Of the Covenant of Grace

Question 14. Did God leave mankind to perish in this state of sin and misery?

Response. No; He entered into a covenant of grace to deliver the elect out of that estate, and bring them into a state of grace by a Redeemer.

(Isaiah 55:3) I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Man being by his fall plunged into a labyrinth of misery, and having no way left to recover himself, God was pleased to enter into a new covenant with him, and so restore him to life by a Redeemer.

The great proposition I shall go upon is, that there is a new covenant ratified between God and the elect.

Question. What the new covenant is?

Response. It is a solemn compact and agreement made between God and fallen man, wherein the Lord undertakes to be our God, and to make us his people.

Question. What names are given to the covenant?

Response. 1. It is called a covenant of peace (Ezekiel 37:26), because it seals up reconciliation between God and humble sinners. Before this covenant there was nothing but enmity; God did not love us. A creature that offends cannot be loved by a holy God; and we did not love him; a God that condemns cannot be loved by a guilty creature: so that there was war on both sides. But God has found out a way in the new covenant to reconcile differing parties, so that it is fitly called a covenant of peace.

2. It is called a covenant of grace, and well it may; for 1. it was with grace, that when we had forfeited the first covenant, God should enter into a new covenant, after we had cast away ourselves. The covenant of grace is Tabula post naufragium, as a plank after shipwreck. O the free grace of God, that he should parley with sinners, and set his wisdom and mercy to work to bring rebels into the bond of the covenant.

2. It is a covenant of grace, because it is a royal charter, all made up of terms of grace; that God will cast our sins behind his back; that he will love us freely (Hosea 14:4); that he will give us a will to accept of the mercy of the covenant, and strength to perform the conditions of the covenant (Ezekiel 37:26). All this is pure grace.

Question. Why would God make a covenant with us?

Response. 1. It is out of indulgence, favor, and respect to us. A tyrant will not enter into a covenant with slaves, he will not show them such respect. God's entering into covenant with us to be our God is a dignity he puts upon us. A covenant is Insigne honoris, a note of distinction between God's people and heathens (Ezekiel 16:22). I will establish my covenant with you. When the Lord told Abraham that he would enter into covenant with him, Abraham fell upon his face (Genesis 17:2), as being amazed that the God of glory should bestow such a favor upon him.

2. God makes a covenant with us to tie us fast to him; it is called in Ezekiel the bond of the covenant. God knows we have slippery hearts, therefore he will have a covenant to bind us. It is horrid impiety to go away from God after covenant. If one of the Vestal Nuns, who had vowed herself to religion, was deflowered, the Romans caused her to be burnt alive. It is perjury to depart from God after solemn covenant.

Question. How does the covenant of grace differ from the first covenant made with Adam?

Response. 1st Difference. The terms of the first covenant were more strict and severe. For 1. the least failing would have made the covenant with Adam null and void, but many failings do not null the covenant of grace: I grant the least sin is a trespass upon the covenant, but it does not make it null and void. There may be many failings in the conjugal relation, but every failing does not break the marriage bond. It would be sad, if as often as we break covenant with God, he should break covenant with us; but God will not take advantage of every failing, but in anger remember mercy.

2. The first covenant being broken, allowed the sinner no remedy, all doors of hope were shut: but the new covenant allows the sinner a remedy; it leaves room for repentance, it provides a Mediator (Hebrews 12:24), Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant.

2nd Difference. The first covenant did run all upon working, the second upon believing (Romans 4:5).

Question. But are not works required in the covenant of grace?

Answer. Yes (Titus 3:8): This is a faithful saying, that they which believe in God be careful to maintain good works. But the covenant of grace does not require works in the same manner as the covenant of works did. In the first covenant, works were required as the condition of life; in the second, they are required only as the signs of a man that is alive. In the first covenant, works were required as grounds of salvation; in the new covenant, they are required as evidences of our love to God. In the first they were required to the justification of our persons, in the new, to the testification of our grace.

Question. What is the condition of the covenant of grace?

Answer. The main condition is faith.

Question. But why is faith more the condition of the new covenant, than any other grace?

Answer. To exclude all glorying in the creature. Faith is a humble grace. If repentance or works were the condition of the covenant, a man would say, It is my righteousness that has saved me: but if it be of faith, where is boasting? Faith fetches all from Christ, and gives all the glory to Christ; it is the most humble grace. Hence it is that God has singled out this grace to be the condition of the covenant.

And if faith be the condition of the covenant of grace, it excludes desperate presumptuous sinners from the covenant. They say there is a covenant of grace, and they shall be saved; but did you ever know a bond without a condition? The condition of the covenant is faith, and if you have no faith, you have no more to do with the covenant than a foreigner, or a country farmer with the city charter.

Use 1. of Information. See the amazing goodness of God to enter into covenant with us. He never entered into covenant with the angels when they fell. It was much condescension in God to enter into covenant with us in a state of innocency, but it was more to enter into covenant with us in a state of enmity. In this covenant of grace we may see the cream of God's love, and the working of his bowels to sinners. This is a marriage-covenant (Jeremiah 3:14): I am married to you, says the Lord. In the new covenant God makes himself over to us, and what can he give more? And he makes over his promises to us, and what better bond can we have?

