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lighting in God. Or if we will insist upon it, to call these things conditions: they are not so much conditions of the covenant, as of the assurance that we shall continue in God's covenant, and that he shall be our God. And I make no doubt, but this was exactly the meaning of those very learned divines, though all of them have not so happily expressed themselves.

XV. Let us again hear our own Cloppenburg on this subject, to whose accuracy on this point I have nothing to add. Disputat. 4. de Foeder. Thes. xxvi. 27. Nor do the condi tions of the new covenant, enjoined by a law adapted thereto, as repentance, faith, and the practice of love to God and our neighbour, destroy this evangelical display of the grace of the new covenant, which the testamentary donation, made on account of death, demands. For, these conditions of the new covenant are inserted in such a manner in the testament, as to exclude the impenitent, the unbelieving, and the ungodly, from inheriting the promises, but not as if the dispensation and do nation of salvation depended on these; or that by our works of obedience to the law-giver, we obtain a right to the promise of the inheritance.-What then? Conditions of new obedience are inserted into the testament of the new covenant, under a legal form, indeed, as the rule of our self-examination, and of becoming gratitude, lest, without having the undoubted characters of the sons of God, we should without any ground, think ourselves sure of the inheritance. However, repentance itself, consisting in the mortification of sin, and the practice of good works, is also promised under another form, to wit, as the gift of God, which he himself works in us, that, by this sign, or evidence, we may, from the time of our truly repenting and believing, perfectly hope in that grace, which is brought to us, at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. i. 13. having eternal life already begun in ourselves, together with the new creation of the new spiritual life, by the Spirit of God. Thus far Cloppenburg, the accuracy of whose dissertation nothing can exceed.

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XVI. We are not to think, that by this sentiment, the na ture of a covenant is destroyed, which consists in a stipula tion, and restipulation. For, there is no absurdity, should we maintain, that that disposition of the new covenant, which was made to the Surety, retained the proper notion of a cove nant, signifying a compact between two parties of mutual faith; but that the other disposition made to us, comes nearer to the form of a testament, and is rather unilateral, or appoint ed by one party. Nor is the word na any obstacle, which

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we have shewn, B. I. chap. i. § III. is of various significations, and often denotes the same as pr, a constitution, or signifies a certain promise, though not mutual.

XVII. Moreover, God, by a certain wonderful act of condescension, publishes the promises of his grace to his covenant people, in this manner; to shew that it was his will, that they seek for, and expect from him, what he promises, just as if it was a promise of reward, and proceeded from covenant and agreement, and was irrevocable on the account of the right of him who sues for the performance of it. Which is indeed, an astonishing degree of the Lord's goodness; nevertheless, we are not to use it as an argument for conditions of the covenant of grace, properly so called.

XVIII. But, which is the principal thing, we imagine, the best way to conceive of this constitution of the covenant, is as follows: since the covenant of grace, or the Gospel, strictly so alled, which is the model of that covenant, consists in mere promises, prescribes nothing properly as duty, requires nothing, commands nothing: not even this, believe, trust, hope in the Lord, and the like. But declares, sets forth, and signifies to us, what God promises in Christ, what he would have done, and what he is about to do. All prescription of duty belongs to the law, as, after others, the venerable Voetius has very well inculcated, Disput. Tom. 4. p 24. seq. And we are, by all means, to maintain this, if, with the whole body of the Reformed, we would constantly defend the perfection of the law, which comprehends all virtues, and all the duties of holiness. But the law, adapted to the covenant of grace, and according to it, inscribed on the heart of the elect, enjoins to receive all those things which are proposed in the Gospel, with an unfeigned faith, and frame our lives suitably to that grace and glory which are promised. When God, therefore, in the covenant of grace, promises faith, repentance, and consequently eternal life, to an elect sinner, then the law, whose obligation can never be dissolved, and which extends to every duty, binds the man to assent to that truth, highly prize, ardently desire, seek, and lay hold on those promised blessings. Moreover, since the admirable providence of God has ranged the promises in such order, as that faith and repentance go before, and salvation follows after, man is bound, by the same law, to approve of, and be in love with this divine appointment, and assure himself of salvation only according to it. But when a man accepts the promises of the covenant, in the order they are proposed, he does, by that acceptance, bind himself to the duties contained

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in the foregoing promises, before he can assure himself of the fulfilment of the latter. And in this manner the covenant becomes mutual. God proposes his promises in the Gospel in a certain order. The man, in consequence of the law, as subservient to the covenant of grace, is bound to receive the promises in that order. While faith does this, the believer at the same time, binds himself to the exercise of a new life, before ever he can presume to entertain a hope of life eternal. And in this manner it becomes a mutual agree

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XIX. But let none here object, that life is promised in the new covenant to him that believes and repents, no less than it was in the old covenant to him that worketh; in order thence, to conclude, that faith and repentance are now, in the same manner, conditions of the covenant of grace, that per fect obedience was the condition of the covenant of works. For when life is promised to him that doeth any thing, we are not directly to understand a condition, properly so called, as the cause of claiming the reward. God is pleased only to point out the way we are to take, not to the right, but to the possession of life. He proposes faith, as the instrument, by which we lay hold on the Lord Jesus, and on his grace and glory: good works, as the evidences of our faith, and of our union with Christ, and as the way to the possession of life.

