〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an encompassing sin vvhich he cannot cast off Heb. 12.1 vvhich he has no povver to resist it so besets him in every faculty that he cannot take it avvay 4. The Lavv discovers the filthiness of Original sin that it is mire it is vomit 2 Cor. 7.1 Jam. 1.21 it is filthiness it self nay that it is the excrement of naughtiness it has defiled the soul it defiles all creatures that are for a mans use Hag. 2.11 as the Leper whatever he touched is unclean To the soul of man the Sun in his glory was not to be compared if a man had been cast into Hell as a Diamond into the dirt it could never have defiled him his Holiness like a Diamond would have shined bright notwithstanding but since the soul is defiled with sin the defilement is so deep that nothing can wash it out it is a stain that will remain to eternity upon all that are not washed in the blood of Christ as spots in scarlet and crimson much soap will not serve turn to take them out the fire of Hell will not purge sin and therefore when men have been there millions of years they are as black and filthy and as unpurged as at the first entrance into that place of darkness and horrour c. 5. The Law discovers that Original sin is the seed of all sin and it contains virtually all sin in it Jer. 6. Jam. 1.14 it is sin in the fountain an evil man out of the treasure of his evil heart casts out evil things murder and adultery A man is tempted by his own lust it is his father and it is his mother lust conceives and brings forth sin all actual sins are much more in the heart there is a beam in the eye and a dimness in the heart and I conceive by all occasions also sin is drawn out and he can look upon no creature but he conceives sin from it 1 Joh. 2.15 whatever is in the world is the fuel of lust there is nothing but is the object and draws out some lust in the heart 6. The Law discovers the deceitfulness of Original sin that all the lusts of a mans heart are deceitful lusts Ephes 4.24 Jer. 17.9 Jam. 3.15 Heb. 3.13 and the heart is deceitful above all things who can know it that a man can never fathom the bottom of it for there is a devillishness in it that whatever policy there is in Hell all this is in sin the wisdom of the flesh will take all opportunities to sin and make provision for the flesh and by often sinning mens hearts are hardned and they use much policy also in drawing others to sin and to keep them off from that which is good to set them upon things that are unlawful or else to pervert and poyson them in those things which are lawful to make an improvement of every occasion and to grow upon the sudden beyond what a man could have imagined as we see it in Peter from lying he proceeded even to cursing and damning himself Hab. 2. Deut. 25. Ephes 4.19 Jud. 11. Isa 56. 7. The Law discovers the unsatiableness and unweariedness that is in Original sin and the infiniteness that is in it it is compared to drunkenness the more men drink the more they desire and it is like Hell that is never satisfied the pleasures of sin enlarge the soul but never fill it there is a greediness in sin men pour out themselves they are greedy dogs that can never have enough there is such a dog-like appetite after sin they do evil with both hands earnestly always modo modo non haberet modum and therefore eternity of punishment is reserved for it God dealing with the creature not according to his actions but intentions the sinner would have it infinite extensively and intensively and therefore peccat in aeterno suo c. he sins in his eternity and God punisheth in his eternity 8. It discovers the demerit and effects of Original sin that it brings a man under the curse which is all evil and the wrath of God in Hell all the curses in Gods book and all the plagues of Gods Justice all the torments of Hell which either infinite wisdom can find out or infinite power inflict and that to eternity and that not only upon himself but upon all the creatures for his use Cursed is the ground for thy sake and cursed shalt thou be in thy house Rom. 8.20 and the curse enters into the timber and there is a vanity of corruption brought upon them all it turns a land into barrenness makes the Stars fight against them and the Clouds to drop vengeance and there is the desert of sin written in the drops of rain it hinders the influences of Heaven binds up the influences of the Pleiades which no man can do c. 2. The Law sets before a man and discovers his actual sins and that in many particulars It shews a maâ—â— what dishonour every sin does unto Gods glory a man gives not glory to the God of Heaven but debases him as much as in him lies by casting dishonour upon him saying The way of the Lord is not equal Is God unrighteous I speak as a man says Paul he despises his Justice turns his Grace into wantonness and gives the glory of God to any thing else for in every actual sin a man sets up a new God and serves the Devil in it who is the God of this World The Idols of mens hearts as well as of their hands strike at the very Being of God and also at the excellency of Gods rule the Law being the Septer by which the Lord rules and that by which his Soveraignty is seen in the world Rom. 7.12 it is the glorious royal Law the perfect Law it is holy just and good infinitely surpassing all the Laws of men I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad And not only the holiness of the Law but the harmony of it is opposed he that breaks one is guilty of all he that neglects any one command willingly is undoubtedly an hypocrite and he disobeys all for sincerity is accompanied with universality Then the Law opened in its spirituality shews a man the intention of his heart much more than it does in his actions and the intent of the sin goes beyond that of the sinner it shews also the infection of it upon others for evil words corrupt good manners it is as rottenness a plague a gangrene there is an infection in them all This one act of sin would defile the whole man as we see it has done in Adam and the Angels that fell the act defiles the nature and the nature defiles the man the least vain thought deserves death and the least idle word qualifies a man for Hell and therefore there is more evil in the least act of sin than there is good in all the
7 212 2 14 356 2. 21 22 425 6. 7 176 8. 14 59 10. 12 175 11. 14 237 13. 8 97 14. 4 348 14. 5 6 7 347 Joel 2. 7 379 2. 23 355 2. 25 417 Micah 5. 2 135 5. 7 422 7. 20 125 Habakkuk 2. 4 329 3. 2 330 3. 9 420 Zephany 2. 4 322 Zachary 1. 17 188 2. 5 369 3. 1 2 408 4. 2 3 353 422 4. 7 424 5. 6 8 39 6. 8 136 11. 10 163 13. 7 323 Malachy 2. 3 182 2. 13 15 16 11 3. 3 316 Matthew 3. 16 128 6. 22 23 350 7. 14 15 192 8. 11 234 241 10. 29 30 417 11. 29 169 13. 24 25 415 13. 29 ibid. 13. 52 399 16. 19 202 222 22. 1 321 22. 14 234 22. 32 358 26. 74 188 28. 18 383 Mark 10. 13 201 11. 13 279 14. 71 539 Luke 13. 32 431 446 15. 21 378 16. 13 192 16. 22 234 17. 20 21 388 18. 16 201 19. 9 198 21. 9 212 21. 18 417 22. 31 188 192 22. 32 439 John 1. 1 410 1. 2 134 5. 22 382 5. 23 418 5. 26 330 6. 27 136 6. 44 314 15. 1 324 17. 2 385 20. 17 375 Acts. 2. 38 194 13. 10 438 Romans 3. 1 206 5. 3 396 5. 13 93 6. 14 37 38 45 7. 7 91 7. 9 93 329 7. 24 62 8. 28 395 9. 2 3 196 9. 4 217 234 9. 31 25 10. 3 ibid. 11. 16 196 234 238 11. 17 210 325 11. 24 62 14. 17 388 15. 8 9 162 1 Corinthians 4. 8 358 5. 12 13 205 6. 17 192 7. 14 196 213 214 220 224 11. 3 321 12. 4 5 6 218 13. 12 290 15. 24 398 15. 28 323 15. 56 39 2 Corinthians 2. 14 333 6. 10. 373 Galatians 3. 16 124 126 3. 17 18 19 86 108 4. 21 22 121 5. 18 50 Ephesians 1. 4 5 134 4. 14 15 400 5. 15 378 5. 31 192 Philippians 1. 8 399 1. 19 366 2. 20 399 3. 9 26 240 4. 7 373 Colossians 1. 13 61 381 2. 8 257 2. 14 83 2. 19 327 1 Timothy 1. 9 52 2 Timothy 2. 26 406 Hebrews 2. 1 2 185 2. 5 235 2. 7 8 387 6. 7 213 8. 6 158 10. 22 362 10. 38 329 10. 39 371 12. 22 340 James 1. 15 435 1. 22 334 1. 24 53 54 90 3. 15 445 1 Peter 1. 7 375 2. 9 377 3. 21 190 2 Peter 1. 4 246 1. 5 332 1. 20 425 1 John 5. 6 7 338 5. 11 328 5. 19 406 Revelations 2. 1 389 2. 17 424 3. 21 330 4. 5 391 7. 3 4 210 12. 11 186 13. 8 164 13. 17 217 14. 1 323 16. 1 413 19. 14 322 20. 1 255 21. 3 218 21. 6 255 21. 12 16 373 22. 15 233 ERRATA PAg. 33. lin 11. after made known read have no cause to complain because they are left under that Covenant they desire to be p. 41. l. 23. ior mercy r. death p. 49. l. 10. dele the last sin p. 52. l. 41. r. 1 Tim. 1. ◠p. 54. l. 47 48. dele the property of an unregenerate man is to justifie God p. 55. l. 23. dele the first and p. 56. l. 25. for there r. that Item l. 41. r. lime that which doth quench other fires sometimes kindles this p. 59. marg r. Use 4. p. 61. l. 59. r. 1 Cor. 15.56 p. 61 c. Title r. scriptural p. 62. l. 57. r. is passed p. 65. l. 29. r. Dominion only p. 78. l. 10. from the bottom r. for publick politick Ib. l. 9. from the bottom dele the second hereditary p. 97. l. 8 9. dele Hos 13.8 I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps c. Item v. 10. dele c. p. 100. l. 5. r. Diabolus p. 101. l. 36. for unchangeable r. unblamable p. 118. l. 55. r. nolentibus p. 149. l. 22. for Son r. Sun Item l. 40. for work r. make p. 165. l. 4. r. enter into Covenant p. 168. l. 10. r. last way to salv p. 170. l. 34. for utterly r. entirely p. 174. l. 13. r. as he paid the debt p. 176. l. 34. for ways r. days p. 177. l. 31. r. I am not at Item l. 56. for curse r. Covenant p. 184. l. 24. r. that curse is the c. p. 242. l. 5. dele three p. 247. l. 58. r. Smalcaldian war p. 302. l. 53. for right r. light p. 303. l. 57. dele § 2. p. 317. Sect. 3. Title r. to Christ p. 329. l. 57. r. than any creature p. 331. l. 14. r. live himself p. 332. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 338. l. 57. r. is in the recumbency p. 339. l. 60. for 5. r. § 4. p. 340. l. 20. dele § 4. p. 346. l. 51. r. as she said p. 349. l. 25. r. they and their fathers p. 350. l. 20. r. incommutabili ad commutabile p. 365. l. 39. r. specious Idol p. 385. l. 29. dele 1. Item l. 58. r. is put p. 388. l. 14. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 389. l. 23. r. Divine Law p. 412. l. 5. r. Papista p. 417. l. 19. for three r. four p. 418. l. 54. r. the people of God see God A DISCOURSE OF THE Two Covenants c. BOOK I. Of the Covenant of Works CHAP. I. The Curse of the first Covenant Gen. II. 17. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die c. SECT I. The Explication of the Text. § 1. IN the Covenant God made with Adam there was a Life promised of which the Tree of Life was a Seal and there was a Death threatned which was seal'd by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the threatning Thou shalt die the Promise is implied This do and thou shalt live and therefore the one is called the Sacrament of Life and the other the Sacrament of Death And this was a Covenant not made with Adam as a particular person but as a Representative from whom all Mankind were to descend by Natural Generation and therefore God did make a Covenant with Man in his Head But the Covenant God made with the Angels was Personal because they were created all at once and they were not to have their Being by descent one after another Hence it is that in Adam all sin and in Adam all die Rom. 5.12 1 Cor. 15.12 Act. 17.26 because God did intend to make of one blood all Nations Now the Covenant being made with Adam in the behalf of his Posterity and he breaking it brings himself and all his Posterity under the guilt of Sin and under the power of Death which is the curse of the Covenant So that the Covenant of Works did not cease by the fall Ephes 2.1 but it stands still in force unto all those that are as yet in the first Adam 1. This will clearly appear if we consider that God dealt with man in a Covenant-way in his Creation Man stands bound to God by a double bond
