highest part of that honor: for our natural union bearing with him the same Image doth flow from it. It's a great honor to stand before God in the righteousness of Christ, but the ground thereof is because we stand before God under the Covenant of Christ; the inheritance of Christ is in the Saints, Ephes. 1. they are therefore said to be the glory of Christ, as Christ is the glory of the Father; his glory shall be at the last to have a large and numerous posterity, to have a beautiful and a glorious spouse, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; and what is it that makes us have relation to Christ as a Spouse? It is taking hold of his Covenant; and therefore the Covenant of Grace is said to be a marriage Covenant; And what is it makes the match between any but consent? And therefore it's generally concluded by our Divines, amongst the essentials of marriage, for parties to give mutual consent, according unto that received rule of the Civil Law, where there is not the consent of both parties, it ought not to be held legal Matrimony. There may be a wooing, and a ravishment, but truly, and properly, there can be no Marriage without consent. It is therefore a consent jointly in one and the same Covenant: And what makes us become the Sons of Christ? It's the same that makes us the Sons of Abraham, and that is, Gal. 3.29. They that are Christ's are Abraham's seed; it is our coming under the Covenant of Christ that makes us of his posterity.

2. It's a wonderful comfort to a Christian, to stand before God in the righteousness of Christ, to be made the righteousness of God in him; it was that which Paul desired, and that which the Saints glory in, Rev. 12.1. The Churches glory lies in imputed righteousness; and there are two things required to justify a sinner: (1) There must be a perfect righteousness found out, that must as a garment cover all the sinfulness of the Soul. (2) There must be an Application of this Righteousness unto him that wants it, that it may truly become his; and this is to be had no-where but in Christ, and therefore He is called the sun of righteousness. (1) For perfection; There is but one sun, but there is in the Sun all fullness of light, it is the fountain of it: And so it is with Christ, he is but one; but there is all righteousness in him, whatever is required to justify a sinner before God. (2) There is a communication or application of his righteousness unto us, by the imputation • f the Father; for the Sun hath not its light for itself, but that it may be communicated; • nd therefore he is called Jehovah our righteousness: The fullness of it is seen in this, That 〈◊〉 is the righteousness of Jehovah, not the essential righteousness of Christ as God, but • hat which was wrought in his human nature, unto which the Godhead gave an efficacy • nd excellency: and yet it is ours also; and therefore he is said, to bring it in. There was • o righteousness in the World, but Christ brought it in, or did cause it to come, as the