Apostles but to others Was either Reason or Will made use of in the producing of these or was it a brute Way unbeseeming God Are not the Principles of reasoning inbred in Nature and freely given of God Is therefore Man's reasoning a brute Way Nothing can be more express against this Opinion than that of Ezekiel A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and give you a Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and you shall keep my Judgments and do them 3. There is a great Inclination in Man to put Works upon Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace and that as deserving by Justice the Performance of God's Part. The Semi-Pelagians after the Pelagians were baffled and exploded that they durst no more profess the Powers of Nature to be sufficient for Salvation said there behoved to be supernatural Grace given of God at Conversion yet there were preparatory Works such as the Sense of Sin and of its deserving the Spirit of Bondage the use of Ordinances which they thought deserved Grace which God in Justice could not but give these were also exploded and were called Semi-Pelagians All the Apostle Paul's Arguments against Righteousness by the Law strike as fully against these as against any Merits or Works on Man's Part in the Covenant of Grace and he is accurately positive That by Faith only we are sav'd without any thing on our part in which we might glory or attribute our Salvation to our selves in whole or in part 4. There is of late an Opinion vented in England that tho the Covenant of Works is now become impossible which required perfect Obedience yet God in his Goodness hath entered into the new Covenant or Covenant of Grace in which Man's Part is not a legal and full Obedience but through Christ's Mediation he hath accepted an Evangelical Obedience being a sincere Endeavour to fulfil all God's Commandments and a Course of Life without continuing in any kind of known Sin Their main Ground is that it cannot be thought that God entering with Men in the Covenant of Grace would not have Men as a Part of their Engagement to resolve and promise to have respect to all God's Commandments and to endeavour so far as humane Frailty could allow to fulfil them all if it were not so that Holiness were Man's Part of the Covenant we behoved to take the Antinomian's Interpretation that we were no more under the Law but under Grace that the Law had no more Obligation on Believers therefore the new Obedience must be Man's Part. This Opinion hath been held by some Pious and otherwise Orthodox Divines and therefore it ought rather to be cleared as a Mistake than prosecuted as a stated Profession It must therefore be adverted that God's Moral Law is indispensable and behoved to be binding tho there had never been a Covenant as hath been shown before God's Dispensation might have been without taking Man's Consent by way of Covenant but by the Law written in his Heart obliging him to Obedience under the just and proportioned Punishment of eternal exclusion from God's Favour the breach or loss of no Covenant could take away that it became indeed Man's Part of the Covenant of Works but that Covenant is broken yet the Obligation of the Law which was anterior to that Covenant stands In theCovenaut of Works there was partly Merit partly Favour but the Covenant of Grace excludes all Merit and Man's Part is by Faith only so that Faith is not considered in its moral Goodness for in that Consideration Love is a far more excellent and disinterested Vertue than Faith but Holiness is on God's Part of the Covenant of Grace as in the former Conception is expressed he infuses the Habits of all the Christian Vertues in Conversion Man's Engagement to endeavour to keep God's Law were of no Import unless he did keep it and so God's Part should not be at the time of Conversion but at the time of Death after the Course of Man's Life did appear The Scripture makes no mention or moment of Man's Resolution which is as the early Cloud or Morning Dew which quickly passeth away Neither would the Terms of the Covenant of Grace be equal to all the Endeavour of some would go much further than the Endeavour of others 5. Some Divines in England have made Man's Part of the Covenant to be Faith as it is a good Work because it is said Abraham believed in God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness That is it was held sufficient as if all Righteousness had been performed But this had been still a Covenant of Works accepting one Work in place of entire Obedience but Abraham's believing in that Place was not the Act of Faith as it is Man's Part of the Covenant for it relates to a former Place of Scriptnre as the Scripture saith Abraham believed which was concerning his Son Isaac who was promised to him in his Old Age and therefore he staggered not at the Promise of God through Unbelief which was a particular Act of Belief of that Promise and was properly an Act of Holiness and was so imputed or reputed as an Act of Righteousness but the Act of Faith in which Abraham entered in the Covenant of Grace was believing in God through the Messiah to be justified sanctified and glorified 6. Some Reformed Divines in France and England bring good Works on Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace as perfecting and compleating Faith for only a lively Faith working by Love is saving for there is a Faith that worketh not by Love The Devils believe and tremble and Faith without Works is dead Abraham was justified by Works when he offered Isaac Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works And Abraham believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only Yet Paul's reasoning is much more full and accurate discussing the Point of Justification by Faith only without the Works of the Law which could not consist if James spoke of Faith as Justifying whereas James takes off an Error of those that thought they might be saved by believing the Gospel without Holiness which he redargues as a wrong Consequence from Paul and shews that not to be true Faith but such a Faith as the Devils have which cannot be that Act of Faith whereby Man entereth in the Covenant of Grace which is not believing the Truth of the Gospel but relying on God for Salvation through Christ according to the Gospel and on the contrary Abraham's Faith is brought in as true Faith which yet was not the justifying Act nor is the Justification there meant the Justification in Conversion which maketh a Man just but that which manifests his Justification to himself and other Men For Paul saith If Abraham were justified by
Works he hath whereof to glory but not before God as if it were any thing whereof he could glory in himself for all Glorying and Boasting is excluded but Abraham's glorying is in God who freely justified him and he rejoiced from that Act of Faith concerning his Son evidencing the Soundness of the saving Faith and the Manifestation of his Justification thereby both to himself and other Men whereby he glorieth before Men and not before God And whereas it is said That Faith worketh by Love it cannot be understood that Acts of Love are Acts of Faith for they are Graces essentially distinct but that Faith is Man's Part of the Covenant whereby Love is given upon God's Part nor doth it follow that because Faith is perfected by Love therefore its Essence is not distinct from Love Man is perfected by Love yet it is no part of his Being That Historical Faith believing the Truth of the Gospel is specifically different from saving Faith and yet it is said That whosoever believeth Christ is come in the Flesh is born of God for no Man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit of God which imports no more than a Sign of saving Faith at that time when there was so general an Opposition against Christ when no Man did avow or own Christ hypocritically 7. The Church of Rome hath more exceeded in bringing Works as Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace than any other Society of Christians for they have made Works the whole and only Part of Man in the Covenant of Grace and have given no Preheminence to Faith but to Charity or Love consequently enough to that Principle As it is said of the three eminent Christian Vertues that of these the greatest is Charity so that if Faith did save as a good Work Love would much more save They acknowledg no Justification distinct from Sanctification they do not require good Works as the Condition of Salvation but as the meritorious Cause of Salvation that God in Justice could not deny Celestial Glory to those that live holily and which is yet more extravagant Supererrogation is the common Opinion publickly preached in that Church and when the Council of Trent was call'd on purpose to amend Errors in Doctrine and Manners that had crept into that Church not one Word in any of their Canons disapproving Works of Supererrogation and the Treasure thereof out of which the Pope by Assignment of the superfluous Merits of the Saints may supply the Merits of others and bring them to Heaven either immediately upon Death or shortning their purging by the purgatorial Fire as soon as he thinks fit and yet they dispute vehemently against the Imputation of the Holiness of Christ. They do acknowledg that Christ's Sufferings have satisfied the Justice of God that without encroaching thereupon he may give Pardon of Sin and they do not ascribe the Pardon of Sin to the Merit of their Holiness but only to the Expiation by Christ's Sufferings and inconsistently enough they require purging by the purgatorial Fire which cannot be thought Correction to amend them and therefore could only be to cleanse and expiate in which they derogate even from the Sufferings of Christ. But to give them the most benign Interpretation they think the Forgiveness of Sin could not exalt Men to heavenly Blessedness but that as in the Covenant of Works every one behoved to merit that Exaltation by their Works which could not be after the Fall because of Original Sin whereby the eating of forbidden Fruit did condemn all Mankind descending from Adam by Ordinary Generation until Christ's Suffering had satisfied that Debt and even the actual Transgressions of those in the Covenant of Grace yet tho Men be still sinful their Sins being pardoned as satisfied by Christ's Sufferings Mens good Works lose not their Effect to merit Heaven as well as Adam's which is the only Difference they make between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works Nothing can be more contrary to the Covenant of Grace and to the Way of Salvation inculcated in the Gospel wherein 1. All Glorying or Boasting of the Creature attributing any Part of its Salvation to it self is excluded Where is boasting then It is excluded by what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude saith the Apostle That a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law But God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sin hath quickned us together with Christ where it is twice repeated by Grace you are saved through Faith not of Works lest any Man should boast Yea Boasting is so far excluded that Man cannot boast of Faith as it is his Part of the Covenant of Grace for it is said By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God What could be more said to exclude Works from Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace not only that there cannot be an equivalent Cause deserving Glory but not so much as the Terms upon which Glory was to be freely given For it is expressy said that we are God's Workmanship created in Christ to good Works which God hath before ordained or prepared that we should walk in them and God hath not predestinated Men to Salvation for their Works foreseen or performed For whom he did foresee them he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son which Image is Holiness which is not the Cause but the End and Effect of Predestination Good Works indeed are Via Regni but not Gausa Regnandi and they are the Evidences of true and saving Faith to be diligently followed not only by reason of the indispensible Law and Duty anterior in order to any Covenant but as the Means to evidence true Grace and give solid Peace and therefore it is said Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life and that the Kingdom of God is taken by Violence and the Violent enter it by Force which doth import no more than the Way to the Kingdom And where it is said Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have Right to the Tree of Life it doth not import Right by Merit the Word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that Works can no more properly be called Right than the Evidence of Lands or Inheritance are called the Rights thereof as sighifying the same and therefore the explicatory Words are subjoined and may enter in through the Gates to the City All others but the Romanists that bring in Works to the Covenant of Grace bring them in as the Conditions of it but not as a deserving meritorious Cause much less as a superfluous supererrogatory Merit seeing Christ hath declared so clearly that the first and great Command of God is Thau shait love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind
Covenanters by their Choice and Consent both as to the Matter and Manner There be Covenants where the Performances are of equivalent Value deserving each other but it were Arrogance enough for Adam to have thought the Covenant of Works were such and it were Insolence to imagine the Covenant of Grace to be such As in the Covenant of Works there were two Branches a Covenant between God and Adam for himself and his Posterity and if he had stood there behoved to have been a Covenant between God and each of his Elect Posterity particularly for himself The Word makes it appear to be so in the Covenant of Grace the Father did covenant with the Son foreknowing Adam's Fall to become the second Adam to restore and exceed that which was known the first would lose by assuming the Nature of the first Adam and with it not only performing that in which Adam failed by not continuing in Integrity performing the whole Will of God and thereby putting all Mankind in a nearer Capacity to Blessedness than Adam had done tho he had stood for there is no ground to think his Posterity would have been confirmed without their own Trial more than he but the second Adam put not only all Mankind out of the Necessity of Misery but it became effectual unto all so far as it was congruous to the Divine Perfections which could not admit of Reconciliation with Sinners cleaving to their Sin or of those who partaking of Divine Illumination and of the Tastes of the Powers of the World to come should despightfully hate the Spirit the Worker of these All the rest of Mankind as the Father foreknew them and predestinated them to be conformed to the Son so the Son undertook effectually to redeem them and glorify them and the Holy Ghost to call them sanctify and preserve them The second Adam did undertake yet much more than the First to satisfy the Justice and manifest the Purity of God more than if all Mankind had perished This Branch of the Covenant of Grace is compleat as to the Elect that could not through Incapacity covenant for themselves but those that could were to have the Offer of the Covenant of Grace made to them by their Vocation tho not to all in equal Fulness and Clearness It was not sutable to the Wisdom of God that those who rejected the first Operations of the Spirit intimating to them that they were Sinners deserving Exclusion from God's Favour and yet that God was merciful to Penitents and would make them Holy and Happy if they did not obstinately cleave to their Sins and reject that Motion but in the rest and even in some of these Rejecters God carrieth on the Work of Sanctification and Salvation in his own Way bringing such to the Light of the Gospel or the Light of the Gospel to them and opening their Eyes to see the Wonders of his Law and to discern spiritual Things and giving them the Inclination to accept of the Offer of the Covenant of Grace and to enter in it for themselves by that saving Act of Faith which is all their Part in the Covenant of Grace Of this we have two eminent Examples in Scripture the one Personal the other National by Miracles manifested to the two great Apostles Peter and Paul That of Peter was from Cornelius who neither was a Jew nor a Proselyte but was come the Length of natural Religion to worship only the one God to whom an Angel was sent from God to show him how he should worship the true God aright The other was by a Vision to the Apostle Paul of a Man of Macedonia beseeching him to go to that People to help them who for ought doth appear were then Heathens It doth not suffice to a distinct Knowledg of the Covenant of Grace to know that by Faith we are saved but those who have Capacity ought to enquire what that Faith is whether it be the Habit of Faith or an Act of Faith whether it be a special Act of Faith and what that is whether it be one single Act only or if to be renewed and whether it be saving by any thing in itself and if we may perceive any Consideration why God made that Act of Faith Man's Part of the Covenant rather than any other As to the first Point to have Faith and to believe are used as equivalent Terms both in common Use and in the Scripture but in a great Latitude for to believe doth oftentimes signify a Judgment of the Truth of any Proposition Men do believe that is they think likely or probable whatever the Ground of their Opinion be but more strictly Belief is taken for a Judgment which hath for its Motive the Perfections of some Person expressing it endued with such Perfections as may warrant an Assent without any other Reason That Person must be a vertuous Person from whose Actings it appears that he doth own the Principles of Morality and hath no Tentation to fail in the Application of them in that Point so not only a Liar but a vitious Person or one in Necessity or biassed by Favour or Hatred in Prudence is not a credible Person or if the Matter be that which is not the particular Object of that Sense which he hath in Vigour it is but a Matter of Opinion Faith upon account of credibility is to be attributed to God alone absolutely who can neither be ignorant err be biassed mistaken or deceived and is Infinite in moral Perfection Creatures may also be trusted in defferent Degrees according to the Moment of the Matter But no Man ought to trust any Creature as to the Necessaries of his Salvation but God alone immediately or by Mediation of those that have his evident Credentials This kind of Faith is a Prerequisite to the Covenant of Grace but no Part of it For the Devils do thus believe and tremble they know God to be certainly true and that all he expresseth is true whatever improbability might arise against it There is yet a stricter Sense of Believing or Faith whereby one expects good from another when it is sutable to him to give or do it and to the other to receive it In this Sense we do not say one believeth another but he believeth in him he trusteth to him he leans relies and rests upon him The Object of this Faith is Faithfulness It doth not arise alone upon the Veracity or Truth of the Person trusted but requires many other Perfections that he be Benign and Gracious that he be Powerful and Plentiful as to that wherein he is trusted It does not require his Promise which would make the thing expected an Act of Justice but the Excellency of his Nature so Creatures may and do trust to Creatures according to their Perfections A Secret may be trusted to a faithful Person tho neither Powerful nor Rich and if Experience hath shown him to be trusty it will be a Confidence without all doubt he is
plentiful in Capacity to forbear to reveal a Secret he loses nothing by keeping it To another a Man may trust his Money without Writ or Witness if he know him to be Vertuous tho he were Poor much more if he be Rich and so under no Tentation to abuse his Trust. And it were but a Folly to require a Promise to restore for there being no Means of Proof he might as safely violate his Promise as his Faithfulness and would think himself less trusted or obliged It is Indiscretion first to relate a Matter and then to say it is a Secret or to require Secrecy because he that accepts the Trust should do it freely his Promise may oblige him to keep it close but not his Faithfulness unless it be first told him that there is to be revealed a Secret to him which he may lawfully keep close that he may forbid the discovery if he will not lie under that Obligation of trust He that is pursued or searched after for his Life if he be not able to defend himself tho he have no Relation or Confident near him he will run for shelter to the most vertuous and fit Person that without Fault may cover him In all these there is Trust but without any Promise or Paction There are some things which no Man with prudence can believe in any Creature because no Creature can have Power to give all things that another may need God alone is absolutely Faithful for he is Alsufficient he is boundlesly Benign he cannot have any thing less by whatever he can give yet his Faithfulness doth not require that he should give or do any thing to any but what is congruous for him to give and them to receive It were very incongruous for him to give Grace or Glory to one who knowing him or tasting of his heavenly Power did hate him with Despite He doth much Good by his Bounty respecting nothing in the Object but its Capacity to receive much more by his Mercy and Compassion upon the Miserable but most of all to those that trust in him and expect from him This is by his Faithfulness the others are by his Mercy and Benignity The Weakness of Creatures hath made him not only Promise but Swear yet it is Indiscretion to urge him upon his Oath or even upon his Promise where his Faithfulness were sufficient No other can give Grace or Glory but he and those may be trusted for by all that did not hate him or did cleave to their Sins and refuse to become Holy and there is no Foundation of Distinction of one Man from another In this Case he needs not enquire whether he be elected and contained in the Covenant between the Persons of the Trinity It were impossible for him to know that immediately but only by consequence from a true and lively Faith working by Love purifying the Heart tho then Considence and Assurance that it was true and saving Faith not Presumption may be inferred from a Holy Life Faith in this Sense is the Christian Vertue next in Excellency to Love and as Love makes the Pleasure and Glory of God the last End so Faith gives the Resolution for pursuing all the Means towards that End and towards the next subordinate End the Tranquillity of the Mind trusting in God for Direction in all the Means towards these Ends that as the natural Man trusts to and rests on natural Means for obtaining his Ends so the spiritual Man trusts to and depends upon the Conduct of the Holy Ghost by supernatural Means especially Therefore the Apostle Paul saith and gives warrant to all who walk Christianly to say The Life that I now live is by the Faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me The second Point proposed is whether that Faith which is Man's Part in the Covenant of Grace be the Habit of Faith or any one or more Acts of that Habit In which I conceive it is very clear that a Covenant cannot be entered and continued by an Habit but it doth necessarily require an Act of the Will tho it is true that the Habit of Faith is more universally necessary to Salvation than that Act of Faith by which Men come into the Covenant of Grace For Infants come into that Covenant by Regeneration when the Habits of Grace are infused in their Souls as they and all the Elect were undertaken for in that Branch of the Covenant of Grace which from Eternity was among the Persons of the Blessed Trinity Yet they could not be said to be actually in the Covenant till they were not only made Creatures but also new Creatures by Regeneration and Sanctification of the Spirit It is a needless Curiosity to enquire whether they exert any Acts of that Habit in this Life It is said that at the Salutation of the Blessed Virgin to Elizabeth the Child in her Womb did spring for Joy but whether the Springing of the Child was from his or her Joy is not necessary to determine I doubt not but the Soul of an Infant is capable to act its imbred Principles if it could perceive the Objects thereof but it is so delighted in that tender Case to which it is wedded that it can think of nothing else as Experience shews of all Men when in extream Passions their Souls can think of nothing but of the Object of these Passions Nor do I doubt but God may so far manifest himself to an Infant 's Soul as to give it great Joy but as there is no Necessity so there is no Probability that such Souls should enter in Covenant tho it be most congruous to the Divine Perfections and to the Way God hath chosen that all that are capable should actually enter into a Covenant with God at their Conversion When it is said Without Faith it is impossible to please God I do rather think that by Faith Acts are meant rather than the Habit albeit the new Creature by the Habit be pleasant to God yet not as an Act but as a Quality whereas to please signifies an Act pleasing and so it must relate to those that are capable to covenant with God in relation to whom all Directions and Instructions in the World are to be understood I am not moved by this Objection that if the Covenant of Grace be entered by an Act of Faith Children and Idiots must either be excluded from the Covenant of Grace or there must be a different Way of saving Children and Men of Discretion and a different Covenant of Grace for Children For it is beyond question that God's Way with Children and Idiots is different from his Way with others and that the Rules and Directions revealed in Scripture relate only to those of Discretion capable of them So the Apostle in determining Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace opposeth the hearing of Faith unto Works and saith likewise How can they believe unless they hear Which neither relateth to nor is exclusive