Use 2. of Trial. Whether we are in covenant with God. There are three characters.

1. God's covenant people are a humble people (1 Peter 5:5): be clothed with humility. God's people esteem others better than themselves; they shrink into nothing in their own thoughts (Philippians 2:3). David cries out, I am a worm, and no man (Psalm 22:6) — though a saint, though a king, yet a worm. When Moses's face shone, he covered it with a veil: God's people, when they shine most in grace, are covered with the veil of humility. Pride excludes from the covenant. God resists the proud (1 Peter 5:5), and surely such are not in covenant with God, whom he resists.

2. A people in covenant with God are a willing people; though they cannot serve God perfectly, they serve him willingly. They do not grudge God a little time spent in his worship, they do not hesitate or murmur at sufferings, they will go through a sea and a wilderness if God calls (Psalm 110:3): Your people shall be a willing people — Hebrew, gnam nedabot, a people of willingness. This spontaneity and willingness is from the attractive power of God's Spirit: the Spirit does not impellere, force, but trahere, sweetly draw the will; and this willingness in religion makes all our services accepted. God does sometimes accept of willingness without the work, but never the work without willingness.

3. God's covenant people are a consecrated people, they have holiness to the Lord written upon them; [reconstructed: casta placent superis] — (Deuteronomy 7:6): You are a holy people to the Lord your God. God's covenant people are separated from the world, and sanctified by the Spirit. The priests under the law were not only to wash in the great laver, but were arrayed with glorious apparel (Exodus 28:2). This was typical, to show God's people are not only washed from gross sin, but adorned with holiness of heart: they bear not only God's name, but his image. Tamerlane refused a pot of gold, when he saw it had not his father's stamp upon it, but the Roman stamp. Holiness is God's stamp; if he does not see this stamp upon us, he will not own us for his covenant people.

Use 3. of Exhort. To such as are out of covenant, labor to get into covenant and have God for your God. How glad would the old world have been of an ark? How industrious should we be to get within the ark of the covenant.

Consider 1. the misery of such as live and die out of covenant with God. 1. Such have none to go to in an hour of distress. When conscience accuses, when sickness approaches (which is but a harbinger to bespeak a lodging for death), then what will you do? Where will you fly? Will you look to Christ for help? He is a mediator only for such as are in covenant. O! how will you be filled with horror and despair, and be as Saul (1 Samuel 15:28): The Philistines make war against me, and the Lord is departed. 2. Till you are in covenant with God, there is no mercy. The mercy-seat was placed upon the ark, and the mercy-seat was no larger than the ark; to show that the mercy of God reaches no further than the covenant.

2. The excellency of the covenant of grace; it is a better covenant than the first made with Adam. 1. Because it is more friendly and propitious. Those services which would have been rejected in the first covenant, are accepted in the second. Here God accepts of the will for the deed (2 Corinthians 8:10); here sincerity is crowned. In the covenant of grace, wherein we are weak, God will give strength, and wherein we come short, God will accept of a surety. 2. It is a better covenant, because it is surer (2 Samuel 23:5): You have made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. The first covenant was not sure, it stood upon a tottering foundation, works; Adam had no sooner a stock of righteousness to trade with, but he broke; but the covenant of grace is sure, it is confirmed with God's decree, and it rests upon two mighty pillars, the oath of God, and the blood of God. 3. It has better privileges. The covenant of grace brings preferment. Our nature is now more ennobled, we are raised to higher glory than in innocency, we are advanced to sit upon Christ's throne (Revelation 3:21), we are by virtue of the covenant of grace nearer to Christ than the angels. They are his friends, we his spouse.

3. God is willing to be in covenant with you. Why does God woo and beseech you by his ambassadors to be reconciled, if he were not willing to be in covenant?

Object. I would gladly be in covenant with God, but I have been a great sinner, and I fear God will not admit me into covenant.

Resp. If you see your sins, and loathe yourself for them, yet God will take you into covenant (Isaiah 43:24): You have wearied me with your iniquities; I, even I am he that blots out your transgressions. As the sea covers great rocks, so God's covenant-mercy covers great sins. Some of the Jews that crucified Christ, yet had their sins washed away in his blood.

Object. But I am not worthy that ever God should admit me into covenant.

Answ. It never came into God's thoughts to make a new covenant upon terms of worthiness. If God should show mercy to none but such as are worthy, then he must show mercy to none at all. But, it is God's design in the new covenant to advance the riches of grace, to love us freely, and when we have no worthiness of our own, to accept us through Christ's worthiness. Therefore let not unworthiness discourage you; it is not unworthiness that excludes any from the covenant, but unwillingness.

Quest. What shall we do that we may be in covenant with God?

Answer 1. Seek to God by prayer. Exige à Domino misericordiam, Augustine. Lord, be my God in covenant. The Lord has made an express promise, that upon our prayer to him, the covenant shall be ratified, he will be our God, and we shall be his people (Zechariah 13:9). They shall call upon my name, and I will hear them; I will say it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God. Only it must be an importunate prayer. Come as earnest suitors, resolve to take no denial.

