avail to deliver us from the wrath to come. And the more clearly we can see that we are exposed to that wrath, the more urgently does it become us to address ourselves to the remedy afforded by the blood of Christ. Nay, that very sense of our sinfulness is at once a proof that we are like those Christ came to save, and a help to us in discerning him as the way, the truth, and the life. It is a true saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; and the assured way of being saved is to call on his adorable name.1 3 2 6 5 4. We are told that God has chosen us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. And in immediate connection with this statement, the separate and the concurring action of each person. in the Godhead, for us and in us, as well as the blessings and benefits which flow to us, and the glory which redounds to God, are distinctly set forth. It was the will of God that the Son should undertake our salvation; and he did it with delight." As a part of his reward, he asked and received as his own, those whom he would redeem by his own most precious blood. And it was his unalterable love to the Father, and to the redeemed, which led him to undertake and perform all his work as Mediator between God and men. It is, in divine love, through divine goodness, and with a divine satisfaction, that through the counsel, the purpose, and the will of God, we are chosen by him before the foundation of the world, in Christ Jesus, in whose blood we have redemption, and in whom we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, unto the praise of the glory of God." This, let us remember, is not stated as the conclusion of our poor reason, but is the detailed account given by inspiration to the saints themselves, through the greatest human expositor of the mind of God and therewith all the Scriptures concur. And therewith also the unalterable faith of the church of God agrees, and the spiritual life and experience of the children of God accord. The work of God confirms the word of God. 1 1 Tim., i. 15; Rom., x. 13. 4 Ps. xl. 6-10. 6 John, xiii. 1; xvii. 4–6. 8 8 John, iii. 15–17; Rom., v. 8; 1 Thess., iv. 8; 1 Pet., i. 2; 2 Thess., ii. 13. CHAPTER IV. THE SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS LAID ON MAN, AS SPECIAL CONDITIONS OF THE COVENANT OF REDEMPTION. I. 1. Ultimate Truths concerning Human Nature.-2. Influence of these Truths upon the Divine Means of Human Restoration.-3. The Universal Relation of Obedience to God and Life in God: this Relation as exhibited through the Covenant of Redemption.-4. The Universal Need of Special Divine Assistance, in order to Obedience and Life.-II. 1. Special Conditions of the Covenant of Redemption considered as a Covenant between God and Elect Sinners.-2. The Grounds of Separation between Men and God, and the Means of their Removal --with the Relations of all to the Conditions of this Covenant.-3. Faith and Repentance, the Conditions of Salvation for Sinners.-III. 1. The double Office of both these Graces of the Spirit: their special Nature as considered here.—2. Analogy between the two Sacraments which signify and seal, and the two Conditions on which we receive, all the Benefits of this Covenant.-3. Saving Faith summarily explained.-4. Repentance unto Life summarily explained.-5. Repentance toward God considered as a Duty, in the neglect of which Salvation is impossible for Sinners.-6. Faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, considered in the same respect.—7. Analogy of the two Covenants, with respect to the obligatory Force of their special Conditions.-IV. 1. Nature of the Impotence produced by Sin: and of Obedience performed in Sin.-2. No conceivable Change in God or Ourselves, can make Salvation for Sinners possible, in any other way.—3. It is effectual in this way, only upon the Allowance of Divine Assistance.-4. The overwhelming practical Illustration furnished by all Sinners, whether Believing or Unbelieving, Penitent or Impenitent.-5. The Means proposed by God, and their Result. I.—1. THERE are elements in human nature, ultimate truths of our being, original data of consciousness, which neither the teacher of theology nor the preacher of the Gospel, can lose sight of for a moment, without giving up, at the same time, the very foundation of every appeal to man. The sense of duty, which touches on one side our sense of the true, and on the other our sense of the good: the sense of responsibility, commensurate exactly with the sense of duty, testifying continually both to our moral nature, and to the moral government which is, and which must forever be, over us: the sense of blameworthiness on account of duty neglected and condemnation justly incurred, which is the testimony of our conscience to our guilt: the sense of satisfaction on account of duty discharged and approval justly awarded, which is the testimony of our conscience to our rectitude: these are indestructible conditions of our moral constitution, which must exist, so far as we can understand, while our nature exists, under every possible form of the divine administration over us. Any fundamental change in them applied to our whole race, would immediately change the relations of the whole race to Adam, to Christ, and to God, as well as the relations of the individuals of the race to each other; and any such change applied to any individual of the race, would immediately break in two the chain of his own continued conscious. existence, and destroy his personal identity. 