Chapter II: Of the Law of Faith, or Covenant of Grace

Of the Law of Faith, or Covenant of Grace

Ant. I beseech you, sir, proceed to help us to the true knowledge of the law of faith.

Evan. The law of faith is as much as to say the covenant of grace, or the gospel, which signifies good, merry, glad, and joyful tidings; that is to say, that God, to whose eternal knowledge all things are present, and nothing past or to come, foreseeing man's fall, before all time purposed, [44] and in time promised, [45] and in the fullness of time performed, [46] the sending of his Son Jesus Christ into the world, to help and deliver fallen mankind. [47]

Section I.
Of the eternal purpose of grace.

Ant. I beseech you, sir, let us hear more of these things; and first of all, show how we are to conceive of God's eternal purpose in sending of Jesus Christ.

Evan. Why, here the learned frame a kind of conflict in God's holy attributes; and by a liberty, which the Holy Ghost, from the language of holy Scripture, alloweth them, they speak of God after the manner of men, as if he were reduced to some straits and difficulties, by the cross demands of his several attributes. [48] For Truth and Justice stood up and said, that man had sinned, and therefore man must die; and so called for the condemnation of a sinful, and therefore worthily a cursed creature; or else they must be violated: for thou saidst, [said they to God], "In that day that thou eatest of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt die the death." Mercy, on the other side, pleaded for favour, and appeals to the great court in heaven: and there it pleads, saying, Wisdom, and power, and goodness, have been all manifest in the creation; and anger and justice have been magnified in man's misery that he is now plunged into by his fall: but I have not yet been manifested. [49] O let favour and compassion be shown towards man, woefully seduced and overthrown by Satan! Oh! said they [50] unto God, it is a royal thing to relieve the distressed; and the greater any one is, the more placable and gentle he ought to be. But Justice replied, If I be offended, I must be satisfied and have my right; and therefore I require, that man, who hath lost himself by his disobedience, should, for remedy, set obedience against it, and so satisfy the judgment of God. Therefore the wisdom of God became an umpire, and devised a way to reconcile them; concluding, that before there could be reconciliation made, there must be two things effected; (1.) A satisfaction of God's justice. (2.) A reparation of man's nature: which two things must needs be effected by such a middle and common person that had both zeal towards God, that he might be satisfied; and compassion towards man, that he might be repaired: such a person, as, having man's guilt and punishment translated on him, might satisfy the justice of God, and as having a fullness of God's Spirit and holiness in him, might sanctify and repair the nature of man. [51] And this could be none other but Jesus Christ, one of the Three Persons of the blessed Trinity; therefore he, by his Father's ordination, his own voluntary offering, and the Holy Spirit's sanctification, was fitted for the business. Whereupon there was a special covenant, or mutual agreement made between God and Christ, as is expressed, (Isa 53:10), that if Christ would make himself a sacrifice for sin, then he should "see his seed, he should prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper by him." So in Psalm 89:19, the mercies of this covenant between God and Christ, under the type of God's covenant with David, are set forth: "Thou spakest in vision to thy holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon One that is mighty": or, as the Chaldee expounds it, "One mighty in the law." As if God had said concerning his elect, I know that these will break, and never be able to satisfy me; but thou art a mighty and substantial person, able to pay me, therefore I will look for my debt of thee. [52] As Pareus well observes, God did, as it were, say to Christ, What they owe me I require all at thy hands. Then said Christ, "Lo, I come to do thy will! in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God! yea, thy law is in my heart," (Psa 40:7,8). Thus Christ assented, and from everlasting struck hands with God, to put upon him man's person, and to take upon him his name, and to enter in his stead in obeying his Father, and to do all for man that he should require, and to yield in man's flesh the price of the satisfaction of the just judgment of God, and, in the same flesh, to suffer the punishment that man had deserved; and this he undertook under the penalty that lay upon man to have undergone. [53] And thus was justice satisfied, and mercy by the Lord Jesus Christ; and so God took Christ's single bond; whence Christ is not only called the "surety of the covenant for us," (Heb 7:22), but the covenant itself, (Isa 49:8). And God laid all upon him, that he might be sure of satisfaction; protesting that he would not deal with us, nor so much as expect any payment from us; such was his grace. And thus did our Lord Jesus Christ enter into the same covenant of works that Adam did to deliver believers from it: [54] he was contented to be under all that commanding, revenging authority, which that covenant had over them, to free them from the penalty of it; and in that respect, Adam is said to be a type of Christ, as you have it, (Rom 5:14), "who was the type of him that was to come." To which purpose, the titles which the apostle gives these two, Christ and Adam, are exceeding observable: he calls Adam the "first man," and Christ our Lord the "second man," (1 Cor 15:47); speaking of them as if there never had been any more men in the world besides these two; thereby making them head and root of all mankind, they having, as it were, the rest of the sons of men included in them. The first man is called the "earthy man"; the second man, Christ, is called the "Lord from heaven," (1 Cor 15:47). The earthy man had all the sons of men born into the world included in him, and is so called, in conformity unto them, the "first man": [55] the second Man, Christ, is called the "Lord from heaven," who had all the elect included in him, who are said to be the "first born," and to have their "names written in heaven," (Heb 12:23), and therefore are appositely called "heavenly men"; so that these two, in God's account, stood for all the rest. [56] And thus you see, that the Lord, willing to show mercy to the fallen creature, and withal to maintain the authority of his law, took such a course as might best manifest his clemency and severity. Christ entered into covenant, and became surety for man, and so became liable to man's engagements: for he that answers as a surety must pay the same sum of money that the debtor oweth.

And thus have I endeavoured to show you, how we are to conceive of God's eternal purpose in sending of Jesus Christ to help and deliver fallen mankind.