this declaration of the grace of God, and the provision in the covenant of the Mediator for the making of it effectual unto his glory, is most usually called the covenant of grace. And this is twofold.

1. In the way of a singular and absolute promise, as it was first declared unto, and thereby established with Adam and afterwards with Abraham. This is the declaration of the purpose of God, or the free determination of his will as to his dealing with sinners, on the supposition of the fall and the forfeiture of their first covenant state. Hereof the grace and will of God was the only cause, Heb. viii. 8. And the death of Christ could not be the means of its procurement; for he himself, and all that he was to do for us, was the substance of that promise wherein this declaration of God's grace and purpose was made, or of this covenant of grace which was introduced and established in the room of that which was broken and disanulled as to the ends and benefits of a covenant. The substance of the first promise, wherein the whole covenant of grace was virtually comprised, directly respected and expressed the giving of him for the recovery of mankind from sin and misery by his death, Gen. iii. 15. Wherefore if he, and all the benefits of his mediation, his death and all the effects of it, be contained in the promise of the covenant, that is, in the covenant itself; then was not his death the procuring cause of that covenant, nor do we owe it thereunto.

2. In the additional prescription of the way and means whereby it is the will of God that we shall enter into a covenant state with him, or be interested in the benefits of it. This being virtually comprised in the absolute promise, is expressed in other places by the way of the conditions required on our part. This is not the covenant, but the constitution of the terms on our part, whereon we are made partakers of it. Nor is the constitution of these terms an effect of the death of Christ or procured thereby. It is a mere effect of the sovereign wisdom and grace of God. The things themselves as bestowed on us, communicated unto us, wrought in us by grace, are all of them effects of the death of Christ; but the constitution of them to be the terms and conditions of the covenant, is an act of mere sovereign wisdom and grace. God so loved the world as to send his only begotten Son to die, not that faith and repentance might be the means of salvation, but that all his elect might believe, and that all that believe might not perish, but have life everlasting. But yet it is granted, that the constitution of these terms of the covenant, doth respect the federal transactions between the Father and the Son, wherein they were ordered to the praise of the glory of God's grace; and so although their constitution was not the procurement of his death, yet without respect unto it, it had not been. Wherefore

the sole cause of making the new covenant in any sense, was the same with that of giving Christ himself to be our Mediator, namely, the purpose, counsel, goodness, grace and love of God, as it is every where expressed in the Scripture.

It may be therefore inquired what respect the covenant of grace hath to the death of Christ, or what influence it hath thereunto. I answer, it hath a threefold respect thereunto.

1. In that it was confirmed, ratified and made irrevocable thereby. This our apostle insists upon at large, chap. ix. 1520. And he compares his blood in his death and sacrifice of himself, to the sacrifices and their blood whereby the old covenant was confirmed, purified, dedicated or established, ver. 18, 19. Now these sacrifices did not procure that covenant, or prevail with God to enter into it, but only ratified and confirmed it; and this was done in the new covenant by the blood of Christ, in the way that shall be afterwards declared.

2. He thereby underwent, and performed all that which the righteousness and wisdom of God required, that the effects, fruits, benefits and grace intended, designed and prepared in the new covenant, might be effectually accomplished and communicated to sinners. Hence although he procured not the covenant for us by his death, yet he was in his person, mediation, life and death, the only cause and means, whereby the whole grace of the covenant is made effectual to us.

For,

3. All the benefits of it were procured by him; that is, all the grace, mercy, privileges and glory that God had prepared in the counsel of his will, and proposed in the covenant or promises of it, are purchased, merited and procured by his death, and effectually communicated or applied to all the covenanters, by virtue thereof, with other of his mediatory acts. And this is much more an eminent procuring of the new covenant, than what is pretended about the procurement of its terms and conditions. For if he should have procured no more but this, if we owe this only to his mediation, that God would thereon, and did grant and establish this rule, law and promise, that whosoever believed should be saved, it was possible that no one should be saved thereby; yea if he did no more, considering our state and condition, it was impossible that any one should be saved. These things being premised, we shall now briefly declare how or wherein he was the surety of the covenant, as he is here called.

A surety, sponsor, vas, præs, fidejussor, for us the Lord Christ was, by his voluntary undertaking out of his rich grace and love, to do, answer, and perform all that is required on our parts, that we may enjoy the benefits of the covenant, the grace and glory prepared, proposed and promised in it, in the way and manner determined on by divine wisdom. And this may be reduced to two heads.

1. He undertook as the surety of the covenant to answer for

all the sins of those who are to be, and are made partakers of the benefits of it. That is, to undergo the punishment due to their sins; to make atonement for them, by offering himself a propitiatory sacrifice for their expiation, redeeming them by the price of his blood from their state of misery and bondage under the law and the curse of it, Isa. liii. 4-6. 10. Mat. xx. 28. 1 Tim. ii. 6. 1 Cor. vi. 20. Rom. iii. 25, 26. Heb. x. 5-8. Rom. viii. 2, 3. 2 Cor. v. 19–21. Gal. iii. 13. And this was absolutely necessary, that the grace and glory prepared in the covenant might be communicated unto us. Without this undertaking of his, and performance of it, the righteousness and faithfulness of God would not permit, that sinners, such as had apostatized from him, despised his authority, and rebelled against him, falling thereby under the sentence and curse of the law, should again be received into his favour, and be made partakers of grace and glory. This therefore the Lord took on himself as the surety of the covenant.

2. That those who were to be taken into this covenant, should receive grace enabling them to comply with the terms of it, fulfil its conditions, and yield the obedience which God required therein. For by the ordination of God, he was to procure, and did merit and procure for them the Holy Spirit, and all the needful supplies of grace to make them new creatures, and enable them to yield obedience to God from a new principle of spiritual life, and that faithfully to the end. So was he the surety of this better covenant.

