better hope did by the which we draw night unto God God brings in another Administration to effect that which the other could not as the above Scriptures shew Vse 1. See hence what great obligations lye upon persons living under the Gospel Administration to be holy otherwise one end of this Administration is frustrated in such If those who lived under the Law and Old Covenant had great obligations laid upon them then surely ours must needs be farre greater Vse 2. This shewes How great is their evil who take occasion from the grace of God to sin when sin took occasion from the Law it was so aggravated it became hereby exceeding sinful Rom. 7.13 let such know 1 They pervert the Gospel 2 They have never learned Christ aright Ephes 4.17 to the 22. This I say therefore and testifie in the Lord that yee henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minde having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousnesse to work all uncleanenesse with greediness But yee have not so learned Christ if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus That yee put off concerning the former conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts 3 It is a sad signe of Reprobation Jude 4. For there are certaine men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousnesse and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ 4 They will daily bee more hardned in sin Acts 28.25 26 27. And when they agreed not among themselves they departed after that Paul had spoken one word well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our Fathers saying goe unto this people and say Hearing yee shall hear and shall not understand and seeing yee shall see and not perceive for the heart of this people is waxed grosse and their eares are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them 5 They will be more inexcusable Joh. 15.22 If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin but now they have no cloake for their sin 6 Heathens will rise up in Judgement against them 7 Their Condemnation will be just Rom. 3.8 And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirme that we say Let us doe evil that good may come whose damnation is just Greater than others Joh. 3.19 And this is the Condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darknesse rather than light because their deeds were evil Obser 2. That the discovery of the grace of God in the Gospel towards sinners is the most effectual means of killing and subduing sin Reason I meane Carnal reason makes us beleeve that this opens a Floud gate to all licentiousnesse and hence the wise men of the World lay the prophanenesse and lewdnesse of persons living where the grace of God is preached upon the back of Gods Free Grace as if the preaching of that to Sinners were the cause why Drunkards Swearers Sabbath-breakers live as they doe and hence they say No wonder Hearers are so prophane when their Teachers have found out such a sweet and easie way to Heaven but the Holy Ghost condemnes this opinion of Humane Wisdome as scandalous to the Grace of God yea altogether false and untrue and tells us that there is no such way in the world to curbe sin to change the hearts and lives of sinners as is this preaching of the Free Grace of God and therefore the Apostle having revealed the Grace of God presently saith These things I write that you sin not as if he should say if there be any Doctrine in the world will mortifie sin keep you from it it is this that I have written to you I know no more powerful and efficacious means than this is and therefore I have written these things for this very end and purpose that those sins which lived and reigned in you formerly might now hereby be slaine and mortified This likewise the Apostle teacheth us Rom. 6.14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for yee are not under the Law but under Grace as if he should say Whilst you were under the Law sin reigned in you and were you still under the same sin would reigne in spite of you but now saith he you are not under the Law but under grace and therefore sin shall not reigne over you Grace will curb and kill it though the Law could not doe it So likewise Titus 2.11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world As if hee should say doe not say because the Grace of God appears and is preached in the world to poor Sinners therefore men will be prophane and live in all ungodlinesse no no the grace of God teacheth all those who hear and receive the same another lesson to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts whereas before they were as others Drunkards Adulterers c. now they deny these things and are by hearing and embracing the Grace of God become professed enemies to what before they loved So that you see the preaching of Grace it is no enemy but a real friend to holinesse of life and conversation it is so farre from giving life thereto that it quite kills and destroyes sin I shall give you a Reason or two why the Grace of God is so effectual a means of the subduing of sin I Because the Grace of God it begets a kind of Spiritual ingenuity in the Soul of that sinner that hears and receives the same The more ingenuity a man hath he is of the more yeelding nature to those things which in themselves are good just and honest an ingenuous man is more inclinable to be drawne to things which are Naturally and Morally good than another man is you may work more upon an ingenuous nature with a word than you can upon another with threats or blowes Now Grace makes a man ingenuous it first puts a Principle of ingenuity in him which being put in hee is now more easily led to whatsoever the Grace of God commands him and from whatever the Grace of God forbids him A stubborne Childe must be cudgelled to doe what his Father would have him doe or avoyd what hee would have him forbear but an ingenuous Childe is led with a word speaking Grace makes a wilde and untamed nature to bee an ingenuous pliable nature and therefore a man being now made Spiritually ingenuous no sooner doth
