The Universalism of the Covenant of Works versus the Particularity of the Covenant of Grace

This is another passage from Peter Bulkeley's "The Gospel Covenant." I find great spiritual sweetness in it. Odd spellings and grammar are in the original, as are the italics.

"The covenant of works was made with all men, all men being in Adams loins, and he standing as a publique person in the roome of all his children, when God made that covenant with him: but the covenant of grace is not made with all men, but onely with the faithfull, with those that are given unto Christ by the Father, John 17. And therefore by the covenant of works, God is a God to one as well as to another; God is not a God of one people more than another, by the covenant of workes, for it was made equally with us all in Adam, it being made with him for all his posterity. And therefore seeing wee are all equally the sons of Adam, this Covenant makes no difference betwixt man and man, but all are shut up under it, all bound to fulfill it; and if they breake it (as wee all doe), then liable are we to the sentence of death. But in the Covenant of grace, God is the God of one people, and not of another. Hence is that in Gen. 17:21. God saith that he will establish his Covenant with Isaac, and not with Ishmael: So it was made with Jacob and not with Esau, with Abel and not with Cain, with David and not with Saul; not with Judas, but with Peter; with the Jewes first, and not with the Gentiles; and after, with the Gentiles, and not with the Jewes. By this Covenant one people becomes a more peculiar people then another. As first of Peter, 2 chap. The Covenant of grace is not universal, it is not made with all, as the Covenant of workes was."