XX. But we must not forget to observe, that faith has quite a different relation with respect to the blessings of the covenant of grace, from what the other works of the new life have. In this indeed they agree, that both conjointly are the way to the promised bliss; but faith has something peculiar. For, as faith is an astipulation, or assent given to the divine truth, it includes in it the acceptance of the benefit offered by the covenant, and makes this promise firm and irrevocable. Here is my Son, says God, and salvation in him. I offer him to whoever desires him, and believes that he shall find his salvation in him. Who desires him? Who believes this? I do, says the believer, I greatly long for him. I believe my salvation to be laid up in him. I take him as thus offered to me. Be it so, saith the Lord. And in this manner the promise is accepted, the truth of God sealed, the donation of Christ, and of salvation in him, becomes irrevocable. From all which it is evident, that faith has a quite different relation in the new covenant, from what works formerly had in the old. What the difference is between giving and receiving, such seems to be the difference between a condition of works

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and of faith: which the celebrated Hoornbeck has not unhappily explained in Socin. Confut. Tom. ii. p. 280.

XXI. Let us now lastly consider the threatenings, whether there be any such in this covenant. It cannot indeed be denied, but that, in the doctrine of Christ and the apostles, we frequently meet with very many comminations, which have their peculiar respect to the covenant of grace, and which could not have thus been set before us, if there had been no such covenant. For instance, "whoever shall not believe in Christ, whoever shall despise the counsel of God against his own soul, whoever shall not obey the Gospel, shall be condemned." And these threatenings seem to be distinguished from those, which are evidently legal, such as the following: "cursed is he that continueth not in all things," &c. Yet, if we would weigh the matter narrowly, the covenant of grace has no threatenings so peculiar to itself, but what may well be referred to the law from which every curse proceeds.

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XXII. Which I would explain thus: we no where hear of any threatenings, which may, and ought not to be deduced from that threatening, which doubtless is purely legal, sed is every one that continueth not in all things," &c. In this most general threatening are included the other more particular ones. Moreover, when salvation by Christ alone is proposed, in the covenant of grace, as the principal truth, the law, which enjoins man to embrace every truth, made known to him by God, with a firm faith, obliges him to receive this truth in particular, and be delighted with the glory of God, shining forth in it, and that his own salvation is connected with the glory of God. Should we deny, that the law lays us under this obligation, we should then affirm, that the law does not enjoin us, to acknowledge God as true, and that there is a holy love of God, and of ourselves, which the law does not command: all which are most absurd. I go further: when man, as the law prescribes, receives the truth of the Gospel with a lively faith, then not the law, but the Gospel, promises salvation to him. For the law knows of no other promise than what depends on the condition of perfect obedience. But should man slight, and obstinately reject that truth proposed to him, he sins against the law, and so incurs its curse, according to the general rule so often inculcated. And since we have supposed the Gospel declaring, that salvation flows from the faith of Christ alone, the law enjoins, that all, who desire salvation, should seek it by the faith of Christ alone, and consequently it cannot but thunder the curse against those who,

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As therefore,

rejecting the Gospel, believe not on Christ.
unbelief, or the rejecting the Gospel, is a sin against the law
which is the only perfect rule of all virtue (it can be called a
sin against the Gospel, only objectively) so every threatening
of the curse and of wrath against unbelievers, and the des
pisers of the Gospel, must come from, and be reduced to the
law, but then it is to the law as now subservien, to the cove-
nant of grace.

XXIII. In the discourses of the prophets, Christ and his apostles, there is a certain mixture of various doctrines, which, indeed, are closely connected, and mutually subservient; each of which ought to be reduced to their proper heads; so that the promises of grace be referred to the Gospel; all injunctions of duty, and all threatenings against transgressors, to the law.

CHAP. II.

Of the Oneness of the Covenant of Grace, as to its Substance. I. It is a matter of the greatest moment, that we learn distinctly to consider the covenant of grace, either as it is in its substance or essence, as they call it, or as it is in divers ways proposed by God, with respect to circumstantials, under different economies. If we view the substance of the covenant, it is but only one, nor is it possible it should be otherwise. There is no other way worthy of God, in which salvation can be bestowed on sinners, but that discovered in the Gospel. Whence the apostle, Gal. i. 7. has beautifully said, which is not another. And that testament, which was consecrated by the blood of Christ, he calls everlasting, Heb. xiii. 20. because it was settled from eternity, published immediately upon the fall of the first man, constantly handed down by the ancients, more fully explained by Christ himself and his apostles, and is to continue throughout all ages, and, in virtue of which, believers shall inherit eternal happiness. But if we attend to the circumstances of the covenant, it was dispensed at sundry times and in divers manners, under various economies, for the manifestation of the manifold wisdom of God. In considering this, we are first to discourse on those general things, which appertain to the substance of the covenant, and have continued in every age: and then explain the different economies, or dispensations, and the new accessions made to each, which we will first do in a general and concise T2

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