Obs. XI. The stability of the new covenant depends on the suretiship of Christ, and is secured to believers thereby.-The introduction of a surety in any case, is to give stability and security. For it is never done but on a supposition of some weakness or defect on one account or other. If in any contract, bargain or agreement, a man be esteemed every way responsible both for ability and fidelity, there is no need of a surety, nor is it required. But yet whereas there is a defect or weakness amongst all men, mentioned by our apostle in the next verses, namely, that they are all mortal and subject to death, in which case neither ability nor fidelity will avail any thing; men in all cases of importance need sureties. These give the utmost confirmation that affairs among men are capable of. So doth the suretiship of Christ on our behalf in this covenant. For the evidencing whereof, we may consider,

First, The first covenant as made with Adam, had no surety. As to that which in the new covenant the suretiship of Christ doth principally respect, it had no need of any. For there was no sin, transgression or rebellion against God to be satisfied for, so that it was absolutely incapable of a surety to that end. But as to the second part of it, or his undertaking for us, that through supplies of strength from him, we shall abide faithful

in the covenant, according to the terms and tenor of it; this had no inconsistency with that first state. As the Lord Christ, on his undertaking the work of mediation, became an immediate head to the angels that sinned not, whereby they received their establishment and security from any future defection; so might he have been such an head to, and such an undertaker for man in innocency. No created nature was or could have been unchangeable in its condition and state, merely on its root of creation. As some of the angels fell at first, forsaking their habitation, falling from the principle of obedience which had no other root but in themselves; so the rest of them, all of them, might afterwards in like manner have apostatized, and fallen from their own innate stability, had they not been gathered up into the new head of the creation, the Son of God as Mediator; receiving a new relation from thence, and establishment thereby. So it might have been with man in innocency. But God in his infinite sovereign wisdom saw it not meet that so it should be. Man shall be left to the exercise of that ability of living to God, which he had received in his creation, and which was sufficient for that end; a surety God gave him not. And therefore although he had all the advantage which a sinless nature, filled with holy principles, dispositions and inclinations, free from all vicious habits, rebellious affections, inordinate imaginations could afford to him, yet he broke the covenant, and forfeited all the benefits thercof. Whatever there was besides in that covenant, of grace, power, ability and the highest obligations to duty, yet all was lost for want of a surety. And this abundantly testifies to the pre-eminence of Christ in all things. For whereas Adam with all the innumerable advantages he had, that is, all helps necessary in himself, and no opposition or difficulty from himself to conflict withal, yet utterly brake the covenant wherein he was created and placed; believers who have little strength in themselves, and a powerful inbred opposition to their stability, are yet secured in their station by the interposition of the Lord Christ as their surety.

Secondly, When God made a covenant with the people in the wilderness, to manifest that there could be no stability in it with out respect to a surety, that it could not continue, no not for a day, he caused it to be dedicated or confirmed with the blood of sacrifices. This the apostle declares, and withal its typicalness with respect to the new covenant and the confirmation of it with the blood of Christ, chap. ix. 18-21. And afterwards, as we have declared, the high priest in the sacrifices that he offered, was the typical mediator and surety of that covenant. And the end of this appointment of God, was to manifest, that it was from the blood of the true sacrifice, namely, that of Jesus Christ, that the new covenant was to receive its stability. And we need a surety to this purpose,

1. Because in the state and condition of sin, we are not capable of immediate dealing or covenanting with God. There can be no covenanting between God and sinners, unless there be some one to stand forth in our name, to receive the terms of God, and to undertake for us. So when God began to treat immediately from heaven with the people of old, they all jointly professed, that such was the greatness and glory of God, such the terror of his majesty, that it was impossible for them so to treat with him; and if he spake to them any more, they should all die and be consumed. Wherefore with one consent they desired that there might be one appointed between God and them, to transact all things and to undertake for them as to their obedience, which God well approved in them, Deut. v. 23-31. Adam indeed in the state of innocency could treat immediately with God, as to that covenant wherein he was placed. For notwithstanding his infinite distance from God, yet God had made him for converse with himself, and did not despise the work of his own hands. But immediately on the entrance of sin he was sensible of the loss of that privilege, whereon he both fled and hid himself from the presence of God. And hence those who of old thought they had seen God, concluded that they should die, as being sensible of their incapacity to treat immediately with him. So when the prophet cried out that he was undone or cut off, because of the immediate presence of God, his eyes having "seen the King the Lord of hosts," Isa. vi. 5. he was not relieved from his apprehensions, until his mouth was touched with a coal from the altar, a type of the mediation and sacrifice of Christ. Whilst we have any thing of sin remaining in us, we can have nothing to do with God immediately. Wherefore that there may be any covenant between God and us, much more such an one as shall be "ordered in all things and sure," there must be one to stand before God in our stead, to receive the terms of God and declare them to us, and to undertake for us, that we shall stand to them and make them good to the glory of God. And in this sense was the new covenant first made with Christ, not only as he undertook the work of mediation, which he did on the especial eternal compact which was between the Father and him; but also as he undertook for all the elect to receive the terms of the covenant from God for them, in which sense the promise in the "first place was made unto the seed that is one, which is Christ," Gal. iii. 16. and to answer for them, that they should receive and stand to those terms. For he said, "Surely they are my people, children that will not lie, so he was their Saviour," Isa. Ixiii. 8. Wherefore the holiness and glorious greatness of God, would not admit that there should be any new covenant at all between God and sinners, without the interposition of a surety. Nor did it become the infinite wisdom of