beginning being Immutable Job 23 13. he is of one mind and who can turn him Now although the Decree of God be with respect to him Decreeing but one simple and undivided act yet in reference to the things Decreed it is various or hath many parts in it for which reason the scripture speaks of many thoughts and many purposes of his Among these Decrees Those of Predestination deserve to be peculiarly remarked by us because they contein in them the Idea of that special government by which God leads all reasonable creatures to an everlasting state of happiness or misery And among these that of Election carries in it matter of singular and eminent comfort to all true believers who by the knowledge of their Faith come to be acquainted with their Interest in and Title to it In which Decree of Election there was not only the designation of the end unto which the Creature was appointed but also the laying out of the whole way in which they were to be brought unto the Attainment of that end The end to which men are appointed by Election is Eternal Life That which is the end of our Faith is the Design of Gods Election and that is our Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 9. Among the means that which shines forth most illustriously is mans deliverance from Sin and Wrath by the Obedience of Christ who is the Eternal Son of God and in fulness of Time was made man in order to his Redeeming of us This way of mans Redemption had a room in Gods Eternal Purpose Our Election therefore was in him and that before the Creation Eph. 1. 4. Not that Christ as Mediator was the Meritorious procuring Cause of our Election but because in and by him we were to be made partakers of all the benefits which were to be the Fruits of this Electing Love to us Hence then the Son of God was appointed to do those things for us which were to procure all these benefits to be bestowed on us and for this reason is he said to be Slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13. 8. not that he was actually so but because of the Designation of it and so the Apostle expounds it 1 Pet. 1. 20. who was verily Foreordained before the Foundation of the World This Article in the Decree is in the Scripture represented unto us under the notion of a Covenant between God the Father and God the Son as will appear afterwards together with the reason why it is exhibited under such a notion So that by the Covenant of Redemption under our consideration we are to understand An Everlasting Compact clearly made and firmly Ratified between God the Father and God the Son about the Redemption and Salvation of a number of the Children of Men and this is a Covenant distinct from that which we call the Covenant of Works which past between God and Man at the first in Adam as also from the New Covenant or that of Grace which is Indented between God and Man in Christ as the Mediator of it This is the thing about which our Enquiry is and which may be laid open in the Sequel CHAP. 3. Scripture Evidence that there is such a Covenant of Redemption THat the Word of God doth not in Terms mention such a Covenant by such a Title must be acknowledged but that it doth give us the account of a Covenant which cannot be Interpreted of any other yea which fully amounts to the thing may safely be affirmed We read Psal 89. 3. I have made a Covenant with my Chosen I have Sworn to David my Servant There are divers Texts in Scripture especially in the Old Testament which have a double reference partly to the Type partly to the Antitype or to the Antitype under the Type This Psalm is one of those portions of Scripture in which David is made a notable Type of Christ Him therefore it mainly aims at The Covenant with him is here made the foundation of all Consolation to the People of God Here then we have 1. The Subject Matter viz. A Covenant 2. The firmness of it I have made Hebr. Cut alluding to that Custome mentioned in Jer. 34. 18. which was a solemn ratification and I have Sworn noting the Immutability of it according to Heb. 6. 17 18. 3. The Parties in it God on the one hand I God is the Speaker Christ on the other hand expressed in two words My Chosâ—n noting both his Excellency and his Election David my Servant which must needs ultimately aim at Christ as many Expressions in the Psalm will undeniably evince especially those in verse 19. 22 verse 28 29. 35 36. Christ is therefore elsewhere called David see Jer. 30. 9. Ezek. 34. 34 37. 24. and if we would know what Covenant this is the Context clearly indicates it to be that which concerns the Redemption and Salvation of the People of God for it was that wherein he was made helpful to his People verse 19. wherein he was Anointed to his Offices of a Mediating Redeemer verse 19 20. made Gods First-born verse 27. and hath an abiding Seed verse 36. we also read Zech. 6. 