2. If you would be in covenant with God, break off the covenant with sin; before the marriage covenant, there must be a divorce (1 Samuel 7:3). If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, put away the strange gods; and they put away Ashtaroth; namely, their female gods. Will any king enter into covenant with that man who is in league with his enemies?

3. If you would enter into the bond of the covenant, get faith in the blood of the covenant. Christ's blood is the blood of atonement; believe in this blood and you are safely arked in God's mercy (Ephesians 2:13). You are made near to the blood of Christ.

Use 4. Of comfort to such as can make out their covenant interest in God: 1. You that are in covenant with God, all your sins are pardoned. Pardon is the crowning mercy (Psalm 103:3). Who forgives your iniquity, who crowns you, etc. This is a branch of the covenant (Jeremiah 31:33). I will be their God, and I will forgive their iniquity. Sin being pardoned, all wrath ceases. How terrible is it when but a spark of God's wrath flies into a man's conscience; but sin being forgiven, no more wrath. God does not appear now in the fire, or earthquake, but covered with a rainbow full of mercy.

2. All your temporal mercies are fruits of the covenant. Wicked men have mercies by providence, not by virtue of a covenant; with God's leave, not with his love. But such as are in covenant have their mercies sweetened with God's love, and they swim to them in the blood of Christ. As Naaman said to Gehazi (2 Kings 5:23), Take two talents, so says God to such as are in covenant, Take two talents; take health, and take Christ with it; take riches, and take my love with them; take the venison, and take the blessing with it: Take two talents.

3. You may upon all occasions plead the covenant. If you are haunted with temptation, plead the covenant; Lord, you have promised to bruise Satan under my feet shortly; will you suffer your child to be thus worried? Take off the roaring lion. If in want, plead the covenant; Lord, you have said, I shall want no good thing, will you save me from hell, and not from want? Will you give me a kingdom, and deny me daily bread?

4. If in covenant with God, all things shall co-operate for your good: Etiam mala cedunt in bonum (Psalm 25:10). Not only golden paths, but his bloody paths. Every wind of providence shall blow them nearer heaven. Affliction shall humble and purify (Hebrews 12:10). Out of the bitterest drug, God distills your salvation. Afflictions add to the saints' glory. The more the diamond is cut, the more it sparkles; the heavier the saints' cross, the heavier shall be their crown.

5. If you are in covenant once, then forever in covenant. The text calls it Berith Gnolam, an everlasting covenant. Such as are in covenant are elected; God's electing love is unchangeable (Jeremiah 32:40). I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, but I will put my fear in their heart, that they shall not depart from me. God will so love the saints, that he will not forsake them: and the saints shall so fear God, that they shall not forsake him. It is Berith Gnolam, a covenant of eternity; it must be so; for who is this covenant made with? Is it not with believers? And have not they coalition and union with Christ; Christ is the head, they are the body (Ephesians 1:23). This is a near union, much like that union between God the Father and Christ (John 17:21). As you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us. Now the union between Christ and the saints being so inseparable, it can never be dissolved, or the covenant made void; you may die with comfort.

6. You are in covenant with God, and you are going to your God, behold a deathbed cordial; death breaks the union between the body and the soul, but perfects the union between Christ and the soul. This has made the saints desire death, as the bride the wedding day (Philippians 1:23). Cupio dissolvi, Lead me Lord to that glory (said one) a glimpse whereof I have seen, as in a glass, darkly.

Use 5. Of direction. To show you how you should walk who have tasted of covenant mercy, live as a people in covenant with God. As you differ from others in respect of dignity, so you must in point of conduct.

1. You must love this God. God's love to you calls for love. 1. It is Amor Gratiatus, a free love. Why should God pass by others and take you into a league of friendship with himself? In the law God passed by the lion and eagle, and chose the dove; so he passes by the noble and mighty. 2. It is Amor [reconstructed: plenus], a full love. When God takes you into covenant, you are his Hephsibah (Isaiah 62:3), his delight is in you; he gives you the key of all his treasure, he heaps pearls upon you, he settles heaven and earth upon you; he gives you a bunch of grapes by the way, and says, Son, all I have is yours. And does not all this call for love? Who can tread upon these hot coals, and his heart not burn in love to God?

2. Walk holily. The covenant has made you a royal nation, therefore be a holy people. Shine as lights in the world; live as earthly angels. God has taken you into covenant, that you and he may have communion together: and what is it keeps up your communion with God, but holiness.

3. Walk thankfully (Psalm 103:1). God is your God in covenant; he has done more for you, than if he had made you ride upon the high places of the earth, and given you crowns and scepters. O! Take the cup of salvation, and bless the Lord. Eternity will be little enough to praise him. Musicians love to play on their music where there is the loudest sound; and God loves to bestow his mercies where he may have the loudest praises. You that have angels' reward, do angels' work. Begin that work of praise here, which you hope to be always doing in heaven.