Chapter 27: Of the Property of the Covenant of Grace, Its Perpetuity

Question: Wherein stands the eternity of the Covenant of Grace? And what other properties are there of the Covenant?

Answer: The Law and Covenant of Works is a rule of everlasting righteousness, and so may be called an everlasting righteousness containing precepts of the Law of nature intrinsically good, such as to know, love, fear, and trust in him as the only true God: and in this sense it is an eternal Covenant.

But first, it is not eternal in the positives of the second, and fourth, and fifth Commandments, the way of worship, the means, as Ceremonies, Sabbath, Magistracy, and such like, which are not to continue in the life to come, and so neither faith nor hope in God through Christ (1 Corinthians 13:13; Romans 8:24-25; 2 Corinthians 5:7), nor a Temple, nor Ordinances, nor the Kingdom of Christ as now dispensed, are to be the binding rule for eternity to such as are confederates of the Covenant of Grace (Revelation 21:22-23; 1 Corinthians 15:24), though more of the smell and remnants of the Covenant of Grace, of the Lamb, of praises to him who was slain (Revelation 5:9, 11, 14), be in the life to come than of the Law-Covenant, in regard of our standing in a state of glory for evermore by the Mediator, to keep the nature in an eternal union, for evermore, by the Lord Christ his being clothed with our nature, glorified forever (Revelation 3:21; Revelation 5; Revelation 7; Revelation 20; Revelation 21; Revelation 22). And in that we shall be ever with Christ God-Man (Luke 23:42; John 17:24; 1 Thessalonians 5; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23, 17) in an eternal state of glory, though not in regard of an advocation and intercession for fallen sinners, as in (1 John 2:1-2), or of praying that our faith fail not when winnowed, as in (Luke 22:31-32). In a word, there is a mediation of the triumphing reign for the standing of the glorified nature, and a mediation for the reconciling of and interceding for sinners. The latter must cease when the Kingdom is given up by the Son to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24). The former is eternal and shall never cease.

Second, the Law as a possible and standing way of justifying and saving sinners is not eternal, but has now ceased to all flesh, the Man Christ only excepted, but the Covenant of Grace stands as the only way under heaven by which sinners may be saved, and after the Covenant of Grace there is no dispensation, which Libertines and Familists call more spiritual without Ordinances and a way as they speak of all spirit, of pure spirit.

Third, the Covenant of Grace is eternal, in regard that in it there is promised actual grace, and continual influences of grace from the Head Christ, the High Priest, to keep the confederates in obedience and in perseverance to the end. And no such influences either for the habit of grace or for the continued acts thereof are promised in the Covenant of Works, in regard Adam, a man, and poor men in him, undertake to obey. Whereas Christ-Man binds and undertakes as head Covenanter and Surety for all the under confederates, and for sinners in the Covenant of Grace. Which difference is much to be observed between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace: and for that cause the Covenant of Works is, first, more independent, and requires more of man's strength and less grace than the other.

Second, it stands more by precepts, less by promises, having only one promise of a reward and hire to the obeyer, and consists all of precepts; the other, though it lacks not precepts — especially it is his command that we believe in the Son of God — yet stands most by promises, and this Covenant gets the name of a promise or the promise (Acts 2:39; Romans 8:9 compared with Acts 3:25; Genesis 12:3).

Third, the Covenant of Works has more of hire, more of man, of nature, of earning and working, and more of man's Covenant, where he binds for himself, and the other party for himself, without the mutual help of any of the confederate parties.

Fourth, the Covenant of Grace is, thus, also eternal, in that the buried and dead parties Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still in the Covenant of Grace, and there remains a Covenant-union between Christ and their rotten flesh sleeping in the dust, which is not a union by faith, or by any obediential actings of dead men, as is most evident if we compare our Savior's words (Matthew 22:32) with the Lord speaking out of the Bush to Moses (Exodus 3:6), and God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; nor is the rising of the body promised in the Covenant of Works, nor is there a standing Law-Covenant between the Lord and dead Abraham requiring the condition of faith from buried men. Only there is a warrant to say that the Covenant is everlasting: first, because it goes beyond time and stands with the dead in Christ (Matthew 22:32); second, because two great promises of the Covenant — the rising of the body and life everlasting — are fulfilled after time is ended (John 6:38-39; 1 Thessalonians 4:14, 16-17); and add to this the public owning and confessing of the saints before the Father and the holy Angels, which is public remission and declared justification before the world of elect men and angels (Luke 12:8; Matthew 10:32); third, because after all these, to walk among them as their God and dwell among them (Revelation 7:15-17), when they are clothed in white robes and are before the throne serving him night and day, and that the Lord should be their God (Revelation 21:7) after they have overcome all temptations, is fulfilled eternally in heaven. Now for God to walk among a people and be their God is to be a Covenanting God to them, as is evident from (2 Corinthians 6:16; Leviticus 26:11-12; Jeremiah 32:38; Zechariah 13:6).

Second, the second and principal property of the Covenant is the graciousness and freedom thereof; therefore it is made with sinners, without hire or price, and every article and link of it is Grace. First, the whole Gospel is the word of Grace (Acts 20:32; Colossians 1:6), the bargain a [reconstructed: portion] of Grace, and the new Covenant (Hebrews 8:8), for Grace is a new thing and nature an old thing; the condition of the Covenant, to believe, is a gift of grace (Philippians 1:29); the mercies bestowed and promised are all of free grace, for we are justified by his grace (Romans 3:24) freely, and are saved and called with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace (2 Timothy 1:9). For by grace, says Paul, are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8), and the new creation is framed in us of grace. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5), and the new heart promised (Ezekiel 36:26) is given upon this account (verse 32): Not for your sakes do I this, says the Lord, be it known to you, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. We have remission of sins freely of his grace (Ephesians 1:7): In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace (Colossians 1:14). Perseverance is promised of free grace (Jeremiah 31:35; Jeremiah 32:39-40; Isaiah 54:10), as eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23), and every influence of grace is of free grace (Philippians 1:13; John 15:5), and Christ the Surety of the Covenant, of free grace and love, is given (John 3:16) to taste of death for every man (Hebrews 2:9).