13. The Counsel of Peace shall be between them both which clearly points to this Covenant under consideration But I shall essay a little more particularly to make the thing evident I will not here insist upon the opening of the nature of a Covenant in general having done it in another Treatise the sum whereof is That it is a mutual obligation between two parties That which I have now to do is to make it manifest that there is such a transaction between those two glorious persons which amounts to or is suitably expressed by a Covenant and that with respect to fallen mans Redemption In order to the clearing up of which let it be observed That God in discovering of his mind to us is pleased to accommodate his language to our capacity clothing divine truths with such words as may best suit our understandings When therefore we say there is such a Covenant it intends that there is that which is Analogous unto and holds a full proportion with such a thing and is best accommodated to our understanding and faith by such a resemblance For evidence of this let us lay together these particulars and they will amoun to a Demonstration 1. That God hath from all Eternity Elected a number of Mankind to Glory The Scripture is so full and clear for this that it would be superfluous to insist upon it This is the beginning of all saving good which comes to any of the Children of Men. From hence it is that Salvation takes its rise Eph. 1. 3 4 5. 1 Thes 1. 4. 5. Hitherto is the application of grace in Effectual Vocation restrained Acts 13. 46. Ro. 11. 7. and what else can be designed in that Everlasting Love that God bears to men from whence their Conversion proceeds Jer. 31. 3. nor can all the Evasions of men elude the
application of these and many more Scriptures to Eternal Election If Redemption and Salvation belong to the Works of God then there was a Decree that past concerning them unless we will deny that God works in them as a Cause by Counsel 2. That in this Decree of Election God hath appointed for his Chosen not only the end to which he will bring them which is Glory but also the means which are requisite in order thereunto For this reason it is called the Counsel of his Will Eph. 1. 11. now Counsel hath a proper and next reference unto the means Counsel according to our conception of the thing is a deliberate enquiry after the most suitable way for the accomplishing of a Design which one hath in his thoughts and is ascribed to God after the manner of men Wise Agents will contrive their Business in order to their setting about it Gods Purposes are displayed unto us under the consideration of end and means He determines with himself both what to do and how to do it and this properly refers to the Eternal Idea of his and for this reason he assures his people that he knows what his own thoughts are Jer. 29. 11. i. e. what methods he hath contrived for the management of their Affairs 3. Gods ultimate end in this Design being the advancement of the glory of his Grace hence by a wise and blameless Counsel he ordered the permission of man to fall into such a State of Misery as to put him into an absolute need of a Redeemer That mans Fall came within the compass of the Decree must needs be concluded except we will assert some things to come to pass against or beside Gods Will which is to deny his actual Supremacy over the whole Creation or how is that Eph. 1. 11. true Man therefore had not Fallen if he had not purposed to permit it In which he acted his holy Soveraignty beyond the capacity of any Impeachment by the Creature His spotless Holiness so ordered it that no Iniquity could be laid to his Charge on this account Psal 141. 17. That the glory of his Grace was the end of this so far as his Elect were involved in it herein appears because he took the occasion from hence for the Illustration of that precious Attribute Rom. 5. 20. and but for it the whole concern of Gospel Grace had been excluded and that this Fall of Man put him into an absolute need of a Redeemer is manifest both from the rigour of the Law exacting death of all its Transgressors without any abatement Ezek. 18. 4. Matth. 5. 17. the utter impotency of man by the deadly influence of the Apostasy to do any thing towards his own delivery being left by it without strength Rom. 5. 6. and the dreadfulness of the misery which he was under the efficacy of and must undergo if there were no Redemption for him Rom. 6. 23. either he must perish with an Everlasting Destruction or there must be a powerful Redemption laid in for him This is the fearful condition in which this whole Race is involved 4. Hence among the means the Eternal Son of God was set apart in the Decree to be a Redeemer The Son of God was not only an actual Redeemer in time but a chosen Redeemer from Eternity and for that reason is called Gods Chosen One Psal 89. 