Hall (1736-78) belonged to one of the Scottish Secession Churches and, for the last 13 years of his life he ministered to their congregation in Wall Street, London. This is an edited extract from Hall’s Treatise on the Faith and Influence of the Gospel.
A distinction is commonly made, in the character of Jehovah, between an absolute God, or a God out of Christ, and on the other hand, a covenant God, or a God in Christ. He is one Lord, whose character is viewed in these different lights. When He is considered merely as a sovereign Lawgiver, prescribing perfect obedience as the condition of entering into eternal life, and denouncing His wrath and curse as the wages of every sin, He is then viewed without respect to the mediation of Christ; and this view of His character represents Him as an absolute God, or a God out of Christ. But when he is considered as offended by sin, yet purposing to save sinners by the obedience and death of His beloved Son, He is viewed as a covenant God, or a God in Christ.
The character of an absolute God is a source of joy to angels who have never sinned and would have secured the happiness of mankind, if man had persevered in his integrity; but this character is big with terror to devils and unbelievers. The character of a covenant God, or of God in Christ, is proposed in the gospel to a guilty world, to engage their belief in Him and their reconciliation to Him. And as many as receive this merciful declaration enjoy God as their exceeding great reward. He is an absolute God in His law, and a covenant God in all the declarations of the gospel.