2. Whatever, therefore, may be the nature of the Covenant of Redemption, considered as a covenant in eternity between the Persons of the Godhead, having any applicability to man; in all the obligations it may lay on him, and all the conditions of it which may have special relation to him-these fundamental peculiarities of his moral constitution will be made full account of by him who is the author alike of human nature, and of the infinitely gracious covenant by which that nature is to be restored and exalted. In like manner, only still more clearly, when in that eternal covenant, Christ is considered as the head of all believers, or it is considered as being manifested in time as a covenant between God and the soul of the believer; this moral constitution of man, deduced not only from his own intimate consciousness, but also from the statements of God concerning it in his blessed word, must, in a manner, be decisive in its influence on the infinite remedy, so far as it is to be applied to his own inner life. It is hardly worth while to discuss questions which seem to be so obvious. I, therefore, content myself with repeating, that in every act and work of God, he respects, in the most exact manner, every other act and work of his; every departure from this method being indeed strictly miraculous. And as to his covenant dealings with man, the fundamental principle on which they all proceed, is the special bestowment of new and higher mercies: and the specific difference between God's Covenants with man, considered as of Works and of Grace, lies in the transcendent mercy of the way in which grace is bestowed, as well as in the transcendent grace itself. It is under the light of truths such as these, that whatever conditions and obligations are annexed to the Covenant of Redemption, are to be contemplated; as on the one hand they are exalted in their relation to the glory and love of God, and on the other magnified in their relation to the sinner they would save and advance. The idea of their being obstructions which the sinner must overcome, difficulties thrown across the entrance of the way of life, is wholly inconsistent with the nature and objects of Redemption, and wholly subversive of our hope of deliverance thereby. 3. It has been abundantly shown, that if God had not made the Covenant of Works with man, every duty obligatory on man in his primeval estate, would have been a condition of life: and that any breach of any obligation imposed on him by that estate sufficiently grave to require redress, would have necessarily forfeited the favour of God. Everywhere under the dominion of God, obedience and life go together. The universal obedience of all, in all things, under our primeval estate; the restricted and covenanted obedience of Adam, under the Covenant of Works ; the universal and covenanted obedience of Christ, under the Covenant of Grace; and the new obedience of the elect under the same covenant. Everywhere it is obedience and life. Do and live: do that others may live: do that sinners may live, and living may do in Christ. These are the successive forms in which the universal conception of obedience and life is developed in the word of God, and the spiritual progress of man. The duty of universal obedience unto life in man's first estate, or that of special obedience unto life under the Covenant of Works, could be no clearer, no more binding, no more indispensable to the reward, nor its breach any more attended by loss of the favour of God than the duty of the new obedience under the Covenant of Redemption, and the loss of the favour of the Saviour without it. There is this grand difference, that Adam fell, and that Christ triumphed; so that in Adam it is the consequences of the breach of duty that we encounter; while in Christ it is the consequences of all righteousness fulfilled that we encounter. But this instead of making more obscure makes more clear, the obligation of our new obedience in order to the favour of the Saviour, and the recovered favour of God, and therewith our recovered and better life through him. And so with relation to that new obedience, and in order to our fitness for it, are those special condi 5 tions and obligations of the Covenant of Redemption, through which our ability to that new obedience is either obtained or manifested. And this is but another way of saying, those special conditions and obligations are with relation to our union with Christ, and our restoration through him to God; and are in order to enjoy and manifest that union and that restoration. And if no such special obligations and conditions were annexed by God to the Covenant of Redemption; what would occur would be, that every duty and every obligation of man under that covenant, would become a condition of life to us, under it. That is, in effect, the Covenant of Grace would be most signally changed to our total undoing. For now, by means of these special conditions and obligations, we are so united to Christ, that our imperfect obedience is accepted on account of his perfect obedience : whereas, but for them, our new obedience would have to be perfect in all things, in order to be accepted. 4. Nor does it alter the case at all, under either covenant, that man, on account of his fallibility under one, and his depravity under the other; stood in constant need of divine help, in order to perform the special duties imposed on him, as conditions of obtaining the blessings held forth in either covenant. For he needed the divine aid, under both covenants, to enable him to discharge every duty possible under each of them, as really as he needed it to perform the special duties designated as special conditions of them, and special tests of his condition before God. His dependence on God is absolute, both as a creature merely, and as a sinful creature. His moral constitution, once fallible only, is now fallen: but it is otherwise the same moral constitution. Life and immortality, now brought to light in a new, perfect, and glorious form by the Gospel for sinful men, were offered to be confirmed and augmented to man in his estate of innocence. The grand difference is, that under the first covenant, special divine aid was not promised and was not given, and therefore fallible man did not discharge the special condition of that covenant-but fell: while under the second covenant special divine aid was promised and is given, and therefore fallen man does discharge the especial conditions of that covenant—and is restored. And the whole ground of this difference is, that the first covenant was one of Works, while the second covenant is one of Grace and Redemption. I have explained |