1) The distance between God and the creature is so
great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him
as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward
of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which
he hath been pleased to express by way of
covenant.a
(a Luke
17:10, Job
35:7,8)
2) Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse
of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of
grace,b wherein he freely offereth unto sinners
life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in
him, that they may be saved;c and promising to
give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, his Holy
Spirit, to make them willing and able to
believe.d
(b Genesis
2:17, Galatians
3:10, Romans
3:20,21; c Romans
8:3, Mark
16:15,16, John
3:16; d Ezekiel
36:26,27, John
6:44,45, Psalms
110:3)
3) This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of
all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the
woman,e and afterwards by farther steps, until
the full discovery thereof was completed in the New
Testament;f and it is founded in that eternal
covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son
about the redemption of the elect;g and it is
alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of
fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed
immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with
God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of
innocency.h
(e Genesis
3:15; f Hebrews
1:1; g 2
Timothy 1:9, Titus
1:2; h Hebrews
11:6,13, Romans
4:1,2 etc., Acts
4:12, John
8:56)