justification by faith was the characteristic doctrine of Luther. And to the minds of the Puritans the end and purpose of the covenant of grace was to bring men into union and communion with God. Or again: the Puritans never tired of dwelling on the mediation of Christ in the covenant of grace—His humiliation and exaltation, His satisfaction and intercession, and all His gracious relations—as Shepherd, Husband, Friend, and the rest—to His own covenant people. And the Puritan view of the end and purpose