A view of the covenant of grace - Boston - III - Head I concluded

Required reading
A view of the covenant of grace by Thomas Boston (Available from Amazon or free here) - Conclude the First Head.

My summary
Today we finish reading Boston's First Head about the party contracted and undertaken for in the covenant of grace.

We learn that:
(i) the elect were the party represented, or contracted and undertaken for, in the covenant of grace;
(ii) how the elect were considered in this covenant and federal representation.

Boston then infers that:
(i) there is a sovereign freedom of the love of God appearing in the covenant of grace;
(ii) there is no universal redemption;
(iii) those who reject the covenant perish and those who accept the covenant are saved.

What grabbed me
I liked Boston's clear stance against universal atonement: 'There is no universal redemption, nor universal atonement. Jesus Christ died not for all and every individual person of mankind; but for the elect only. The contrary doctrine may consist with the opinion which holds the covenant of redemption, and the covenant of grace to be two distinct covenants; the former made with Christ, and the latter with believers; the condition of the one undertaken and performed by him; the condition of the other undertaken and performed by us. Accordingly that opinion concerning the covenant, is readily embraced by Universalists of different denominations. But that doctrine is utterly inconsistent with this account of the covenant, which doth at once overthrow universal redemption or atonement, together with the federal conditionality of our holiness and good works, in the covenant of grace. For if the covenant of grace was made with Christ as a representative, and the elect only were the party represented by him in it; then surely the conditions of the covenant, his doing and dying, were accomplished for them only; and he died for no other: as when one hath entered into a bond of suretyship, his payment of that bond can never be reckoned a payment of their debt, whose names were not in the bond, and whom he was not surety for.'

Scripture teaches limited atonement.

Next week's reading
Commence the Second Head by reading up to the heading 'II. Christ the surety of the covenant'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.