of Children from the Covenant of Grace yet the Covenant of Grace is one for all the Son having covenanted from Eternity for all the Elect to bring them into the Covenant of Grace by Regeneration exerted according to their Capacity by actual believing of those who are capable so to act which also is an Evidence that the Act of Faith is not saving by any thing absolutely necessary in it self but by the free Choice and Institution of God The third Point proposed is what Act of Faith that is by which Men enter into the Covenant of Grace and which is their Part of the Covenant Many hold it to be a Perswasion of the covenanting Person that Christ died for him whereby it must be an Act of the Understanding but I see not how that can hold for covenanting must be by an Act of the Will promising or otherwise performing the Covenanter's Part which is oftentimes in the one Party no more than an Acceptance as in a Trust or Commission the one Party gives the Trust or Commission which doth make no Covenant but an Offer but when the other Party accepts then the Contract is compleat and the Accepter is thereby bound to follow the Trust and Commission and make an Account and the Giver is obliged to refund the Expences Albeit Contracts be by mutual Consent and that Consent signifies to have the same Thought yet Agreement in one Mind makes no more a Covenant than when two are of one Opinion in Contemplation but a Covenant is ever somewhat practicable and therefore tho Acts of Understanding precede the Covenant it self is by Acts of the Will The Description of saving Faith by Perswasion is but by a Consequent which ought to be endeavoured by all yet is not attained by all for many are in the Covenant of Grace that come not the Length of Perswasion that Christ died effectually for them and that thereby they are reconciled to God and shall be saved for tho they were perswaded that Christ died for all and every Man that would import nothing to saving Faith for it were much more evident that the Effect of Christ's Death for all Men were not the same seeing so many trample under Foot the Blood of the Covenant and so few are saved Therefore no Man hath just Ground to be perswaded that Christ died effectually for him or with Intention to make him holy and happy or any further than to put him in a Condition to be holy and happy if he himself did not hinder it Therefore tho believing in Christ were not only proposed to all but imposed on all as a Duty yet it is only a Duty in the Order God hath imposed it to wit that all Men should consider their sinful natural Estate and that the just Reward of Sin would be eternal Death without Repentance which none could escape who cleaved to any kind of Sin and hated to be reformed and that therefore they should be willing and endeavour to be reformed and use the Means appointed by God for that End and should throw themselves upon God's Mercy through Christ's Merit if thereby they found that the delighting in Sin in those Kinds especially which did most easily beset them did cease and that the Love to and Delight in God did in some measure take Place But to think to reach the highest Step of the Scale per Saltum were altogether without warrant unless it were extraordinary as in Paul's Conversion Paul to the Romans gives the true Warrants of that Perswasion As many as are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God The Spirit it self beareth Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God and if children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ. Hence it is evident how little Moment is in that Arminian Quibble so much magnified by them that Christ must have died for all Men because all Men are bound to believe he died for them We must therefore yet enquire the particular Convenanting Act of Faith which being so necessary is many Ways expressed and set forth in Scripture that it may be reached by several Capacities it is called a Looking to Christ for Salvation Look unto me all ye Ends of the Earth and be saved A turning to God Turn ye turn ye for why will you die O House of Israel A coming to Christ Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy ladened and I will give you rest to your Souls And to the Refractory it is said Ye will not come to me that ye may have Life A drawing near to God Draw near unto God and he will draw near unto you An answering of God's Call Thou saidst Seek ye my Face my Heart answered Thy Face Lord will I seek hide not thy Face from me A receiving of Christ He came to his own but his own received him not but to all that did receive him he gave Power to become the Sons of God So then the saving Act of Faith must imply all these not that he who entereth in the Covenant must have expresly all these Acts but that the Act he must have must imply and import them all and be virtually as much as they all The Spirit of God in this Branch of the Covenant of Grace does not proceed in one way with all the Elect As the Wind moveth whither it listeth and no Man knoweth whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is the Spirit of God Some are chased in by the Thundrings and Terrors of the Law running as a pursued Man to a Rock a Fortress a Tower or a Strength or as in the hazard of Shipwrack running into an Harbour As those who by Peter's Sermon convincing the Jews that they had denied the Holy One and the Just and had killed the Prince of Life Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their Hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do And God opened their Ears and their Hearts to receive Instruction But God gaineth others by the sweet and still Voice of the Gospel alluring their Hearts to trust in his Mercy and Faithfulness as being so gracious that he delights not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that they should repent and live that he will not disappoint those who becomingly trust in him He sometimes begins with the Light of Nature to lead in the revealed Light of the Gospel as Paul dealt with the Athenians and saith to Timothy God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and of a sound Mind With some the Spirit proceeds by degrees giving a Spirit of Bondage to fear before the Spirit of Adoption as Paul saith We have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but we received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba
only sufficient but inefficacious and that its Efficacy must be by the Creature I do conceive that the entring into the Covenant of Grace may be in the way of Adoration thus My God I do believe that thou delightest not in the Death of Sinners but rather that they should repent and live in thy Favour eternally who feel Sin to be a Burden and do not cleave to any known Sin but betake themselves to thee to be delivered from it and to become thy Servants trusting in thee for all things necessary for Holiness and Happiness I am sensible of the Bondage of my Sin and that I am not able to free my self from that Bondage yet I believe thou hast offered to enable me and do humbly accept thy Offer purchased through Christ the Mediator and do resign my self to be directed by thy holy Spirit in the way of Holiness to Happiness Here are all the Essentials of a Covenant God's Offer manifested to the Conscience believed and accepted wherewith the Believer as by the Offer he was called so the Call is made effectual by Justification Reconciliation Pardon Conversion Regeneration Adoption and by giving the Habits of Holiness never to be eradicated This Act of Faith is by the Apostle Paul to the Romans called the embracing the Atonement and to the Hebrews the embracing the Promises by the Apostle John the coming to Christ to be saved All the Terms of God's Offer and his enabling the Sinner to accept are at once and together and tho there be many Expressions thereof in Scripture they are not all different nor is there necessity of an express Thought of them in entering the Covenant of Grace neither is this exclusive of what other way God may take to glorify those who cannot expresly thus believe for it is not necessary for us to know it seeing the Scripture is all directed to Hearers and Believers and doth not specially reveal God's other ways of Salvation tho what was said of Children in Scripture is all to their Advantage yet nothing is specially express'd of the manner or measure of it I know not any Conception possible which could so much exalt the Justice the Mercy and the Faithfulness of God leaving nothing to the Creature to attribute any part of its Happiness to it self which could be consistent with a Covenant between God and the saved Soul which is confirmed by the whole stream of Scripture In this Act all the former Expressions in Scripture of Conversion and Regeneration are implied Yet this Objection ariseth that this Conception makes the saving Act of Faith to consist without the Habit of Faith and makes the Habit of Faith to be on God's part of the Covenant of Grace This will easily be cleared by considering that God works in and by Creatures by giving and preserving in them Inclinations which are the Principles of their Actings No considerate Man dare say that God cannot give an operative Inclination for one single Act as well as for one Species of Acts without which it were impossible to explicate his Dominion and therefore he may well give the effectual Inclination to imbrace the Offer of Conversion without giving the Habit for exerting all the Acts of Faith which is no less a Christian Vertue or Grace than Love or any other and there is nothing can more clearly difference the saving Act of Faith from being an Act of Holiness or a Work of the Law yea if any require the Accuracy of the Schools they will find there is a Disposition differenced from an Habit. This Objection doth also occur that Acceptance of an Offer is no Act of believing for which there is no ground For the Acceptance must imply the sense of a Motion to repent or return or to admit of Conversion which is an Act of the Understanding and is such an Act of Faith as is the believing the Scripture to be the Word of God but the Acceptance implies also a Trust or relying upon God that he will make good his Offer to the Person trusting This Difficulty did also offer it self to me that this way of Salvation and of the Covenant of Grace makes too much to depend upon the Creature If all that do not reject the Offer of Conversion and Holiness be elected Election is not so free as the Scripture holdeth it forth and one Creature makes it self to differ from another whereas the Scripture saith Who hath made thee to differ There is a necessity either to refuse or to choose and if there can be a middle Condition between refusing and choosing there is no Warrant to make such Difference between refusing and not refusing I thank