of peace to remove that for the peace of the Saints is a thing of far greater concernment than my having my will there is nothing of evill against God in the one but there is in the other peace is a spiritual thing mans will is but a natural natural things must give place to spiritual the end of peace is edification the end of having my will is but to please my self I must prefer edification before the pleasing of my self 4 I am for peace sake to dispense with many things the particular interest of mine honour profit c. Abraham though the elder for peace sake gives place to Lot the younger to chuse before him the place of his habitation upon so doing for peace sake hee at once dispenseth with honour and profit both Peace is a duty our interests and advantages must give place to our duties yet here take this caution and limitation if the case bee such that by my resigning my particular interest and advantage I shall disadvantage truth it self I am then to hold it though it bee with so great a hazard as the loss of peace for though I may not hold mine advantage upon mine own account to the prejudice of peace because neither my selfe nor the thing in which my advantage lyes are of worth equivalent to peace yet I may upon the account of truth because that is of greater worth When Paul among the Corinthians and Galatians perceived truth it self to bee struck at through a sleighty esteem of his person then he who in his heart had as low thoughts of himselfe as they could have of him yet now stands up boldly and pleads the point of his honour preferring himself though for ought hee knew he might anger Peter James and John and so hazard a breach of peace before Peter James or John or any of them all 5 I am for peace sake to dispense with particular wrongs and injuries done to my self I speak not now as to civill injuries that question appertains to another case but I mean such as are of a more spiritual nature as censuring me as touching my spiritual condition branding mee for an Heretick Schismatick Dissembler c. endeavouring to set others against mee c. I am silently to put up many things of this nature rather than to break the peace the reason is because while I put these up the wrong is onely my own but in breaking the peace I may injure myself and many others also The putting up of these quietly for peace sake is an act of self-denial and so a fruit of the spirit The making a stir and coile about these things till peace is broken is a pure selfish business and so a fruit of the flesh yet take this also with two Cautions 1 I must so put it up as not to doe that in way of Self-denial as may any way allow of the act it self for though the evil of the act is to be patiently borne yet the act it self being evil is not to be allowed 2 I must also consider warily whether there be not some thing in the action that brings Gods Truth and Honour to the stake together with my self if so I may and ought to take upon me my owne rescue not for the sake of my self but of Gods Truth and Honour ingaged with me I am to dispence with errour in judgement in a Brother if it arise from weakness and be not obstinately and pertinaciously maintained because error of judgement is only a privative evil breach of peace a positive Quest But when may an errour of judgement be said to be of weakness not wilfulness or pertinacy Ans 1. VVhen a Brothers judgement is weak in all things else which is easily known by this if he be readily drawn to this thing or that Ephes 4.14 2 VVhen a Brother seeing a man of more grace than himself so or so appropriated subjects his judgement to the others grace Quest When of wilfulness or pertinacy First When he will stablish any Principles though never so contrary to faith and godliness to hold up his errour rather than suffer it to fall Secondly When he cares not what other Principles of his owne he pluck up by the roots so he may thereby keep that one Principle in which the errour lyes Thirdly VVhen a man pretends much Conscience as to that particular Principle but makes no Conscience of his practise in other things of greater and more weighty concernment Now to apply our Rule to the present Case if by doing this or that thing moving this or that way I either doe or shall dispence with any of those things which I ought not to dispence with or contrariwise shall not dispence with any of those things that for peace-sake I ought to dispence with then am I by this general Rule to shun that way and chuse another The Fourth GENERAL RVLE is Let your light so shine before men c. Walk in wisdome towards them that are without The true intent and purport of this Rule is that a Christian should so order his steps in the