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ceived in itself, but only in its exercises, of which confession of sin is certainly one. No man can know that he is in a state of grace, till he discern in himself the evidences of grace. If he could, self-examination would be no longer necessary. Therefore to talk of quietness of mind, previous to the confession of sin, is dangerous and delusive. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself, Gal. vi. 3. and like Laodicea, is miserable indeed, Rev. iii. 17.

No. 23.-Page 136.

Our venerable Author with his usual accuracy observes, that to the elect, believing in Christ, past sins are pardoned, and future shall not be imputed. In the former case, they are blotted out, as scripture speaks, Isa. xliii. 25. xliv. 22. In the latter they are not written, Jer. xvii. 1. not imputed, Rom. iv. 8. not remembered any more, Heb. viii. 12.

"The sentence heav'n did full pronounce,

Has pardon'd all my sins at once;

And ev'n from future crimes acquit,

Before I could the facts commit."

ERSKINE'S GOSPEL SONNETS, Part iii. Sect. 14.

No. 24.-Page 147.

What a pity that our venerable Author did not explain himself more at large, concerning these two covenants? Boston having asserted that the covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace are not two distinct covenants, but one and the same, acknowledges, that many Divines ex

press themselves otherwise in this matter, and that upon very different views: and he has the candour to add, that some of these are noways injurious to the doctrine of free grace: (View of the Covenant of Grace, p. 26.) which observation is certainly applicable to these views of our Author. In illustration of this important point, the following things

are offered to the reader's consideration.

1st, God could not from eternity make a covenant with the elect in their own persons, inasmuch as then they neither did, nor could exist. Neither could he in time make a covenant with them, immediately in their own persons, but only mediately through a day's-man, who can lay his hand upon both parties, Job ix. 33. Being sinners, legally and morally dead, he cannot treat with them but through the intervention of a mediator, 1 Tim. ii. 5. In virtue of his infinite holiness and inflexible justice, he is a consuming fire, Heb. xii. 29. Hab. i. 13. while they on account of their guilt, are as briars and thorns, Isa. xxvii. 4. But,

2dly, God from eternity entered into a covenant with his own Son: a covenant concerning the elect, Psal. lxxxix. 3. iv. 29. Isa. xlix. 3.-9. In that covenant, conditions were required of him, and promises made to him. The condition was, That

he should "make his

soul an offering for their

sin." Isa. liii. 6, 10, 11. Matt. xx. 28. John x. 18. Upon this condition, life, eternal life, was promised unto them, 2 Tım. 1. 9. Tit. i. 2.; the promise was made to him, in their favour: so a promise may be made to a father concerning his children. This promise of eternal life, included all the blessings of

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the covenant, all the benefits of redemption, from the infusion of spiritual life, to a seat in glory. The Son was appointed to purchase redemption, and the elect to be partakers of it, 1 Thess. v. 9. But while such inestimable privileges were promised them, they were not so promised, but that God would require duty at their hand. Though faith, repentance, and new obedience, were secured to them by promise, John vi. 37. Zech. xii. 10. Psal. cx. 3. this did not bear, that these things should not be required of them in point of duty. As the promises of assistance to the Son, bore no prejudice to the conditions demanded of him; neither were the promises of grace to the elect, any how prejudicial to, or inconsistent with, the requiring of duty from them. From what God does in the application of redemption, we can be assured of what he did in purposing and promising it. The one is a certain key to the other.

Hence it appears, 3dly, That in this covenant, Christ was the head and representative of the elect. He engaged to pay their debt with his blood; as he was in time, to beget them again by his Spirit. Standing as in their place, substituting himself in their stead, charging himself with all their debt, whether of punishment, or of obedience, the Father gave them to him to be his seed, promising him "a name above every name," Phil. ii. 9.-11. and them an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away," 1 Pet. i. 4. And thus, the Westminster Assembly accurately express the matter, "The covenant of grace was made with

Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed," Larg. Cat. Quest. 31.

4thly, The promises made unto him, respecting them, as that they should be quickened, justified, &c. he turned into a testament in their favour. Whatever the Father thus promised to him, he bequeathed unto them. Accordingly, the promissory part of the covenant respecting them, became a testament, Psal. Ixviii. 18. Rev. ii. 26, 27. And in this point of view, the constitution of grace, is partly federal, and partly testamentary: federal, as to Christ; testamentary as to the elect, Luke xxii. 29.; or as the Westminster Assembly express themselves, "The covenant of grace is frequently set forth in the scripture, by the name of a testament," Chap. vii. sect. 4. It is so, however, with respect to the elect only. For as to Christ, he behoved to buy, before he could bequeath, 1 Cor. vi. 20. Eph. i. 15. whereas all is given to them freely, without money, and without price, Isa. lv. 1. Rev. xxii. 17.

The learned Leydekker's observations respecting this point, deserve a place here. "It is observed (says he,) that the blood of Christ is called the blood of the Diatheeke, Matt. xxvi. 28. because his bloody death ought to be considered, not only as that of the testator, but also as that of the priest of the covenant: for, inasmuch as it was bloody, and availed as a propitiatory sacrifice, Rom. iii. 25. Col. i. 20. Heb. x. 6, 9. it sealed the Syntheeke, the covenant of grace and reconciliation; but so far as it is considered simply as death, it ratified the absolute promises of the same covenant as testamentary.

Therefore the double relation of Christ's death, proves that we must not stop in the precise signification of a testament only, when we read of the Diatheke in Paul, or other sacred writers; but that we must, by all means, join the signification of a covenant, that the efficacy of Christ's death may thereby the more fully appear, and its satisfactory virtue be the more forcibly urged against the Socinians: for they will readily grant, that the death of Christ ratified the promises, provided they may elude its reconciling and satisfactory virtue, by which the covenant of grace is sealed unto us. Truly it was not necessary that the Holy Spirit should speak so of the blood of the Diatheke, if it demanded the signification of a testament only: since covenants used to be initiated and confirmed by a bloody death, a victim, and a sacrifice; not testaments, to ratify which, even a gentle death is justly sufficient." Vis Veritatis, p. 7, 8.

As the promissory part of the covenant respecting the elect, was, by the dying Redeemer, turned into a testament, it necessarily follows, that the legatees can be none other than those to whom the promises were originally made by the Father: the promissory part of the covenant regulating the testamentary, Matt. xx. 23. John vi. 37. xvii. 2. To whomsoever the promises were made in Christ, to them, and to them alone, are the promises made by him; otherwise his promises would be more extensive as to their objects, than his Father's are: that is to say, he would promise eternal life to them, to whom his Father never did. A doctrine not to be readily admitted, as neither agreeing with his delegated

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