God that hath fully cleared me in all these for as to God's Freedom in Election it is not incroached upon by his acting like himself he was under no Obligation or Necessity to have elected or recovered any of the Race of fallen Adam but to manifest the exceeding abundance of the Riches of his Grace he did freely elect all that with Congruity to his Nature were eligible rejecting none but those that would refuse his Offer and not all those but prevailing by the superabundance of his Grace against the Resistance of some of those especially upon his Kindness to their Fathers How often doth he shew Mercy to rebellious Israel remembring Abraham Isaac and Jacob his Servants tho by many Generations distant from them How much more the nearer Seed of his eminently faithful Servants and yet freely for these Fathers could not merit Happiness for themselves much less for their Children and the saying Who hath made thee to differ cannot be opposed to a Difference in a greater degree of Evil For certainly he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost makes himself so to differ from another obstinate Sinner so that it can only be meant of doing any good and holy Deed in order to Salvation That there is a middle State between accepting and rejecting any Offer is without question First Negatively by not noticing or considering it which requires no positive Act. 2. By a positive Act resolving to take it into Consideration presently or at a convenient time when there shall be most opportunity without Diversion to ponder it 3. By inventing collecting and comparing the Reasons and Motives on both parts which in the most weighty Cases may require long Time and much Deliberation 4. By Irresolution vacillating and doubting what is to be preferred And lastly by suspending the Resolution or Choice when yet there appears Reasons of Preference and therefore God saith to the Church of Thiatira of Jezebel That he gave her space to repent of her Fornications and she repented not There is nothing more clear and frequently inculcated in Scripture than the attributing of the Misery and perishing of the Wicked to their refusing the Offer of Grace or equivalent Expressions And 1. There can nothing signify more Aversion to a motioned Offer than not so much as to hear it for those who see
the measure of the Distinctness of the Object is the Degree of the Delight in it It will not be sufficient to rest in the general Knowledg of God that he is endowed with all possible consistent Perfections but there ought to be a diligent Search of the several Divine Perfections in that Order that the Mind of Man can best apprehend them For who can search the Almighty to Perfection IT is the most common and uncontroverted Sentiment of Mankind that every Man feels in himself an earnest and stedfast Inclination to promote his own Well-being to his full Satisfaction which alone can justly be called his Happiness and must comprehend not only the having of all things that might do him good but the Certainty that they shall not be taken from him This natural Inclination is a perpetual Monitor to put him in mind to consider what things may be for his Good and in what way he may retain or attain them and though Men be frequently mistaken in the Application in the Matter or Manner of their own Good yet they do ever desire and if there be a Probability of Attainment endeavour after that which they apprehend to be for their own Happiness which is excellently set forth by the Psalmist There be many that say Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the Light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased Insinuating that the most common Apprehension of Happiness is the Increase of Corn and Wine and the Joy arising from the Accommodations of an animal Life expressed by Corn and Wine which are the prime Means of that Injoyment 2. But declaring also his own Sentiment which is true Happiness the Joy arising from the shining of God's Countenance that is the evident Favour of God for Favour is chiefly indicated by the Countenance as well as Aversion by Discountenance and the shining of God's Countenance signisies the highest Favour which is the Fountain of Happiness and all Goodness requisite thereto absolutely secured by God's Unchangcableness The Countenance of Man is the chief Seat of his Beauty and Loveliness and therefore sittest to represent the Amiableness of God arising from the clear Perception and Attention of his infinite Perfections exciting an unparallelable Delight So then Man's Happiness is the Joy arising from such a State as can never want the shining of God's Countenance but the Means to attain that State are not so obvious the finding them requires the most serious and diligent Meditations for therein the greatest Wits of the World though not seduced with the Biass of Self-Interest that State being the greatest Self-Interest have yet grosliest erred herein so that there are hundreds of opposite Opinions of Philosophers wherein Happiness doth consist 3. The Favour and shining of the Countenance of God cannot be upon any other State of Man than that which is pleasing and acceptable to God which cannot be without a sufficient measure of the Knowledge of God For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Which seeking him must be an Endeavour to know his Divine Perfections more than by knowing that he is by knowing what he is wherein the believing that he is a Rewarder of those that believe in him is specially express'd as of the chiefest Moment as it is immediately subjoined Without Faith it is impossible to please God Which Faith is not only that contemplative Faith whereby the Faithfulness of God is known that is that excellent Perfection of his Nature that he will not disappoint the Hope or Trust of a Creature created after his own Image in what is worthy of him to give and is fit for them to have but that actual Trust and Hope for Pardon Reconciliation and Glory in that way which is sutable to God which cannot be to those that hate him contemn or neglect him or that cleave to their Sins which he doth abhor or to those who do not love him above all things and from Love have not only a tender Fear and Reverence to do nothing that may offend him but an earnest Desire and Endeavour to do all things for his Glory which is the Manifestation of his Divine Perfections devoting the Soul unto him in endeavouring to do all things that are pleasant and acceptable in his Sight This is that true Holiness without which it is impossible to see God which by equivalent Terms is called Godliness Piety and Devotion 4. That Favour of God which is manifested by the shining of his Countenance is not in his Love of Benevolence or good Will which he had in Election and still hath before Conversion but in that Love of Beneplacence or Delight which he hath not till Conversion nor doth his Countenance always shine after it but he frowns upon the commission of presumptuous Sins until they be repented of and pardoned 5. The Scripture makes a clear Distinction and Difference between Godliness and Honesty which in equivalent Terms is made betwixt Piety and Probity the same may be an Act of either or of both or of neither whereof the Scripture giveth a clear Instance in giving Alms to the Poor which some may give upon the Interest of Mankind in compassion of the Miserable without considering it as pleasing to God and then it is an Act of Honesty and Probity but no Act of Godliness or Piety Others may give it because it is acceptable to God without considering the Interest of Man and then it is an Act of Piety only Others may give it upon both Accounts in their due Subordination and then it is an Act both of Godliness and Honesty And others may give it out of Vain-glory to be seen of Men and then it is an Act of neither Piety is called Religion à religando from tying or binding again the Soul to God and is also called Devotion à devovendo from vowing or consecrating the Soul from common Use to God and so all things consecrated are said to be holy being separated from common Use as to their chief Use without excluding consisting subordinate Uses 6. The necessary and chief Acts of Religion and Devotion are Confidence in God and Love to God Faith and Love are the Fountain-Graces from whence the rest flow neither of them are attainable without the Knowledg and Consideration of their proper Objects so qualified as may excite these Affections which must be by the Perfections in the Object on which these Affections lay hold and by which they are mov'd 7. Faith is described 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is best rendred the Subsistence of things hoped for and so the same Act is Faith as the Promise or Faithfulness of God is present and Hope as the Performance is expected The proper Object of both is Faithfulness of the Person trusted upon knowledg that he is able and willing at least by
first six days These Men had better quit their Grounds than keep them with such Consequences and yet it is from Consequences that they take them up which might be better misbelieved than these tho they had far more probability both from Sense and Reason but if there be Incomprehensibility in either case it ought least to be applied with so great Derogation to the Power of God This Power working immediately by the Act of the Will is an incommunicable Perfection of God and a part of that Glory which he will give to no other and therefore it is impossible that any Creature could create and no more consistent than that God should make more Gods Whatsoever is effectuate by sole Will is an Act of Creation whether it be the Production of a Substance of a Power yea or of a Mode or Accident or any thing above the Powers of Nature or Grace Therefore no Creature can be any more than the Instrument of working a Miracle and that only when God willeth the individual Act and no Creature can have a Power to work Miracles of any kind as the Creature willeth or that God should work a Miracle at the choice of the Creature which were a Dependance unbecoming his Majesty We must not think that the Faith of Miracles was an Arbitrary Habit as when Christ said to his Disciples If ye had Faith as a grain of Mustard-seed ye should say to this Mountain Be removed hence and cast into the Sea it imports no more than that God at that time for Confirmation of the Gospel would make them Instruments of some particular Acts of supernatural Power as he moved them yet not at their Desire but his own There is a groundless Imagination that hath much spread it self That God hath given a Power to all Men or to all Christians to produce Effects in Creatures by their firm and full Perswasion and Desire that these Effects should be and that they are not such Effects is because few or none attain to that Perswasion and so the very Power vanisheth and were frustraneous and inconsistent with the Wisdom of God that doth nothing in vain as well as with the incommunicable Power of God I pray God Men would advert and consider what ground there is to believe that God hath given a Power to a Priest or Minister that at his Desire so oft as he pleases to express the words of Consecration of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist the most stupendous Miracles should then arise of course or that by their Consecration the Elements should have a Power or Efficacy to confer Grace or otherwise to confirm it than that by the solemn Preparation of the Heart and the earnest Prayer of the Creature God would more readily grant their Desire than at other times or how by applying the Water in Baptism at Desire Original Sin should be forgiven or Grace should be given which incroacheth not only upon the incommunicable Power of God but upon his Wisdom that he should give Grace to all that were baptized which in the most part would prove frustraneous by being lost They do not a little derogate from the Omnipotence of God who imagine that the very Nature and Essence of a created Will doth inseparably imply that God cannot otherwise determine it but by perswading yet no Perswasion can be so strong but it can reject it and choose the contrary whereby they fancy that they can clear God from any Accession to Sin even by Permission as if his Purity could not be preserved but by the loss of his Omnipotence So that God has done all that is in his absolute Power