3. and his Elect Isa 42. 1. That the Son of God came within the compass of the Decree and had his Name written there as one who was to become a Ransome for his People is manifest by Scripture Testimony Prov. 8. 23. I was set up from Everlasting It is the Son who is the true Wisdom that is brought in speaking here the word Set up denotes the constituting of one in some Office and therefore a noun from it signifies a Governour It doth not design his natural Coessentiality with his Father but his being ordained to some Employment and what was that but this of a Redeemer hence is he called A Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13. 8. which must be intended with respect to the Decree Hence our Election is involved in his Eph. 1. 3 4. Christ was not sent in haste into the World it was not a rash and indeliberate Undertaking of his but it was all Determined in the Counsel of God in every passage relating to it Acts 2. 23. 8. 4. 27 28. when therefore he came in the Flesh he professeth that it was to do his Fathers Will Psal 40. 7. 5 The Decree of God is a firm stable Immutable Purpose of his A very Heathen could say Nulla est Litura in Decretis Sapientum The Medes and Persians under a proud opinion of their infallible Wisdom set a Stamp of Immutability upon all their Laws But this is peculiar and proper to the Purposes of God Gods Wisdom is like himself Infinite he can never be wiser than he was then when he established his Decree He did it in Counsel and his after thoughts cannot mend his former It was his Will that things should be so and he hath but one Will which is not to be altered Job 23. 13. Nor can he ever want for Power to put that in Execution which he hath purposed for he can do every manner of thing The Records of Eternity shall stand unshaken what he hath said shall certainly come to pass Prov. 19. 21. Psal 102. 27. 6. The Son of God who was thus constituted Redeemer in the Decree is a Person in the God-head infinitely free and uncompellable Though the Doctrine of a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence be a Mystery beyond the capacity of our short Understandings to fathom yet in as much as these are exhibited to us under the notion of three Persons each one having a distinct Subsistence though all have but one and the same Essence we must therefore allow to each of them all that is Essential to the God head and thus we are to conceive of each of them to have a Divine Will though it be one and the same in all The Son of God being God is in this respect Coequal with the Father for this reason he challenged this Equality as his due Phil. 2. 6. and God calls him his Fellow Zech. 13. 7. He is thereupon incapable of Compulsion So that upon an impossible supposition that the Son had not complied with his Fathers Will in this matter he could not have been Decreed to be a Redeemer and from this very Argument the Apostle proves that what Christ did upon this account was his own voluntary act Phil. 2. 5 6 7. The Father no sooner proposed it to him than he readily complied with it 7. Hence to the firm and immutable constituting of the Son of God a Redeemer in the Decree there past an Eternal Transaction between the Father and him which is best shadowed to us by the notion of a Covenant and because it had a proper respect
on no other account did he ever design it and if this be the Covenant it self how should it be before it Besides the Decree being as hath already been observed not a personal but essential act we may therefore safely and intelligently say That one God in Three Persons in Decreeing of the means of mans Salvation stated and ratified this Covenant CHAP. 7. Whether it be a Covenant of Works or of Grace IT may furthermore be Enquired whether this Covenant of Redemption is to be accounted a Covenant of Works or of Grace and here let me premise That it is certainly a Covenant distinct from both of those which ordinarily come under these Denominations among us It is neither that which was made with Adam in Innocency nor that which is made with us in and through a Mediator for in both of these man is of one party whereas he is not so in this but only a Subject in respect of which it is made But if the enquiry be under whether of these considerations it is to be looked on in it self it may be readily replied that according to its respects it may be accounted either the one or the other Here then we are to look upon it either with reference to the matter of it and the terms between the parties or to the end and design of it 1. If we consider the matter of it and the terms which were agreed on between the Parties Covenanting it fully agrees to a Covenant of Works and indeed it bare a proper respect to the Covenant of Works which past between God and man at first for Christ was to be the Second Adam and therefore he was to do that for us which the other failed of doing and to restore us from that misery which he by his failure brought upon us hence that 1 Cor. 15. 