deterr'd from sin and kept in obedience to the Covenant All the threatnings in the Word since the Fall are but conditional which argues that it is to no other end but that they might be avoided and prevented He tells us the danger before that we may escape God under the first Covenant will'd that Adam should have continued in his obedience and avoided the curse of it and the Lord to manifest he neglected no means to this end created in him a holy nature gave him a righteous and an easie Law made a glorious promise to his obedience added a fearful threatning upon his disobedience therefore God did not will the death of a sinner And we may say with the Scripture He doth not afflict willingly the children of men Lam. 3.33 but as Tertullian says of the earnest prayers of Gods people so I may say of importunity in sinning Coelum tundimus We assault Heaven he says Misericordiam I put it vindictam extorquemus We extort vengeance 2 But God had decreed the fall of Adam and that this curse should come and it could not have been against his will how can it be said then that God will'd his obedience and continuance therein There is good ground for a double will of God which the Scripture speaks of a will of complacence and a will of efficacy approbationis effectionis a will of approbation and of effection the one is a general and a conditional will manifested to the Creature whereby the Lord approves and rewards obedience and perseverance therein in all persons whomsoever And this is his revealed will without determining any thing of particular persons in whom he will work this obedience But the other is a secret will toward that particular person in whom he will work this obedience and to whom he will give grace to continue in it God did in his revealed will manifest to Adam what he did require of him what he delighted in and what he would reward him for but he did not tell him that he would give him grace and a supernatural assistance to cause him to continue in obedience but he left him to the mutability of his own will and in the hand of his own Counsel God wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth 1 Tim. 2 4. God wills that all men should believe but he will not work faith in all men He wills that all men should be saved but he will not bring all men to Salvation he wills the one voluntate approbante by a will of approbation but the other decernente by a decreeing will So Davenant his answer to Gods love to Mankind pag. 220. 3 Threatnings and Promises are of great necessity and use even to a creature in the state of Innocency with whomsoever God will deal in a Covenant-way even the purest Creatures may and ought to make use of them and to fear to offend God because of his wrath for even our God is a consuming fire Now of what use could this have been to Adam in innocency having no sense or fear of sin or suffering but more of this afterwards 4 Even the Creature in the state of innocency has nothing in it to satisfie the Holiness of God he gives a command and adds a promise but as if the Lord were jealous of him he adds a threatning to keep him in obedience and so he did with the Angels he put no trust in them he charges even them with folly Job 4.18 though not with actual yet with possible folly The best Creatures as Creatures are changeable therefore the Holiness of God can never take full contentment and satisfaction in any thing but in Christ who is by the personal union impeccable 5 How comes it to pass that this Tree proved so hurtful to man That totum genus humanum per infinitam successionem perdiderit It destroyed all mankind throughout such an infinite succession Luther proposes the question and says the cause was not in the fruit for fructus protulit nobilissimos it produced most excellent fruit but the ground was in the Word of God and his prohibition Arbor vitae vivificat virtute verbi promittentis arbor scientiae occidit virtute verbi prohibentis the tree of life vivifies by virtue of the word promising and the tree of knowledge kills by virtue of the word prohibiting It 's the Word of God that is the cause of life and death to the Creature God exalts his Word above the best of the Creatures and it is dearer to him than Adam was in Innocency or the Angels he has exalted it above all his Name Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather than a tittle of it and therefore he will not now spare us for the breach of it But why did God give Adam this Commandment having given him so freely all the other Trees of the Garden Preceptum exploratorium Paraeus Arhor diviri cultus fuit why should he forbid him this one it was a precept for trial a tree of divine worship They were not one tree says Luther though here so called collectively but Nemus quasi sacellum quoddam a wood as it were a Chappel God loves to try the obedience of the best of his Creatures to give them matter and occasion to exercise the Graces that he has given them As every word of God is a tried word and has been in the furnace often and Gods people have found it true so every grace wrought by that word is a tried grace and the trial of it is to the Saints now and so it should have been to Adam precious as the Apostle Peter says The trial of your faith is more precious than gold 6 But what need had Adam of such a Tree being he had a Law written in his heart of obedience to all Gods requirings as the Sun has a law of motion He was freely and fully carried after it by a command within he was a living Scripture a walking Bible but yet the best of the Creatures had need as of daily assistance and direction so also of daily admonition and a publick Monitor The Angels themselves as they have new service daily to do for God so they have a new supply from the spirit of Christ to quicken them daily We read in Ezek. 1.13 there is a spirit of fire that goes up and down amongst the living creatures which denotes the active daily and vigorous supply of the Spirit of Christ and the constant working of it Surely men may see yea those that are learned in the School of Christ what need there is of a Ministery Some say what need is there to have the same things taught that we know as well as they do and may be better Yet though you do know them there is need we should stir you up by way of remembrance 7 But why should it be so great an offence to eat of this Tree seeing God made it pleasant to the eye and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies 1 ye that covet earnestly or vehemently desire so the word is used Mat. 12.38 16.24 Mar. 10.35 12.38 2 Ye that demand or make it your petition so Mat. 15.28 20.21 3 Ye that study contrive labour with all your might so Mat. 16 25. Mar. 8.10 43 44. Luk. 23.20 4 Ye that consent to this as best determine as Mat. 13.28 Joh. 9.54 Mat. 17.4 5 Ye that delight or take pleasure Mat. 9.13 12.7 Heb. 10.5 8. It follows to be under the Law The Apostle Paul speaks of being under the Law in divers senses 1 There is a being under the Law for justification and life Gal. 4.4 5. that is under the Law as a Covenant Christ was made under the Law to redeem us that were under the Law 2 There is a being under the Law for condemnation Gal. 3.10 Rom. 6.14 As many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse 3 There is a being under the Law for irritation that is stirring up a mans corruption Sin taking occasion by the Commandment became exceeding sinful Gal. 5.8 4 There is a being under the Law by compulsion If you are led by the spirit you are not under the Law that is the Law as only inforcing and compelling as an unregenerate man is as a slave and having the spirit of a servant not of a son who does all he does from an inward principle and disposition suitable to the Law in whatever it does command But it will appear that being under the Law in all these senses are grounded on being under it as a Covenant as we shall see hereafter and that he that is freed from it as a Covenant is not under the Law in any of these respects but by vertue of the second Covenant is delivered from it Only here I think Pareus and others say that to be under the law and desire so to be is the same with Gal. 3.10 They that are of the works of the Law that is that seek righteousness and life by the works of the Law and this is properly to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works which was the natural sin of the Jews and with which error and heresie they endeavoured to overspread all the Gentile Churches going about to establish their own righteousness and therefore typified by Hagar which the Apostle makes Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem above the Christian Church is Sarah that did receive the Doctrine of the Gospel without any mixture of their own righteousness but did trust perfectly in the Grace that was revealed to them by Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 10.3 So here to be under the Law is to seek to be justified by the works of the Moral or Ceremonial Law as being works of righteousness that we have done For though the whole Ceremonial Law were Gospel under a veil yet they not being able to look to the end of it as the Apostle says they did perform it as works of righteousness 2 Cor. 3. in which they did expect justification and life for their obedience to them and performance of them without looking into the things shadowed in those types Now the Apostle says not only that men were thus under the Law but so they did desire to be Therefore looking upon these as being a patern of all mankind and in whom the dispositions of all men may be read I do hence observe Doct. That to be under the Law as a Covenant of works is unto every natural man a very desirable condition He is not only born under the first Covenant but under that Covenant he does desire to continue In the handling of it I shall first prove it and give the grounds of it and answer some Objections that may arise in the hearts of men against it and then make the application of it There is in the fall of man a double misery come upon him 1 His being under Adams Covenant 2 His bearing Adams image And in this state all men by nature desire to live and die And that men do still desire to bear the image of the Earthly Adam is plain because they resist the image of God in Christ that blessed image that by the holy Spirit is offered to them in the Gospel And we find how much they do hug the image of old Adam in themselves Now though their desire to be under his Covenant be the foundation of all their misery yet men apprehend it not so much The offer of the second Covenant they hate and reject the Covenant of Christ as much as they despise his Image yet they perceive it not Therefore to prove it we must take the most convincing course we can First this was the evil that God saw Adam's nature to be prone to and therefore he not only cast him out of Paradise as a just reward of his apostacy but also in a particular manner forbad him the use of the tree of life Gen. 3.22 Gen. 3.22 God having made for our first Parents coats of skins now he saith Behold the man is become like one of us it is an Ironical exclamation wherein God derides the falshood of Satan and the folly of man This is the Godship that Satan promis'd en Divinitatem promissam Behold the promised Divinity And the knowledge of good and evil was nothing but a miserable and shameful nakedness which before man knew not And now here follows exilii decretum ratio decreti the decree is Gods will to cast man out of Paradice and the ground of it is lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of Life But why must not man after the fall taste of the tree of Life seeing before the fall it was not forbidden It is answered Non in esse sed in intentione futurum erat peccatum not in the action but in the intention it was to be reputed sin And Interpreters give this as a reason that thereby God might take away occasion of sinning from him and God doth not only aim at keeping us from sin by his Word but by his Rod also And they observe that there was by the fall a double corrupt disposition in Adam's heart which the eating of this tree would have drawn forth 1 Looking upon it as a Creature which he might conceive to have a vertue in it to preserve life he might put forth his hand which notes a voluntary act and so he might conceive though God hath threatned death yet here is a tree that can preserve life and of this I will eat and live And so he might have sin'd wilfully and out of contempt of the threatning of God by deifying a Creature and setting it in his place and giving it Gods power and so the life that was denied him by God he might think to make up in the Creature as men commonly do 2 Looking upon it Sacramentally as it was a Creature and
