The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

3. With respect unto the Declaration of it by especial Revelation. This we may call Gods making or establishing of it, if we please; though making of the Covenant in Scripture, is applied principally, if not only, unto its execution or actual Application unto Persons, 2 Sam. 23.5. Jerem. 32.40. This Declaration of the Grace of God, and the provision in the Covenant of the Mediator for the making of it effectual unto his Glory, is most usually called the Covenant of Grace. And this is twofold,

1. In the way of a singular and absolute Promise; so was it first: declared unto, and established with Adam, and afterwards with Abraham. The Promise is the Declaration of the Purpose of God before declared, or the free Determination and Counsel of his Will, as to his dealing with sinners on the supposition of the Fall, and their forfeiture of their ⟨p. 270⟩first Covenant state. Hereof the Grace and Will of God was the only cause, Heb. 8.8. And the Death of Christ could not be the means of its procurement, For he himself and all that he was to do for us, was the substance of that Promise. And this Promise as it is declarative of the Purpose or Counsel of the Will of God, for the Communication of Grace and Glory unto sinners, in and by the mediation of Christ, according to the Ways and on the Terms prepared and disposed in his Sovereign Wisdom and Pleasure, is formally the New Covenant, though something yet is to be added to complete its Application unto us. Now the substance of the first Promise, wherein the whole Covenant of Grace was virtually comprised, directly respected and expressed, the giving of him for the Recovery of Mankind from sin and misery by his death, Gen. 3.15. Wherefore if he, and all the Benefits of his Mediation, his Death and all the Effects of it, be contained in the Promise of the Covenant, that is, in the Covenant it self, then was not his death the procuring cause of that Covenant, nor do we owe it thereunto.