the end. 3. The necessity of fleeing to the man Christ Jesus from the avenger of blood; of repairing to the horns of the altar, that sin may not be our ruin. 4. The value of the gospel, and the value of the soul; and the inconceivable misery of all that are in a state of nature.

SECT. IV. OF THE SPECIAL PROVIDENCE OF GOD TOWARDS MAN IN REDEMPTION :-UNDER WHICH ARE CONSIDERED THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION, THE APPLICATION OF REDEMPTION, AND THE BENEFITS OF REDEMPTION.

Division 1.-Plan of Redemption.

Q. 20.-Bid God leave all Mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

God having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer.

ANALYSIS AND PROOFS.

We are here taught,

1. That God hath ordained or elected some men to everlasting life. Acts xiii. 48.-" As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." See also 2 Thess. ii. 13.

Eph.

2. That God's purpose of election was from eternity. i. 4.-" He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world."

3. That the election of God is the result of his own good pleasure. Eph. i. 5.-"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

4. That God entered into a covenant of grace with Christ for the elect. Ps. lxxxix. 3.-" I have made a covenant with my chosen."

5. That the design of this covenant was to deliver the elect from their original state of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of complete salvation by a Redeemer. Rom. viii. 1.— "There is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' Rom. v. 18.

By the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." See also Matt. i. 21; 1 Thess. i. 10; Tit. iii. 5; and Prov. xxiii. 2.

EXPLANATION.

Obs. 80.-God has elected or ordained some men to eternal life.

By election we are to understand God's purpose of love and grace towards some sinners of mankind, when he might have left all, without exception, to perish in their sins. Acts xiii. 48; Matt. xx. 16; Luke xii. 32.

That to which the elect are chosen, is everlasting life. They are also chosen to the means which lead to this end; for the means and the end are so intimately connected, that they cannot be separated.-Aets xiii. 48; 2 Thess. ii. 13.

At present, the elect and believers are not of the same extent; "but they shall be of the same extent; for all that are elected to everlasting life, shall in due time be brought out of their state of sin and misery, into a state of complete salvation.

Obs. 81.-God's purpose of election was from eternity.

The purpose of God concerning the elect took its rise from eternity. It never had a beginning; for he loved them from everlasting. Jer. xxxi. 3; Eph. i. 4; 2 Thess. ii. 13. To say that God makes no choice until the day of believing, is as much as to say that he did not know from eternity who should believe, and what should take place in time. And to deny his omniscience and foreknowledge, is to deny his being.

Obs. 82.-God's purpose of election was the result of his own good pleasure.

1. God's decree of election was not to save such as should believe and persevere in a state of holiness. Were this the case, it would render this act of God a thing altogether uncertain; because, if it depended on this circumstance, it would be uncertain whether any should believe, and consequently uncertain whether any should be saved.

2. God did not choose men to eternal life because he foresaw their faith and holiness. Scripture never attributes election to faith and holiness foreseen, or afterwards visible in the saints. On the contrary, these are always exhibited as the fruits and effects of election, and therefore they can never be viewed as the cause of it; for the same thing can never, at one and the same time, be both cause and effect. See Eph. i. 4, 5.

3. Jesus Christ is not the cause of election. If God in love sent his Son into the world, to redeem those whom he had given to him, it cannot for a moment be supposed that he was the cause of electing love. See John iii. 16.

4. The only reason, then, that can be given, and that to which the Scriptures everywhere attribute election, is the mere good pleasure of God. Eph. i. 5.-" Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." See also Matt. xi. 26; Rom. ix. 16, &c.; Mal. i. 2, 3.

Obs. 83.-God entered into a covenant of grace with Christ for the elect.

The misery into which all mankind had plunged themselves by sin, was the occasion of the covenant of grace; but the cause of it was the amazing love, and condescension, and sovereign grace of God.

In Scripture this covenant is denominated by various names :-1. It is generally called the covenant of grace; because the love and grace of God were the cause of it.

2. It is called the second covenant; because, although it was first made, it was last executed.-Heb. viii. 7.

3. It is called a better covenant, namely, than the covenant of works; because it is established on better promises.-Heb. viii. 6. 4. It is called the new covenant; because it was last intimated, and because it shall continue sure in all its parts to the end of the world.-Heb. viii. 8.

5. It is called a covenant of peace; because by it a reconciliation is made between God and man.-Ezek. xxxvii. 26; Isa. liv. 10. That the covenant of grace was made with Christ, as the representative of the elect, or as the second Adam, will be evident from the following things:

1. From various passages of Scripture; Ps. lxxxix. 3, &c., where reference is made to the covenant of royalty which was made with David, as representing his seed; but not to the covenant made with him alone. See ver. 19-36, where we have God plainly covenanting with Christ; for these verses are expressed in language too strong to have their full application to the covenant of royalty made with David, as king of Israel; which, however, without doubt, was typical of that made with Christ. See also Heb. viii. 6, and Gal. iii. 16, 17.

2. From Christ being called the second Adam. See 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47, where Adam and Christ are evidently contrasted. Christ cannot be called the second man in any other sense than as he is the federal head of his spiritual offspring, as Adam was of his natural posterity.