it that is in himself from his own will only for all is done according to the good pleasure of his will Ephes 1.9 Rom. 9. and he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy so that the whole purpose and plot of it is in the bosom of God alone and according to this plot all things are done in this Covenant As in the Creation all things are done from an Idea in the mind of God and according unto that platform Heb. 11.3 Joh. 1.18 as the Temple was built according to the pattern so in the Covenant also and therefore Christ is said to come from the bosom of the Father being from this gracious intention and purpose of God himself from everlasting 2. He entred into Covenant with Christ the second Adam that he should be the Mediator of the Covenant and the person that should do all the great works that he had intended in this Covenant 2 Tim. 1.9 and therefore we read of a promise of eternal life made unto us before the world began God did not content himself with a purpose but he added thereto a Promise and Covenant to his Decree which could not be unto us because we were not therefore it must be unto one that did represent our persons and was lookt upon as in our stead for a purpose might be in himself but a promise cannot be but unto another and there was a glory and a posterity that God did promise unto him in this Covenant and that he would carry Christ through the work that he had to do Psal 16. as appears afterwards and therefore Christ says He is my God and the lot is fallen to me in a fair ground which is the speech of Christ and therefore Prov. 8.22 he says The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way The Covenant that he made with Christ was the first of his going forth unto the Creature Prov. 8.30 31. and upon this were grounded those true delights of Christ mentioned Prov. 8.30 31. And my delights were with the sons of men 3. By vertue of this Covenant are all those Legal acts past in God In the work of Redemption there are some acts spiritually natural and they are acts of God within us which do imply a real and physical change Phil. 1.6 when our natures and principles are changed and of unholy are made holy but there are also some Moral acts and they are acts of God upon us as if a man be a guilty person or accused as such and there be an act of pardoning and accepting this is a Moral act an act upon him and if he be a sick person and there be a Physician to cure him or blind and his eyes be opened this is a natural act in him and if a man be a captive and he be made a free man by a ransome paid this is a change of his state the one is in Justification and the other in Sanctification the one is mutatio moralis and the other naturalis Now the main acts of God in this Covenant and the main of the Covenant consists in acts done without us and upon us as by soveraign imputation he doth count our sins Christs Isa 53. and he makes to meet upon him the iniquities of us all he died as the second Adam and all the Elect died in him and so his death took place for all the Elect that ever were or shall be by vertue of the Covenant of God and the soveraign imputation of God immediately after the fall Rev. 13.8 therefore is he said To be a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that is in respect of efficacy grounded upon the imputation of God who can call things that are not as if they were Rom. 3.25 and so all the sins of the old world and the ancient Saints were pardoned the sins that were past through the forbearance of God Tanquam in capite 2 Cor. 5.21 and so Christ rose as a publick person as a second Adam and he being justified all the Elect were justified though there be an actual Justification when they do believe and so with him we ascend and sit together with him in Heavenly places c. And as he is made sin for us so we are made the righteousness of God in him as our sins are laid upon him so his righteousness is imputed unto us and truly accepted for us as our Surety For the debt paid by a Surety is in the esteem of the Law said to be paid by the debter and he for that cause is acquitted And so it is in Adoption Now we are the sons of God that is God accepts us as Children and Sons and because we are Sons he has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our heart we being by God counted members of Christ and so by our Union with him we do partake with him in his filiation and all these are acts of God upon us but without us and therefore the main benefits and acts of the Covenant are transacted by God without us and that is as truly and as perfectly done now as ever it shall be 4. There is not a soul that is brought into this Covenant but it is by God the Father he hath said Ezek. 20.37 Joh. 8.44 I will bring them into the bond of the Covenant No man can come to me except God the Father draw him What is the meaning and intent of the preaching of the Gospel without and all the tenders and offers of Christ to the soul by the Spirit within It is only to this end that they might be a people in Covenant with God and all things that Christ doth he doth as God the Fathers servant to draw men into Covenant with him that by Christ we should come unto God The expression of drawing does set forth unto us its efficacy and certainty and therefore drawing and coming are put together to shew that man by nature is not willing but an enemy unto this Covenant but ex â—olentibus volentes facit he makes men of unwilling willing he does powerfully work as if he did draw and men do as certainly come as they that are drawn Grace works strongly and therefore God is said to draw and it works sweetly and therefore men are said to come it is an act of power in God and yet an act of will in man it is a noble thing to consider how man is drawn to God never any man did come into the bond of the Covenant but he that was before drawn by the Father and there is an Almighty power that goes to the work even the same power that raised up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead to glory Ephes 1.19 5. All things that are within us or performed by us he has undertaken to work in us to will and to do the beginning of it and the finishing of it belongs to him Phil. 1.6 and here lyes the happiness of
whereas men would turn away their eyes from their sins the Spirit of God does hold them upon it and set them in order before them and whereas men would have slight apprehensions of sin and wrath the Spirit of God does give a man great apprehensions and dreadful thoughts of them and as in Heaven the spirit of Adoption shall be in perfection so in Hell the spirit of bondage shall be in perfection also 4. God gives a man up unto the power of sin and the dominion of it that a man is not his own but yields up himself and his members instruments to unrighteousness Rom. 6.18 He gives over himself to obey sin and the lusts thereof man sells himself to sin sinfully and God sells him judicially c. That as a godly man is not his own so neither is a wicked man For his servant a man is to whom he obeys whether it be of sin unto death Rom. 6.16 or of obedience unto righteousness and therefore they are the servants of sin Now sin has a double power 1 of a Lord as it reigns over men which unto godly men is taken away 2 As a Huâ—band Rom. 6.14 that 's a power of love that it can command and a man has an inward affection to obey it as it is said of Ahab he did sell himself to work wickedness Rom. 7.3 and then God sells a man to wickedness and the man is become wholly the servant and the creature of such a lust Every man by nature indeed does sin freely but some men are left to a judiciary freedom in sinning that as they cannot restrain themselves so God will not restrain them from sinning but they shall pour out themselves to all iniquity with greediness Jude v. 11. they shall be as wicked as they will that so they may fill up their measure of sinning as Christ said of the Pharisees Fill up the measures of your fathers it 's spoken by way of wrath and vengeance the Lord did give them up to the power of sin to the uttermost Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still This permission is the highest and forest affliction And there the Church leaves them that are obstinately ignorant and resist instruction 1 Cor. 14.38 He that is ignorant let him be ignorant Now for a man to be thus given up by God and his Church is a most desperate condition As it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God so it 's a fearful thing to be given up to his own hearts lust To be given up to sin is a just punishment of sin for the ways of sin as well as the wages of sin is death It 's a dreadful thing for the Lord to say of a people appointed to wrath Jer. 15.2 Let them go forth such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for the famine to the famine but it is more dreadful for God judicially to say let them go forth such as are for drunkenness unto drunkenness and such as are for uncleanness unto uncleanness as much as sin is a greater evil than affliction and as much as it is better to suffer than to sin 5. God gives a man up to the power of Satan and his own will 2 Tim. 2.26 The Devil is compared to a hunter and men are by him taken alive as we do beasts in a snare and then carried whither the hunter will though God be not the author of sin yet he is the orderer of it as well as of suffering and as he sets bounds unto Satan in our affliction as Job 1.12 All that he has is in thy hand only upon himself lay not thy hand so he does in our temptations also He will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able 1 Cor. 10.13 Satan would indeed tempt you above what you are able but God will not suffer you so to be tempted It 's a fearful thing for God to give a man either in his body or estate over to the will of the Devil as we see in Job how sad was it with him in that regard but much more for God to give over a mans spirit to Satan to carry a man unto what sins he will then I am sure he will be boundless in his sinning as well as in his suffering It 's an observation of Damascene that it 's only by sin that Satan has access to the spirits of men and therefore he did tempt Adam and Christ himself by outward objects only presented to the senses which is a great argument that he could not have access to their spirits Joh. 14.30 The Prince of this world says Christ comes and has nothing in me The more Satan has in a man the more immediate access he has to him and the greater power over him therefore the less of Satan there is in a man surely the less power he has over him But besides the possession and dominion that sin has given him there is a delivering a man unto Satan a kind of spiritual excommunication by God himself as Christ by a sop gave Satan full possession of Judas Joh. 13.27 and though before the sop he had it may be some reluctancy to that damned business yet after it Satan had full power over him and he goes on with a resolution and an impudent boldness and says Whom I kiss he it is for he was delivered over to the will of Satan to carry him unto what sin he would And so we may observe of the false Prophets in Ahab's time and them also that are mentioned in 2 Thes 2.12 and such men as Tertullian observes he raises to a higher degree of wickedness the Devil vouchsafed them greater and fuller power he speaks it of Marcion Valentinus and other Hereticks Satan brings them to those sins against God that he himself cannot commit 6. All Providences and Ordinances and Operations of the Spirit become a curse to them and a snare to their souls Prosperity makes them full and deny the Lord and poverty makes them steal and take the name of God in vain Prov. 30.8 If a man be raised from a low estate as Saul and Hazael it is in wrath and if he be preserved in a common judgment it is in wrath as God raised up Pharaoh That he might shew his power on him and send all his Plagues upon his heart and if there be a Prophet sent to Jeroboam a judgment lights on him in his way back because he was disobedient to the word of the Lord 1 King 13.33 yet thereupon Jeroboam turns not from his abomination Every act of Providence is to them for evil and a snare to their souls and all the Ordinances that they do enjoy do but ripen their sins Amos 8.7 there is a fullness of curse as well as of blessing in the Gospel and it 's a favour of death as well