way of truth and holiness that poor sinners by beholding his conversation might not finde cause to harden their hearts in their owne wayes of iniquity but might be won to a love of the waies of God the case is still as before The Solution is That I am to chuse that path by walking in which I shall take away occasion of hardning poor Sinners and lay before them an occasion of winning and drawing them to a love and liking of the ways of Christ Quest Now would we know what that is which laies occasion of hardning before Sinners and what that is which on the other side wins them to a love and liking of the waies of Christ Ans One principal thing amongst many others by which Sinners are hardned is When they see Professors making no conscience of such things as they themselves at leastwise they think so would if they were in their stead make conscience of VVhen they see Persons pretending much more holiness than they break those bands of outward and civil holiness which their very Natural conscience laies such an awe upon them as they dare not break this is an exceeding great hardning to sinners especially the more refined sort of them your Civilians or Morralists who have partly by Natures light and partly by the light they have into things honest and just by the written VVord such a tye upon their Conscience that when they have an advantage yet many times they dare not transgress the Rules of equity and righteousness On the other side this is a thing very taking with Sinners and renders the waies of Christ amiable in their eyes when they see Professors conscientious in smaller things as well as greater such things wherein they are not absolutely bound up but have a kinde of liberty left them by the Lawes of God and men yet are as tender and conscientious least they should abuse this
comforting himself in this his reward should bee with God Hereupon God comes off more friendly Is is a light thing that thou shouldest bee my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel as to say that is not worth the dying for I value thy sufferings more than so I will give thee for a salvation to the ends of the earth So that Christ struck up a Covenant with the Father in behalf of those hee saves and all that are his own they are his by Covenant 5 They are Christs own by Jointure or Inheritance What a man hath as a Jointure or an Inheritance may bee called his own Beleevers are Christs own in this respect Deut. 32.9 For the Lords portion is his people Jacob is the lot of his inheritance Zach. 2.12 And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land and shall choose Jerusalem again 6 They are Christs own by a resignation of themselves and all they have and a subjection to him When a man hath resigned himself and all hee hath to another and subjected himself to bee wholly ruled and governed by him acknowledging all homage and obedience due to him hee may bee called that other and not his own Thus Beleevers are Christs own beleeving they imbrace him for a King as well as for a Saviour Rev. 15.3 King of Saints 7 They are Christs own by possession Possession the Proverb saith is an eleven points of the Law the meaning is that a man that hath possession will lay a great claim to right especially if a man have possession in a just and a legal way then possession is a double right Christ hath beleevers for his own in this respect for hee dwells in them by his Spirit 1 Cor 6.19 What know yee not that your body is the Iemple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which yee have of God and yee are not your own By faith Eph. 3.17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith 8 They are Christs own by Marriage-union Christ hath linked beleevers to himself in the bond of spiritual marriage hee having betrothed them to himself Hos 2.19 20. And I will betroth thee unto mee for ever yea I will betroth thee unto mee in righteousness in judgement and in loving-kindness and in mercies I will even betroth thee unto mee in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. So that as when a man and woman are married the husband may say to his wife Thou art my own and the wife to the husband thou art my own each challenging propriety in one another So Christ and beleevers Christ may say of the beleever hee is my own and the beleever of Christ and thou Lord art my own 9 They are Christs own by membership being members of that spiritual invisible body of which Christ is head which is set forth under the Parable of the Vine and branches Joh. 15. and as the head may say of every member this is mine that is a member belonging to that body of which I am head so may Christ say of every beleeving man and woman this man and woman is my own for hee shee is a member of that body to which I am head 3 That Christ hath a love to his own appears 1 From the very nature of propriety which loves that thing I have a propriety in above other A Father loves his childe above anothers Why hee hath a propriety in it it is his own The husband loves his wife shee is his own Propriety is a begetter of affection 2 From that special respect hee hath to them above others 1 Hee hath special pity and compassion towards them in all their sufferings Isa 63.9 In all their affection hee was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity hee redeemed them and bee bare them and carried them all the dayes