Chapter X
What is the reason that though we receive all these blessings by Christ, and on
the account of his merits, yet they are said to be given to us of pure grace.
And upon this covenant made with Christ, and compact between God and him for us, comes it, that all things we have by Christ, though pur chased by him, are yet said to be by grace, as well as by Christ s merits, because they are bestowed by a compact with Christ, by virtue of which
compact his merits are accepted for us ; so that though Christ laid down a price worth all the grace and glory we shall have, yet that it should be
accepted for us, and allHhat grace bestowed on us, comes from this com- * Vide Athan. Ora. iii. cont. Arianos.
CHAP. XI.] OF CHEIST THE MEDIATOR. 31
pact and covenant made by God with Christ to accept it for us. And the
acceptation of it for us depends as much on that covenant made with Christ
as on his merits. Therefore, Heb. x. 10, our sanctification and salvation
is ascribed as much to God s will and covenant with Christ (of which he
spake, ver. 7) as to Christ s offering himself; for he says, By which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Christ. And there
fore, as it is said that Christ died, so also it is God that justifies ; Rom.
* Who shall lay anything to the charge of God s elect ? It is God
viii. 33,
that justifieth; justifies freely by his grace; Rom. iii. 24, Being justified
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Though Christ hath laid down a sufficient price, and equal to the guilt of our sins,
yet that God justifies us for it is an act of grace. Why ? Because the
acceptation of it for us was out of covenant ; and therefore our divines say
against the Jesuits, that his merits are merits ex compacto, and not which
absolutely could oblige God to us. Though they be equal to our demerits
by sin, yet it is only that relation that they had to this covenant made with
Christ which gave acceptation to them for us.
And the reason is, because to satisfy for another, especially in corporal punishments, requires the compact and willingness of the party to be satis
fied, to accept it for him that should else undergo it. Let the satisfaction be never so equivalent to the wrong, yet without a covenant of the party to be satisfied it may be refused. Therefore umpires use to bind the parties in bond to stand to their word ; Quando aliud offertur quam est in olliga-
tione, satisfactio est recusaHlis, say the schoolmen. So Ahab offered Naboth
as good a vineyard as his own, yet he might refuse it, as he did. This covenant therefore which God made with Christ, to bestow all the merits
of his obedience on us, which he called him unto, is the main foundation
of all our happiness. As it obliged and engaged God firmly to us in Christ, so it makes all that Christ purchased to be of grace. Though he paid an
equivalent price to what we should have done, and much more, yet it is
accepted for us out of a covenant of grace. And therefore in Rom. v. 17, though the apostle shews and proves that there is more merit in Christ s obedience to justify than in Adam s sin to condemn, yet the imputing of
it to us he calls abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness. Though it was an abounding righteousness, yet there was an abounding of
grace to accept it for us, and it is derived by way of gift. And the ground of all is because of this covenant made by God with Christ for us, upon which the acceptation of all depends.