self-accusation and self-condemnation together with perfect fear perfect sorrow and despair for ever SECT II. Whence the Law hath this Coactive power WHence is it that the Law hath this Coactive power It does arise from these ground §. 1. 1. From the Sovereignty of God in the Law it is the Royal Law as being the rule of mans duty and the whole will of God concerning him that rule according to which man should walk in which he should be accept Eccles 12. ult Rom. 2.12 and by which he shall be judged at the last and great day for they that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law And Christ that shall be the Judge saith I will not judge you but there is one that judges you even Moses in whom ye trust And though man has sinned and broken the Law and endeavoured to cast it off yet he is held still under the authority and soveraignty of the same Law Rom. 7.1 2 A man is subject to the law as long as he lives and so long as a man lives in a natural state so long he is under this Law as a Covenant and the Law does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord it over him in full dominion for the Law rules in the authority and soveraignty of God it is the great Expansum that God has spread over the rational world of mankind while they â—re in their natural state by which they are to be ruled and by which they shall be judged â—nd this is the main ground of all the rigor and coaction of the Law 2. There is in unregenerate men a natural conscience I call it natural as our Divines use 〈…〉 say because it acts only by natural principles and is in every man naturally in opposiâ—on to a renewed conscience which I conceive to be an ability in the understanding of a â—han to judg of actions and states according unto the rule that is prescribed by God Gal. 6.16 Rom. 2. 1 Conâ—â—ience must have a rule and that rule is the Law of God which is regula regulans whereâ—s conscience is only regula regulata as a rule ruled by the Divine Law 2 The things subâ—â—â—cted unto the judgment of conscience are a mans actions and his state and that not only â—hat he has done but what he is to do and conscience does pass a sentence of Good and â—â—d Evil upon both what is to be imbraced and followed and what is to be avoided and â—â—ough custom in sinning wear out the power of conscience exceedingly and in some men 〈…〉 is less than in others for they have their Conscience seared 1 Tim. 9.2 as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sigâ—fies and so to harden the place or else to cut off with searing some men have very brawny â—â—d insensible Consciences and do seem to walk without any Conscience at all as to live â—ithout God in the world and so walk without Conscience in the world and are less unâ—â—r the power of it than other men are yet there is no man but his Conscience has a power â—er him to constrain him to duty and restrain him from sin in some measure and that by 〈◊〉 authority of the Law of God And if God awaken Conscience by some great affliction â—â—our of death or judgment the power of it will quickly appear over them we may see 〈◊〉 Judas who was a Devil a man exceedingly given up to spiritual wickedness and one 〈◊〉 had a very seared Conscience for Christ had told him it had been good for him never to have been born we see all the other Disciples did abhor and fear the very hearing of the â—ct yet Judas afterwards with a brazen face asks Christ Master is it I but yet when â—od did awaken Judas's Conscience we see the power that the â—aw had upon him c. 3. The Spirit of God comes into the Consciences of men for Conscience is a relative â—culty and does not work by it self but does accuse and excuse by the concurrence of â—â—e spirit and the spirit that is given a man is answerable unto his Covenant The second â—ovenant makes men sons and the priviledge of it is the adoption of sons therefore the â—irit that accompanies this Covenant is a spirit of adoption and makes them all free-men 〈◊〉 the Covenant is a free Covenant it is Gal. 4. resembled by Sarah the free woman but â—â—e first Covenant unto man fallen is a Covenant that genders to bondage and there are â—ne under it but bondmen and therefore it is resembled by Hagar the bondwoman Now â—â—e spirit of this Covenant is a spirit of bondage and all that it works in a man is fear and â—rrour binding a man over to wrath upon neglect of duty and threatning vengeance and â—lling the soul with horrour and amazement telling a man of wrath and judgment to come â—â—d the constraint that is upon his soul in reference to these is very great 4. There is in a man a principle of self-love desiring good and fearing of evil for no â—atural man can act from a higher principle than self in whatever he does and therefore it is â—race that gives self-denial So much self-denial so much grace so much self-seeking so much â—â—rruption there is in every man Hence it is when a mans Conscience does tell a man of the â—od of obedience and the happy end thereof as Balaam did see it and therefore desired â—at his death might be like unto the Saints and a Herod may reform and do many things â—â—d so many do good rationally that never did it obedientially do it to do good to themâ—â—ves but never to bring glory unto God as we see it in Jehu and yet many men having tasted of the powers of the world to come and having had some great apprehensions of the good of the ways of God they may go very far and be constrained to do much for God as we see it in Alexander that afterwards proved an Apostate and a Persecutor and yet did much for God for a season and afterwards fell away And when Conscience doth tell a man of the danger of sin and presents to a man Hell and wrath as the consequence of it though it be a way that seems good to a man yet it leads down to the chambers of death and carries a man to the end of his journey and tells him that the fiery lake is but a little before and comes with the threatning of God as the Angel did to Balaam with a drawn sword in his hand a man may say I will turn back again if my way be perverse before thee and he may turn away from the sins that he loves most dearly he may cast up his vomit with the dog and leave the mire with the swine but it is only in fear of some evil and not from a principle wrought in a man that is the ground thereof There is a double principle that moves all things either
is never pleasant but always burdensome and the man desires to be set at liberty for he can never look upon the law as the perfect law of liberty until his nature answers the law and it is written in his heart 1. If we look upon the restraint that the law does lay upon a man that is unregenerate his condition is most miserable because 1 he does abstain from sin but it is forced and therefore burdensome because still his lust is active and carries the man after it with inward burning and the man is tormented the more it is adding drunkenness to thirst Deut. 29.19 The satisfaction of lust is compared unto drunkenness and the lust is compared unto thirst and as the drunkenness does increase the thirst and the more a man drinks the more thirsty he shall be and therefore none calls for drink more than those that have had too much already so it is here the more a man does to satisfie his lust the more he does increase it We know what a painful thing thirst is unless it be satisfied He that believes shall never thirst but shall have a well of water springing up in him Joh. 7.38 39. There is a double restraint 1 upon mens acts Abimelech's lust was stirred up but the Lord with-held the act Gen. 20 and so it was with the Pharisees they had often as bloody desires long before and sought to take Christ and put him to death but they could not there was a restraint put in for want of opportunity or fear of the people c. 2 There is a restraint upon mens lusts for though the heart of man be full of lust yet there is a Providence of God in permitting them to come forth some at one time and some at another so that the seeds of those sins that were in men before do now shew forth themselves as we see in Judas and Herod and Gehazi and in many men who carry it fair a while till there be an opportunity to draw them forth they have Neronis quinquennium for five years Nero carried it fair and yet afterwards he proved desperately wicked Now this restraint upon mens acts though unto the Elect of God it is a mercy and any thing that may hinder them in a way of sinning Hos 2.6 7 I will hedge their way with thorns and I will make a wall against them God can keep men from sin whether they will or no and if lesser afflictions will not do it God will raise greater But yet for all this the lusts of natural men will go after their former lovers though they cannot overtake them And this is a great misery unto such men first look upon the Saints also and they have desires after good but they find opposition so that they cannot do the thing that they would but there is still a law in their members rebelling against the law of their mind and this makes them to look upon themselves as miserable men because they have desires unsatisfied and they do still groan after a satisfaction and this makes them weary of their lives and they are willing to die that they may enjoy their desire to the uttermost and yet even in a regenerate man these desires are but of half the man and therefore in an unregenerate man when he is carried to sin with his whole man such a ones desires are more vehement Hos 7.4 Their hearts are hot as an oven they go out after it with greediness and they look upon it as the greatest misery to be restrained from it and their hearts rise against any opposition so much the more as you know Amnon and Ahab they were sick because they were restrained from that which they would have The soul of a wicked man is like a wild Bull in a net furiously bent upon sin they will perish rather than be hindred in a way of sinning This the Devil looks on as his great misery that though God lay not restraint upon his lust yet he restrains his acts so that he cannot hurt mankind as he would do though he smite Job with sores and imbitter his life to him yet he shall not be able to take away his life and the lusts of the Devil are as violent and as impetuous as ever he desires to winnow Peter and there is bounds set him that he cannot do what he would and his great torment is his restraint and the chains of darkness with which he is held and he could not enter into Judas that was his own till by the Sop the Lord gave him leave and he could not enter into the herd of Swine without license this is looked upon as a great misery by that violent and proud spirit Look what restraint either the power of God or the providence of God lays upon the lusts of the Devil the same does the Law of God lay upon the lusts of unregenerate men and this they look upon as their misery that they cannot enjoy their full desires there is an inward boiling of spirit and their hearts are hot as an oven they desire but they cannot attain and so their desire is their torment and they can have no rest 2. Even in those pleasures of sin that a man does enjoy this restraint of the law will imbitter them to a man exceedingly that a man does not enjoy them with that sweetness and delight that otherwise he should do because the sentence of the law and the judgments of God follow him with threats so that still they do add water to his wine and mix it with greater discontent than he should otherwise have for a man comes to it with a guilty galled and self-condemning conscience and so he can take no pleasure or but half the pleasure that else he should take and therefore the endeavour of the man is to put out the eye of Conscience and to make it grow sensless and to cast off this yoke and restraint of the law daily more and more and the more a man casts it off the more pleasure he does take in sinning As a godly man that has tasted of the sweetness of Communion with God he cannot take that pleasure in sin that other men do because still at the remembrance of his former communion the sweetness of it does arise in his heart and therefore he says it was better with me than it is now so also an unregenerate man that has tasted the bitterness of sin in the Law and the terrours thereof and has had the restraint of it laid upon his Conscience he cannot taste the like pleasure that other men do in sinning only the one is from a principle of conviction only and the other of conversion This is the misery of an unregenerate man under the restraints of the Law of God either his lusts do rage within and he cannot act them and therefore he wishes that there were no law or else if he do commit them it is but with half the man