22. As in Adam all dy even so in Christ shall all be made alive But yet it was not the same Covenant with that not only because he was a diverse party but also because he was differently concerned for Adam was only to obtain the Blessing by his Active Obedience and to fall under the Curse by his Disobedience and that irrecoverably as to any power in himself whereas the Son of God was to merit by his doing and to make Satisfaction by his Suffering But yet it ran in the tenor of a Covenant of Works in which there is a work to be done and a Reward to be given on the account of it He was to purchase and pay for what he had and that to the full price on which account the Inheritance is said to be Purchased Eph. 1. 14. and he is said to give himself a ransom 1. Tim 2. 6. but this will be more fully spoken to with the reason of it hereafter 2. If we consider the end and whole design of this Covenant it issues in being a Covenant of Grace Though it were so laid that Grace might appear consistent with Justice and therefore there was a work to be done for the making way for it yet it carried Grace in the aim of it as will appear for 1. The last end of it was for the advancement of Rich Grace Eph. 1. 5. 6. and the very Satisfaction made unto Justice in order to it puts a great lustre upon this Grace in as much as Christ was to remove that obstacle out of the way by his obedience which mans sin had thrown into it It was that God might express his free and undeserved favour to a number whom he had Chosen to be made partakers in it that he might bestow upon man a Salvation which he never Laboured for bring him to an heaven he never earned enrich him with a portion which he could never have Purchased and free him from a Misery which would else have Swallowed him up for ever which he had Procured to himself 2. Hence all the means which were agreed upon between these parties for this end were the contrivances of this Grace The whole Plot was so laid out that in all of it there should be the Beams of Divine-Love and Favour shining forth for 1. The whole provision of a Redeemer was of Grace whether we consider it on the Fathers part Proposing the thing accepting of the way He was under no necessity to offer such a Proposal it was absolutely free yea that he would be reconciled to sinners in such a way was Grace The case is Criminal man by his fall becomes a Delinquent Justice might have fallen upon him and refused to have taken any other in Exchange Though the Satisfaction be valuable enough yet the receiving it thus is voluntary therefore it is Grace Had God said the sinner himself shall Die it had been just or if we consider it on the Sons part undertaking it he had no obligation lying upon him by any kind of necessity he was God blessed for ever before his Divine Essential Glory could not be augmented by it in the least he had no Consanguinity to move him for it was the Son of God that Covenanted he took up the kindred or relation by Covenant see for this Phil 2. 6. 7. it was therefore of meer grace 2. The work it self which he undertook to perform considered with relation to this those for whom he was to do it was also Grace The Covenant of works requires of those that are under it either to Do or to Suffer but that when we fell short of doing and have therby exposed ourselves unto Suffering another should interpose and undertake to do and Suffer for us this it requires not The Son of God was in himself naturally under no Law and therefore his putting of himself into such a condition as to be under it and this that so he might do the greatest kindness must needs be of Grace and that was the very design of this Covenant Rom. 8. 8. God Commendeth his love in that whiles we were yet sinners Christ Died for us so Gal. 4. 4. he was made of a woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the law 3 All the proffers of Salvation which are in the Gospel made unto Sinners are the results of this Covenant Here they have their Foundation We find that all the good that is tâ—ndered to Fallen men in the Gospel is offered freely We must indeed come for it but without money and without price Isa 55. 1. we must take it indeed if we will have it but it must be freely Rev. 22 27. But whence is it that there are such liberal offers made to the children of men why it flows from the Covenant of Redemption and had it not been for this there had never any such â—â—ews been heard of in the World Here was the Foundation laid for all the Saving Grace which is Dispensed in time to any of the children of men and so it must needs be a Covenant of Grace CHAP. 8. Who are Covenanted for THE Title put upon this