shall dwell with the devouring fire? who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" The outward miseries of life he is so made liable to, are such as befall the outward man, as sickness, poverty, disgrace, and the like: Deut. xxviii. 15, to the end, "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments, and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field," &c. The death the natural man is liable to, is the dissolution of the soul and the body in virtue of the curse: Rom. vi. 23, "The wages of sin is death." That kind of death is stinged death: 1 Cor. xv. 5, "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." It is true, believers in Christ also are liable to miseries in this life, and to death itself; but they are not so made liable to them, not by the curse, not with the sting in them: 1 Cor. xv. 55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Howbeit, if man had not sinned, he would never have died: Gen. ii. 17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." The miseries in this life, and death itself, are, to believers in Christ, marks of God's displeasure with the sin in them, while yet he loves their persons in Christ: Psal. xcix. 8, "Thou answeredst them, O Lord our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions." Gen. iii. 15, 17, 18, 19, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee: and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

The pains of hell, that natural men are liable to, are, the pain of loss, and the pain of sense. The pain of loss in hell, is total and final separation from God: Matth. xxv. 41, "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." That separation from God, is not a local separation from him, as if God should not be in the place where they shall be: Psalm cxxxix. 8, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." But it is a re

lative separation, in an eternal blocking up of all comfortable communication between God and them: and the effect of that will be, a total eclipse of all light of comfort, and ease whatsoever, of body and mind, in the damned: Matth. xxii. 13, "Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Hos. ix. 12, "Wo to them when I depart from them." The pain of sense in hell, is unspeakable torment, both in soul and body, without intermission: Matth. xxv. 41, above cited. Mark ix. 43, 44, "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands, to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." And these pains of hell will never have an end with them: Matth. xxv. 41, "Depart-into everlasting fire."

QUEST. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

ANSW. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

EXPLICATION.

The state of sin and misery, is a state wherein all must perish, who are left of God in it, Eph. ii. 12, "At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world;" because it is beyond the reach of all created help, Isa. Ixiii. 5, " And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury, it upheld me." But God doth not leave all mankind to perish in it. Those whom he doth not leave to perish in it, are the elect: Rom. viii. 30, "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

The elect are some certain persons of mankind, whom God hath chosen to everlasting life, passing by others: Acts xiii. 48, " And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." Jude, verse 4,

"For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." This election or choice was made from eternity: Eph. i. 4, "According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love." And it infallibly secures their eternal salvation, with all the means leading thereto: Rom. viii. 30, forecited. Nothing foreseen in the creature, neither faith nor good works, was the cause of election; but only God's mere good pleasure was the cause of it: Eph. i. 6, "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

Now, the way that God provided the relief, was, that he entered into a second covenant, the covenant of grace. The design of the covenant of grace, was, "to deliver the elect out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer."

The covenant of grace, then, was made with Jesus Christ, as the second Adam, party-contractor: Psalm lxxxix. 3, "I have made a covenant with my chosen." Compared with 1 Cor. xv. 45, "The last Adam was made a quickening spirit." Gal. iii. 16, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Rom. v. 15, to the end. And Christ in this covenant represented all the elect, as his spiritual seed, the parties contracted for: Gal. iii. 16, forecited. Isa. liii. 10, 11, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." Then the covenant of redemption, and the covenant of grace, are not two distinct covenants, but two names of one covenant, under different considerations. That appears, in that the number of the covenants in Scripture is but two, whereof the covenant of works is one: Gal. iv. 24, "For these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar." By a covenant of redemption is meant a bargain of buying and selling; and the second covenant was such a covenant to Christ only: 1 Pet. i. 18, 19, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb

without blemish and without spot." By a covenant of grace is meant a bargain, whereby all is to be had freely; and it is such a covenant to poor sinners only: Is. lv. 1, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price." The covenant of grace was made from eternity; Tit. i. 2, "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Yet is it the second covenant, in respect of order and manifestation to the world, though it was first in being.

The condition of the covenant of grace is Christ's fulfilling all righteousness: Matth. iii. 15, "And Jesus said, thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." That righteousness was stated from the broken covenant of works: Rom. iii. 31, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” The righteousness that the broken covenant of works insists on as the necessary condition of eternal life to a sinner, is perfect holiness of nature, righteousness of life, and satisfaction for sin: Rev. xxi. ult. "And there shall in no wise enter into any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." Matth. xix. 17, "And Jesus said unto the young man, if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Heb. ix. 22, "Without shedding of blood is no remission." It justly so insists for holiness of nature, because that was given to man at first, and by the condition of the covenant he was obliged to keep it: Eccl. vii. 29, "God hath made man upright." It justly so insists for righteousness of life, for that was the express condition of it: Gal. iii. 12, "and the law is not of faith: but, the man that doth them, shall live in them." And it justly so insists for satisfaction, in virtue of the penalty incurred by the breaking of it: Gen. ii. 17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." But neither Adam, nor any of his fallen offspring, was able to perform that condition of life: Rom. v. 6, "We were without strength." Therefore, there is no salvation by the covenant of works: Rom. iii. 20, "Therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Chap. viii. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh," &c. But Jesus Christ did accept of that condition, as the condition of the covenant of grace: Psalm xl. 7, "Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me." And it was made the condition of the covenant of grace, that his spiritual seed might be saved, and the covenant of works fully satisfied for them:

3,

Rom. viii. 3, 4, "God sent his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." And Jesus Christ did fully perform it, in that, as a public person, he was born perfectly holy, lived perfectly holy, and made complete satisfaction by his death: Luke i. 35, "And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." 1 Cor. xv. 45, "The last Adam was made a quickening spirit," Phil. ii. 8, “ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

The promise of the covenant of grace, is a promise of a glorious reward to Christ himself, and eternal life to his spiritual seed: Isa. xlix. 4-9, "Then I said, Surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God," &c. Tit. i. 2, "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began." The eternal life promised in the covenant of grace, included in it all things necessary to make a sinner happy, in soul and body, for time and eternity: Rom. x. 5, " For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doth those things, shall live by them." Compared with Hab. ii. 4, "The just shall live by his faith." Even the promise of eternal life to Christ's spiritual seed, was made to Christ himself immediately, and to them mediately in him: Tit. i. 2, forceited. Heb. viii. 10, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." 2 Tim. i. 9, "God hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began." Gal. iii. 16, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."

It is necessary to the salvation of a sinner, that he personally enter into the covenant of grace: Eph. ii. 12, "At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Accordingly, the administration of the covenant is committed unto Jesus Christ the Head of it: Isa. xlix. 8,"Thus saith the Lord, I will give thee for a covenant of the people." And all the benefits of the covenant are lodged in his VOL. VII.

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