there is a virtual league with death and with Hell Job 5.23 they shall be at league with Sin and Hell as a good man is in league with peace and rest A formal league with Sin and Hell they are not capable of but a virtual covenant and a league taking off acts of hostility Whatever a man is in Covenant with he fears no danger from and men walk as if Death and Hell were at an agreement with them and they fear no evil but are setled upon their lees and they make lyes their refuge and under vanity they hide themselves There is says Bernard a twofold evil Conscience a peaceable evil Conscience and a troubled evil Conscience And the first state is more dangerous when a man is like unto the dead Sea as some are like the raging Sea which latter is better than the former upon such a soul let wrath be discovered and judgement threatned it is but speaking terrour to a deaf man nay to a dead man nay let plagues be executed and not only so but let the hand of the Lord be lifted up eminently in the threatning and they will not see nay let it fall down in the judgement and they will not see Bray a fool in a mortar and his folly will not depart But he is as a man lying down in the middle of the Sea and as one sleeping on the top of a Mast he sees no danger there is nothing that he can lay to heart but he says Psal 49. I shall have peace as Deut. 29.19 While he lives he blesseth his soul Now comes the Law as a Hammer unto such a soul and that sets before a man its absolute Soveraignty over the man it is the Royal Law shews a man that God is an enemy to him and writes bitter things against him and it is this Law by which he will surely judge him at the last day Zach. 1.6 and though he may fly from it a while yet it will overtake him though the decree may bear a great while a judgement in the womb of it yet it will at last bring forth and for ought thou knowest it may be Hell before the morning there is but a thread of patience between thee and everlasting burnings That shews a man the vanity of all his former hopes and plucks off all that cobweb lawn and varnish that the Devil has cast upon his actions and state and there is a storm that overflows his hiding place the Lord lets him see in Spiritual judgements as he does in Temporal judgments when men promise themselves great things that the bed is too short the covering too narrow for him to rest upon Then offer him the pleasures of sin and he cannot taste them they are to him the greatest detestation Oh how bitter is it to remember that which was formerly sweet to commit and what a terrible companion is that sin in the guilt of it that was in the act of it most delightsome The bitterness of sin is so great that all the comforts of the creatures cannot sweeten it as Judas he cast down the thirty pieces of silver quickly he had no pleasure in his money So a soul crys out My iniquity is gone over my head and as a sore burden too heavy for me to bear § 3. 2. The Law of God condemns the sinner says the Apostle Sin revived and I died Rom. 9.7 Hos 6.5 2 Cor. 3. The ministration of death and condemnation c. There is a hewing and a slaying by the words of the Lord he doth smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he does slay the wicked Jer. 6.11 And therefore the word of the Lord is called the fury of the Lord what fury or vengeance soever is poured out upon a land or soul it is all by this word that is the instrument and these are the effects thereof The Law saith Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law and Conscience makes the assumption truly this curse is my portion The soul of man is not more prone to sin than it is to self-justification every man desiring to establish his own righteousness And the great work that we have in the Ministry is this to beat them from their own confidences men will not pass the same sentence upon themselves that the Law does If men would but look upon themselves in this glass and stand unto the sentence of this judgment they would not be so severely judged by the Lord but there are ways of self-deceiving from that abundant self-love and self-flattery that is in the heart of man that they desire to be deceived and there is no man in the world that can be so great a flatterer of another as every man is of himself 〈◊〉 does smooth over himself and makes all please as a flatterer doth Psal 36.2 Jer. 23.31 therefore the false â—rophets are said to smooth their tongues that there may be nothing that may distaste 〈◊〉 be unpleasant and so men will not own their own condemnation they will not â—â—e shame But when the Law comes and the Spirit of God therein gives in evidence aâ—â—inst the man brings forth the hand writing and chargeth a man with his pride and unâ—â—â—anness and hardness of heart and says this thou hast done then the soul says I have â—â—ed in betraying the innocent blood I have done exceeding foolishly Men and brethren what â—â—â—l we do to be saved Now every word of the Law comes home to him with life and with â—â—er and all the curses of the book he reads as his portion and says This is the inheriâ—â—e that Adam has left me and this have I also purchased for my self Tertull. There are a generatiâ—â— of godly men in the world that read over the Promises of the Gospel and they do claim 〈◊〉 as their portion and their inheritance for ever but they are nothing to me they are 〈◊〉 childrens bread and I am a dog a devil Truly the Devils are better creatures and were 〈◊〉 to do the Lord more service and yet they perish under the curse of the Law and they â—â—ble at the sentence of it and there is as much hope of a Devil Jam. 2.19 in the state that I am in 〈◊〉 as there is of me I know God is merciful but not beyond the rules of the Word whilst the Word speaks wrath all the men in the world cannot speak peace to me Every â—â—tion is a curse to me and there are no Providences that I can look upon in mercy my â—â—â—ngs are cursed and my ordinances are blasted they shall add to my sins and hasten my â—â—eance It 's wonderful that seeing the time of patience has its period the Lord has â—â—â—â—hed it forth to so great a length that I have had thirty or forty years cut off of eterâ—â—â— as a respite of those eternal torments These are the workings of men
conceive it was a body that was given him by the Father 2 There was Union from the Father and therefore there is a grace of Union as to us in Mystical Union it is the Father made up the match between us and Christ and we are united unto him for ever so in the Personal and Hypostatical Union it is the Father that made up the match and made the two Natures to become one Person and therefore it is said Luk. 1.35 That holy thing that is born shall be called the Son of God for it was in obedience to the Father that he did come to take this body into Union it is true he did take the seed of Abraham but it was by the Fathers command Heb. 2.16 Heb. 10.7 and in obedience to him and therefore he says A body hast thou prepared me and therefore he did take it upon himself as he did his sufferings The cup that his Father gave him he did drink and so in him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily 3. There is also the grace of Unction God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Joh. 3.34 Jesus of Nazareth whom God has anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power As it pleased the Father in him should all fulness dwell as the Sun of Righteousness and as the fountain of life and this is not in him only as God but as Mediator but all this is still as it pleased the Father acts of his free-grace 4. Assistance in this great work it is true that Christ was God and able to raise himself 1 Joh. 5.11 and did quicken himself and did overcome death and spoiled Principalities and Powers and triumphed over them openly but yet he doth ascribe all this to the gracious assistance of God the Father it is the Lord that made him a promise that he should go through with his work and Christ doth strengthen himself by exercising faith upon the Promises of God the Father who promised Isa 42.4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement in the earth I the Lord have called thee in righteousness I will hold thee by the hand that is by a mighty assistance and support and I will keep thee c. and with these Christ helps himself by exercising faith upon them I will trust in thee he is near that justifies me Isa 50.8 Who will contend with me the Lord is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal 16.8 9 10. therefore my heart is glad and my flesh shall rest in hope for thou will not leave my soul in Hell i. e. in the grave under the power and condemnation of that sin and wrath that now is upon me nor suffer my body to see corruption but thou wilt shew me the path of life c. And Psal 22. he strengthens his faith by experience of his forefathers Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou deliveredst them So that Christs assistance in all his managing of the work of the Covenant is wholly from the free-grace of God the Father and therefore in all the business of it Christ had recourse unto his Father by prayer continually 5. Acceptance It is true that Christ as his Person was in worth and value answerable unto all the Elect of God and beyond them so there was a worth and price in all that he did in his suffering answerable unto whatever the Law and Justice of God did require God did abate him nothing he payed the uttermost farthing else there could not have been satisfaction Isa 63.6 for it must be redditio aequivalentis pro aequivalenti it was a full satisfaction God did abate him nothing in this but God made our sins to meet upon him he did not abate him one sin and being made sin he did not abate him any part of the curse And what mercies soever the Lord doth bestow upon us Christ hath paid a valuable price for them because his obedience did deserve and did truly merit at the hand of God whatever the Lord shall bestow upon us to eternity either in Grace here or Glory hereafter it is indeed free unto us and a gift but yet it is unto Christ a purchase and therefore here indeed there is nothing of grace as it were but all is of debt that is Christ did lay down something answerable unto whatever God did either give or forgive But yet here is Grace in the Lords acceptance of all that Christ hath done and suffered for us and the imputation thereof unto us and that the Lord should account this by a Soveraign imputation to be as done in our stead and for us for the Law did say the soul that sins shall die it is Grace only that brings in the commutation of the Person though there be no commutation of the righteousness that was required of us Heb. 10.10 it is meerly of Grace that the Lord has accepted of Christ for us all the benefits of the Death of Christ as Pardon of Sin Reconciliation with God Justification and Adoption they do all depend upon this will of the Father for had he not appointed this work and thereby declared his acceptation had not he accepted it who was the Judge we could never have had any benefit by it and therefore it is by his will alone that all this is made over unto us there was free-grace abundantly in his acceptation By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 Joh. 6.38 by the knowledge of him and faith in him for of such a knowledge it is meant I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me the meaning is not as if Christ came unwillingly but that his Fathers will was first in this work and so much in it that the thing that Christ did principally aim at was to please his Father and to do his will therein Now because Christs great aim was to do his Fathers will and to please his Father doing all by appointment from him he knew he hath acceptance with him for though Christ had paid the price it was free with God to accept it or no. 6. There is a reward that is given unto Christ for all the services that he does perform He hath a name above every name Phil. 2.9 10. and a seed Isa 53. and a glory He being set on the right hand of the Majesty on high 1 Pet. 1. ult Angels and Principalities and Powers being made subject unto him and this the Lord hath given him as a reward of his service I will not now speak unto that Question put by some Divines Whether Christ did merit for himself which our Divines do deny in this sense as being the great end why he did come into the world to merit for his Elect-ones because the Scripture saith God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Joh. 3.16 And to us a Child is born to us a son is