of old Heb. 4.15 For wee have not an High Priest which cannot bee touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as wee are yet without sinne Chap. 5.2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that hee himselfe also is compassed with infirmity 2 Hee hath a special eye over them to see to it that none hurt them Psal 105.12 13 14 15. When they were but a few men in number yea very few and strangers in it When they went from one Nation to another from one Kingdome to another People hee suffered no man to do them wrong yea hee reproved Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets no harm 3 Hee hath a special care of them to see they shall not want 4 That this love of Christ to his own is a choice and an everlasting love 1 It is a choice love for 1 It is Father-like love Psal 103.13 Like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him 2 It is a conjugal love What love more choice than Marriage-love it is to bee loved as a man loves himself Eph. 5.28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies Christ hath married beleevers his love to them is Marriage-love 3 It is dying love Such love as makes him dye for the party loved This is the greatest love of all Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends If greatest love bee dying love then Christ did not dye for all as some will have it for hee doth not love all with the greatest love 2 It is Everlasting love 1 Love arising from an everlasting cause where the cause is everlasting the effect must bee so too What is the cause why Christ loves beleevers Why meerly his good will and leasure hee loves because hee will love This cause being everlasting the effect must bee also everlasting 2 Love supported by everlasting Pillars 1 The Pillar of his Unchangeablenesse Heb. 13.3 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Mal. 3.6 For I am the Lord I change not 2 The Pillar of his Truth and Faithfulnesse Christ is the true and faithful one It is a part of unfaithfulnesse to love a while and then to cease to love Christ is no such lover 3 The Pillar of his everlasting remembrance Isa 49.15.16 Can a woman forget her sucking-childe that shee should not have compassion on the Son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the Palms of my hands thy walls are continually before mee FOR APPLICATION As there are two things mainly held forth in the Text both which I have in the doctrinal part spoken unto 1 That beleevers are Christs own 2 That Christ loves his own with a peculiar and everlasting love So in my Application I shall speak someching to both For the first Is it so that beleevers are Christs own
Grace say to him goe but he goes come but he comes doe this avoyd that but he doth the one and avoyds the other The Law doth not put such a Principle of ingenuity in a man and therefore persons under the same one day they are threatned another day they feele the Whip and Rod for their sins another while they resolve vow and covenant they will sin no more and yet still they goe in the old track they sin and vow and vow and sin and all because there is not a spiritual ingenuity wrought in them as Grace works in all those that hear and receive the same but now Grace that makes a man so ingenuous that considering what God hath done for poore Sinners what Christ hath suffered to take away sin how free and willing God is to receive him make him a Son and Heir here give him Heaven and glory hereafter he would not now lye swilling and sweltering in his old sins and lusts though hee might the Soul needs not now to vow and covenant a twelve month together against such and such sins it is addicted unto no but it hears the voyce of Gods grace telling it what Christ hath done for it how willing God is to pardon all his sins and bidding it doe this avoyd that and presently it is made inclinable to obey the voyce of Gods grace what saith Paul Rom. 6.1 Shall we sin because grave doth abound no God forbid we have more ingenuity in us than to doe thus because God loves us and is willing to pardon cur sins here and to glorifie us hereafter shall we therefore doe what we can to grieve him to offend and trouble him no God forbid we are more ingenuous than so nay we cannot doe it our very hearts are against it and our souls hate and abhorre the thoughts of it we would not for a world bee found to require the Lord thus So 2 Cor. 5.13 14 15. For whether we be besides our selves it is to God or whether we be sober it is for your Cause for the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again As to say whether we be mad or sober judge of us as you please yet have wee so much ingenuity as to judge thus that if Jesus Christ dyed for us we should now live to him if he came and purchased an everlasting life for us our ingenuity makes us reason that it is a fit thing that we should live this our temporal life to him and consecrate it wholly to his service What is the reason that many a poor Soul sits all the week long at the Ale-pot Sweares and Whores and yet now and then he vowes and resolves against such courses and yet cannot for his heart and bloud as we say leave them but the Law when hee hath done such things whips and stings him and this hardens him whereas did but such a poor Soul see that he is by Jesus Christ delivered from wrath to come freed from the Law Sin and Satan did but God let