Christ Our Covenant

17th century Particular Baptist, Robert Purnell, wrote A Little Cabinet, in 1657. In this piece, Purnell describes the typical 17th c. Baptist view of Christ as our Covenant. It's a warm and exalting statement of faith.

"To close up all as to the nature of this Covenant. Let me tell thee the main substance of the Covenant is in these words, I will be their God, and they shall be my people, but sprinkling with clean water, taking away the stony heart, and giving a heart of flesh, all these are nothing but the fruits of the Covenant. So Christ is given for a Covenant to the people: that is the Covenant of Grace takes its being from Christ to us: Adam was all mankind, as all mankind was in Adam, in the loyns of Adam; so Christ is the Covenant, and all the Covenant is as it were in the loins of Christ, and springs to us out of him; in this sense he is the Covenant-maker, he is the Covenant-undertaker, he is the Covenant-manager, he is the Covenant-dispenser, he doth everything in the Covenant, he makes the articles, he draws God the Father to an agreement unto the articles, Psal. 110.3. thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power, and God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself: 2Cor.5.9 Hence Christ is also called the Mediator of the Covenant, that is, he is one that hath the managing of it on both sides, and he alone is able to bring both sides together, and make up a conclusion, and thus Christ is the Covenant, and the Mediator of the Covenant, &."