The covenant of life opened, or, A treatise of the covenant of grace

But Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament, v. 15. Ergo, &c. Now we are to know that Christs dying is considered; 1. As a paying of ransom for captives, by which, in Law and by way of merit, the ransom of the blood of God exceedeth the worth of the bought captives, or the crime committed by the captives; and so Christs death meriteth to his friends ransomed righteousness, life, pardon.

But Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament, v. 15. Ergo, &c. Now we are to know that Christs dying is considered; 1. As a paying of ransone for captives, by which, in Law and by way of meri•e, the ranson of the blood of God exceedeth the worth of the bought captives, or the crime committed by the captives; and so Christs death meriteth to his friends ransoned righteousnesse, life, pardon.

2. His dying is considered as a Testament of a dying friend. Now the living friends,¹ by virtue of a Testament as a Testament, have not •us and right by buying and selling to the goods tested. The essence and nature of a Testament is saved, whether the goods that are bequeathed in legacy be the free gift of the Testator, not bought with a price by him, or goods of the father of the friend, to which the friend being a German-brother hath as good right or the same right, by birth, that the Testator hath. How ever: the comparison holds in this. Christ 1. hath bequeathed to believers these goods. 2. The Testament is no Testament, nor valid in Law, except the Testator be dead. No man can sue by Law tested goods, if the Testator himself be living; Nor can we have right to a new heart, forgiveness, perseverance, eternal life, to grace and glory, except Christ our Testator had died. But because the Tested goods are more then goods left to us in Testament; they are left to us by such a Testament as is both a Testament and a death ⟨p. 319⟩perfectly meritorious (this is superadded to the nature of a Testament and beyond all Testaments) yea a death which is a price to ransom us from the wrath to come; Therefore Christ so dying in our stead, of justice meriteth that the friends should have these goods, though they belong by mere grace and free promise, to the friends. Now this is a most clear ground: Christ hath a well purchased right by giving a condign price for the goods and blessings promised in the Covenant of Grace to us: This right he hath by paying a price, laying down his life for us. This buying is not by necessity of nature, of justice, but by a voluntary, free and uncompelled agreement and Covenant,