Before we proceed to the more particular consideration of the words, it is very much worthy of our notice, to observe the apostle’s order and method of doctrine, and how he knits the believer’s privilege and duty together. He would have the privilege first believed, and then the duty performed: he would have us first believe, that the door of the holiest is opened by the blood of Jesus, that there is a new and living way consecrated for us, that we have a High Priest over the house of God, ready to introduce us into his presence; and upon these grounds of faith, he presses and inculcates the duty, Let us draw near, & c. It is pleasant hence to observe, how the method and order of the covenant of works is just inverted in the covenant of grace. In the covenant of works, duty was the foundation of our privilege; man was first to perform duty, and upon his doing of that, might expect the privilege in a way of pactional debt. But now, I say, the very reverse of this is God’s order and method in the covenant of grace; for here we are first to believe the privilege, or to receive it as a grant of sovereign grace, and upon that ground we are to go on to duty. This is a thing that needs to be adverted to with the utmost attention, in regard the very bensil of nature runs in the way of the covenant of works, namely, to expect the privilege on the force of duty, and to fancy that God is a debtor to us, when we have done this and the other duty required in the law: whereas the stream of nature runs quite cross to the order and method laid in the covenant of grace, namely, first to receive the privilege in a way of grace, like beggars receiving God’s alms; and then to perform duty, as a testimony of gratitude for the privilege received, without expecting any thing from the Lord upon the account of duty done by us. This is what proud nature spurns against with the utmost reluctancy. What? To take all freely, without money, and without price, and to reckon ourselves unprofitable servants when we have done all, is what depraved nature cannot yield to, till the heart be new moulded by sovereign and efficacious grace. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? ‘ & c. Wherefore have we fasted, and prayed, and thou takest no knowledge? is expressive of our natural way of thinking. But though this way be cross unto nature, yet this is the way in which God will have sinners saved, or else they shall never share of his salvation: he will have them to receive eternal life begun here, and consummate here- after, as the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, ‘ without regard to any of our doings as a foundation of our claim or title thereunto. Boasting must be for ever excluded, that the glory of our salvation may redound allenarly unto grace, which reigns through imputed righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. And therefore, I say, study to rivet upon your minds the order and method laid by God in the covenant of grace, where privilege received by faith is made the foundation of duty, and not duty the foundation of our claim to the privilege. This is the scheme or order laid in our Lesser Catechism, by the Westminster Assembly; where, in answer to the 3d question, we are told, that the scriptures principally teach, first, what man is to believe concerning God, and then, what duty God requires of man. And, according to this order, we have, first, the objects of faith, and privileges of believers explained; and then, the duties of the moral law inculcate upon that ground. And if this order of doctrine be inverted, we destroy the covenant of grace, and return to a covenant of works.
Ebenezer Erskine | The Whole Works of Ebenezer Erskine, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1826) 1.194–95 (HT: Cameron Dula)
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