The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

Sundry things there are in these Opinions that deserve an Examination; and they will most, if not all of them, occur unto us in our progress. That which alone we have occasion to enquire into with respect unto what we have discoursed concerning the Lord Christ as surety of the Covenant, and which is the Foundation of all that is asserted in them, is, That Christ by his death procured the New Covenant for us; which, as one says, is all that we have thereby; which if it should prove otherwise, we are not beholding unto it for any thing at all. But these things must be examined. And,

1. The Terms of procuring the New Covenant are ambiguous. It is not as yet (that I know of) by any declared how the Lord Christ did procure it; whether he did so by his Satisfaction and Obedience, as the meritorious cause of it, or by what other kind of causality. Unless this be stated we are altogether uncertain what Relation of the New Covenant unto the Death of Christ is intended. And to say that thereunto we owe the New Covenant, doth not mend the matter, but rather render the Terms more ambiguous. Neither is it declared whether the Constitution of the Covenant, or the Communication of the Benefits of it are intended. It is yet no less general, That God was so well pleased with what Christ did, as that hereon he made and entered into a New Covenant with mankind. This they may grant who yet deny the whole satisfaction and merit of Christ. If they mean that the Lord ⟨p. 267⟩Christ by his Obedience and Suffering did meritoriously procure the making and establishing of the New Covenant, which was all that he so procured, and the entire effect of his death, what they say may be understood, but the whole Nature of the Mediation of Christ is overthrown thereby.