to make every Rational Creature holy and happy Yet the Pretext is vain for it cannot be imagined that God should be so mean an Orator that he could not perswade Men to go to all Nations to preach and spread Books perswading them to embrace the true Religion which yet he hath not done and yet he hath done all that he could do not by his absolute Power but by his regulate Power by his most wise and holy Decrees They might with more Pretext have said that God in his Freedom and Wisdom had decreed that he would make no farther use of his Power but by Perswasion yet that would have incorached upon his Wisdom and Soveraignty that he hath made Creatures which he could not effectually govern so that it is without all ground in Reason or Revelation that he hath so decreed It is a very brutish Pretence that it were a brute Power and not rational to infuse Habits or Inclinations in Rational Creatures seeing these infused Powers act at the Judgment and Choice of Reason though in some cases without Hesitation or Deliberation are Creatures perswaded to desire their own Well-being or Parents perswaded to love their own Children or any to pity the injured miserable MEDITATION VII Upon the Oneness of God IT is impossible and inconsistent that there could be more Gods than one both for the Omniscience and the Omnipotence of God for God is capable of no Imperfection and therefore is impassible He knows not by any outward Impression or Manifestation but from Reflection upon his own Nature and Decrees by which he knows what will be the Effects of the Capacities he hath decreed to give to Creatures and by his own over-ruling them for his Glory Therefore there can be no more Decrees but those which are in that Omniscient view if there were any other they could only be known by extrinsick Manifestations wherein God behoved to be Passive So neither are such Decrees possible nor the Actings of them nor could they be known in a way consistent with the Divine Perfection It is as evidently inconsistent there could be more Omnipotents than one for if they were equal in Power none of them could be Omnipotent for they could resist one another and so have no effectual Power and if they were unequal in Power the weaker could not be Omnipotent The Omniscience and Omnipotence of God are his most evident Perfections even by the Light of Nature and his Oneness is fully and frequently asserted in Scripture Scripture hath also revealed the Trinity in the Divine Nature which is the Foundation of the Salvation of the Elect carried along through the whole Current and Oeconomy of the Divine Decrees and Dispensations relating to Mankind from the Beginning revealing that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Head of the Serpent and by all that is said of the Messiah in the Old Testament and of Christ in both Testaments But it is declared to be a Mystery and the greatest Mystery ushered in with an unparallel'd note of Attention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great is the Mystery of Gidliness God manifested in the Flesh. Therefore the Trinity of Persons must be consistent with the Oneness of God and it must be a nearer Oneness than that of Individuals of one kind yet not such an Oneness as if there were but one Divine
as in the other It is not said whosoever sheds Man's Blood by that Man or his Relation his Blood shall be shed for he that 's killed or disabled cannot shed his Blood who did it nor ought he to be Judg or Avenger of it where another can be had which is the Prerogative of God alone Men may defend themselves against Injury which is not by Distributive or Judicial Justice but by the Obligation they owe to God to preserve these Lives whereof he alone is Master but they may not avenge themselves without a Judg knowing the Evidence of the Fact tho he be not a Civil Judg having an Authoritative Superiority Kings and States ought not to be both Judges and Parties where others can be had but before they enter in War they ought to demand Satisfaction and give sufficient Evidence of the Fact and not decline Arbitriment where an indifferent Judg can be found nor do they judg their own Cause against their Subjects but by Judges tho constituted by themselves yet sworn to do Justice between them and their Subjects without respect of Parties not only in their Civil Rights but in Crimes and Injuries against themselves It is by this kind of Justice that Princes and States interpose between their Neighbours entering in War where no Arbitration hath preceded and they cannot justly concur with the injured without a preceding Judgment for it would choak Humanity to think that they might kill Men by implicit Faith or Report much less by Kindness or Contract By this Justice Men are not only obliged to act as Judges but as Witnesses by giving their own Testimonies or any Evidence they have or can cause any in their Power to give Avenge not your selves is not with a Restriction to private Persons Vengeance is God's and can only be done by himself or by his Warrant I know the Perverseness and even Inadvertance of Men make them run upon their Adversary to give themselves that great but inhuman Pleasure of Revenge not so much delighting in Justice as in the Misery of the Injurer yet the Mighty God hath not only said but sworn That he delights not in the Death of a Sinner When I consider these Branches of Justice as they are in God I perceive great Difference in them as they are in Men who by Attributive Justice may take nothing from any Man that is his own except in the way of Punishment for a just Cause but as to God all Mens Goods Honour Freedom and even their Lives are but precarious during God's Pleasure and as the Peculia of Children or Servants and therefore it is no Injustice in God to take them away or to transfer the Right of them to any other The Israulites not restoring those things that they had borrowed from the Egyptians at their Departure was no Stealth or Injury because they did it by God's Warrant It is more questionable whether it was congruous to God to have taken away the Life of his innocent Rational Creatures by Annihilation or by Death wherein I do incline to the Negative For I see not how it can consist with the Happiness of any Creature if it have not Certainty of its blessed State But I think also that the assurance of the Continuance thereof is not from God's Justice but from his Bounty especially from his Faithfulness There is nothing revealed of any Promise made to the Angels and yet there is no doubt of their full assurance not to be annihilated and it is hard to conceive how their Life can be otherwise taken away nor do I know whether there was such a Promise made to Man in Innocency for tho Death was threatened upon his Disobedience the assurance of the perpetuity of Life did not thence necessarily follow But innocent Angels and Men had sufficient ground to have full Trust in God that if they offended him not he would never destroy them tho not from his Promise for that had been by his Justice but I am far clearer that God's Justice could not permit that he should torment his innocent Creatures or make them miserable I know some think that by his Soveraignty he might torment his innocent Rational Creatures as having more Power over them than the Potter over his Clay to make Vessels of Honour or Dishonour of them but I have cleared my Mind as to that Point that by the Vessels of Honour or Dishonour are not meant the happy and miserable but his free giving of Grace by which they become honourable or his permitting them to harden their Hearts by which they become dishonourable for that is said in Answer to an Objection Why doth God find fault with Men that their Hearts are hardened for who hath resisted his Will Finding of fault cannot relate to innocent Misery I know some are puzzled to extricate themselves as to God's Command to Abraham to sacrifice his Son Isaac I see no Difficulty in the Case as to God's Justice for tho Isaac had been sacrificed God could have restored him to Life and so fulfilled his Promise That in Isaac all Nations should be blessed I conceive the Difficulty lies as to God's Unchangeableness who hath never changed any Law of Nature that he wrote in Man's Heart but Abraham's killing and sacrificing his own Son without a deserving Crime is inconsistent with the Law of Man's Nature But there was no certain ground for Abraham to conclude that his Son would be sacrificed but only that God did prove his Obedience who by an implicit Faith which is only due to God was obliged to proceed till he was stopped tho he could not know how that Act could consist with the Law of Nature yet he might still hope for a Reprieve even when he lifted the Knife to give the fatal Blow as the Event shewed and I take this to be the best Instance of God's voluntas signi where there is not voluntas beneplaciti for here there was a presumed Will or rather a Presumption of the Will of God from his Command but it admitted a contrary Probation the Voice from Heaven having warranted him to hold his Hand This is also a clear Evidence that God does not always will to operate what he does command for his Will can never want its Effect tho oft his Command doth the Intent whereof is to oblige the Creature and shew it its Duty I know some think they cannot enough exalt God's Soveraignty if they admit any thing right but by his Will but they should remember that he is so Soveraign as he is also Just Bountiful and Faithful They do too much detract from the Loveliness of God that plead for him as Courtiers for their Masters who love not to hear or give another Cause of their Commands but Such is our Pleasure God's Promises do certainly infer his Attributive Justice to perform and yet what he performs may well be accounted a free Gift because before his Promise he was not only free but indifferent but
pardoning Mercy reaches so far that he hath even had Mercy upon frequent and long Rejecters pulling them as Firebrands out of the Fire whose Souls did cleave to their Abominations and he continueth many such Sinners in Life without kindling Hell in their Consciences with design to magnify his Mercy upon them wherein Consideration may be had of the Kindness he had to their Ancestors or of their extraordinary Temptations or simply by his absolutely free and unbounded Grace but these Firebrands are but some and few and ought not to encourage Sinners to cleave to their Sins and reject the Offer of Mercy and Reconciliation We have one clear Example of Pardon to the Thief on the Cross at the point of Death that none might despair and but one that none might presume God's long-suffering Patience and Forbearance of Sinners are Acts of his Mercy whereby the Effect of his Justice is delayed which are never in vain for either forgiving Mercy doth at last take place or at least the Glory of God's Goodness is manifested upon obstinate inexcusable and self-condemned Sinners not that he delights or designs to make them such but to manifest the superabundance of his Grace in giving them a sincere and true Offer of Reconciliation and not by causing them to reject it but by not causing them to entertain it when his Glory did not require it The Mercy of God is a most eminent and most amiable Moral Perfection his other Goodness doth either presuppose something in the Object not as a Merit but as a Mean His Faithfulness supposeth the Faith of his Creatures trusting or hoping for that Good which he hath not promised nor shown that he hath purposed it His Goodness in Creation supposeth nothing in the Object for it yet nothing against it but his forgiving Mercy and Reconciliation presuppose those things which are extreamly opposite sometimes the most irrational Injury and Enmity actually in some and habitually in all by natural or acquired Inclinations Mercy is the most amiable Divine Perfection that provoketh the most fervent Love to God as Christ said to the Woman who washed his Feet with her Tears and wiped them with her Hair Her Sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same love little There is more of Mercy expressed in the whole course of Scripture than of all the other Divine Perfections the main Scope thereof being to shew the Mercy of God towards Mankind which he foresaw lapsed in a miserable Condition and of his inconceivable Mercy he designed the way of their escape from