FEDERAL THEOLOGY is the result of efforts to compress the doctrines of Chris tianity within the bounds of certain covenants conceived of as made between God and men. The essential idea of an ordinary covenant—that of a mutual compact between two parties by which each engages to render some benefit to the other—is indeed shut out by the nature of the case. When God and men are the parties, the benefit distinctively comes from him and the obligation distinctively rests on them. If the relationship exist between them, it must be determined and imposed by his sovereign right as a ruler. Yet it is more than a law or a promise. It includes a law to be obeyed, but the benefits far transcend the merit of the obedience. Mutual consent and obligation also are, in some sense, implied, as, on the one hand, God graciously binds himself to fulfill certain prom ises, and, on the other, men consent lyo.,the arrangement when.. understanding the con ditions prescribed, they enter off a course of obedience. advantage in adopting this method of expressing Scripture truth, generally speak of two covenants, the one of works, the other of grace. In both they see the same contracting parties— God and man; the same blessing to be secured—eternal life; and the same requirement of perfect obedience, but in the covenant of grace there is a dispensation of mercy, through the divine Mediator, which secures eternal life. I. The covenant of works, though nowhere in Scripture spoken of under that name, is thought to be referred to or implied. Some, indeed, think that it is expressly mentioned in Hosea vi. 7, which they translate, " They, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant." The contrast and analogy which Paul traces between the first and second Adam would (they say) have no basis unless a covenant had been entered into with the one as well as the other. Several essential features of a covenant are (they think) to be seen in the constitution under which Adam was placed 1. Eternal life was promised him on condition of his obedi ence; 2. He was constituted the representative of his race; 3. His powers were sufficient for the performance of the condition; 4. He woule have secured eternal life for his descendants, as well as for himself, had he continued faithful, 5. The penalty of dis obedience was death, natural, spiritual, and eternal, as each of these followed a for feiture of a divine life. After a time (how long is not known) this covenant was broken on the part of man who, "being left to the freedom of his own will, fell from the estate in which he was created." II. The covenant of grace is the name given, according to the view of these theologians, to God's glorious appointment of salvation by grace. We may conceive of the race as fallen, and of a merciful provision being made by which a door is opened wide enough for all mankind to enter, with a system of means by which the actual salvation of a limited number will be secured. Or we may regard the eye of God as fixed first on a limited number of the fallen race, and for their sake alone provid ing an atonement, sufficient indeed for all men, but designed and efficient for the salva tion only of that limited number. The latter is the aspect in which the covenant of grace is presented by some at least of its advocates. They suppose that God from eternity, anticipating the temporary character of the covenant of works, ordained another plan by which a portion of mankind would be saved from the ruins of the fall. Why he did not include the whole or a larger portion of mankind within the scope of his saving grace they prefer to leave where, they think, revelation leaves it—to the mere good pleasure of God. And, as the Bible speaks of some who were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world, they infer that there must have been in eternity an agreement between the persons of the sacred Trinity, according to which a seed was given to the Son to serve him. Without ascribing to the transaction the technicalities of a human compact, they contend that something equivalent to it must have existed. And as men could not act for themselves, the Son of God acted for all those of whom he was to be the spiritual head. To constitute a natural ground for this headship, he was to become Man, uniting his divinity in one person with humanity. He would thus become the federal head of his spiritual seed (as Adam was of his natural descendants), and as such, acting as their representative, the Son would share with them the curse which the first sin brought on the human race, suffering even unto death in its most terrific form. Though these sufferings would not be the same as the doom which other wise would have come on them spiritually and eternally, they are supposed to be of infinite value on account of his infinite dignity. They are indeed sufficient in objective worth to make expiation for any amount of sin in any number of worlds. They do actually confer innumerable benefits on all men. Through them pardon and salvation are offered to every one who hears the gospel; time, opportunity, and means of grace are afforded to all. But, it is agreed, all are not made partakers of salvation, and only a portion of mankind were eternally given to Christ Plainly the success of his work was not left uncertain. A seed was secured to him by covenant; and it was with ulti mate and supreme reference to these that he entered on his work. Such, it is declared, was the covenant of grace as formed in eternity. To this is to be added its accom plishment in time. The administrator of it is the Son of God himself, the mediator between God and man. He has power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to as many as have been given hitn. He represented the divine ruler in all the merciful dis pensations of which sacred history informs us. Although at different periods the out ward forms of religion have been changed, the covenant of grace, which is the founda tion of all, has always been the same. Believers before the flood, the patriarchs, Job and his friends, the Israelites under the .Mosaic dispensation, 'looked for forgiveness under certain prescribed conditions, and for a city beyond the present world, whose builder and maker is God. All national restriction removed, and the Holy Ghost in his fullness given, the Christian dispensation is the ultimate form in which the covenant of grace will be administered. The Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be its head until the whole world is subdued unto him. Finally, the present economy of things will cease, the dead will be raised, the living changed, all men judged at Christ's bar, and sentence passed on them according to their works. Then having obtained full posses sion of his kingdom, the Son will deliver it to the Father, either as indicating the close of his mediatorial office, or perhaps only in token of the completeness and loyalty of his work. It may be noted here that there is a form of theology which, recognizing the great facts of salvation by God's eternal grace, and not,clenying that they may be made to wear 'under terms of various covenants, deems it more natural and scriptural to set them forth under the terms of sovereign divine constitutions or ordainments.