him to see the hope of his calling and what a happy and blessed estate hee is by Christ brought into there would bee such an ingenuity wrought within him that hee needs not vow and covenant to bee Drunk and Swear and Whore no more no but his heart would abhor to deal so basely and unworthily with a God so infinite rich in love and abounding in Grace and mercy towards him 2 Because the grace of God it hath more full and clear precepts to holinesse than the Law hath the Law that hath ten Commands but the grace of God that hath many hundred Spiritual commands wherein it injoynes spiritual obedience and newness of life and then the commands of grace they are as more so of a more spiritual nature whatsoever the Law commands Natures light teacheth and a man may by Natures light convince a man of these things but now the precepts of grace are spiritual and supernatural such as a Natural man by Natures light cannot perceive The precepts of grace are called the things of the Spirit l Cor. 2. Which the Natural man cannot perceive but they are foolishnesse unto him because they are spiritually discerned Where the grace of God is preached and received there doth the Spirit of God goe who is a teaching Spirit and teacheth the Soul infinite more commands and with more clearness and demonstration doth it discover truth than any Natural or Moral man by his Natural light or study of the Law can ever finde out the Law discovers to a man the outward actions of sin and forbids these but when grace comes with its precepts it makes discovery of the first risings motions stirrings and concupiscence of these things in the Soul and forbids these and hence by reason that the grace of God or the Doctrine of the Gospel for that I understand by the grace of God all along hath more full higher and more Spiritual instructions than any the Law hath makes further discoveries of sin than the Law barely considered can doe it comes to passe that it is the most effectual means of killing and subduing sin 3 Because there is a power in grace for the subduing and killing of sin The Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 3. that the Law it is a killing letter that is it is only a bare letter without any power bidding us to doe this and avoyd that but contributes no assistance to us yet tells us if wee doe not obey it we shall be damned and so it is a killing letter that is to us it kills us instead of killing our sins but now the Gospel gives life that doth not only command but giveth power to doe and so is a word of life So Heb. 12. hee calls the Law a voyce of words for the same reason because it did command and forbid things under the penalty of Death and Damnation and it saw the poor Creature to bee weak and altogether unable to doe either the one or the other and yet gave him no power at all and so was only a terrible voyce of words to him The Law as one saith it doth teach just as the Commandements written upon the walls doe a poor man comes in and reads them over and yet his heart is never the warmer never the more fit to obey any of them because he reads them there but now the Gospel on the grace of God that brings power along with it a poor Soul which before lived in sins and thought it impossible that ever hee should leave them or have them subdued now findes a power within him killing and subduing those sins of his hence it is called The power of God unto salvation Rom. 1.16 4 Because a Soul never comes to see sin in its proper colours until the grace
therefore saith it because it is Law but here it is Law because he saies it If you should have a Cause upon the trial and should have assurance of these three things First That you have the ablest and most faithful Counsellor to mannage your businesse that the whole Kingdome doth afford Secondly That the Principles of Justice give the Cause unto you and Thirdly That the Law in the whole and every part of it is of your side how confident would you bee that you should carry it Sinners there is never a Cause that you entrust the Lord Jesus Christ with but you shall have assurance of all these things first that you have the best the mostable and faithful Advocate which Heaven or Earth affords and then that both the Principles of Justice and the Law are for you for whatever cause it is Christ pleads be hath both these of his side 6 He is such an Advocate as hath the Judge of the Court of his side it is no little priviledge to have the Judge of a mans side a Counsellor befriended may speak when another shall have his mouth shut Jesus Christ hath the Judge of the Court where he pleads on his side being his Father and therefore Christ is befriended when the Devil shall bee commanded silence and have his mouth stopt then Christ shall have free liberty to speak and plead his Cause 7 Hee is a prosperous and successful Advocate such an Advocate as ever hath and doth carry his Clients Cause Should you hear of an Atturney or Counsellor that never took Cause in hand but carried it what flocking think you would there be from one end of the Country to the other to such a man such a one should not want practice Beloved Christ is such an Advocate which never yet took up Cause but carried it and therefore he is Jesus a Saviour such an Advocate as hath and doth save his Clients harmlesse O let him not want practice bring O bring your Causes to him 3 Whose Cause it