Misery and their becoming Heirs of Glory through the Satisfaction of his Son Christ Jesus whereby he might give Mercy and Forgiveness without incroaching upon his Justice and so made both Mercy and Justice to meet together and attain both their Effects When God manifested himself to his beloved Moses and proclaimed his Name before him by which he would be designed as his most proper Character he said The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and that will in no way clear the Gulilty Mercy is the leading and inculcate Attribute thrice repeated Justice is last The Paths of the Lord are not only said to be merciful but Mercy in abstracto and his Mercy is plenteous he is full of Mercy his Mercy is multiplied Mercy belongeth to him he desireth Mercy rather than Sacrifice his Mercy is tender he is rich in Mercy his Mercy is everlasting it is his Saints Joy who sing of his Mercy MEDITATION XVI Upon the Faithfulness of God FAithfulness is that Perfection whereof Faith or Trust doth immediately lay hold and rest The Term is diversly taken there is not another proper Word but it to signify both the being worthy of Trust and Faith and the having Faith But when it is applied to God it imports not the Subject but the fitted Object of the Faith which doth import an Inclination to do that Good which is believed or hoped for sutably to the Giver and Receiver freely without Right to claim it where-ever there is a Right to claim there is an Obligement or Tie to perform and the Performance is an Act of Justice not of Benignity or meer Decency The moral Perfections of Men are of three sorts Justice Benignity and Decency Justice implies an Obligement or Tie to perform and a Right or Power to claim and exact Benignity is an Inclination to do good to another freely without Necessity or Obligement to do it or Right to claim it which sometimes respects its Object under no other Consideration than that it 's capable of that Good and this is specially called Goodness Such is God's Goodness in Creation Preservation and giving those good things which are not believed or expected such as Acts of meer Liberality but other Acts of Benignity are upon special Considerations beside the Capacity to receive as Mercy to the Miserable tho they do not trust or expect it but Faithfulness considers the Object as trusting or hoping not simply for one may trust or hope for that that is not sutable for him to receive or for the Person trusted to give and so it is an unwarrantable Expectation and not Faith but Presumption Such was the desire of the Mother of Zebedee's Children to Christ That the one might sit on his Right-hand and the other on his Left-hand in his Kingdom and such is commonly the Hope of the Hypocrite who trusts to obtain Happiness without Holiness But Faith must be a well-grounded Faith hoping or trusting for such things as are becoming the Person trusted to give and the Truster to receive and that upon Consideration that trusteth for tho the Good done were both sutable to the Giver and Receiver yet were not given to the Receiver as trusting and hoping to receive it were an Act of Goodness but not an Act of Faithfulness The third sort of Moral Perfections is Decency which respects the Actor only and not any other and is done alone because it is sutable and becoming that Person so to behave Every Vertue or Moral Perfection consisteth in a Congruity to the Actor and so is Decency whether the Act be terminate on the Actor or on another But there is no special Name to signify that Decency that terminates on the Actor but it retains the common Name and so is Decency strictly taken As Man beareth the Image of God the Light of Nature shews that all those Perfections which he gave Man are originally and eminently in God He is just and acknowledges himself Debtor so to be in the distribution of Rewards and Punishments in the performance of his Promises whence there is a Right to claim them tho there be no Power to exact them He is good and doth good in some kind to all he makes his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon the Just and
Unjust he openeth his bountiful Hand and bestows what is necessary for every living thing while he allows it Life He is merciful and pitieth the very Ravens when they cry for want of Food and much more supplies the Necessities of Men even when they do not trust or expect it All these Perfections respect his Creatures and it is evident that they are without Obligation and in that differ from his Justice and so is also his Providence and Government of the World but his Truth and his Wisdom are Perfections terminated on himself as their peculiar End they are free for none can be obliged to himself yet they are more necessary than the Acts of Bounty which he might forbear but they are comprehended under the Decency proper to God on his own account tho there had never been a Creature he would ever have been true his Thoughts being ever conform to their Objects The Faithfulness of God then is comprehended in his Bounty or Benignity respecting his Creature as warrantably trusting in him As the Term Faithfulness is variously taken so the thing is commonly very indistinctly and sometimes erroniously understood confounding Faithfulness with Justice and Truth and supposing there is no Warrant for Faithfulness but upon Promise and upon the Truth of God in that Promise which is a great Mistake for the Performance of a Promise is an Act of Justice and Truth is not an Object of Trust but when Words or Signs to express it are emitted but Faith may warrantably be where God hath made no Promise nor expressed any Word When God created Angels and Men before he made any Promise to them they did know from his excellent Nature and firmly trust that if they did not offend him he would never make them miserable and they might have trusted for particular Favours not in the way of Reward I know no clear Evidence from Scripture that God promised to Adam that he should never be annihilated only I see that he threatneth Death if he transgressed his Command in eating the forbidden Fruit whence it is collected that God promised him Eternal Life and even Immortality and that he entered into Covenant with him wherein Adam willingly ingaged himself to the Obedience of God and God did promise Life and Immortality to him to his Wife and their Posterity and to raise them from an Animal Life on Earth to an Angelical Life in Heaven without the Dissolution of Soul and Body by Death and as it is commonly believed the good Angels after they had given proof of their Obedience were confirmed that they should never fall There is no less ground to believe that the like Favour would have been granted to Man not only for himself that he should not fall but that a greater measure of Perfection should be given to his Posterity that they might not be under the Necessity of falling and it is evident and certain that by his Transgression in eating the forbidden Fruit he lost these Benefits both to himself and his Posterity but by the infinite Mercy and Benignity of God Christ the second Adam perfected and performed what the first Adam had lost Can any Man pretend that the particular Favours that the Saints have always prayed for from God were all promised by God or did he express his Purpose to give them No certainly and yet they did warrantably trust and prayed in Faith for them and obtained that which they prayed for whereof there are innumerable Examples in Scripture and Experience And therefore it is said that the fervent Prayer of the Godly availeth much If the Import of Mens Prayers should only be that God should be just in the performance of his Promise and be as good his Word I see not how Prayer could be said to avail much for God would be true and just whether any Creature prayed or not But God granteth many things upon the earnest Prayer of his People which were neither promised nor necessary and had no other Conveniency but to satisfy their longing Desire which if it be not incongruous for God to do or them to receive as being hurtful to them if Faith be not wanting the Effect will not fail Was there either Necessity or Promise for the Prophet's stopping the Clouds of Heaven for three Years and six Months and for obtaining Rain when there was no second Cause for it Is it not warrantable to pray to be inclined or directed in the Choice of a Calling a Match or any lawful Undertaking or for the Success of the Choice Is there any Promise for these Particulars Yea tho it be said by Christ to the Apostles That whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will do it I take it rather to be a Declaration of God's Faithfulness and of the Effect of faithful Prayer not signifying an Engagement but a Resolution And I think it were a very unbecoming manner of praying to say Lord Thou hast promised that whatsoever I demand in Christ's Name thou wilt grant it this I demand and therefore I claim it as due by thy Justice and Truth which thou canst not refuse With God's Grace that never shall be my strain God hath declared that he will give Salvation and Glory to all that shall have saving Faith trusting to obtain these with Sutableness which cannot be towards those who resolve to cleave to and pursue their Sins Suppose this were not only a Declaration but a proper Promise and that the Performance were an Act of God's Justice and Truth yet where hath he promised that he will give Faith to this or that Man that believeth And should he that believeth claim Salvation as an Act of Truth and Justice and not as a free Act of God's Mercy and Benevolence and specially as an Act of God's Faithfulness that he will not disappoint the becoming Hope or Trust of his Creature Trust among Men is not accounted when they obtain a clear Obligation tho it had been granted freely because the Obliged can be compelled to perform but it is accounted a Trust when there is no Promise but that from the Nature of the Deed it is to be presumed not to be a Donation in favour of the Person trusted but with Intention and Expectation that he would restore to the Truster or those who derive Right from him upon demand God of his Benignity to further the Faith of his Creatures does not only promise where no Promise was necessary but gives Seals and Oaths not so much to secure the Effect as to produce Faith and therefore the Effect should ever be attributed to God's Faithfulness and to the Creature 's Faith resting on that Faithfulness I know that God's Justice Truth and Faithfulness have been oftentimes joined as Man 's also may When a Man obtains a written valid Obligation suppose it were for a valuable Consideration there concurs the Justice of that Person who may be compelled to perform his Truth that as he expressed his Purpose to perform so