3. From Christ and his spiritual seed being called by the same names. They are both called Israel.-Isa. xlix. 3, and Rom. ix. 6. They are both called Jacob.-Ps. xxiv. 6; Isa. xli. 14. They are both called Christ.-1 Cor. xii. 12; Gal. iii. 16. See also Eph. iv. 13, and v. 30.

4. From the promises of this covenant being all made with Christ. Gal. iii. 16, 17; Tit. i. 2; 2 Tim. i. 9.

5. From his being the surety of the covenant.-Heb. vii. 22; 2 Cor. v. 21.

6. From all the covenants, which were typical and emblematical of the covenant of grace, being made with parents, as representatives of their posterity.-Gen. ix. 9, and xvii. 7; 2 Sam. vii. 11, &c.

It was necessary that this covenant should be made with Christ, as the representative of his people, for the following

reasons:

1. That the love of God might appear to have been from of old, even from everlasting; and that the covenant might be called an everlasting covenant.

2. Because, if this covenant had not been made with Christ, who is a Divine person, as a representive, it could not have been called a covenant of grace and a covenant of life; nay, it could not have been made at all.

3. That it might be a covenant of rich and absolutely free grace.-Eph. ii. 7. In respect of Christ himself, indeed, it was a pure covenant of works, that is, a condition was to be performed by him, that life might be obtained for those whom he represented; but to sinners it is a covenant of rich and superabundant grace.-Rom. iv. 4, 5.

4. That there might be a similarity between the way in which sin and death entered into the world, and the way in which righteousness and life should be communicated. Sin and death entered by one man, and therefore righteousness and life must also enter by one man.

5. That the promises of the covenant might be sure to all the elect. See Ps. lxxxix. 2, 19, 22, &c.

Obs. 84. The parties of the covenant of grace are, Jehovah and Jesus Christ, and in him elect sinners of mankind.

1. The party in this covenant on heaven's side is Jehovah, essentially considered, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,-who must be viewed in this covenant as an offended Judge, because of the sin of man; as a God of love, designing to display the exceeding riches of his grace and love in the redemption of a lost elect world; and as an infinitely just and holy God, who cannot save the sinner, but in a way of magnifying his law, of satisfying his justice, and of vindicating his holiness.

2. The party-contractor on man's side is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God; who must be viewed in this covenant as full of compassion, and as a representative, and a living and quickening head to all his spiritual seed. As connected with this covenant, he must also be viewed by us, as bone of our bone; as nearly allied to us, having assumed our nature, that he might die and overcome death, and restore us to our former privileges and blessings in the same nature that sinned; and as a sacrificing priest, who offered up himself once for all, a sweet-smelling savour to God, without spot or blemish.-Heb. ix. 14, 15.

3. The party whom Christ represented-for whom he contracted-for whom he stood bound-and for whom he undertook (all these being terms of the same import and extent), are sinners of mankind; who, as connected with this covenant, must

be considered as lost and undone in themselves, by the violation of the first covenant in Adam, who represented all mankind; as altogether unable to recover themselves from their lost state, or to pay to God a ransom for their souls, to glorify his injured perfections, or to retrieve the honour of his law; as distinguished from the rest of the world by the sovereign purpose and grace of God; and as objects of the redeeming love of the Eternal Trinity. That Christ did not represent all mankind in this covenant, is evident from his laying hold of the seed of Abraham alone, which are only a part of the seed of Adam, the parent of all mankind. See Heb. ii. 16.

Although the first Adam represented the whole human race, yet it is no disparagement to the federal representation of Christ, the second Adam, that he represented only some of mankind; because it is unspeakably more for Christ to undertake for one sinner, than it was for Adam in the beginning to undertake for a whole righteous world. See Rom. ix. 21.

Obs. 85.-The condition of the covenant of grace was the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Nothing whatever but the finished righteousness of Jesus Christ, by which he hath satisfied all the demands of the broken law, can be properly and strictly called the condition of the covenant of grace. The righteousness of Christ, which was the condition of this covenant, consisted in these things:-holiness of nature,-Heb. vii. 26; righteousness of life,-Isa. liii. 9; John viii. 46; Luke xxiii. 4; John xviii. 38, and xix. 4, 6; and full satisfaction to the penalty of the broken law incurred by the sin of man.

That the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone is the proper condition of the covenant of grace, will be evident from the following considerations:

1. Christ undertook to discharge, not a part only, but the whole of the debt of a guilty chosen world; which shows that he left nothing whatever to be performed by them as any part of the condition on which eternal life is to be obtained.

2. Nothing whatever but the fulfilment of the same condition, by the non-fulfilment of which the covenant of works was broken, can be the condition of this covenant, that is, perfect obedience, which none but Christ could yield.

3. In Scripture we find, that Christ's righteousness satisfies every demand of law and justice; consequently nothing remains to be done by any other besides him, as the condition of this covenant. See Eph. v. 2; Tit. ii. 14.

4. The Scriptures fully show, that believers found their hopes of eternal life upon the righteousness of Christ, and not upon any other thing whatever.-Eph. i. 7; Phil. iii. 8, 9.

5. That which cannot answer the demands of the violated cove