is that Jesus Christ as an Advocate pleads Ans 1. Not the cause of all men John 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine Though there are Advocates for a Town or Corporation of County yet never was there such an Advocate heard of as was to plead the Causes of all the World Christ is no such Advocate But. 2 The Causes Christ pleads are the Causes of the Elect these whom the Father hath given Christ now the Elect of God are either such as are for the present in their unregenerate estate yet in Gods secret Decree of election or else such as are regenerated the Causes of both these Christ pleads such of Gods Elect which are not regenerated he pleads for them that they might be converted and by reason of this intercession of Christ the patience of God bears with them all the time of their unregenerate condition such as are regenerated he pleads for them and by vertue of this intercession they are preserved their Graces are quickned their Corruptions mortified they comforted strengthened c. both these are set forth in that place of Iohn 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shal beleeve on me through their word First He prayes for Disciples converted Secondly for those that were to bee converted 4 What those things are that Christ intercedes for Ans 1. Hee pleads for his Church and people in general 1 He pleads for the peace welfare and prosperity of his Churches Zach. 1.12 Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years The Church was at present in a low condition in the bottome as vers 8. the Enemies of God did ride the backs of the people of God Christ in this condition pleads for his Church vers 12. and what hee pleaded for you may perceive by the answer he hath vers 13 14 15 16 17. And the Lord answered the Angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words so the Angel that communed with me said unto me cry thou saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousie and I am very sore displeased with the Heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction Therefore thus saith the Lord I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies my House shall be built in it saith the Lord of Hosts and a line shall bee stretched forth upon Jerusalem cry yet saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts my Cities through prosperity shall yet bee spread abroad and the Lord shall yet comfort Sion and shall yet chuse Jerusalem 2 He pleads for the union of his Saints and Churches Ioh. 17.21 That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may beleeve that thou hast sent me How should this stirre up Saints in divided times to union doth Christ plead for union above and shall we wrangle below Doth he endeavour it with his Father and shall not wee endeavour it with one another 2 He pleads for particular Souls 1 He pleads for Gods forbearance of them in an unconverted estate Luke 13.8 And he answering said unto him Lord let it alone this year also till I shall digge about it and dung it 2 He pleads for their conversion Luk. 23.34 Then said Iesus Father forgive them for they know not what they doe 3 He pleads that they might bee delivered from the evils of the World Iohn 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil 4 He pleads for upholding Grace in temptation Luke 22.31 32. And the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as Wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not 5 He pleads for the Comforter to bee given to them Joh. 14.16 And I will pray the Father and hee shall give you another Comforter 6 He pleads for his continuance with them Joh. 14.16 That hee may abide with you for ever 7 He pleads for their perseverance Joh. 17.11 And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I am come to thee holy Father keep through thine owne Name those whom thou hast given mee that they may bee one as we are 8 He pleads for their Sanctification vers 17. Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth 9 He pleads for their glorification vers 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given mee 5 The manner of his pleading
threat of death in case of disobedience and the promise of life upon condition of obedience by assuring her seed in giving forth this rule unto them that they are already most certainly freed from death and possessed of life and that therefore shee gives not forth this rule unto them to bee as a way or meanes through the observance of which they may escape the one or obtaine the other but only as a declaration of their Fathers will and their duty that by it they may bee instructed how they ought to walk and to please God Hence the obedience of Sarahs Children so farre as they are subject to their Mother Sarah only receiving their Law out of her hand is pure Gospel obedience i. e. obedience springing from the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them as the principal efficient cause from love and thankfulness to-their Father as the moving cause from an earnest desire that their Father might have some service from them and glory by them as the final cause and this is pure Gospel obedience when God is Agent Motive and End in all we doe 4 Hence wee may learn That a true Beleever as he doth not expect life and salvation from his obedience to the Law so should hee not fear death and condemnation either by his falling short in obedience or by his disobedience This Position will sound harsh in some cares and be accounted a leavened Principle but doe but observe how naturally it flowes from what hath been laid downe and proved for if the promise of life and salvation upon condition of obedience and the threat of Death and Condemnation to the disobedient bee proper to the Law as Hagars Law and if the Law as Hagars Law be now cast out then hath a Beleever nothing to doe with the Law as it is a law promising life to the obedient or threatning death to the disobedient and if so then cannot he expect life and salvation from it though hee should obey it nor need hee fear death though hee disobey it This necessarily follows that which hee hath nothing to doe with is dead to delivered from c. hee can neither expect good no nor fear evil from But the Law as Hagars Law hee hath nothing to doe with is dead to it delivered from it therefore he can neither expect good nor need he fear evil from it Obj. But it will be said Such a principle as this dâ—th open a wide gap to all manner of licention nesse Ans Not so but contrariwise it is co a gracious heart the most powerful motive and the greatest help that can bee to holinesse for as there is nothing moves such a one so strongly as doth this perswasion upon the heart that whatsoever it hath is of the free love of God only and that this love is such as that nothing can separate from it so nothing affords the Soule more firme help and reliefe against sin and temptations to sin than doth the knowledge and assurance of this that sin and temptation though it should conquer cannot condemn for so long as the Soul looks upon a possibility of being condemned by sin if vanquished by it he is in continual fear and therefore whensoever hee findes the motions of sin or temptations to sin stirring in himself hee presently grows weak and faint through this fear I shall bee vanquished and so condemned and as a fainting man is not in a capability to stand up against an enemy assaulting him with full strength so this fainting Soul whose strength through fear is gone before it is assaulted sinkes downe presently under the assault and is without any great resistance made a captive to that thing it hates which thing the Apostle Paul had large experience of in himself when hee said Sinne taking occasion by the Commandement wrought in mee all manner of concupiscence for without the law sin was dead for I was alive without the law once but when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed and the Commandement which was ordained to life I found to bee unto death for sin taking occasion by the Commandement deceived me and by it slew me Rom. 7.8 9 10 11. But now when a Soul apprehends this that Hagars condemning Law hath nothing to doe with him and can from the clear knowledge of this say beleevingly to sin and temptation when hee feeles it beginning to stirre O sin O temptation though I should now yeeld to thee which is the thing thou wouldest have yet know this that thou shalt never condemn me which is the thing thou seekest hereby he doth as I may say disanimate the strength of sin and temptation and mightily encourageth himself and so adds to his owne strength that whereas be ever before encountred sin with disadvantage hee doth now encounter it with advantage and fights with the greatest resolution that can bee and without faint-heartednesse which faint-heartednesse comes in by the doore of this fear if I am conquered I am undone but if this fear be removed from the heart and the Soul once throughly perswaded of this my condition doth not depend at all upon the event of this Combate but whether I conquer or am conquered that is the same then shall it finde its hands made strong to fight and its heart also mightily resolved Such a state or condition as this I am speaking of there is but it is knowne only of those whom God hath brought out of Hagars School and who are in the School of Sarah my meaning is such as God hath enlightned to see and enabled to receive in the love of it this blessed truth that rigid servile Hagar is an out-cast and hath no longer rule over them having neither punishments to inflict nor rewards to bestow upon them but milde and loving Sarah is their only Mother and hath the sole government of them whose Children though they may be corrected with gentle rebukes yet can they never become out-casts and bee disinherited as Hagars may Till wee come into Sarahs Schoole we cannot learn this lesson yea Sarahs Children whilst they continue in Hagars Schoole will be offended at it Thus we have done with the First Question viz. what we are to understand by the Old Covenant I come now to the Second viz. Quest 2. What kind of Covenant this Old Covenant is Ans This is indeed the knotty Question and if there be any peece of the Doctrine of the Covenants that seemes to have perplexing difficulties in it this is it Before I can deliver my thoughts hereof positively it is necessary that something bee laid downe Negatively in opposition to that common principle which holds this Old Covenant to bee a Covenant of Grace and to differ from the New only in respect of administration so making the Old and the New not to be two diverse Covenants but two administrations of one and the same Covenant the one more dark the other more clear but the Covenant to bee for substance the same and