need none of the Jewish Rites any more and because they stood much upon Circumcision therefore he gives that instance We are circumcised with a better Circumcision that of which the Circumcision of the Jews was but the Type and whereas they might have said but they had Circumcision which was to them as a visible sign the more to confirm them and therefore though we have the inward grace yet we are not so compleat as they because we want the outward sign therefore he tells them that priviledge is not wanting to the Christian no more than to the Jews for we have a Sacrament to the same use and end being buried with him in baptism 4 To those that are the children of the Covenant taken into Covenant the seal of admission into it doth belong because God took all the Jews into Covenant they and their seed therefore they were all of them circumcised The seal of visible admission can be denied to none that are within the Covenant but the children of confederate parents are within the Covenant also under the New Testament therefore unto them the seal of visible admission is to be administred so that as under the Old Testament none were admitted but by Circumcision so under the New none are to be admitted into the Church but by Baptism 5 The children under the New Testament are as capable of the grace of Baptism as under the Old Testament they were of the grace of Circumcision yea they are as capable being children as if they were men for nulla actio requiritur à recipientibus sed tantùm receptio passiva all that is done being acts of God upon a man unto which the person can contribute nothing at all they are therefore represented by Christ in his death and resurrection those that are united unto Christ receiving the Spirit of Christ are baptized for the remission and purging away of sins c. All the benefits that the Scripture speaks of Baptism the subject is passive therein and therefore we may upon these Principles safely conclude that the Lord having instituted this Ordinance in the room of Circumcision has conveyed the same grace and it being ordained to the same ends though the similitude of it be not expresly set down in Scripture yet we may lawfully fetch the similitude of it from that of Circumcision as we do many Rules for Ordinances in the New Testament from the Old wherein the New is silent Quest 10 § 10. How far might the Jews by being in Covenant or a Church unto God as the sons of Abraham before they were rejected of God pretend a right unto Ordinances of the New Testament The ground of the inquiry is this The Covenant under the Old and New Testament is the same and the Gentiles are grafted into the same root from which the Jews were broken off and this is the Covenant of Abraham which belongs to Abrahams posterity as he was the root of the Covenant the person in whom after a sort the Covenant began and therefore it 's mercy to Abraham and truth unto Jacob Mic. 7.20 and seeing the Covenant did run by way of entail then from father unto son and the same Covenant now continues only the outward administration is changed and the difference is in the elements only whether or no the children of a Jew being in Covenant before they were rejected from being a Church unto God might not claim a right unto Baptism by virtue of the fathers Covenant their 's being the same and the conveyance from parents to children the same only the outward Ordinances differing their Ordinance of admission being Circumcision and ours Baptism or whether all federal right of children did then cease upon the publication of the Gospel till parents did believe and by Baptism were personally brought under the new Covenant themselves and then their children were taken in but so as all federal right amongst the Jews from parents to children did then cease and every man that was taken into the Covenant under the Gospel was taken in by a personal right and he did convey a federal right unto his posterity why should the change of the outward administration cause so great a difference that it should put an end unto all federal right of children from their parents If it was good and valid in reference unto former administrations why in reference to this should it be invalid and of no effect If the natural seed of Abraham cannot at all pretend unto New Testament-ordinances as from their parents much less can the adopted seed of Abraham or those that are substituted in their room pretend unto them from any right derived upon them by their parents whatsoever Answ The answer I shall give hereunto shall be digested into these several Propositions 1. The Covenant for the substance of it is the same both unto Jews and Gentiles they were not under one Covenant and we under another but it 's but one Covenant for their Covenant was that of Abraham who is therefore called the Father of us all both them that are circumcised and them that are uncircumcised and our Covenant is the same we only claim from Abraham Rom. 4.11 12 16. and therefore do expect Abrahams reward and at the last to be gathered into Abrahams bosom the glory of Heaven and the happiness of the Saints is so expressed I conceive Luk. 16. mainly as Abraham is the Covenant-father and 't is the reward that the Saints have as coming under his Covenant the Jews were broken off and the Gentiles were grafted into the same Olive-tree Rom. 11.16 17. Rom. 11.16 17. upon the same root or stock which did remain when branches were broken off from hence these generals do plainly arise 1 The Olive-tree is the Church of God as formerly was shewed out of Jer. 11.16 The Lord called thy name a green Olive-tree c. it 's spoken of the Church of Israel which is in Scripture sometimes compared unto a Palm tree Cant. 7.8 and sometimes to a Vine Psal 80.14 I planted thee a noble Vine Jer. 2.21 therefore Jews and Gentiles make up one Olive-tree they are all of them but one Church all of them are branches of the same Olive-tree 2 The Root of this Tree was Abraham and the Church covenant that God did make with him and in him with his seed and so I conceive the root is to be taken 1 For the Covenant that God made with Abraham which was the root upon which Abraham himself and all his seed did grow and from whence their fatness was derived and that I conceive is meant vers 17. Thou partakest of the root of the Olive-tree it 's the Covenant upon which the Church is built and upon which as a root it grows and so though some of the branches are broken off yet the root is not taken up but it remains still for others to be grafted upon it is spoken of the Covenant which is the same whereupon both
that he might bear the iniquity of us all c. and therefore he is set forth as a propitiation for the remission of the sins that are past through the forbearance of God Rom. Heb. 10. 3.25 and as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world Joh. 1. Therefore the Lord cannot become our God immediately Gal. 3.19 Job 9.33 no not so much as by Law but in the hand of a Mediator that is Ministerio by the intervention of a Mediator who is as it were a days-man to lay hold upon both parties Now the Lord therefore becomes Christ's God in Covenant and makes over all his Attributes unto him Joh. 20.17 and therefore saith Christ I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God and therefore says the Apostle Eph. 1.3 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and it 's that which Christ lays hold of for himself and his people Psal 22.1 89.26 Phil. 2.7 My God my God c Now how doth the Lord becomes Christ's God as he is the second Person no that he cannot for so he thinks it no robbery to be equal with God One person cannot be said to be a God to another having all of them the name of God given to them and all of them having one and the same Essence or Divine Nature But as Christ is Mediator as he is God-man as the Word is made flesh so the Lord is become Christ's God by the Covenant that he did enter into with his Son when he did possess him in the beginning of his way Prov. 8.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 2.6 that is of all his goings forth towards the creature and therefore did anoint him and set his King upon his holy hill which is the same word as is used Psal 2.6 And by this Covenant the Lord did wonderfully manifest his love to his Son by ingaging himself that all the Attributes of the Divine Nature should work for him Joh. 3.35 Joh. 5.20 the Love of God should work for him for the Father loveth the Son and shews him all things and gives him all things into his hand and the Power of God works for him Esa 42.6 I will hold thee by the hand and I will keep thee and the Justice of God works for him that when he had paid the debt he should be released out of prison and therefore after he had lain three days in the grave to shew forth the truth of his death Esa 53.8 the Lord sent an Angel as a publick Minister of Justice for he was taken from prison and from judgment and the Faithfulness of God is also ingaged for him Thus saith the Lord Esa 49.7 to him whom man despiseth and the nation abhors to a servant of rulers Kings shall see and arise Princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful and he shall chuse thee c. And we may see what it is in vers 8. In an acceptable time have I heard thee in a day of salvation have I helped thee I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant to the people to establish the earth c. So that Christ has a double inheritance 1 in God all that is in God is his and all works for him for the Lord is become his God Heb. 1.3 2 In the creatures for he is appointed heir of all things Now all the Attributes being in this manner made over unto Christ by the Father and he given as a Covenant to the Nations and as primus foederatus the first federate in the Covenant and that covenanting being not only for himself but as a second Adam for us hence it is that whatever is made over unto Christ by his Covenant is made over unto us also he being our head and so we come not only to have the same claim to the creatures that Christ had and can say all things are ours 1 Cor. 3.21 Joh. 17.23 but the same claim also unto God that Christ has for we can say that whatever is in God is ours because he is become our God and therefore he is said to love us as he loved Christ and a great ground of a Christians consolation comes in by it that they may know that thou hast loved them even as thou hast loved me and that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them that is that this love in the apprehension and assurance of it may be shed abroad in their hearts abundantly and that under this notion that it 's the same love that God bears unto us that he did bear unto the Lord Christ as Mediator it is to be understood of an as of similitude not of equality it was such a love as made over not only all creatures unto Christ but all Attributes unto Christ and it was a love that gave Christ an union and an unction and such a love it is unto us in both but consider it is but pro modulo according unto our condition so as the Lord Christ in all things may have the preheminence 2. The Lord hath made over all his Attributes to Christ as Mediator that they shall all of them work and be employed for us according unto the necessity we are in For Christ did not only as Mediator make way for all the Attributes to work and to be put forth for us that so no Attribute might stand in the way of mercy and goodness towards us and so Christ came in as causa removens prohibens c. but all the Attributes thus made over to Christ in covenant are all of them to be acted and exercised by Christ as Mediator as the government of all the creatures is committed to him so also the discovery and the exercise of all the Attributes of God are committed to him and therefore it 's said My Angel shall go before thee Exod. 23.21 and that Angel that God sent and led his people in the Wilderness was Christ called therefore the Angel of his presence or of his face because in him the face or the glory of God is discovered Mat. 18.10 and not only because he doth behold his face for so do the other Angels it cannot be spoken of Christ as God for so he is not the Angel that is the Messenger of God sent forth from God and it 's said of this Angel that the name of God is in him Now the name of God is whatever God is made known by and therefore when the Lord doth publish his Attributes he saith he will proclaim his name Exod. 33.19 and therefore all the Attributes of God are in him and by him to be acted and exercised for the Father judgeth no man but has committed the administration of all things to the Son to this end that all men may honour the Son even as they honour the Father and therefore Col. 1.15 he is said to be the image of