Faith but saving Faith it self is not in Man's Power by Nature or by universal Grace but is given to the Elect in Conversion God hath frequently assumed the Title of faithful in the Scripture as the faithful God the faithful Creator the faithful Witness the faithful Lord and he that calleth is Faithful God can no more deny his Faithfulness than he can deny himself as it is said if you believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself Mercy taketh away Misery but Faithfulness freely giveth eternal Glory and withholdeth no good thing rewarding Justice keeping proportion with Merit Faithfulness hath no Bound Faithfulness is a most eminent Perfection and moral Vertue for the Breach of it is Treachery and Treason much more abhorred by God and Man than the failing in Performance of natural Obligations or Engagements and therefore Treachery hath the most atrocious Punishment I adore and bless thee O God who hast exceeded all thy Goodness to Creatures in thy Faithfulness which exceeds the Goodness of Creation Preservation and Providence rewarding Justice and even Mercy it self which only extends to Relief and Necessity but Faith to all good Things which are becoming thee to give and thy believing Creatures to have MEDITATION XVII Upon the Wisdom of God WISDOM is the Divine Attribute nearest God's Decrees and Dispensations whereby he contriveth all his Purposes and Decrees towards his Creatures as is worthy of and becoming his glorious Majesty according to which all things do unchangeably and certainly come to pass therefore I have resolved to meditate upon it immediately before his Dominion Wisdom is diversly taken more extensively it comprehends all eminent Knowledg contemplative or practical and even the Skill of Arts but more strictly it excludeth that Skill but the most proper Signification of Wisdom relates only to Practice and it is of the same Import with Prudence or Discretion tho these are seldom attributed to God but to Creatures yet Wisdom is more strictly taken for sublime and universal Prudence as to the whole Course of Life One may be prudent in a comely and discreet Behaviour carrying himself becomingly to every Person in common Converse who may be faulty in his main Project and so is not to be esteemed Wise but he only who hath a right Design for his whole Life and who chooseth fit Means for that Design God hath given an unalterable Inclination to all his rational Creatures to desire their own Happiness which doth ever bring it self in remembrance and is ordinarily their last End tho God gave them a higher Principle to make Him their last End and they alone are wise who have the Glory and Pleasure of God for their last End to which all their other Designs and Purposes are subordinate that is the Wisdom which is from above which the Apostle James doth excellently describe that it is first pure then peaceable gentle and easily to be intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without Partiality or Hypocrisy Wisdom useth to be taken as a part of Knowledg yet tho Knowledg be in Wisdom it is distinct from it and consists more in the Will and Inclination to choose and follow only that which is morally good and fit So it is said to one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledg by the same Spirit There may be Means to effectuate good Ends which yet if chosen it would be no Act of Wisdom We must not do Evil that Good may come Fraud and Deceit are not only distinct from but opposite to true Wisdom no less than Force when used for that which it cannot or ought not to be effectuated And therefore the same Apostle saith the Wisdom that descendeth not from above is earthly sensual and devilish which is but abusively called Wisdom and is well expressed by three Terms signifying three Kinds the Wisdom of the Malicious is devilish of the Voluptuous is fleshly and that which is used to promote unwarrantable Profit is worldly The Wisdom of God is excellent it is infinite tho it be certain and evidently appprehensible yet is it incomprehensible and unsearchable so saith the Psalmist Thy Thougbts are very deep and the A postle saith O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Way past finding out Nothing can be added to or abated from the Wisdom of God It requireth no less Wisdom than his fully to know his Wisdom in Wisdom hath he made all his Works and therefore we owe an implicit Faith unto his Wisdom Tho we cannot perceive the reason of what he doth we may innocently doubt whether some of his Acts be Acts of Justice or of Mercy but we may never doubt but they are Acts of Wisdom yea the Apostle to the Romans concludeth well To God only wise through Jesus Christ be Glory for ever Amen For he findeth Folly in his Angels even the most glorious Seraphim There have been many Things which they could never comprehend nor contrive and there might be infinitely more They are neither free of Ignorance nor of innocent Error There is no proportion between their Wisdom and God's and therefore it is as nothing in his Sight So that as there is none absolutely Good but He so there is not any other absolutely Wise. It were a Task never to be ended to pursue the Wisdom of God in all his Decrees and Dispensations of which little can be reached in the State of Mortality yea it will be the exercise of the Mind to Eternity in the State of Glory yielding and increasing a continual Delight The innumerable variety of God's Creatures their Parts their Powers their Preservation and Productions afford matter of search and delight to the most glorious Angels Therefore God saith to Job Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth declare if tbou bast understanding when the morning-Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Where the Sons of God must signify the Angels who were created before the terrestrial Globe was framed and invested with all its Ornaments when as yet Man was not created I shall therefore only endeavour to excite my Admiration by some few eminent Instances of the Wisdom of God in which I cannot see so good a Method as the Order God followed in his Dispensations from whence his Decrees are inferred 1. Then it was the Wisdom of God that he did not create the World so soon as he did decree it whereby he shew'd that to his Perfection and Blessedness he had no need of it 2. It was both the Wisdom and Goodness of God that he did not with one Act of his Omnipotent Fiat bring at once the whole Creation out of the barren Womb of nothing but proceeded by Parts that his Creatures might the more distinctly know it therefore the first Act of Creation was that To-hou-vo-bohou which is commonly rendred the Chaos as if all
no probability of imbracing may yet hear Communing and Reasons So it is said This evil People which refuseth to hear my Words tho I have caused to cleave unto me the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah saith the Lord that they might be unto me for a People and for a Praise and for a Glory but they would not hear They are turned back to the Iniquity of their Fore-fathers who refused to hear my Words They refused to hearken and pulled away their Shoulder and stopped their Ear that they should not hear Yea they made their Hearts as an Adamant Stone lest they should hear the Law therefore as I cried and they would not hear so they cried and I will not hear saith the Lord of Hosts If they escaped not who refused him who spake on Earth much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven And as they rejected to hear the Word of God so they rejected the Counsel of God and they rejected his Statutes and Covenants that he made with their Fathers Behold I will bring Evil upon this People even the fruit of their Thoughts because they have not hearkened unto my Words nor to my Law but rejected it They have refused my Judgments and my Statutes Therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold I even I am against thee and will execute Judgment in the midst of thee And the Lord said unto Moses How long refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws As they refused to hear so they refused to know through Deceit they refused to know me saith the Lord. They refused to obey neither were they mindful of thy Wonders that thou didst among them but hardened their Necks They do also refuse to come to God to be saved Ye will not come saith Christ to me that ye may be saved Which is more than a meer Negative for it is not a willing to come but a willing not to come They hold fast Deceit they refuse to return no Man repented him of his Wickedness saying What have I done Every one turneth into his Course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth Wherefore bath the Lord done this unto this great City then they shall answer because they have forsaken the Covenants of the Lord their God they and our Fathers dealt proudly hardned their Necks and hearkened not to thy Commandments They hardned their Necks they did worse than their Fathers This is a Nation that obeyeth not the Voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth Correction Behold I will bring upon this City and upon all her Towns all the Evil that I have pronounced against it because they have hardned their Necks that they might not hear my Words Exhort one another while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the Deceitfulness of Sin To day if you will hear his Voice barden not your Hearts By these it is sufficiently evident that God's hardening Mens Hearts is but by permission Yea God saith of Israel That they would have none of me But there is no place more apposite and clear than that of the Psalmist unto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy Mouth seeing thou hatest Instruction and castest my Word behind thee They hated to be reformed The Soul of the wicked cleaveth to his abominable Things and it is said of Jehoram that he cleaved to the Sins of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat And Job saith of himself If my Blot hath cleaved to my Hands then let me sow and let another reap And it is said of Ephraim He is joined to Idols let him alone By which and by all the former places and many more the not being brought into the Covenant is attributed to the positive Acts of Sinners against the Offer of Grace and Means of it whether by neglecting so great a Salvation by refusing or rejecting the Offer of it but chiefly by contemning and despising of it therefore it is said Behold you Despisers and wonder and perish Christ explaining the Parable of the Sower and why it is so much ineffectual shows the Cause to be That their Eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and should understand with their Hearts and should be converted and I should heal them Where they are active in closing their Eyes but not in converting themselves but therein they are passive that they should be converted and Christ active that I should heal them God Almighty convincing Job's Mistakes by a lively Voice vindicateth not only his Power but his Bounty and Justice saying He striketh them as wicked Men in the open sight of others because they turned back from him and would not consider any of his Ways The fourth Point proposed was Whether the saving Act of Faith be only one individual Act or if it require a Course or Continuation of the same or the like Acts or a Reiteration thereof as to which I am perswaded it must be one single Act receiving imbracing accepting or assenting to the Spirit 's inward Call to be willing to be converted from the Bondage of Sin and from the Power of Satan unto the Life and Liberty of the Children of God which are the express Terms of the Commission to the Ministers of the Gospel who can only give an outward Call and there may be also an inward Call by the Conscience both which may be resisted and refused and in relation to these Calls many are called but few are chosen If the saving Act of Faith required a long Continuance or Reiteration the Covenant of Grace could never be compleat till all these were performed So that it behoved either to be but a conditional Covenant which cannot consist with the Omniscience of God the very nature of a Condition requiring Uncertainty or otherways no Man could be in the Covenant of Grace till his last Breath It is true through the Ignorance or Doubtfulness of Believers they frequently renew their Desire and Trust to be converted thinking that they are but then to enter into the Covenant of Grace But if they knew they were in it it were not only a Folly but a Fault to desire that to be which already is When the Soul saith Draw me and I will run after thee Convert me and I shall be converted it doth import that it is not able to convert it self but that God is able nor doth it imply that as yet it is willing to be converted which is indeed the converting Act unless by Conversion Regeneration be meant Common Experience teacheth that Men may be sensible of the Hardness of their Heart and their unwillingness to part from their beloved Sins and yet do
know that God can make them willing in the Day of his Power Conversion and Regeneration when accurately considered are distinct for Conversion is wrought by that Inclination given of God to accept the Offer of Grace for thereby the Soul is no more addicted to Sin but Regeneration is the Infusion of the Habits of Grace the Pardon of Sin Justification or holding of the Believer as Just and thereby reconciling with him and adopting him as a Son which are God's Part of the Covenant of Grace and are always done together and the future Blessings of the Covenant for increasing Grace giving Perseverance exciting Repentance and renewing Pardon Direction Protection and Glory are not Parts but Effects of the Covenant of Grace proceeding from God's Bounty and Faithfulness and from his Engagement in the Covenant of Grace to give these things which Promise is a Part of the New Covenant There is a great deal of Debate and Noise between divers Churches and those of the same Church in what Justification doth consist And it is clear from comparing Paul and James that there is a Justification before Men and a Justification before God The former is but the Manifestation of Justification the latter is the being of it and this only is in God's Part of the Covenant of Grace so that the Question is in what Justification before God consists Some make it anterior to the Covenant of Grace with the Believer and so no Part of it but rather of that Covenant between the Persons of the Trinity accounting the Elect as just Persons Others hold Justification never to be till all Sin be purged and so not before Death Neither of these do agree with the golden Chain of Salvation the Order of which is not without great Moment wherein Foreknowledg is first Predestination second Vocation third Justification fourth and Glorification last So that Justification is after Vocation and before Glorification and so it is one of the two Links in Time Foreknowledg and Predestination being before Time and Glorification being after every particular Believer's Time when they are entred into Eternity Yet even those who hold Justification to be in Time and a Part of the Covenant of Grace differ in their Conceptions of the Nature of it Some hold it to differ nothing from the Forgiveness of Sin to which I cannot agree for then there behoved to be an Act of Justification whenever there is forgiveness of Sin which is often to be repeated and is a chief Article in the Lord's Prayer which bearing Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Sins must at least import a Prayer for these every Day By entring into the Covenant of Grace future Sins are not forgiven before they be committed which would be an Indulgence to Sin The Church of Rome maketh Justification to be nothing else but Sanctification which doth not consist with that golden Chain where Sanctification is put as the End or Effect of Predestination For whom he foreknew them he did predestinate to be conform to the Image of his Son That Conformity is Sanctity or Holiness not only in conformity to the Holiness of God which would not reach many Duties of Man's Holiness but conformity to his Son God-Man which comprehends them all Others make Justification a judicial Act whether before Time after Time or in Time supposing God to charge a Man as a Criminal with the Guilt of his Sin and that Christ for the Sinner or he for himself pleaded Christ's Satisfaction and thereupon God doth absolve But I conceive there is no such pleading by Man at the Entrance of the Covenant of Grace tho virtually that Absolution be implied but only his assenting to be converted and to be made holy and happy Therefore I conceive Justification to be God's holding and reputing the Believer to be as if he were intirely Just notwithstanding the Remainders of Sin seeing he is become an Adversary to Sin and so may say with Paul Not I but Sin that dwelleth in me In which Sense only it can be said That God seeth no Iniquity in Jacob nor Sin in Israel and that he that is born of God cannot Sin Seeing the indelible Habits of Grace do ever continue in him which is called the Seed of God Tho forgiveness of Sins past at Regeneration purge him and make him innocent yet thereby alone he cannot be accounted Just because the sinful Inclinations remain yet may he be reputed as Just seeing it is expresly said Happy is the Man to whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and whose Sin is covered It is an ordinary Expression that the Righteousness of Christ is imputed to Believers and that their Justification consisteth in that Imputation because Christ is said to be our Righteousness which is not a proper or accurate Expression but improper and metonymick whereby the Cause is put for the Effect as Christ is also our Wisdom and our Peace because he is the Cause of both And likewise Faith is said to be imputed for Righteousness which gave the Rise to that Error that Faith as a good Work is accepted in place of intire Righteousness and of all the good Works required for the fulfilling the Law Whereas the Apostle in the Fourth of the Romans saith Abraham believed and it was counted to him for Righteousness and Faith is counted for Righteousness to him that believeth on him that justifieth the Ungodly but is not imputed to him as Righteousness for the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not to impute but to reckon account esteem or repute And therefore Christ's Righteousness can no more properly be imputed as our Righteousness than his Wisdom or his Peace can be our Wisdom or Peace of which he is the Cause not the Effect for if his fulfilling of the Law were our fulfilling of it we needed not also fulfil the same and the Antinomians would have too much to say that Believers are not obliged to fulfil the Law which Christ fulfilled in their Place and that all their good Works are only free Gratifications Christ's Rightousness is no otherwise imputed to Believers than as a necessary Accomplishment of the second Adam coming in the Place of the first Adam who if he had continued Righteous would have made effectual the Covenant of Works which was lost by his Failure The fifth Point proposed will now easily be cleared That the saving Act of Faith is not ordained to be Man's part of the Covenant of Grace upon Consideration of its own Worth and Value but as it relateth to and relieth on the Mercy and Faithfulness of God and the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ. It useth to be called the Eye of Faith looking to these the Hand of Faith laying hold upon them or the Instrument of the Soul whereby it obtains Salvation There are sharp Disputes under which of these Considerations it justifies but I like it much better to be conceived only as the
Manner which God hath freely chosen whereby to communicate Grace and Glory to the Elect. I like it not to be called properly an Instrument which is an inferiour Cause having some Influence with the principal Agent whereas God and Christ are the only Cause of Grace and Glory Neither yet to be properly a Condition upon which God is to give Grace and Glory seeing a Condition must be uncertain to him who makes it a Condition The being an Eye or Hand are certainly Metaphorical without doubt Causa Conditio Modus are different There is least to be attributed to the saving Act of Faith as it is only the Manner how God is pleased to save which is not a necessary Manner for God might have exerted all his Dispensations with Creatures without giving them the Honour to enter into Covenant with him and therefore he freely chose the way of a Covenant and so the manner of it and to magnify his free Grace and to exclude all glorying of Man in himself he hath chosen the manner of the Covenant of Grace wherein there could not be less of Man in a Covenant If God had proceeded only by Mercy to save Men there could have been no place for a Covenant and Man had not been so much dealt with as a Rational Creature proceeding by Reason Deliberation and Choice as by a Covenant Hence way is made to the last Point proposed What may be thought the Reason why God chose an Act of Faith rather than any other Act of Man to be Man's part in the Covenant of Grace wherein there needs no other Reason but the free Arbitrary Choice of God yet tho the matter had been indifferent his Wisdom appeareth much in this Choice and his Goodness also that he would honour Man to contract with him and to take his Consent to that and yet to give him no Cause and even no Pretext to glory in himself If any Person did obtain great things from another freely which he knew he expected from him and were sutable to the one to give and the other to get Could he without the highest Ingratitude and Impudence attribute the Gift to his own Hope and not wholly to the Goodness and Faithfulness of the Giver The Faithfulness of God is the chief Perfection exerted in the Covenant of Grace The Object of Mercy is Misery the Object of Faithfulness is a rational Hope or Trust which is far larger than Mercy and is extended to innocent Creatures who were never miserable This way of the Explication of the Covenant of Grace gives an easy Outgate to that bitter Contest in the Protestant Church of France and elsewhere whether only the active or also the passive Obedience of Christ were imputed by the Covenant of Grace As the Controversy was stated the Arguments on either side were hardly solvable for it was stated thus Whether Christ in his Sufferings stood in the place of Man or if he did also stand in his place in his Acts of Holiness The former was granted by both the latter affirmed by the one and denied by the other The main Reason for the Affirmative was That suffering could do no more than satisfy the Guilt of Sin and so could only bring Man to be free of Misery and Torment in which case Adam was before the Fall but could not raise Man from that Animal State being so much common with Brutes to an Angelical State in Heaven and yet that is frequently attributed to Christ. Therefore it behoved to be the Merit of Christ not by his Sufferings but by his Holiness as Adam would have merited Heaven for himself and his Posterity by his good Works as of Debt not of Grace For to him that worketh the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt so that Christ paid the Debt of the Elect and so advanceth them unto Glory And on the other part the chief Reason was that Christ by his Human Nature being a Creature was under an indispensable Obligation to the Creator to love him with all his Soul with all his Heart and with all his Strength beyond which there could be nothing by which he did deserve all that Glory that no other was capable of and therefore they could not conceive a Supererrogation in Christ's active Obedience meriting the Heavenly Glory which Merit was not only sufficient for the Elect but for the whole Race of Mankind altho it was free for the Son to become Man his becoming Man was a part of his Humiliation and Suffering and which is yet more pressing if in that way the active Obedience and Holiness of Christ were imputed to the Elect they were thereby intirely holy and their own Holiness were but Works of Supererrogation at least were not Works due by Justice but Works of Gratitude and the failing in them could never require Repentance which would agree to the Principles of none but of the Antinomians Nor did it magnify the free Grace of God if he gave nothing to the Elect in advancing them to Glory but that which in Recompence at least in Premiative Justice he was obliged to give There being small ground in a Creditor to glory that he had exacted all he could have required tho not from his Debtor but from an interposed Person I have already cleared my Thoughts that tho Christ's Satisfaction may by Resemblance be called the Payment of a Debt yet properly it is not Nor doth God crave Satisfaction as a Creditor or is Sin expiated by God's taking Pleasure in the Misery of his Creature to compense the Displeasure he had in their Sin seeing he declareth the contrary with so solemn an Asseveration As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner But the Satisfaction he requireth in Conformity to his Holiness is the Vindication of his Purity and of his infinite Aversion from Sin as by his Justice he proportions the Suffering requisite for the Vindication to the Sins deserving Therefore upon the foresight of Adam's Fall and thereby not only the loss of the Exaltation of himself and Posterity to Celestial Glory but falling into a sinful State which no Creature could expiate the Son did freely interpose to restore Mankind to what they had lost by Adam and to vindicate the Purity of God by Sufferings of as much Value as if all Mankind had been in eternal Misery and by Christ's performing what Adam was obliged to perform by a full Implement of the whole Will and Law of God and for that end assuming the Nature of Man I have also cleared my Mind that tho Adam had stood he could not have merited that Exaltation which he and his Posterity were to have had by the first Covenant for he might have continued innocent and sinless without great Advances in Holiness Can it then with any Reason be thought that his so continuing did in any way of Justice and Merit purchase Glory for himself and the Capacity of the like to all his Posterity