appear from the union of a Saint with all the Persons in the Trinity The Scripture speaks distinctly 1 Cor. 6.17 not only of a union with Christ but with the Spirit he that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit i. e. not only makes up one spiritual body with him but also is one with the Spirit that dwells in him and therefore Joh. 17.21 Christs prayer is That they may be one Pater Filius sunt unum per naturam nostra unio per gratiam Athan. De 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritualis piorum in Deo unitatis in vitae hujus infirmitate pluribus disserere non possumus sed mysterium hoc reverenter adoramus unitatis hujus participes fieri optamus as we are one not only one amongst themselves but one with us also according unto that glorious and unspeakable union that is between the persons amongst themselves of which this is but a shadow and a resemblance God is said to dwell in the Saints and they are the habitation of God through the Spirit 2 Cor. 6.16 and they are said to dwell in God Joh 1.4 16. and 1 Thess 1.1 which is in God the Father c. and to work in God Joh. 3.21 And our Divines do commonly say that in glory our union with God shall be perfected and they say that the soul is capable of an union with God as it does appear in its union with the Son for the mystical union is not only unto Christ as Man but unto the Godhead as well as unto the Manhood of Christ for we are made one with whole Christ both God and Man Now by this means there being but one Essence there must follow a glorious union with all the Persons and if this be perfected as some make that to be the intent of Christs prayer Joh. 17.21 That they may be one with us as thou Father art in me if there be a perfection of their union hereafter then surely there is an union that is begun in this life with all the persons in the Godhead and so much also our particular union with them does imply for all communion is grounded in union 3. It will appear from the distinct Communion of the Saints with them all Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 And there is a fellowship of the Spirit also Joh. 14.21 1 Cor. 13.14 1 There are distinct manifestations Christ says I will manifest my self to him and there is a distinct Love He that loves me shall be loved of my Father I do not say that I will pray the Father for the Father himself loves you and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father also and therefore there is the love of the Son discovered and the love of the Father also Sometimes the love and good will of the one is let into the Soul and sometimes of another and the soul is drawn out and ravished sometimes with the love of the one and sometimes with the love of another and we honour them distinctly and believe in them distinctly honour the Son as they honour the Father and believe in God believe also in me Joh. 14.1 Answerable unto the manifestations and discoveries that are made such are the apprehensions and the affections of the Saints Some are mightily at first conversion taken up with the love of the Father and they see that Christ was but his servant in that work and the fountain of free grace was in the Father and the plot to redeem was his and it was his will that Christ came to perform and therefore their hearts and faith are mainly drawn out towards God the Father Others there be that have the love of Christ set on upon their hearts who though he were God and in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he did empty himself and humbled himself unto death even the death of the Cross and he came off freely upon the motion of the Father which was so much the more because all the acts of the Father though they are acts of Love yet are acts of Majesty also and there was no dishonour or condescension in the Father but the acts of Christ were acts of ministery and of humiliation and that even unto the death of the Cross that he should be made sin and made a curse and the Love of Christ is discovered unto them as passing knowledge There are distinct manifestations of them all and therein is the ground of their communion with them all 2 There are distinct communications the Father opens his bosom and he reveals his counsels There is a book in the right hand of him that sits upon the Throne he reveals his mind unto Christ Joh. 1.18 Joh. 6.46 and by him unto his Saints and therefore he is said to come out of the bosom of the Father and therefore man is said to hear and learn of the Father and the Son communicates his righteousness his graces his victories his priviledges his inheritance and the Spirit doth convey unto the soul his right and his warmth for the Spirit is as fire his holiness and his comforts for he is the oyl of gladness his communion doth consist in giving and receiving and returning Now there is something that all the Saints do receive from each of the persons and there is a peculiar glory that they do return unto them all answerable unto the mercies that they do receive and by this means proportionable unto the mercies they receive such is the communion that the Saints have sometimes with one person and sometimes with another they know that he that has communion with the Father has communion with the Son and with the Holy Ghost because they are one but my meaning is that person which a mans heart is at the present affected with and drawn out unto in a more special manner that he has a special communion with which is something of the Love of the Father and the manifestation and communication of the Father sometimes of the Son and sometimes of the Spirit and answerable unto these our communion is said to be with each of them 4. It will appear by these distinct acts of office which they have for the good of the Saints undertaken for though opera ad extrà sunt indivisa and we cannot say that one works but the other works also and therefore we cannot call them opera propria proper works yet they are appropriata appropriated in the Scripture they are more specially attributed some unto one and some to another Eph. 1.2 3. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world and blessed us with all spiritual mercies in Christ and for Christ we have Redemption through his blood c. and as for the Spirit Eph. 1.13 14. After you believed you were sealed with the holy Spirit
sufficiens sufficient grace which God gives unto all men but Christ in the Text denies any such power he saith No man can come to me except the Father draw him What is this drawing It is not a forcible act by which violence is offered upon the will of man and yet it 's called drawing because it 's an act of almighty power the words note the sweetness and the efficacy of grace grace works powerfully and therefore God is said to draw and it works sweetly and therefore man is said to come as if he were not drawn trahitur animus amore c. it doth consist in a spiritual illumination of the understanding and in an effectual perswasion and determination of the will for it is a drawing that is a teaching as the next verse makes it manifest and in this is the foundation of eternal life as it is in us begun all this was in the purpose of God towards him but the man was dead in trespasses and sins as well as others without Christ and without God in the world and therefore the Saints actually converted are stiled by the Apostle the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.29 But how is this work attributed to God the Father that the power and the act of believing and of closing with Christ is from him the teaching and the drawing is the Fathers act Here I meet with a deep silence amongst all Interpreters only I find this to be offered by Kemnitius That the grace that we receive is laid up in Christ by God the Father and in the Gospel Christ is but God the Fathers Servant and therefore though grace be given unto us by Christ yet it is by the appointment of the Father and Christ is only the Fathers Servant in it and so the principal efficient of faith is God the Father though you do receive it immediately from Christ This is true that all the grace that we receive from Christ all our days here and all the glory we shall have to Eternity was by the Father laid up for us in Christ and in the whole work Christ is but the Fathers Servant but why in a special manner is this work of the Father appropriated unto the work of conversion and vocation The ground of it I conceive to be this In the Covenant that passed between Christ and the Father the Lord did require this service of him that he should lay down his life and give himself for the Elect he gave himself a ransom for many and he did make him a promise that he would give those souls unto him again Therefore as in the fulness of time the Lord did give Christ for them Vnto us a Child is born Isa 9.6 Joh. 4.10 unto us a Son is given and so he is called by way of eminency the gift of God for though he were promised from the beginning of the world yet he was not actually given and exhibited till the last days so there is a time also when God the Father must fulfil this promise unto Christ to give souls unto him as he has given himself for them in obedience to the Father Now when are souls given unto Christ It is when they come to him and believe in him they are not actually any part of his charge till then and therefore they are said to be without Christ they have no actual relation to Christ or Christ to them Joh. 4.10 for the union between Christ and the soul is matrimonial and it is the Father that gives them each unto other and therefore marriage between Adam and his wife is made a type and resemblance of it or rather mystery called by the Jews Cabala Eph. 5.33 This is a great mystery but I speak of Christ and the Church so that it 's God the Father that gives Christ to the soul and gives the soul unto Christ he it is that doth joyn them in a marriage-covenant for ever Therefore as when the time appointed by the Father was come he sent his Son actually into the world so when the time of love is come that a soul should be converted who before lay polluted in his blood then doth God the Father send his Spirit in Christs name into the soul who doth discover the beauty of Christ and the free grace of God the Father how ready and willing he is to bestow him and the manifestation of this grace of the Father is made effectual to the soul not only to perswade but also to enable it to accept of Christ upon the terms that he is offered And upon this ground the work of vocation is mainly attributed unto the drawing and the teaching of the Father because as they were in the purpose of God and in the Covenant between Christ and the Father given to him from all Eternity so they are by the Father actually given to him in the fulness of time that is when the time of their conversion appointed by the Father is come and therefore the inlightning of the soul in this work is attributed unto the Father 2 Cor. 4.6 God that commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts c. and by the same almighty Word that he did that work in the Creation he doth shine into our hearts discovering Christ unto us and the glory of God all the incommunicable Attributes of God are gloriously set forth in the Man Christ Jesus and so the power by which the soul is enabled to believe is the power of God the Father Eph. 1.17 19. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would shew you what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of the mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead so that if any soul be brought home unto Christ in a work of vocation it is by the almighty working of God the Father and you are to acknowledge his grace as well in giving you unto Christ as in giving Christ unto you 2. In the work of Reconciliation though all the persons were wronged by sin their essence and glory being but one yet the suit against sin doth mainly in Scripture run in God the Fathers name God has reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 and God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself This was properly the act of God the Father Rom. 5.10 When we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Col. 1.19 20. it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell as being to reconcile all things to himself c. What is it to reconcile It is properly amicitiam diremptam resarcire to set them all at one again who were before friends but now at variance amongst themselves God is an enemy unto all men by nature the wicked is an abomination unto the
they shall be truly our servants that is they shall tend unto the advancement of our spiritual and eternal good Rom. 8.38 what he had before spoken positively that they shall all do us good here he speaks negatively that they shall never be able to do us hurt I am perswaded that neither life nor death via extrema secunda adversa the highest pitch of prosperity and the lowest ebb of adversity or affliction shall not be able to hurt us nor Angels good or bad nor principalities and powers that is all the powers of Empires and Monarchs of the world nor things present nor things to come not any intermediate events that now do or hereafter may befal us nor heights nor depths nor any creature i. e. if there be any creature that comes not under the former enumeration whether it be in heaven above or in the deeps beneath it shall never be able to hurt us in respect of our eternal state because it shall never be able to separate us from the love of God which has so sure a ground for it is love born to us in Christ in whom he has elected us c. therefore you see there comes no disadvantage but a continual advantage unto the spiritual Kingdom by all the creatures and by the dispensations of Christ in the ordering and the government of them all Let us see this by an enumeration of some particulars 1. If the Lord give unto his people prosperity it shall be to the advantage of the inward man and in their outward prosperity their souls shall prosper 2 Chron. 17.6 Jehosaphat had silver and gold and riches in abundance and his heart was lifted up and encouraged in the ways of Gods commandments and thereby the people of God make them friends of the unrighteous Mammon and they lay up a good foundation that they may lay hold of eternal life Eccles 7.11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance it is good in it self without an inheritance but there is a special advantage by wisdom with an inheritance and so it 's better to the man or it is good to a mans self but it is not so good unto another and so Prov. 14.24 The crown of the wise is their riches but there are to other men riches reserved for the hurt of the owner and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 1.32 wisdom is the better with an inheritance but folly is the worse with an inheritance for the folly of fools is foolishness he speaks it of rich fools there are no men discover their folly more and whose foolishness is more eminent and notorious than these mens as riches draw forth the graces of the one so do they also the sins of the other 2. If the Lord give unto his people afflictions it shall be to the advantage of their inward man Rom. 5.3 Tribulation works patience surely patience is a fruit of the Spirit as all other graces are and cannot be wrought in any man by affliction unless it be given him by the Spirit A man must have patience 1 if ever he will bear affliction fruitfully but 2 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie to work a thing out and bringing of it to perfection Phil. 2.12 It is this therefore that when patience is wrought in the soul by the Spirit it is improved and exceedingly drawn out by affliction it doth improve the graces of the Saints and upon this ground it is said Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations Jam. 1.2 Esa 27.8 9. in measure God shoots forth the affliction and the mercy of God is greatly seen in the moderation of the affliction By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is the fruit to take away the sin of his people when he makes all the stones of their Altars to be as chalk stones and therefore Esa 24.15 Glorifie the Lord in the fires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.10 he doth chastise them that they may be made partakers of his holiness 3. Temptations for the Lord Jesus doth order all the temptations of Satan and directs them unto spiritual ends for even the very enemies of the spiritual Kingdom he doth over-rule so as he makes them servants to it even the vessels of dishonour have their use in the great house as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2.21 Satan is an enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that enemy in two things to the Saints 1 In his accusations unto God he is therefore called the Accuser of the Brethren and so he did move God against Job to destroy him without a cause Job 2.3 there was cause enough in Job if the Lord had been extreme to mark what he had done amiss but there was not that cause that Satan did alledge and it is a mercy to the people of God that though there be cause enough yet he doth hide the true cause from their malicious accusers that that which they fasten upon them is no cause to set God or man against them but the more the Lord doth appear for his servants to justifie them had not Satan accused Job so impetuously God had never so eminently appeared for his justification This should quiet and comfort the Saints in all the hard measure and reproaches that they meet withal in the world that yet the Lord will arise for their justification and their enemies confusion that though a child of God may lye under the blast of the wicked for a season yet God will vindicate him at last so that false friends as well as true enemies shall be made to say Surely there is no inchantment against any of the seed of Jacob Jude 15. c. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him and his children c. 2 Satan is an enemy by his temptations unto the Saints and so the strength of God is made perfect in their weakness that is manifestly declared so to be 2 Cor. 12. for thereby their strength is tryed there is nothing tries grace so much as temptation unto sin because nothing is more opposite unto grace and gratia vexata seipsam prodit grace vexed discovers it self thereby also their corruption is purged for the Lord doth commonly temper that poyson into a medicine and Satan that seeks to kill shall be instrumental to cure he that doth intend to stab the man shall but give vent to his imposthume and therefore Luther says of temptation when the Papists did object unto Luther that he himself granted Purgatory I do indeed saith he but it is but that Purgatory of temptation and he adds Hoc Purgatorium non est fictum and hereby the enemy is conquered for we are more than conquerors Rom. 8. It was said that the Carthaginians did prevail against
of our proneness to all sorts and all ways of sin that as patience so repentance may have its perfect work for as to humble the soul sin is left in it so also the breaking forth of sin into act discovers our natural weakness and is in wisdom permitted because the Lord will have his people to perfect their repentance as well as their faith while they do live here 6 That the soul may be willing to put off the body as it is an instrument and a servant to the soul in sinning I am shortly saith the soul to put off this tabernacle and I am the more willing to do it because my members are weapons of unrighteousness I shall then never sin more no more be subject unto the bondage of corruption to serve the lusts of men it shall be the glory of the body to serve the graces but never the lusts of the soul any more but perfect sanctification shall be in it 4. The Soveraignty of God is seen in the breaking forth of scandalous sins there are but two sorts of sins that godly men are freed from the sin against the Holy Ghost and final impenitency because they are delivered from the wrath to come and being in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation unto them Rom. 8.1 but else there is no sin either in judgment or practice from the danger of which they can assure their hearts be it never so foul never so hateful before God or man and therefore when we look upon the naufragia shipwracks of the Saints who can if God should withdraw his suitable assistance secure themselves or promise unto themselves freedom If we consider the idolatry of Solomon and that as gross as any that we shall read of 1 King 11.4 8. and the persecution of Asa 2 Chron. 16.10 and the Apostasie in Peter and that the grossest with a denial nay an abjuration Mar. 14.71 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound to abjure Christ Mar. 14.71 and to wish unto him a curse but most do say it was wishing a curse and an Anathema upon himself Grotius makes it the same with that Act. 23.14 They bound themselves with a curse diris se obligavit c. of whom Bernard saith Peccavit grande peccatum fortassis quo grandius nullum est c. Now seeing that there is in them a sea of corruption a body of death it is only an act of the Soveraignty of God that restrains the winds that they blow not upon this sea Rev. 7.1 There are Angels that hold the winds of commotions that they break not forth and Jer. 49.36 Dan. 7.2 3. that they shall break forth in their season so he doth also hold the winds of temptation that they do not blow upon the sea of corruption and by this means the mire and dirt is not discovered but let but the wind blow upon it and it is full of unquietness and rage immediately 2 Sam. 12.4 there came a way-faring man unto the rich man concupiscentiam viatorem vocat aut peregrinum Pet. Martyr 1 It is not a friend or a servant it is not one that is ordinarily accustomed to the house there are some sins that are daily in a man constant inmates but there are great sins that da rise in a man but now and then 2 Lusts are travellers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heart of man doth coast and wander all the world over to see what will become of it and where it may be able to make advantage unto it self 3 It comes upon a man suddenly and unexpectedly as a stranger or as a traveller useth to do 4 Yet when it comes it looks for entertainment and it doth so ordinarily find it the man will make provision for it Now this traveller goes not where or when he pleases but according to the Soveraignty of God in the ordering the going forth of the lusts of men it is a messenger of Satan there is a time appointed for the opening of Hell for the sending forth the messenger of Satan upon the soul the letting forth of the smoke Rev. 9.1 The Lord doth in his Providence turn this unto good 1 Unto a new conversion Luk. Luk. 22.32 22.32 Christ said to Peter after his first conversion when he foretels him of his scandalous fall When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren there is a double conversion 1. From a state of sin Acts 3.19 2. From some particular gross acts of sin because that doth make a breach upon a mans justification 1 A damp upon grace which there is upon the committing of such sins Create in me says David a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me 2 There is a suspension of all the comforts of grace he is as the leper and he doth as Zanchy saith quodammodo excidere à gratia he hath no comforts in the promises and the priviledges of the Saints 3 There is a change of all the dealings of God with him Esa 63.10 he became their enemy and fought against them by spiritual judgments upon them vers 17. he shall have broken bones and his moisture shall be dryed up Gods wrath shall fall upon him for there is a temporal wrath there is filius sub ira c. Now here seems to be a particular Conversion by laying of all anew in the Soul as if nothing were true before he must repent anew and believe anew that as Zach. 1.17 the Lord 's returning unto a people after eminent displeasure is called a new Election so also this is a new Conversion 2 Hereby the Soul hath experience in himself of the strength of Sin the power of Temptation and of Christs Intercession 1 He has experience of the Strength of sin for sin is but too powerfull in the best Gen. 49.6 7. it is said of the Sons of Israel Simeon and Levi Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel and David put the Ammonites under Saws and Harrowes and Jonah 4.9 he justifies himself against the debates of God with him and saith that he doth well to be angry unto the death 2 The Soul experiences the power of Temptation what there is in the winnowings of Satan if the Lord should leave a man to the power which he hath already received he would soon work all good out of his soul for Satan is the ruler of the Darkness of this world Ephes 6.12 and he hath not only a great power over wicked men as Darkness it self for they are led captive at his will and he doth work effectually in them but even upon the darkness that is in the Saints also he can stirr up that darkness in them that it shall endanger to over-spread all that there shall seem little difference between them and ungodly men for the time that it doth prevail upon them 3 The Soul experiences the power of the Prayer of Christ Luk. 22.32 I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail