former husband lives unto them and the hand-writing stands in force against them here is the benefit by Christ a man may be translated out of it and so there may be a change of a mans Covenant not by a change of the Covenant it self but by a change of the man and his deliverance out of it Now so long as a man continues under this Covenant 1 It promises no life but upon condition of perfect and personal obedience it calls upon thee To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy strength the strength that I gave thee at first and the man that doth them shall live by them There is commutatio personae a commutation of the person by the Covenant of Grace but this Covenant saith not that the obedience of another shall be accounted his unto justification and life and so Justification is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impossible by the righteousness of the Law for by the Law no man can be justified and in this it is weak through the flesh so that whilest a man continues untranslated he can never be justified by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ which can profit him nothing because in the sense of the Law it is not his own righteousness 2 It is a Covenant without a Mediator Christ indeed is a Mediator but it is of the new Covenant the first Covenant was faedus amicitiae a Covenant of friendship made with man in innocency where there was no disagreement and Gal. 3.20 A Mediator is not a Mediator of one c. So that so long as a man is under the first Covenant what benefits so ever there are to be had by the Mediation of Christ he must go without them either in reference to the presentation of his person or to the acceptation of his services for in the Covenant under which he stands a Mediator can have no place 3 In this Covenant there is no promise of pardon but If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted but if thou dost evil sin lyes at the door and there is a curse upon every transgression every sin thou committest every disobedience has a just recompence of reward so that as long as a man does continue under this Covenant he must bear his own sin and there is no hope of pardon for him because under this Covenant God has promised no pardon The aim of God was the glory of his Justice and therefore the Lord deals with men as in Courts of Justice if there be a Capital crime committed the Judge does not examine whether the man be penitent or no and if he do repent then there is a pardon for him but whether the offence be committed or no guilty or not guilty and so Justice does all without respect unto a mans after-repentance If thou hast sinned the first Covenant says thou art a child of death and when a man says I have sinned it is the Covenant of Grace only that says the Lord has put away thy sin but under this Covenant there is no pardon to be expected 4 This Covenant promises no Grace for it was made with man in his primitive condition when he had Grace answerable unto all the duties that the Lord required of him he had a power to perform all duties and to resist all temptations and this is supposed in every duty that is required and in every sin that is forbidden so that all the promises of Grace and strength that are in the second Covenant a man can never have benefit by for they belong not unto the Covenant under which he stands unless he be translated 5 It is a Covenant that every sin breaks and being once broken it can never be made up again So the Apostle tells us Rom. 5.16 By one offence guilt came upon all to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences to justification Adam's sin was but one offence and yet it brake his Covenant and brought guilt and death upon all his posterity and that for ever and his Covenant could bring death but never justification and life any more so that no man that has once sinned could ever live by that Covenant any more but it is not so in the Covenant of Grace because it brings in an everlasting righteousness that sin can never spend and therefore though there be many offences yet the Covenant is not broken but that justification and life may be had therein and the more sin abounds the grace of the Covenant abounds much more as sin takes occasion by the law so grace takes occasion by sin under the Gospel 6 It is a Covenant that can never quiet and settle the Conscience but let a man walk never so exactly and take never so much care to do his duty in all things and let him live the holiest life that ever any man did upon earth that was a sinner and he will be always in a doubt and full of jealousie of God whether he will accept him or no as it was with the young man in the Gospel he had lived a very exact life according to the rules of a Pharisaical righteousness for he could say All these things have I kept from my youth and yet he was not quiet Gehennam horribiliter timuit he came and kneeled down to Christ and said What must I do to inherit eternal life what lack I yet And so Luther said he did endeavour in all things to walk according to his Conscience and yet he says I feared Hell terribly c. And this is the difference that the Apostle makes Rom. 10.5 8 he prefers the righteousness of faith before that of works upon this ground because that of works is full of scruples and doubtful enquiries Who shall ascend up to Heaven Doubting is the fruit of the Covenant of works and therefore Bellarmine must come to his Tutissimum for unto men since the fall the fruits of the first Covenant are only doubting and anxiety but faith tells a man Christ has descended into the deep to make satisfaction there and he is ascended up on high into Heaven there to prepare a place and there is nothing wanting for a mans salvation that Christ has not done which frees a mans Conscience from those inward perplexities which the Covenant of works leaves a man intangled in This is the first ground of the necessity of being translated out of this Covenant for so long as a man is under it this is his misery if he look for life it must be by his own righteousness as without a Mediator and if he sin there is no pardon for him and if he be to do duty there is no grace if the Covenant be once broken it is broken for ever never made up again for the least offence and a mans Conscience can never be satisfied and quieted till he does anchor upon Christ Jesus who is the rock of ages § 2. If God will deal with man in a Covenant-way he must be
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
of Creation and stipulation the one is natural and necessary and the other voluntary Thus God binds the Creature to himself by all imaginable engagements to prevent future Apostasie By the one we are bound to God and by the other God is bound to us God as a Creator has absolute Soveraignty but yet that man might not think much to yield obedience God is pleas'd to engage himself to a recompence The Covenant God made is double according to the twofold state of Man 1 In his state of Integrity And this was faedus amicitiae a Covenant of friendship between persons never at variance 2 In his state of Corruption When man by sin had broken the first and brought himself under the Curse thereof then God brought in the Covenant of reconciliation and that was faedus misericordiae that is a Covenant of mercy And these Covenants were made with two representative heads the first and the second Adam for in them the Lord looks upon all mankind and it is a mans being in either of these that brings him under either Covenant for God will deal with men both in a way of Sin and Righteousness by way of imputation and the ground of all imputation is union In the first Adam all sin and all die because by their union they stand under his Covenant so in the second Adam we are made the Righteousness of God in him We are in him therefore we are righteous in him we live in the Lord and die in the Lord and hence it is that to all those who are in the first Adam the first Covenant stands in force to this day for Adam was a publick person a head that represented all Mankind The Commandment belong'd to the Nature the Tree of Life was not a personal Sacrament but given to the Nature and the curse of the Covenant doth not seize upon Adam's person but the nature of man in him Gal. 3.10 And the duty of the Covenant must be as large as the curse of the Covenant and so large must the Covenant it self be Now the curse comes upon all Mankind therefore to them the duty did belong and they are federates in this Covenant all that are the Sons of the first Adam are all under Adam's Covenant And this will appear from the conveyance of Adam's sin in the guilt of it Rom. 5.12 for upon whom the curse is inflicted unto them the sin is imputed death came in by sin But how is it that they die who never sin'd Though they never sin'd in their own persons yet in their head they sinned Men are in Adam two ways Legally and Naturally now seeing his sin is imputed to us because we stood under the same Covenant then so long as a man stands guilty of Adam's sin which he does till he be ingrafted into Christ so long he is under Adam's Covenant 2. Every man that is under the curse is under that Covenant that inflicts the curse but all Mankind by nature are under the curse therefore the curse is the curse of the first Covenant Joh. 3. ult and the Gospel does not make men miserable but leaves them so He that believes not on the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him that is only by accident as the mercy of it is contemn'd so indeed it heightens the sin and aggravates the condemnation but the curse is properly the curse of the first Covenant the Gospel in it self speaks nothing but blessing As a Physician that is sent to cure a man if through the malignity of the Disease and the frowardness of the Patient he cast away the Potion the Balm that would cure him he dies of the Disease not of the Physick Christ came voluntarily under a Covenant of Works Gal. 4.4 and submitted to all the obedience of it and he was made a curse for us that is in our stead to redeem us that were under the Law It cannot be meant of the Ceremonial Law for that the Galatians were never under and it cannot be meant of the Law as a rule for direction and as a bridle for restraint therefore it must be meant with respect to the Law in some way as a Covenant not as a Covenant of Grace therefore as a Covenant of Works 3. To be freed from the Law as a Covenant is a special fruit that the Saints have by Christ and by his Death Gal. 3.13 He delivers us from the curse of the Law now a man can never be freed from it as a curse that is not freed from it as a Covenant we are not under the Law condemning but under Grace pardoning justifying and accepting or else as Beza and others have it under the Law irritating as the dam makes the waters swell the higher but under Grace not only pardoning and justifying but healing and sanctifying And this follows upon the Law as a Covenant broken and if this be a special priviledge that men have by being in Christ then they that are out of Christ are under the Law as a Covenant still for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness The righteousness that the Law requires is to be found in Christ alone therefore Moses Law was to be laid up in the Ark Christ came not to abolish the Law but by his obedience to fulfil it and establish it 4. From the dealing of God with all men answerable to the Covenant under which they stand and his different dealing with them shews their different Covenants 1 He exacts perfect and personal obedience in their own persons There is indeed in the Gospel commutatio personae a commutation of the person but non Justitiae not of the righteousness but no unregenerate man can attain to this his Covenant admits no Mediator So that Christ's obedience goes not to perfect his Ephes 2.12 Without Christ c. 2 He rejects their best works for the least failing Isa 1.11 12. but under the Covenant of Grace if there be but a willing mind it 's accepted 2 Cor. 8.12 2 Chron. 30.18 19. 3 He hates the persons for the works sake Gen. 4.7 Gal. 3.10 but under the New Covenant he loves the service for the persons sake He had respect to Abel and his offering the weakness of the service did not cause the person to be rejected He never hates their persons when he is angry with their works but he deals with unregenerate men under another Covenant 4 All things are turn'd into a curse for this Covenant being broken speaks nothing but curse as we shall see when we come to speak to the Sanction or the appendix that which is added unto the Covenant to inforce obedience which is but accidental in case of disobedience and that is in the day thou eatest thereof dyâ—ng thou shalt die § 2. But before we speak to this particular let us note these things by the way 1. Why doth God add this threatning unto Adam surely it was that he might by it be
in point of Justification and Condemnation but in the two former as to Irritation and Coaction it is but liberty begun because sin in us is not perfectly destroyed therefore so far as there are remainders of sin in the Saints See Pareus in Rom. 7.5 they are lyable to an Irritation and a Coaction but yet in a far different manner from that which is in unregenerate men as will be shewed afterwards § 2. The Apostle having in the former Chapter spoken how sin entered into the world and death by sin and how righteousness and life entred by the Lord Jesus Christ that as sin reigned unto death so grace should reign through righteousness unto life eternal and shewing the fruits of this righteousness killing sin in us Therefore we are dead to sin and the old man is crucified and the body of sin is destroyed that we should not henceforth serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin for sin is a Lord and so long as the servant lives he is in subjection to his master but the servant being once dead is free from his master it 's a speech taken from all civil subjection which began with sin and ends with death Now sin is compared to a Master or a Lord to which a man is bound while he lives but being dead he is freed from the power and dominion of sin Rom. 6.11 12. Rom. 6.11 12 Therefore count your selves dead unto sin and let not sin reign in your mortal bodies any more Ver. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace Not under the Law as a Covenant and so irritating sin and exasperating it but under Grace that is subduing sin and hell Some refer these words to the dominion of sin and a mans freedom from that and some to the dominion of the Law and a mans deliverance from it as a Covenant but the main current of Interpreters make the Law the husband and the strength of sin to be by the Law unto condemnation and unto irritation as the Law does occasionally inflame the heart to evil and lust is enraged thereby and they say the Law is dead unto us as a Covenant it is a bond cancelled and taken out of the way Col. 2.14 and so we are dead to the Law by the body of Christ that is Christ as our surety having paid our debt satisfied the Law and received the discharge we are dead to the Law it has no more power to charge sin upon us See Ambros to Jerom. also Estius Calvin Par. c. nor to stir up sin within us they make the Law to be the husband the Soul the wife and the children to be the fruits of Sin which through the irritating power of the Law it does bring forth in us even all manner of concupiscence But other Interpreters as Beza Gomar and some others conceive that the husband is Sin the wife is every natural man that is in the flesh and the fruits are all sinful words and actions that do proceed from sin which are fruits unto death as the other husband is Christ the wife a Believing soul and the fruits all the fruits of Righteousness and Holiness which are called fruits unto God and therefore some have put them both together and so Reinolds in one place he calls Sin the husband Psal 130. the use of the Law p. 368. and in another place the Law the husband and the difference is not much whether we understand it of sin which takes occasion by the Law or of the Law as it does inflame and irritate sin for both of them may be truly said to be dead unto the Saints and they dead unto them though it seems by the ensuing Objections most probable that the Law is the husband Now the Apostle comes to answer a double Objection which ariseth hence For if sin take occasion by the Commandment and if it have a pollutive power by the Law and as he saith Verse the fifth The motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death then it seems there is a double evil that flows from the Law sin and death for by the Law the motions of sin work and by the Law men bring forth fruit unto death The words are an answer unto the first objection which lyes thus That which doth increase sin and sin works by it that is in it self sinful but the Law doth increase sin and sin works by the Law c. The Apostle answers it two ways 1 By Negation it doth not follow though the Law doth increase sin and sin works by the Law c. that the Law is therefore sinful Absit God forbid it is an abominable inference for the Law is holy and just and good and a beam of that infinite Holiness that is in God and by which Gods Holiness does shine forth upon us therefore the Law is not sinful for that which only does discover sin is not sin but it is the Law only that doth discover and forbid sin therefore c. 2 By a Translation of the guilt laying the blame upon corrupt nature and the sinfulness thereof which the Law doth forbid and discover for the Law entered that sin might abound and therefore of it self gives not occasion to sin Yet sin took occasion when none was given and did draw evil from that which is good in it self and suckt poyson from that which is holy For the Law is holy as well when it does by accident enrage sin as when by it self it discovers it Doct. Every man out of Christ is under a Covenant of works and under the irritating power of the Law The Law forbidding sin and discovering sin in him has no other fruits but to enrage it and increase it as Chrysostome says the flame of lust is increased thereby for without the law sin is dead that is ratione cognitionis it lyes dead man knows it not to be sin and comparativè ratione irritationis in point of irritation But the more clearly the law is discovered the more bitterly and violently does corruption work against it Whiles the law doth not come in a clear and convincing manner sin is quiet and a man does not sin with so much rage and violence against the law as he does after the discoveries thereof Sin was dead that is it did not put forth its utmost power to draw forth all manner of effects till the law came and by this means sin is made exceeding sinful as it is rendered by Erasmus sin is not only discovered but improved and so it is made exceeding sinful So that the fruits of the law to a man under the first Covenant is this Sin takes occcasion by the Commandment it does ripen his sins and improve them and it draws forth in him all manner of uncleanness 1 Cor. 15.56 The strength of sin is the law There is a
man to seek out curious ways of sinning against it to avoid the power of the law as we see in Gaming c. sin takes occasion by the Commandment that it may sin more artificially and such men are hardly convinced 2 The Law discovers sin and men will not see it and so sin takes occasion by the Commandment and vents it self by refusing knowledge And they stop their ears that they may not be charmed by the voice of the charmer Joh. 3.20 c. 3 Sin takes occasion from hence in that men hate the light of the law and they wish that there were no such law in the world He that does evil hates the light neither cometh he to the light lest his deeds should be made manifest and reproved As the law discovers that to be evil in which the soul placeth its greatest good so this discovery draws out a hatred in the soul a-against that law which does as a glass discover the spots which the sinner would have hidden 2. The law does restrain sin and puts a stop to it and shuts up the sinner as we may read Gal. 3.23 Whence sin breaks forth more violently men being prone to sin and cannot live without it for the comfort of their life comes in by it The Law may restrain and keep in lust for a while Mat. 12.43 but it breaks forth as fire when you suppress it outwardly it burns the hotter within and spreads the more by a restraint 1 It spreads the more in the man by the restraint of the Law a man that hath forborn a sin long there comes seven worse spirits at the last and makes him more the child of the Devil than he was before the former restraint that was upon him makes his inward man the more exceeding sinful As it was with Judas a Devil though a Disciple The restraint of sin by the Commandment causes it to defile his inward man the more 2 The more sin is enraged as Psal 2. They say let us break their bonds and cast their cords from us Chains put not a fierceness into a beast but yet it does outwardly draw forth that fury that was in its nature As a potion in some diseases given for the cure irritates the peccant humour and kills the man the sooner not that it puts a new sickness in but only the humours being stirred are the more enraged 3 So in this case it does not only enrage sin and so make it more fierce but it improves it by this enraging as the presence of an injury doth heighten a mans anger as we see Goliah did David s his brags drew forth David's courage and it rose to the greater height and so any difficulty would Alexander's so that it was an exploit fit for Alexander if none else would undertake it and so a damm in the water it does cause it to swell and foam the more and the coldness of the circumstant air in the winter does not put more heat into the fire and yet by an Antiperistasis it excites it so that it is felt the more And therefore men living under the clearest discoveries of the Law their sins do rise to the greatest height men by the light of nature cannot sin against the Holy Ghost the great and the unpardonable transgression but this sin is by Gospel-light and this draws forth to direct enmity a mans spirit against the light so that he sins wilfully after that he hath received the knowledge of the truth and with despight for it is this being under the irritating power of the Law that is the great occasion of the sin against the Holy Ghost 3. There is a condemning power of the Law it passes a sentence upon a man and upon his estate and let 's into his soul by the spirit of bondage fear of death and dreadful apprehensions of wrath fearful expectations of judgment and of violent fire to devour him And from this also sin takes occasion 1 By reason of terrours that a man should destroy himself and become the instrument of his own mercy and be his own executioner as Judas and Achitophel and many others have done And 2 hence sin takes occasion to drive them to despair and draws it forth fastning their eyes upon the vengeance of God and never shewing them the remedy and the pardon and then with Cain men say mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven 3 Hence follows a giving up themselves unto all excess of riot there is no hope and therefore I will enjoy the good things that are present and not have a Hell here and hereafter too And therefore they refrain not from any evil way but resolve to take their fill of sin while they are here for they are sure they can be but damned as many a wicked wretch when he is condemned to die he cares not what he does then for he knows he can be but hanged Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die 4 The rage of their spirits does rise from hence even to blasphemy and revenge against God He saith O that I were above God! for I know that he will not have mercy upon me And so the Damned in Hell do blaspheme God by way of revenge because they are shut up under wrath and know that there is no mercy for them And this is the ground also of the great rage and revenge against God that is acted by the Devil ever since the fall Thus men seeing themselves condemned by the Law and being in a continual expectation of this wrath the revenge and rage of their spirits against God is by this means drawn forth and in all these respects sin does take occasion by the Commandment and becomes the more exceeding sinful SECT II. Whence it is that the Law exasperates and encreases Sin § 1. LET us now come having proved the Point to look into the grounds of it How it should come to pass that that which discovers sin and forbids it should exasperate and increase it and that that which is a means to lead the people of God into ways of holiness and to sanctifie them converting the soul making wise the simple should occasion sin and death to others We must lay this as a ground That the cause is not in the Law the Apostles care is to remove any blemish that may be cast on the Law of God as if God had given a Law to this end to add unto the sin of man whereas indeed before the Law sin was in the world and it was out of measure sinful but it did not appear so without the Law There is a twofold cause that the Apostle does here point us unto 1 There is causa per se a formal cause which does of it self and of its own nature properly produce the effect from some inward and intrinsecal power and efficiency and so the Law is not the cause of sin in a man neither is there any thing in the Law that should
to convey the same nature and having transgressed his will being wicked it is a guilty cursed and forsaken nature that is conveyed unto all mankind from him they all sinning in him else corruption of nature might be their punishment but their sin it could never be 2. All Adams posterity comes under the Curse even they that never sinned themselves â—ctually and knowingly as Adam did after the similitude of Adams transgression even Children of a span-long Now the Curse is a Curse of the Covenant Death is a part of Juâ—tice and that must suppose sin upon the person upon whom it is inflicted and no man can â—ome under the curse of the Covenant who is not himself under the Covenant Now â—ad Adam stood Life should have been conveyed unto them and holiness but he falling â—in and death takes hold of them and the Scripture doth speak not only of death entring â—pon all but sin upon all and guilt Rom. 5.12 17 By one man sin entred into the world â—nd death by sin poena mediante reatu Thus if God will deal with a man in a Covenant-way it was necessary if they grow out â—f one common root that a Covenant be made with the first man for all his posterity and 〈◊〉 by Union they become guilty of this sin and come under the curse of the Covenant Now the Lord will have the grace and righteousness of the second Covenant conveyed the â—ame way by a second Adam a publick person Isa 9.6 that should stand in the stead of all his poâ—terity and become an everlasting Father and he will have Adam in all this to become â—he type of him that was to come Rom. 5.14 That as by one man sin entered into the world â—nd death by sin so by one man righteousness and life might enter by one Christ Jesus Reas 2 § 2. Herein our happiness lyes under the second Covenant that it is not made with us imâ—ediately but made with him who is the common head the second Adam and with us in â—â—e second place as we are one with him and no otherwise 1 Herein consists the chief â—â—nour and glory of this Covenant beyond the first because it is made with a more gloriâ—â— head and therefore though the first Covenant had much glory in it yet the second â—â—h far exceed in glory for the first man was but of the earth earthly and the second 〈◊〉 was the Lord from Heaven heavenly 2. And hence it is that the Covenant is sure and everlasting and an unchangeable Covenant because made with an unchangeable head and grounded upon an everlasting righteousness and therefore Rom. 4 it is of Faith that it might be sure 2 Sam. 23. because that makes us one with him with whom the Covenant is established and in whom all the promiâ—es of it are yea and Amen So that it being made with him and he being the surety of it â—nd we one with him it can never fail 3. Hence it is also an Ordered Covenant Heb. 9.12 Lu. 9.24 and therein David takes a great deal of comâ—ort that the mercies of it were the sure mercies of David How Because his Covenant was ordered in all things and sure That as the first Adam in the Covenant of works entred â—nto a Covenant in an order not only for himself but for all his posterity also but so as he himself was primus faederatus and all mankind in him So is Jesus Christ also and the Covenant made first with him and then with all his posterity in him so that it is in the mercies of the Covenant as it is said of the resurrection of the dead all shall rise but every man in his own order first Christ then they that are Christs at his coming c. So it is here all the people of God are in Covenant with him and they are all his Covenant people for all that are in Christ are Abrahams seed but yet every man in his own order first Christ and then they that are in Christ by reason of their Union and no small part of our happiness and comfort comes in this way from the order of the Covenant as will appear afterward if ever we come to handle this property of the Covenant of Grace Reas 3 § 3. Supposing man to be a sinner God cannot enter into Covenant with him immediately any more unless we do suppose that the Lord should forfeit the truth of his threatning and so deny himself for he said Gen. 2.17 The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Now while this stands in force against a man God cannot deal with him in any way but to destroy him therefore if he will bring in a second Covenant that must be a Covenant of mercy and reconciliation and in that there must be satisfaction to God as well as sanctification of man the sin must be sent to Hell as well as the sinner to Heaven Now this satisfaction man of himself can never give it cost more to redeem his Soul than if he had offered thousands of Rams and ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl or his first-born for his transgression and the fruit of his Body for the sin of his Soul as Mich. 6.6 7. But we cannot be redeemed by corruptible things and therefore if God will have satisfaction answerable unto the wrong the creature has done him it cannot be had from any creature wherefore he finds out one that is able to bear it one that is mighty the man of his right-hand that he should be made sin and become a curse And how doth the satisfaction that Christ gives to the Lord become ours It can be no other way but by Union and this union must be 1 Natural he must take upon him our nature for our debt was a debt of body and soul to be offered as a sacrifice unto the wrath of God And therefore it is said Heb. 2.1 He that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are both of one He must take our nature and in that nature suffer as being one with us for without shedding of blood there is no remission 2 Voluntary and by consent he becoming our surety and so under our Covenant putting his name into our bond Gal. 4.4 and voluntary on our part accepting of him as our surety and consenting to his Covenant and the terms of the agreement and the consent of the Judge to whom the debt was due and against whom the offence was committed Sin must be condemned by the ordination of the Judge and the Surety must accept and submit to what was required of him in order to a satisfaction and the consent and approbation of the delinquent also and by this is the Union made up and all that Christ hath done becomes ours And thus as man is a sinner God cannot enter into Covenant with him immediately but it must be a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator which can be no otherwise but as we are one with him and consent
sprinkled upon the Book and upon all the people and all things under the Law were cleansed and sanctified by blood Exod. 24.23 therefore the Law in the administration of it unto them was never intended by God to set forth a Covenant of Works but it was a Covenant of Grace and is usually called a Covenant Deut. 29.10 11. They stood to enter into Covenant with God that he might establish them to be a people to himself and that he might be unto them a God Deut. 26.17 18 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and he hath avouched thee to be his people So that the Law was given by Moses in Gods intention plainly as a Covenant of Grace unto all those that were able to look upon the intent of God therein 2 But yet the Lords intention was also that it should be a copy of the Covenant of Works that God made with Adam before his fall which was never wholly blotted out of the mind of man because God would not have that wholly to perish and be forgotten and therefore it was delivered after a sort in the form of the Covenant of Works and in this respect the Lord has made it a handmaid to the Gospel not that the Lord did intend it for a Covenant of Works as if men should attain righteousness and life thereby but as faedus subserviens a subservient Covenant as that which in this manner God would make use of to advance the ends of the Gospel and the new Covenant By all this you see that the Covenant of which Circumcision was a sign and a seal was not the Covenant of Works but was the same that was made with Abraham because the Covenant was the same Circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of Faith and continued amongst the Jews in this Covenant and that Covenant that binds to the observation of the Ceremonial as well as the Moral Law is not a Covenant of Works but the Covenant made upon Mount Sinai did bind to the Ceremonial Law also nor was the Covenant that God made with Moses a Covenant of Works for Moses was Heb. 11.23 a Believer but Exod. 34.27 it is called the Covenant which I made with thee and with all Israel when I stood before the Lord forty days and he wrote the words of the Covenant the ten Commandments But more particularly the Lord did intend to make the Law given upon Mount Sinai a copy of the Covenant of Works and to be materially and for substance the same that he did make with Adam and with all mankind in him in the state of his integrity 1. Death reigned from Adam till Moses Rom. 5. Gen. 4. ult and therefore sin came in and we see that murder was a sin in Cain and publick worship was a duty Men did begin to call upon the name of the Lord so that the Law was in the World before Moses and it was not only written in the hearts of men 2 Pet. 2.5 So Beza Gen. 6.5 but it was taught in the publick Ministery before Moses for Noah was the Preacher of Righteousness and in the Ministry of the Word we know that the Spirit of God did strive with men Gen. 6.3 The word in the Hebrew is to strive in judgment and by way of argument for conviction so that the Law was given to Adam and Noah and Abraham as well as unto Moses and was for substance the same 2. It is given in the form of a Covenant of Works with a this do and thou shalt live and so it was afterwards by Christ and by the Prophets also preached it was to the carnal Jews plainly a Covenant of Works not in Gods intention but by their own corruption they going about to establish their own righteousness Rom. 10.3 and not subjecting themselves to the righteousness of God it is set forth to them as a Covenant of Works Now if the Lord will not give it as a Covenant why does he not propound it as a rule and lay down the precepts without any such terms of a Covenant as if men should attain life by it when he did never intend to deliver it as a Covenant in which men should attain life by doing but by believing Thus the Lord did that the terms of the first Covenant might be promulgated to the World and that they that did still desire to be under the Law might not plead ignorance of the terms that God required in the Law if they did expect life and happiness thereby 3. Though I say it be for substance and materially the same yet in many circumstances it differs from Adams Covenant for this was a Covenant of such promises and sanctions annexed to it as were not in the Covenant made with Adam and a Covenant confirmed by blood and thereby sanctified which Adams Covenant never had and therefore though it did for substance agree yet in many things there was a difference This Covenant given unto Adam in a state of Innocency and for substance renewed upon Mount Sinai when it was by sin wholly obliterated and blotted out God has made a handmaid or foedus subserviens a Covenant subservient to the Gospel it is Hagar Gal. 4.23 but the Covenant of Grace is Sarah and it is given in the hand of a Mediator not only by Moses but by Christ also for Christ delivered the Law to them Act. 7.38 Moses was in the Wilderness with the Angel who spake to him in Mount Sinai and with our fathers and what Angel was it but Christ he that saith I am the God of Abraham and he that was also tempted in the Wilderness and the Apostle says We are come to Jesus whose voice then shook the earth in the giving of the Law 1 Cor. 10.4 Heb. 12.25 26. it was his voice and then by an enumeration of particulars how the Lord has made every part of the Law as it is materially the first Covenant a servant to the Gospel for the discovery of sin the Law entred that the offence might abound and the Apostle says Rom. 5.20 I had not known sin but by the Law and also for the conviction of Conscience and the imputation of sin Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no Law and for the condemnation of sin that it may be a Schoolmaster to bring the sinner unto Christ the avenger of blood Gal. 3.10 a killing letter and the ministration of death to kill them and hew them and it restrains sin and puts a bridle upon a man and is a means of conversion the curse of the Law is sanctified and the threatnings sweet when the curse is taken out death has no sting the grave has no victory and it is to all under the second Covenant a rule a companion and a counsellor The Law is to be considered as I told you two ways 1 Largely as containing all the Doctrine delivered upon Mount Sinai and all things that may
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
is added to the Gospel as the Rule is to the work-mans hand and the yoke of Gospel-obedience is nothing else but the duties that the Law requires as being the servant unto the Gospel the way of the Gospel is still the way of thy Precepts O God Vse 3 It is also for Consolation it is the greatest ground of comfort and the greatest gift of God even next unto Christ and the second Covenant that he hath made the Law a servant thereunto It 's much that the Lord has given us all the Creatures and they are all our servants Angels and Principalities and Powers all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo and the curse of the Law also persecutions afflictions death are all sanctified but above all that he has made the Law a servant to the Gospel For the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law all is from the Law and all our fear is from the Law and to have the Law of God to charge sin upon a man is the great ground of a mans terror because it comes to the Conscience with the Authority and Majesty of the great King the highest Judge and Law-giver now to have this Law made a servant and in subordination unto all a mans spiritual and eternal welfare it is a very high ground of a mans consolation and so a man under the second Covenant loseth only that which is evil in the first Covenant but all the good of the first Covenant he attains under the second whatever good the first Covenant can do him he hath that also purchased by Christ for him through the overplus of the Grace the superabundant Grace of the second Covenant that we may say Grace abounded much more thus Out of the eater came meat and out of the strong came sweetness and that which was the ground of the greatest terror in the world a man can now claim as his portion talk with as his counseller and feed upon as the sweetest of all his delights that his soul is even ravished with it Thus the Lord has subjected the Law to the Gospel and do you rejoice in its Ministration Thus have we brought this large Tract to an end which is the Key of all the whole Treasury of God wherein you have heard 1 That God in the Creation did deal with man in a Covenant-way 2 The foederati the Covenanters were Adam and his Posterity 3 The terms of this Covenant were perfect personal and perpetual Obedience 4 The Condition on Gods part was Life Spiritual Temporal and Eternal 5 This Covenant Adam brake not only for himself but for all his posterity 6 That the Curse of the Covenant broken is death spiritual temporal and eternal 7 That the Covenant of Works is not abolished by the fall but all unregenerate men stand under it still 8 That this is to every unregenerate man a desirable Condition 9 That under this Covenant all unregenerate men are for Irritation Coaction and Condemnation 10 There is a Translation out of this Covenant and an abolishment of it to all that are regenerate 11 The Subordination of it to the Gospel The END of the First Book BOOK II. THE Covenant of Grace Its AUTHOR FOUNTAIN and the Persons with whom it is made CHAP. I. The Author and Fountain of this Covenant Gen. 17.2 And I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly SECT I. The Person who makes this Covenant Jehovah and why he will deal with all in a Covenant way THE Covenant of Works as made with man in his Creation as violated by the Fall and as cancelled in his Regeneration and as subordinate and made subservient to the Covenant of Grace we have seen in the former Discourse and we now come to consider the nature of the second and better Covenant which all the Saints in Heaven are saved by which man can never break and the righteousness whereof sin can never spend There are in Scripture four eminent publick persons with whom this Covenant was made which are set down in two instances in the Scripture 1 With Adam where it is very darkly represented 2 With Noah Gen. 3.15 Gen. 9.9 and with his Sons which is a branch of the Covenant of Grace and is so brought in Isa 54.9 This is the waters of Noah to me 3 With Abraham and to him was the clearest manifestation of it who it may be was therefore called as a special term of honour the Friend of God because the Lord imparted secrets to him in a more evident familiar manner than he had done with the Saints of old as a man does with his friend Luk. 1.73 it is his Oath that he sware to Abraham to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made Gal. 3.16 and if you be Christs you are Abrahams seed and Gal. 4.22 23 24. Abrahams Family is made a type and a shadow of the two Covenants and the durable generation of men under them Abraham had two Sons which things are an Allegory they are the two Covenants c. and therefore Mic. 7. ult it is mercy unto Abraham and truth unto Jacob because in Abraham after a sort the Promise and the Covenant did begin and therefore it is mercy in making it but it is truth in keeping of it 4 With David Psal 89.3 I have made a Covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant And Isa 55.3 I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David and Act. 13.34 you will find it again repeated and therefore is Christ called the Son of David and also David that shall be King over them Ezek. 37.24 Hos 3. ult Act. 15.16 The Tabernacle of David is said to be raised up in the Primitive times but there is a time coming that God will raise up the throne of David also when that promise shall be fulfilled I shall give him the Throne of his father David of his Kingdom there shall be no end and when that Dan. 7.14 shall be accomplished He shall be brought unto the Antient of days and shall receive a Kingdom after the four persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down which we see not accomplished when that Scripture Rev. 11.17 shall be fulfilled That the Kingdoms of the Earth shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord. His they are now as he is the King of Nations but they shall be so also as he is the King of Saints and they shall subscribe unto the Lord and his name shall be called upon them c. I have made choice of this Scripture as setting forth the Covenant made with Abraham or rather renewed which God had made fourteen years before Gen. 15.18 but herein gave a more full expression of his entring into Covenant with him Wherein you may observe three things 1 That there is a Covenant the Lord will deal with Abraham in a Covenant way the Lord will bring him into the bond
the first Covenant Doth this Covenant afford the least reward to any services that have the least imperfection adherent to them And can sinners offer to God any such perfect services Will it not thence hence necessarily follow that such as stand under this first Covenant have all their services rejected all their sins imputed to them their persons hated their blessings cursed and all the curses of the Law bound fast on their consciences by the sentence of the righteous God What are all their seeming services but real sins and what are all Gods rewards to them but real curses albeit seeming blessings What can they expect for such unsanctified services but unsanctified rewards which are indeed real curses But to treat somewhat more distinctly of the misery which attends such as are under the first Covenant we may consider it under these two Heads that both the Law and Gospel The Law to such as are under the first Covenant the means of death which are means of Life and Salvation to such as are under the first Covenant prove as to them means of Death and Condemnation First as to the Law it proves the means of death and condemnation to such as are under the first Covenant two ways 1 In regard of its coactive Rigor 2 As it irritates Sin 1. The Law doth by its coactive Rigor work death and condemnation in such as are under the first Covenant Doth not the Law exact of such perfect obedience 1. By its compulsion but gives them no strength to perform it It 's true the Law requires obedience of those who are under the second Covenant also but the promise gives what the Law requires But of such as are under the first Covenant perfect obedience is required but no intern principle is engraffed duty is required but no love or delight therein conferred Yea do not such perform duty as godly men commit sin May they not say of sin as Paul doth of duty Rom. 7.15 What I would that I do not And what Paul saith of Sin may not such say the same of Duty What I hate that do I The Law discovers sin to those that are under the first Covenant but did it ever cast out any one sin discovered by it Sin is sometimes wounded by it but did it ever kill any one sin Are not the hearts of such like Ezechiels pot in which the scum did arise but then boyled in again The Law drags such to the Tribunal of God as a righteous Judge but can they ever come to God as a Father Is not this the priviledge of such only as are under the second Covenant Lastly the Law drives such as are under the first Covenant unto self-condemnation but can any thing but the Gospel work Justification and Peace of Conscience So deadly and mortiferous is the Law to such as are under its violent compulsion and coaction as it is a Covenant And whence is it that the Law hath such a compulsive power over such as are under it as a Covenant 1 Is it not from those Principles of self-love and legal fear implanted in the heart of man whereby he is constrained to duty and restrained from sin by the threats and terrors of the Law which move Conscience as extern weights move artificial Automata or machines O! what a great power has Conscience over such when acted and enflamed by the terrors of the Law Doth not Paul Rom. 7.1 assure us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Law doth Lord it over a man so long as he continues under it as a Covenant And how doth the Law as a Covenant Lord it over the man but by ruling in the Authority and Sovereign Dominion of God in and by which it will at last judge the man And oh with what rigor and compulsion doth it rule over his Conscience and thereby restrain him from sin and constrain him to duty Again 2 Doth not the Law receive much Authority and force from the Spirit of God setting it home on Conscience and thereby terrifying and wounding the sinner 3 Is there not also in all men under the first Covenant a sinful Weight or Bent of Lust which makes the yoke of divine Precepts extreme irksome and burdensome to them And doth not this adde much to the rigour and severity of the Law Doth not the Law of God lay the same rigorous restraint on the lusts of those who are under it as a Covenant which the Providence of God lays on the lusts of Diabolick spirits And oh what a miserable case are such in who lye under this tyrannick compulsion of the Law as a Covenant If their lusts rage within but dare not vent themselves because the Law holds a rod over Conscience how do they burn like fire in an Oven and now and then flame forth in rebellious thoughts against God and his Law wishing there were no Law Or else if lusts break forth into Act how soon doth the Law bind over Conscience unto wrath and condemnation and oh what stings and torments follow hereon And is it not also a miserable case for the sinner to be compelled and forced by the Law to do those good offices which he really hates Would it not be a great torment to a Saint to be constrained to bow down and worship the Devil and is it not as great misery to a person under the first Covenant to be compelled by the Law to worship God whom he hates as much as an holy man hates the Devil And is not this the genuine cause of all that hypocrisie which is lodged and deeply radicated in those under the first Covenant that all their omissions of sin and performances of Duties proceed meerly from the violent tyrannick compulsion of the Law as a Covenant And as the Law doth by its rigorous exaction more or less prevail on Conscience so their hypocrisie is more or less radicated and refined Oh! how partial and inconstant are such in their abstaining from sin and performing Duties How disagreeable are those good works they do to their Natures and Principles and thence how little pleasure and delight do they find in the doing of them Yea the rigour and tyranny of the Law over such most eminently appears in this that in constraining and forcing men to duties it is so far from giving strength that the more they perform duties the less strength they have to perform them the more they hear meditate or pray the less strength they have to perform those duties as they ought So also for the Laws restraining such from sin the more they are restrained the stronger their lusts grow and break forth with greater violence in the issue Whereas one under the second Covenant the more the Law restrains his lusts the weaker they grow and the more it constrains them to duty the stronger they grow in the performance of them because together with the restraints and constraints of the Law there is conveyed a force and strength by the
Promise to abstain from the sin forbidden and to perform the duty required So much for the compulsion of the Law 2. The Law works death by irritating sin 2. To such as are under the first Covenant the Law works Death and Condemnation by its Irritation of sin The Law was in its first Institution and still is to those that are under the second Covenant a sanctified Instrument for the restraining and keeping under of sin but to those that are under the first Covenant it proves accidentally by reason of the violence of Lust and Gods Curse an occasion of irritating and enraging sin It 's true the Law as a Crystal glass discovers the soveraign holy pleasure of God forbidding sin but doth not the lustful bent of mens hearts affect sin even because forbidden And the Law discovering unto such the pravity and vitiosity of sin how do their hearts boil up with hatred against the Law because it strikes at sin wherein they place their chiefest good Again when the Law comes to put a bridle and curb on their Lusts are they not hereby like an untamed Colt the more enraged and furious And is not this the genuine reason why such as live under the clearest and brightest promulgations of the Law oft have their lusts boiled up to the highest pitch Yea is it not hence that the unpardonable sin takes its first rise namely from the lusts of such who living under bright notices and discoveries of both Law and Gospel and receiving some tastes of good things to come at last continuing still under the first Covenant have their lusts more irritated by the Law Moreover the Law condemning such as are under the first Covenant for sin and thereby injecting sparks of Hell-fire into their Consciences the fire-brands of dreadful terrors and despair how are their lusts enflamed hereby what revenge against God what excess of riot are they hurried into hereby Doth not also the righteous God by an invisible secret Curse suffer such as desire to be under the Law as a Covenant to have their lusts irritated and exasperated thereby Lastly doth not the wise and holy God permit Satan so far to abuse the Law as thereby to draw men into sin And oh what a pleasure is it to Satan to make use of that which is most deâ—â—â—â—o God thereby to draw men into sin And doth not this discover to us the miserable 〈◊〉 of such as are under the first Covenant that the Law of God which is so excellent in its own nature and of such excellent use unto the Saints should be so much abused for the irritation of Lust It 's true the Law may sometimes irritate sin even in such as are under the New Covenant yet it is not from any dominion it has over such neither doth this irritation so far prevail as to bring forth fruit unto death as it doth in those under the first Covenant who are under the complete dominion of the Law unto whom it hath no other use but to exasperate and improve their lusts And as the Law so also the Gospel and all the means of Grace To such as are under the first Covenant the Gospel and all other Blessings prove Curses yea all the Providences of God and comforts of this life prove snares and curses to such as are under the first Covenant 1 What greater Jewel is there to be found or desired among the Sons of men than the Gospel of Grace Is not the heart and bosom of God hereby laid open unto sinners O! what sweet attractives and cords of love are there in the Gospel to draw the soul out of its miserable and sinful state unto eternal Beatitude And yet lo how is this rich odor of life turned into a pestiferous odor of death to such as are under the first Covenant Is not that which is in it self the greatest blessing made by such the greatest curse The same food that nourisheth Believers unto eternal life of what use is it to those under the first Covenant but to nourish their incurable disease of self-sufficience Are not these mens lusts offended at the spirituality and simplicity of the Gospel What false Glosses and Comments do they put thereon How is the Grace of the Gospel by such turned into wantonness what controversies to their lusts make about it 2 So also for all Means of Grace Providences and temporal blessings which draw the hearts of Believers nearer to God are not the hearts of those under the first Covenant driven from God thereby Do not all their Duties though never so Evangelic center in Self Is not this the great Idol unto which their hearts are chained do not all the lines of their Devotion and Religion terminate in this center Oh! what an ample field of Contemplation is this to expatiate in were not our Meditations confined to the limits of a Summary The Second Part of the following Discourse regards The Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace explicated in in the Explication whereof our Author is more copious distinct and potent even to Admiration The Heads discoursed of by him and the method he makes use of in discoursing of them may with facility be apprehended by the Table of Contents that which I design in this Summary is some short Reflexions on such Heads as are not directly or professedly discussed by our Author And 1. 1. Its differences from the first Covenant We shall begin with the Differences between the first and second Covenant 1 In the first Covenant God dealt with man in a way of soveraign Empire and Dominion mixed with infinite Wisdom Justice Benignity and somewhat of Grace though without the least dram of Mercy there was indeed something of Grace in appointing the Reward but nothing of Grace in the infallible conduct thereto But now in the second Covenant the principal motive and Fountain that gave origine thereto was free Grace and Bowels of warm tender Mercies what was the foundation of this Covenant but the absolute and soveraignly gracious pleasure of God Were there any Objective Ideas of good any reasons grounds or motives foreseen by God which moved him to give grace to Jacob rather than to Esau Did not Esau and Jacob stand on equal ground as to Divine Election Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau Mal. 1.2 3. It 's true the free Grace of God hath deep Reasons in it self but yet no reasons or motives without it self to move or rule it in its egresses towards the creature Yea doth not the Grace of God find as much and as good reasons in Esau as in Jacob in Cain and Judas as in Peter and Paul in the worst as in the best of Men by Nature Yea what more agreeable to the Methods and Designs of Grace than this to shew mercy to the vilest of sinners How oft doth the free grace of God take hold of such as are most graceless and whence
through him Have we then any thing to do with or receive from God in a covenant way but by this Mediator and union with him Did not God from all Eternity give his Son as the foundation of this Covenant to the Elect as also give them to him as a seed And is not this the true import of their being elected in him Is it not also hence said Tit. 1.2 That eternal life was promised to the elect before the world began How could it be promised to them but by this Covenant of Redemption with Christ their Head Did not the Church Christs mystic body lie hid in him from Eternity as Eve lay hid in Adam her head Are not all Believers by the Covenant of Grace in Christ as by nature we are all in the first Covenant And is not Christ in every Believer as Adam in all his natural seed How is the first Adam in us but as the original cause of our nature and its moral vitiosity which causeth death And is not Christ the second Adam in all Believers as the original cause of their restauration and life What is there good in man but what is first in Christ as the original Head of the Covenant and public Receiver Wouldst thou see Gods love and grace streaming towards thy soul Must thou not then first see it lodged in Christ as the Fountain of all Dost thou desire to see all thy sins wiped off Must thou not then see them first wiped off from Christ thy Representative Wouldst thou by a prevision of faith see thy self in a glorified state O then by faith look on Christ the Head of the Covenant as glorified for thee Alas if thou look on thy self in thy self growing out of thine own natural root what art thou but as a branch cut off from the Olive-root But O! how comfortable and sweet is it to see thy self crucified acquitted and glorified in Christ the Head of the Covenant Yea doth he not only become a surety for us to God but also a surety for God to us And O! how much doth this engage sinners to exalt this glorious Head and Mediator of the New Covenant Was not this the grand design of God in making this Covenant that his Son the Prince of it might be in every thing exalted Why are all the promises of the Covenant dispensed first unto him and all the duties of the Covenant required first of him and of us in him but that he may have the preeminence in all things and a name above every name That the Son of God and Lord of Glory should by his own consent in the Covenant of Redemption between him and the Father come under an act of Gods will and undertake in the fulness of time to take upon him the form of a servant to pay debts who never owned any that he that was Lord of the Law should be made under the Law that all the Elect should have their names transcribed out of the Fathers book of Election into the Lambs book of life Rev. 13.8 yea have their names written in his heart from all Eternity and thereby to have such a blessed Being in him so long before they had the least Being in themselves what an essential obligation are they hereby brought under to exalt this glorious Head and Prince of their Covenant 4. But let us discourse a little of the Nature of this second Covenant 4. The Nature of the Covenant as relating to Believers as terminating more immediately on Believers And here the Reader will excuse me if I studiously avoid the controversies of these times and touch only on that which is more essential to Faith and Godliness The Covenant of Grace as made with Believers has a twofold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habitude or regard the one externe the other interne (1) As to its externe Dispensation which is The Covenant of Grace as to its externe Habitude and Dispensation admits some Variety Generality and Conditionality which is not applicable to the interne spirit and mind thereof [1] Various It admits of some Variety It has pleased the infinitely wise God out of his rich mercy and condescendence to the condition of his people in all Ages to suit the externe Dispensation of his second Covenant to their infirm capacity albeit as to the spirit and substance thereof it hath been ever the same Thus in the first promulgation of it to Adam after his Fall God expressed it by the seed of the woman and its bruising the serpents head c. Gen. 3.15 which was a form most agreeable to their present state introduced by the Serpents subtility and craft So in the second promulgation of this Covenant unto Noah after the Floud Gen. 9.17 God expressed it by the Ark and Rain-bow c. as it 's repeated Esa 54.9 which were symbolic Images very apposite and agreeable to their preservation newly obtained The like Variety God manifested in the repetition of this Covenant unto Abraham Gen. 17.2 to 16. where God promulgates his Covenant as to its externe Habitude under the symbolic forms of multiplying his natural seed the sign of Circumcision c. which were â—ll lively figures very much adapted to his present state he having no children So again when God renewed this Covenant with the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt what variety doth he use Is not the very Prologue to it touching their deliverance out of the house of bondage an illustrious Symbol to mind them of their miserable state by the first Covenant What were all the Sacrifices but federal Symbols representing to the life mans sin and misery under the first Covenant and reconcilement to God by the second So also for the moral Precepts with which this Mosaic Covenant was ushered in of what use and intendment were they but to make way for the promulgation and advance of free Grace as John Baptist made way for Christ It 's true some of late from this variety have started a Notion of a threefold Covenant one natural another legal or Mosaic and the third Evangelic but this Notion was the figment of the old Origenistic Monks to establish their Antichristian merits as Melancthon Chron. lib. 4. assures us The true Idea of the Mosaic Covenant seems this it was indeed as to its interne spirit mind form and essence Evangelic albeit as to its externe form and dispensation it was mixed and composed of moral Precepts and symbolic Types or shadows and O! how agreeable was this to the infantile state of the Israelitic Church Did not the wise God herein act like a curious Limner who first gives an adumbration and dark shadow with a rude Pencil and then adds lively colours to compleat his Picture What were all the Types but Evangelic shadows whereby the Grace of the second Covenant became visible and sensible [2] Indifferent and general The Covenant of Grace as to its externe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dispensation admits of some
good for food and a Tree in it self very lovely and desirable It was only the will of God that made it so to be because the Lord had forbidden it and it 's the will of God that is the only rule of the obedience of the Creature therefore things are good because God wills them and therefore evil because he forbids them for 't is the will of God that is the rule of goodness There is a vanity in the creature to dispute the commands of God we take it ill and as an intrenching upon authority to have our commands disputed much more may the Lord. It was Abraham's honour he did not reason pro and con Rom. 4.19 I find this rule deliver'd by Glass Gram. pag. 349 Verbâ—â—â—â—â—tum additâ—r infinito ad majâ—â—m certitudinem câ—â—eritatem perfectionem confirmationem exprimendam but obey'd God without disputing The threatning is call'd sometimes the curse of the law Deut. 29.21 and sometimes the the curse of the Covenant It is expressed in our Text Gen. 2.17 thus Dying thou shalt die This denotes 1 Certainty Gen. 37.33 Without doubt Exod. 19.12 13. surely 2 Extremity and the perfection of a thing Exod. 21.19 It 's said He shall cause him to be thorowly healed that is Medicando medicabitur plenam denotat cuationem 3 Suddenness Zach. 8.21 They shall say let us go speedily to pray before the Lord. 4 Continuance and perseverance Gen. 8.7 And he sent forth a Raven exibat exeundo that is continenter he did continue to go from the Ark and returned no more And so in the expression here there seems to be these four things Dying thou shalt die i. e. Thou shalt surely perfectly suddenly and eternally die Whence the Doctrine is That the punishment of the breach of the first Covenant and the curse of it was a certain sudden utter and eternal death SECT II. The Temporal Curse § 1. WHatever is excellent or desirable in Scripture is comprehended under the name of life and by death is comprehended whatever is evil and whatever may make the creature miserable The thing threatned being death in general not this or that particular death or evil therefore we must understand it of all kind of death and this I shall branch under these heads First Temporal death and that consists in these particulars 1. All the Creatures are cursed to him and that in these regards 1 He lost his right to all the Creatures that were given him for his use God gave Adam an inheritance and put all in subjection under his feet but by sin he forfeited them all that he has not a right to the bread that he eats nor to the air he breaths in There is indeed a right of providence and a right of promise that man has to the Creatures but neither of these a man has from the first but both from the second Covenant the one as the Providential Kingdom and the other as the Spiritual Kingdom is in the hand of Christ It is as Christ employs them in the world and so gives them these things as a reward of their service and their portion in this life or else they have them by patience only as a condemn'd man has many comforts till his execution but cannot claim them by any right and so it 's with them for he that had forfeited both foul and body must needs have forfeited all things else Therefore all the Creatures are given him by a new Covenant-title they are all Christs Psal 8.6 7. Heb 2. Isa 49.8 and by him dispensed to some as Sons and to others as Servants as he is pleased to imploy them For it 's by his Covenant that the Earth is established that it doth not perish and all the Creatures in it by vertue of that Curse Cursed be the ground for thy sake Now if a curse upon man would bring him to destruction then a curse upon the Creatures had not a second Covenant come in would have wrought their annihilation Act. 1.26 Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place Judas had no place of his own but Hell and Christ himself standing in a cursed condition though he were Lord of all yet he was in the world as one that had right to nothing He became poor had not a house to lay his head in nor an Asse to ride on but lived upon the benevolence of his servants He had not a Chamber to eat the Passover in And when he died whereas all men have their Graves he had none but another mans But how was it that Christ the heir of all things should be so in want but as he stood under our Covenant and came under our curse and did represent our persons and therefore it 's said Dan. 9.26 That the Messiah shall be cut off not for himself So we read it Dan. 9.26 But others read it Et nihil erit ei He shall have nothing he shall have no inheritance in his life and shall die as if there were no hope in his death 2 All the Creatures deny their service to him When thou tillest the ground it shall not give its strength that 's a fruit of the curse upon the Creatures for man's sin the Sun shall refuse to give its light and the Clouds their rain and the Heavens their influence and that we have any of these it 's by virtue of the second Covenant it 's by Christ that the Sun shines and the rain falls upon the just and the unjust Hos 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me and then the Heavens shall hear the Earth and the Earth shall hear the Corn and the Wine then all the Creatures shall give their fruit and influence Rom. 8.19 20 there 's a bondage of corruption from which the Creature desires to be delivered by which I think is not meant dissolution for surely no creature but desires its own preservation therefore I judge it 's meant of service and subjection in being subordinate to the lusts of wicked men And although the Creatures themselves be made for service and of their own natures rejoyce and triumph in it as the Sun does rejoyce as a Giant to run its course yet since sin came into the world there is such a sympathy in the Creature of the wrong done to God thereby that the Creatures would withdraw themselves the Sun would cloath it self with sackcloth and the Moon be turn into blood the Stars would withdraw their shining and all the rest would do so also but that the Lord has subjected them in hope of a restauration and a glorious condition that they shall have even a new Heaven and a new Earth c. And God makes the Sun to rise upon the evil as well as on the good but upon the evil for the sake of the good And were God's people taken all out of the wilderness of this world the Creatures should be delivered and serve the lusts of wicked men no more
And therefore the Sun was withdrawn at the death of Christ not that it could not behold such a horrible sight as some do express it but it was in wrath to shew that he was under the displeasure of God to whom he crys out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and all his Disciples forsook him and fled and not an Angel lookt out of Heaven to comfort him 3 The Creatures that men have in their possession are cursed there is a curse upon them which blasts them that they are subject unto vanity and are become vanity of vanities Eccles 1.2 There is an universal decay by reason of Gods curse come on all things that are for mans use but many times there is also a particular curse that does haâ—â—en their decay sooner than else it would have been as it is in Estates Hos 5.12 á moth and rottenness and a lion enters into families And we read of a flying Roll Zach. 5.2 3 4. that 's the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth and it enters into the house of the thief and the swearer and consumes the stones and makes holes in the bottom of the Bag Job 20.28 the substance of his house shall depart his honour and memory shall be gone and so their names are written in the earth the name of the wicked shall rot God does many times rot mens names presently that they perish they are consumed as in a moment 4 Whatever they have by the Creatures shall be with much toil labour and weariness In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread We see how much toil and labour the Husband-man has to put some life into the dead earth all things are full of labour Eccles 1.8 man cannot utter it and how much weariness there is in every calling and condition of life nay even in our very Recreations how much pains there is to extract a poor small contentment that even the pleasure of it does nothing recompence the labour to get it God having made the Creatures even like to Paracelsian Physick a little spirit mixt with a great deal of unprofitable matter a great deal of dross with a little gold and much chaff with a little corn and a great deal of labour before a man can beat it out Every condition of life is full of labour 5 Even those Creatures that a man is acquiring for his good become instruments of vengeance for his destruction for all the Creatures are arm'd against a man The Stars in their courses fight against him Exod. 23.25 the Heaven that sends down destroying influences the Sun that scorches the Earth and destroys all the labours of man and the Rain that drowns the World and the Earth that opens its mouth to swallow him up and the meanest of the Creatures flys and lice destroy him and a mans meat and drink become his bane God curses his bread and water and it shall bring diseases on him The Angels they keep you out of Paradise with terrour Gen. 3. destroy whole Armies meet men with a drawn sword as they did Balaam Sometimes a man is eaten with worms as Herod was and sometimes God fights against us as he did against Cambyses and the Devil doth possess our bodies and destroy our goods as he did Job and he waits but for a commission to hurry us to Hell and to be the instrument to convey us thither upon all occasions as being Satan our adversary § 2. The curses upon a mans body are various and great As 1 Continual weariness and wasting and sickness and a disorder and jarring between the humours of a mans body Deut. 28.21 and old age which is a continual disease though indeed it 's true as Solomon says Gray hairs are a crown if found in the way of righteousness And it 's an honour with Mnason to be an old Disciple but yet it is in it self a fruit of the curse that bringeth with it the decays of nature for man if he had not fin'd should never have waxed old nor had any deformity for he was created at first a very glorious Creature and had no blemish from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot but now there is not the fairest face but it has some blemish and there is a strange ugliness and deformity come upon men though upon some more than others The botch of Egypt the Itch the Scab that shall not be healed c. We read in Eccles 12.2 3. a description of those evil days wherein all the comforts of a mans life are taken away a man cannot say he has any pleasure in them in which he is much disabled for service to God and man by reason of his weakness and infirmities All things that are comfortable in this life do decay and it is with a man as in Winter-weather when a shower or two does not cleanse the sky but the end of one misery and disease is the beginning of another And there is a more particular description of the miseries â—hat attend man in his age in the third verse of that Chapter The keepers of the house the 〈◊〉 and hands are weak the defence that God has given this house of clay they through â—â—â—â—ness and palsie do tremble and the legs and thighs the poor pillars and supports of 〈◊〉 house do buckle through weakness and bow the grinders cease because they are few and the eyes that look out at the windows are weakned and the doors shut in the streets and the mouth closed And he desires not company because he is unfit for it he keeps home and sits alone and his sleep does easily depart from him at every noise he rises up at the voice of a bird c. and desire fails to any of the pleasures of this life We see a Comment upon much of it in the 2 Sam. 19.35 and then death comes and there is a dissolution of this house of clay and after death the dust returns to the earth as it was and this glorious body of man so curiously fed and so sumptuously cloath'd must become food to the worms and rot in its own filthiness and putrefaction and in all these respects the body is become a vile body corruptible mortal a body of death and it lies down in dishonour in the grave 2 And there is this great curse also upon the body of man it is become an instrument of sin to the soul and so an instrument for the devil to use Sin indeed is not properly and formally in the body but in the soul Mich. 6.7 and therefore it is properly call'd the sin of the soul for it 's the soul that is the arch-rebel sin is formaliter in corde redundanter in corpore formally in the soul but by redundance in the body But yet there is this curse come upon the body and the members of it that it 's imploy'd as a servant to the soul in sinning and
a seeking their Fathers life as Absalom did David's Vse the young man well for my sake says the father but when Hushai said We will smite the King only the saying pleas'd Absalom well And the son shall betray the father to death Sennacherib was slain by his two Sons 4 The parting with Children at death and not knowing in what condition a man shall leave them is a great part of a mans vexation In this life it 's a great part of the Curse His Sons come to honour and he knows it not they are brought low and he considers it not c. That was Luther's comfort in his Will Lord thou hast given me Wife and Children and I give them to thee again Qui pater es pupillorum judex viduarum which art the Father of Orphans and Judge of the Widows But the contrary is a very great affliction unto the hearts of Parents and a great part of a mans misery that Children must suffer for the Parents sins and God may visit the iniquity of Parents upon Children to the third and fourth Generation 2. Parents also are a Curse to their Children 1 The sins of Parents are transmitted to the Children We see Adam did bring a Curse upon himself and all his posterity and the infants of Sodom were involved in the punishment of the sins that they were not in themselves guilty of Ezech. 4.25 God reserved the punishment of the Fathers for their Children for three hundred and ninety years together Chams sins and Canaans is punisht nine hundred twenty-five years after and Gehazi his Leprosie cleaves to him and his posterity and the Jews in Crucifying Christ say his blood be upon us and our children and so wrath is come upon them to the uttermost for many Generations 1 This is a punishment upon the Parent and a testimony of great wrath that not only Judgment comes upon himself but upon his posterity 2 It 's only in Temporal things for an Eternal Curse never comes upon Children but for their own sins but for Temporal Curses they are dispens'd in a way of prerogative and the Lord will lay those Curses upon Children which the Parents did deserve and they are gone down to Hell to receive 2 Parents prove snares and plagues to their Children by betraying their liberties losing of their priviledges Rom. 3.2 Vnto them were committed the Oracles of God Now when they shall forfeit them and part with their priviledges by little and little What a curse is this The Ordinances and the Truths of the Gospel are the greatest trust committed to Parents but when they provoke the Lord to call them Loammi and to cast them off then they are forfeited As Rom. 11. the natural branches are broken off and their posterity are cast out as an abominable branch only the Lord will in time graft them in again So many a Father does lose glorious priviledges and opportunities for his Children Saul did divest himself of the Kingdom and all his posterity Now would I have established the Kingdom to thee c. 3 By an evil example 1 Pet. 1.18 corrupting them by their vain conversation received by tradition from their Fathers Jer. 44.17 We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven as we have done we and our fathers our Kings and our Princes in the cities of Judah c. 4 The Father may forsake his Son yea he may forget When my father and mother forsake me says the Psalmist the Lord takes me up And the Father may betray the Son to death as we see Saul did Jonathan if he will not comply with his lusts he shall not live he throws a Javelin at him to kill him c. SECT III. Spiritual Death § 1. WE have thus far considered the first Branch of the Covenant's Curse and that consists in Temporal death Now let us come to consider the second Branch of it which is Death Spiritual and that is All the spiritual evil that can befal the soul of man in this life whether of sin or sorrow And it 's as possible for a man to weigh the fire and to measure the wind and number the stars or count the sand upon the sea-shore as to reckon the particulars wherein this Death consists Godly men that study the evils of their own hearts all their days yet cry out The heart is deceitful above all things who can know it Jer. 17.10 The word signifies an incurable disease it s only the Lord that can cure and search it and know the malignity of it And as it is said of Vertue and the beauty of Holiness if it could be seen with bodily eyes Mirabilem excitaret amorem sui it would stir up a wonderful love of it self so could the death of the soul and the evils of it be seen it would stir up hatred and amazement above all things in the world A godly man that sees but a little of it when God opens his eyes he abhors himself and loaths his own soul Job 42.6 And Luther blessed God that he did not shew him sin all at once but by degrees it would have sunk him with the apprehension of it This will be the study of men in Hell to all eternity to rake into this filthiness of the soul and the death thereof for Hell is the grave of the soul and the rottenness of it shall be studied there for ever And this shall be the work of that never-dying worm the souls reflection upon it self and its own loathsomeness and to loath it self for ever Consider 1 the soul is the darling and therefore the beauty of a man and the worth of the man lies in the hidden man of the heart which is in the sight of God of great price 1 Pet. 3.3 and therefore the deformity of the soul is the greatest The worth of the man is from the worth of the soul Prov. 10.20 The heart of the wicked is little worth His Lands and his Honour and his Cloaths may be worth much in the esteem of the world but his soul is worth nothing Therefore the value of a man is in his spirit though there be other things that we commonly prize men by yet those that judge aright count the Saints upon this account the excellent ones Psal 16.3 and all others to be vile men how great and rich soever Dan. 4.17 Psal 15. And a man does prosper truly as his soul prospers 3 Joh. 2. and not as his body prospers or as his estate prospers Therefore a man is filthy if his soul is filthy and vile as his soul is vile and he decays as his soul does from day to day 2 The great difference between men and men lies in their spirits Caleb had another spirit Numb 14.24 Our distinctions for the present are but for a time and death will make all equal that as we were all made of one body so we shall all be dissolved into the same dust they are all but for the time
of this life the Princes robes and the beggars rags lie down together but the difference in their spirits is eternal and therefore the blessing or the curse upon the soul is much more than that on the body or the estate many of these being but for the time of this life 3 Sin is chiefly an act of the soul The sin of the soul membra sunt arma the members are but weapons it 's the soul that 's the hand and the chief cause of enmity lies therein and therefore the chief vengeance lights upon that God will punish sin not only here but eternally Therefore as the greatest blessing is upon the soul so the greatest curse also And as the School-men say of Glory so we may say of Wrath it is Radicaliter in corde redundanter in corpore radically in the heart but redundantly in the body the main object of wrath and curse is the soul 2 Pet. Mat. 16. 4 The great evil that sin does a man it fights against his soul and the great loss that it occasions is the loss of the soul men do often complain of losses but they may be all made up in this life as Job's were or if not yet the afflictions of this present life are not worthy of the glory that shall be reveal'd they work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and Quaedam amittere ut majora lucreris non amissio est sed mercatura to lose some things that thou maist gain better is not loss but a thriving trade But the loss of the soul is the great loss that can never be made up and therefore the curse of the soul is the great curse 5 The curse of the soul being taken off all other curses are taken off also as the curse remaining on the soul all blessings are turn'd into curses they may be blessings in the thing but they are curses to the man So on the other side all cursings are turn'd into blessings they may be curses in the thing but they shall prove blessings to the man To the unclean all things are unclean for their minds and consciences are defiled Tit. 1. When once Grace comes into the soul malediction goes out all things shall work for your good and the curse is taken off from all the Creatures for your use Life is yours and death is yours so that as the precept of the Law is made a servant to the promise of the Gospel for it was added by way of subordination and subserviency thereunto so the curse of the Law is made a servant to the Grace of the Gospel also and a Saint has a sanctified use of that as a blessing which is in it self a curse 6 The chief satisfaction that was given for sin has reference to the soul In the sacrifice there was offred the life and the blood but it was the blood that made an atonement for the soul and without shedding of blood there is no remission And when Christ came to stand in our stead as a surety the main of the sufferings he endured were in his soul Isa 53.10 God made his soul an offering for sin Christ did as our surety and therefore he put his name to our bond and was made under the Law Now being our surety he was to pay our debt and that was mainly in the soul The Sacrifice that was to be accepted of God was to be a whole burnt-offering now if Christ had but suffered in his body it had been but a half burnt-offering He offered himself Heb. 9.10 therefore it must be his whole manhood and before his bodily suffering came while he was in the Garden he says My soul is heavy unto death Mar. 14.33 amazed or astonished the word is rendred a failing of spirit his spirit died even within him his thoughts were wholly abstracted from all things else and the wrath of God that lay upon him did wholly fill up his soul c. Now in all these respects the curse upon the soul which is spiritual death is the greatest part of the Curse far greater than that upon the body upon Creatures or Relations § 2. And now let us come to consider wherein this Curse upon the Soul lies 1. It lies in this That a man has forsaken God as his chief Good and as his utmost End Man in his Creation was carried towards God as that chiefest Good wherein his happiness consisisted and acted towards God as him to whom all his actions were refer'd and wherein his blessedness lay and therefore Augustin speaking from a spirit renew'd and having the same principle begun in him says Omnis copia quae non est Deus inanis egestas est All plenty that is not God is poverty And Bernard says Animam Dei capacem quicquid est Deo minus non implebit nothing less than God will fill the soul capable of God Man having all in God must needs do all for him and refer all to him for he that is the chief Good must needs be also the utmost End Now the death of the soul lies mainly in this first it 's taken off from God as the chief Good for that 's the first thing sin does Jam. 1.14 it draws a man away from God who was the Center where the soul rested Psal 116.7 Return to thy rest O my soul They have forsaken their resting place they have wandred upon every mountain And therefore Jude v. 18. all the lustings and inclinations of the soul they are call'd ungodly lusts because they have nothing else in them that being the main bent in them all to take off the soul from God and carry it away from him Jer. 2.13 It 's forsaking the fountain of living water And Heb. 3.12 It 's departing from the living God And hence it is that repenting is call'd returning because we have departed from him and conversion is nothing else but returning to God as a mans chief Good And man being thus departed from him God is not in all their thoughts for they look for no good from him their good lies not in him and therefore they live without God in the world they know him not they love him not they expect nothing from him it 's to them as if there were no God to judge nor reward and hence it is that men can live without the favour of God all their life-long and never be troubled because they have not made it their happiness But take a man that has set up this as his happiness a frown is to him as the messenger of death and not to see the Kings face puts him into the shadow of death for he can breath in no other air as Absalom said He could not live unless he saw the Kings face And so David God had hid his face which made him like to them that go down into the pit Man in his Creation as he was wholly of God so he was wholly for him and so it is when the Image
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
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
But here it may be men will wonder that time should be spent amongst us in beating men out of this being under the first Covenant and getting life upon impossible terms to undertake perfectly to keep the Law and to seek justification by works seeing we are neither Jews nor Papists We know we cannot fulfill the Law but that there is iniquity in our holy things and we are so far from resting in our duties that we acknowledge our righteousness is as filthy rags that if God should look upon them as they are he must needs abhor them and us for them and therefore surely there are none amongst us that do so all this labour might be spared for we are so far from desiring it that we disclaim it and abhor it But I answer to this Answer that a man ought to read in other mens practices his own inclination this was a desire in Adam 1 Cor. 15.49 and in his Posterity who do all bear the image of the earthly for as face answers to face in the water so sin is alike in all men and that man perfectly likes an example of sinning in others that does not reflect upon himself and see that there are seeds of it in him that doth not read his own nature in another mans life 2. If there be the seeds of it in thy own heart then though it never should break forth into act yet there is just cause that God should loath thee for it as we do Toads though they hurt us not And indeed the main part of our enmity against God and Gods against us lies in the contrariety of our nature to him Col. 1.21 we are naturally enemies to God in our minds and this is the top of all a godly mans humiliation this is but a part of all that evil treasure that is within Psal 51.7 and there is more in the Ware-house than in the Shop And that Christian is never kindly humbled for any sin if his humiliation ends in the sin it self and ascend not to the fountain that is within him that raging sea that always is casting out mire c. We know that in the Saints there is no lust perfectly mortified in this life Rom. 6.6 for sin dies a crucified death and therefore though in a Saint it be still upon the Cross and dying daily yet it shall never be perfectly destroyed till this corruptible shall put on incorruption The Saints have the seeds of this sin of trusting in themselves in them also and this lust will not lye idle in them the flesh will lust against the spirit Gal. 5.17 and it shews how prone the nature of man is to it and the actings of it because it has shewed it self so in all ages And therefore one being asked why Pelagianism did spring up in all ages answered Because there were Pelagianae fibrae in the hearts of all men So if this be asked you Why this lust of carnal confidence always breaks forth into sinful acts c. you may also answer There are fibrae of it in the heart of all men Therefore if God have kept this lust from acting in thee so much as it has done in others O be thankful for so great a mercy but be careful that thou say not that it is not in thee because God has restrained the lust from acting for then it may be just with God to give a man over to the power of it and he shall see by experience that it 's a mercy to have it restrained seeing he cannot be wholly freed from it in this life It 's a great evil when God preserves men from sin for them to think there is no such danger in it Take heed lest God let out such a lust upon thee that will make thee a mourner all thy days and remember how presumptuous Peter was against his denial of Christ yet how soon he was guilty of it And how apt are Christians for not prizing a preservation from gross sins to walk fearlesly and then God often leaves them to the power of lust and shews them the mercy of his former restraint Indeed all lusts in the heart of man do not act alike some lusts do work directly and press men to sin as that of Whoredom and Drunkenness a man has distinct thoughts about them but there are some that do work indirectly and in a secret way to guide men in their practise and yet never come into distinct thoughts but work as principles that lye low and a man acts in the power of them and yet observe them not as in a Watch every one may observe the wheels that move but every one does not observe the spring from whence their motion proceeds as a Scholar that speaks and writes Latin he does not think of the rules of Grammar every sentence he speaks and yet those rules have an influence into every word and his whole discourse is framed after those rules so there are some sins as Atheism c. a man it may be never says in actual thoughts that there is no God and yet this principle sways with a man and is at the bottom of every sin And so it is with this sin it may not come into actual thoughts that there is Eternal life to be had by our works and we will exclude the righteousness of Christ and yet it may have a very great influence upon the man in his whole course as being a fundamental and mother-sin 1 So far as any man does desire to establish his own righteousness so far he desires to be under a Covenant of Works for justification and life but this is the disposition of every man by nature therefore every man by nature desires to be under the first Covenant still this was the great fruit of it amongst the Jews Rom. 10.3 and the words are very significant Going about to establish their own righteousness i. e. seeking or studying for it as students use to do It signifies to labour for a thing with a mans utmost endeavour even with all his might as Mat. 6.32 After these things do the Gentiles seek and it answers to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.31 Rom. 9.31 They followed after the law of righteousness but they attained it not The law of righteousness is the righteousness of the Law that is justification by it for the righteousness of the Law to be fulfilled in them by their own personal obedience not by faith but by works this they followed after with all their might And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imbecillitatem propriae justitiae denotat denotes the imbecillity of their own righteousness that it could not stand alone but they must set it up and support it and make it stand by their own opinion and presumptions Now you see this all along how men expect acceptation with God for their services Isa 58.1 Wherefore have we fasted and thou regardest not Men do think to be heard for
then from the condemnation of the Law and the sentence of it there is no appeal or redemption CHAP. III. How and whence it is that sin is irritated by the Law Rom. 7.8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence SECT I. How sin takes occasion and is irritated by the Law § 1. WE have seen that to be under the first Covenant though broken is unto every man in a state of nature a desirable thing though formally indeed men desire it not for they will all disclaim it but interpretatively and by consequence they do desire it as Prov. 8. ult it was finis operis though not operantis it was the end of the work Ezek. 8.3 though not of the worker and so men going about to establish their own righteousness and not submitting unto the righteousness of God and being contented to be acted by a spirit of bondage which is the spirit of the first Covenant which doth produce in them fruits answerable to the Covenant under which they stand this is in Gods account and in the censure of the Scripture an argument of an inward desire and contentment to be under this Covenant still Now because men do look upon it as a desirable condition let us examine what this condition is of a man fallen to be under the first Covenant as broken Divines do commonly say that a man that is in Christ is freed from the Law he being dead to the Law and the Law being dead unto him in some respects as was mentioned at first 1 For Irritation the Law hath not this power in men to irritate and exasperate and enrage their lusts by the restraint and the prohibitions of them and so they apply that place Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law That is saith Beza He exhorts them to Sanctification Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies and he does promise them sin shall not raign under the Law only forbidding sinning and thereby provoking and increasing lust but you are under Grace strengthning against sin and healing it and hence it is concluded from several other Scriptures that a man in Christ and under Grace is freed from the Law and irritation of it 2 For Co-action to keep them from sin by force for fear simply of the curse of the Law and to compell them to duty as a task-master against their wills when the Law they hate and the duty that is required of them that they hate and wish there were no Law and look upon it as a yoak and a burden insupportable for as a godly man says of sin so a wicked man says of duty that which I hate that do I. And it requires of him perfect obedience as a task-master he must work brick but gives no straw requires the full tale of duty but gives no strength nor assistance The Apostle says Gal. 5.8 if you be led by the spirit you are not under the Law the spirit that is in you is the spirit of the second Covenant a spirit of Adoption a spirit of liberty a free and a Princely spirit which enables you to perform duties out of an inward principle of love to them and delight in them unto them the yoak is easie and the burden is light for it 's their happiness and honour and meat and drink to do the will of their Heavenly father And so that place I conceive is to be understood 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law was not made for a righteous man that is neither in the restraining act of it or keeping from sin only for fear of the curse because he has an inward principle that lusts against it and as a fountain casts out the mud an inward antipathy a spirit lusting and rising against it that though there were no curse yet he would hate it and endeavour to avoid it nor in the constraining power of it to force to duty only as that which his soul hates and he comes hardly off too in any measure to do that which is required but he has a spirit within the Law written in his heart an inward principle suitable to what the Law requires of him as it is said of Christ in respect of that great Commandment was laid on him Joh. 10.18 This Commandment have I received of my father for of that I think he speaks lo I come to do thy will thy law is in the middle of my bowels I have power to lay it down and to take it up again He had an inward principle that made him ready and willing and chearful in it and in this respect the Law was never made for them as the only principle upon which they should act 3 For condemnation so as to be able to lay upon a man the guilt of his own sin and condemn him for it for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law there is a destroying power in sin and this it has from the condemning power of the Law do but take away the condemning power of the Law and the sting of death that is that power that it has to destroy the soul is gone because the guilt is taken off the sinner Now Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us And so Gal. 5.23 Against such there is no Law It is not spoken against such works but against such persons there is no Law partly because the Law is against none but those that transgress it and partly because those being the fruits of the spirit do argue and clear to a man that his Covenant is changed because he is acted by the spirit of the second Covenant and therefore he may thereby receive an evidence to himself that the condemning power of the Law is not against him any more Rom. 4.6 4 For Justification For blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works That no man is justified by the Law is evident Gal. 2. ult If righteousness be by the law then Christ is dead in vain And from hence I argue that if they that are in Christ and under the second Covenant are freed from the Law in all these respects then all those that are out of Christ are under the Law still in all those respects and therefore every unregenerate man is under the Law as a Covenant of works and under this Covenant he desires to be now the Covenant being broken he is under it for Justification Irritation Coaction and Condemnation Daven de luâ—ut actuali p. 397. which when we have lookt over it will appear that this is no such happy condition that a man should desire it In being freed thus from the Law the main part of a Christians liberty consists yet there is this difference the two last refer unto a person and state and in those his liberty is perfect and he is wholly freed from the Law
produce any such effect but rather the contrary for it doth forbid sin upon the highest penalties it has upon it an impress of the Holiness of God and is contrary to sin in all things being holy and just and good and in its proper causality does work holiness in the hearts of men and a conformity unto the will of God as the rule of Goodness as it appears in the Saints all the grace that they have is nothing else but the Law written in their hearts which is the grand promise of the new Covenant 2 There is causa per accidens an accidental cause when the effect flows not from the nature of the cause but from something else that does by accident cleave to it so the Apostle says knowledge puffs up all true knowledge is humbling and there is nothing that a man can know either of God or himself but it does afford him great ground of abasement and self-denial but yet through the lusts of men sin takes occasion by the knowledge that should humble him to lift him up so fountains are hottest in the Winter and the fire by reason of the cold of the circumstant air not that the Winter does add heat to either by its own nature but by accident and occasionally inclose the one and draw forth the other so the Gospel meeting with the lusts of men who either reject the Gospel or else do turn the grace of God into wantonness thence it becomes the savour of death unto death not of it self nor in its own nature for it is the word of life and salvation so does the Law draw forth sin not of its own nature for it forbids it and curseth it but yet sin takes occasion by the Law and through many things that do adhere and cleave to the man by the Law it does become the more exceeding sinful Let us therefore come unto the proper causes how it comes to pass that sin by the Law which is good should take such an occasion of evil The causes are many 1. One cause of it is lust There are in lust many things from whence it flows but especially these 1 Lust is carried towards its object with earnestness violence and vehemency there is a lifting up of the soul to vanity and the hearts going after covetousness and therefore some render that of Laban when Jacob departed and he saw that the hope of his gain was gone Gen. 31.20 Deut. 29.19 Amos 2.7 Eph. 4.19 Jude 11. that he stole away the heart of Laban And as a godly mans desires are for God and Grace so a wicked mans desires are after sin and he thirsts and pants after it and it is therefore exprest by greediness as we may see it in Shechem Amnon and Ahab after Naboth's Vineyard All these set forth the violence of lust how fully the soul of man is carried after sinful objects and the ground is because sin looks upon sinful objects as the husband of the soul as the chief good and therefore is carried after them modo infinito in an infinite manner as a God therefore they are said to serve mammon and their God is their belly and they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God Rom. 7. and therefore desire them infinitely the sinner is never satisfied but like the barren womb crys give give his desire is as Hell and the Grave it never has enough Now whatever comes in the way as a bar unto that which his soul does so infinitely desire it is no wonder if his heart rise against it with an answerable violence If Naboth come in the way of Ahab's Covetousness his life is little enough to make satisfaction and if any man stand in the way of Haman's honour his life and the life of a whole Nation is but a fit sacrifice to expiate so great an offence Now the Law of God putting a stop upon such vast desires therefore the hearts of men do rise up against the Law in opposition answerable to the desire that sin hath unto the object from which it is stopt by the prohibition of the Law 2 Lusts are proud and do swell the heart and cause it to be lifted up Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his countenance doth not seek after God Obed. 3 The pride of thy heart has deceived thee And this fills the heart with a great deal of obstinacy and stoutness of spirit against God and contempt and scorn of whatever comes in his way to resist it as we see in Pharaoh even against the Lord himself Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice And answerable unto a mans pride and exaltation of spirit such is the rising of his heart against any thing that makes against him and the more full of lust any man is the more the pride of his heart is drawn forth for he is thereby made the more conformable to the Devil who saith I am a God and so do all mens lusts say and therefore the heart is lifted up as a God answerable to the pride of a man such is his impatience 3 Lust is resolute this proceeds from the two former it will go on whatever come of it Ephes 2.3 Hos 9. in despight of all opposition There are wills of the flesh as great resolutions as if there were many wills in one as a wild ass alone by it self i. e. that has neither rider to command it nor bridle to restrain it will venture any-where Jer. 8.7 They go on in their own ways as the horse rushes into the battel Christ warns Judas The son of man goeth indeed as it is written but wo to him by whom the son of man is betrayed it had been good for that man that he had never been born And yet Judas went forth and from that time he sought an opportunity to betray him If the Lord make hedges about a soul yet he will labour to tread down all with the greatest resolution and with the highest contempt as we may see it in Pharaoh after all his plagues yet his heart was hardened that is his will remained obstinate and he resolved not to yield unto God come what will come yea though death to himself and destruction upon his Kingdom did ensue And therefore they say What thou speakest to us in the name of the Lord we will not do Jer. 44.16 but we will do whatever proceeds out of our own mouths And if any thing come in the way to cross them in this resolution men resolve to oppose it see it in Saul 1 Sam. 22.17 Go and kill the Priests of Jehovah which some have made to be the sin against the Holy Ghost and Job 15.26 They do prepare themselves thick-bossed bucklers they resolve to make resistance they harden their hearts and stiffen their necks though the law of God set the sin and the evil before them yet men despise it and fear not the danger let it be of temporal judgment they say
even in all his temptations of the Saints as well as wicked men to touch them Jon. 6.7 Job 5.19 and to leave in them an impression and stamp of his own devilishness and therefore the more men sin against knowledg and with despight and disaffection unto God the more he is pleased with it for as God loves holiness in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes unto conformity to God the more God delights in him so Satan loves sin in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes in conformity unto Satan the more spiritual his wickedness grows and Satan delights to act that man of all other 2 The dearer any thing is unto God the more Satan delights to abuse it unto this end and the more God hath set up any thing against sin the more Satan does endeavour to make that a means to draw men unto sin sometimes he seeks to abuse the Creatures of God and stir up lust by them as when a man looks upon the Sun when it shines and his heart is enticed thereby sometimes he looks upon a Woman and lusts after her sometimes he looks upon the Wine when its colour looks red in the glass and thus the Creatures of God are abused by Satan to draw out the lusts of men and whatever is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the ey and the pride of life 1 Joh. 2.15 16. Sometimes he abuseth the servants of God he will enter into Peter and he shall become a tempter unto Christ that he saith Get thee behind me Satan and the woman that God gave man to be a help she shall by Satan be made a dart and sometimes the Law and the Gospel which specially God has set up as a remedy against sin shall act it and improve it and draw it forth Now God leaving a man under the power and dominion of Satan the God of this world who works effectually in the children of disobedience he is as a conquerour over them and triumphs in this that he has made use of the Law of God and the Gospel of God that is made against sin to increase and ripen it yea even the motions and common works of the Spirit of God the heart of man rising and making head against them are the great means by which Satan draws men to the great transgression even to sin against God with despight and revenge § 3. But here is a question Question Are believers who are engrafted into Christ and come under him as a father as the second Adam that is have their Covenant changed as well as their image are these wholly freed from the law in respect of the irritation of it Rom. 6.14 it is said Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law but under grace Which as has been declared is not to be referred unto a mans justification as being freed from the Law for righteousness and life and from the curse of the law for death and condemnation but it is spoken of a mans Sanctification a man is not under the Law as irritating sin and increasing it but under grace not only pardoning but sanctifying and subduing it and in this respect the dominion and the ruling power of sin is taken away in the godly though the being of it remain The Apostle speakes wholly in this place in reference to a mans state of unregeneracy Vers 5 When we were in the flesh the motions of sin that were by the law c. And he speaks this in reference to his own estate before conversion I was alive without the law once and I had not known sin but by the law nor lust to be a sin and the danger of it but that the Law of God discover'd it unto me and so in my former state Sin took occasion by the Commandment and wrought in me c. The word in the Greek signifies to work a thing throughly and effectually and to work it out Phil. 2.20 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling And Rom. 7.18 To will is present with me but to perform or go through with the work I find not a power to do it And so sin by the Commandment wrought in him effectually or wrought in him which we heard before all manner of Concupiscence all lust was thereby drawn out Hath the law of God no such work upon a regenerate man one that is a believer does not sin in a regenerate man take occasion by the Commandment Is a Believer as perfectly freed from the Law for irritation as he is for condemnation Answer Christ says If the Son make you free you are free indeed and the special part of our liberty with which Christ has made us free is in being freed from the Law as a Covenant Some as Paraeus and others do distinguish thus Liberty from the Law is twofold 1 Perfect in respect of justification and condemnation that their perfect obedience to the Law is no way required for the one neither shall any of the transgressions of the Law be imputed for the other 2 Inchoate which is but begun in the Saints and shall be perfected and so they are delivered from the Law only for irritation and coaction but so long as sin remains in them so long they shall never be perfectly delivered from the Law in either of these But to make this plain and bring it down in the particular branches of it unto the meanest understanding There are many things to be considered which I shall now proceed to lay down to make out this general and received Doctrine that is so commonly delivered by our Divines 1. There are remainders of corruption in the best of the Saints Grace destroys the reigning of sin but not the being of it You read how that Abraham the father of the faithful had his unbelief and Moses the meekest man in his generation had his passion and provocation and spake unadvisedly with his lips David a man after Gods own heart yet he complains of his secret sins and Paul that great Apostle had the law of his members rebelling against the law of his mind 2 Cor. 7.1 There is a filthiness of flesh and spirit that is to be purged out as there is something wanting in their Graces and therefore they have a daily growth in Sanctification so there is something remaining of their corruption which requires a daily growth in their mortification therefore they are compared to the Moon Cant. 6.10 which has some spots in it because not wholly enlightned by the Sun they do defile themselves and therefore had need daily to wash their feet Joh. 17.10 2. These remainders of sin in them as they are promoted by Satan so they give Satan an access unto their spirits and are as the seed for him to work upon they are to him a seminary and so much as Satan has in a man so much power he has over him says Christ
Joh. 14.30 The Prince of this world comes and has nothing in me Joh. 14.30 He came in his instrument Judas and the Pharisees and the high Priest and the Soldiers Satan stirred them up And he has nothing in me that is as some render it nothing of his own when he speaks a lye he speaks of his own Let your conversation be yea and nay for what is more is of the evil one And he hath nothing that is no power and authority over me by reason of sin all mankind is subject unto death and therefore are under the power of him that has the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 2.15 But where there is no sin Satan has no power and therefore they are called the rulers of the darkness of this world Ephes 6.12 He is a Prince of darkness and his power lyes in darkness indeed Interpreters by darkness do understand ungodly and unregenerate men who are called sometimes darkness it self in the abstract Ephes 5.8 You were sometimes darkness but now you are light in the Lord and so Satan is a ruler over the wicked of the world i. e. the darkness of the world but it is sin that is this darkness and gives them this denomination and therefore so much sin as there is in any man so much power the Devil has over him because so much a party of his own he has within him 3. This corruption is in the will of a regenerate man as well as in any other part so that even in the very remainders of sin in the Saints there is an inclination to sin wilfully against knowledgâ— even a tendency to the great transgression the sin against the Holy Ghost and therefore David prays against presumptuous sins in reference unto the great transgression So shall I be innocent Psal 19.13 There was looking on his own corruption a tendency to presumptuous sins and these in their own nature make way for the unpardonable sin I confess a godly man cannot sin unto death 1 Joh. 5.18 Whosoever is born of God keeps himself that the evil one does not touch him He can never touch him with this sin because he is born of God and the seed of God remains in him But though a regenerate man cannot commit this sin against the Holy Ghost nor the seeds and remainders of lust within him be ever so fat improved and blown up by Satan yet there is a tendency in them thereunto as Divines say in the matter of conversion God works the will that is ex nolentibus volentes facit of unwilling makes men willing Tollit Deus resistentiam vincentem Doth God at the same time take away all the unwillingness in a man is not there then a principle that gain says and denies they say there is and something that does resist yet so as it shall never overcome but the Spirit of God and the Almighty Power of God in conversion gets the victory and as it is in perseverance a regenerate man cannot fall away Grace is an immortal seed though not in its own nature so properly for it is a Creature and therefore subject to change and the grace that was in Adam and the Angels though perfect was subject to change much more imperfect grace cannot preserve it self and therefore they say Auferi actum deficiendi sed potentia ad actum non aufertur God takes away the act of failing albeit the power to the act is not taken away There is in the nature of Grace a possibility of decay that shall never be reduced into act but shall be preserved by the power of God and the Spirit of Christ and the unchangeableness of the Covenant of Grace so though a godly man by grace shall be preserved from the sin against the Holy Ghost that he shall never actually fall into it yet the remainders of corruption that are within him have a tendency thereunto and in themselves considered there is a possibility even for a godly man to sin the sin unto death if they were left unto the violence of their lusts and not supported by a supply of the Spirit of Christ 4. Regenerate men may be given up unto spiritual judgments They are left very far unto and under the power of Satan the Saints may be hardned from Gods fear Isa 63.17 Satan may harden them by temptation and God may give them up in judgment thereunto 1 Cor. 5.5 Deliver such a man unto Satan a godly man may be rightly excommunicated and if so that which is bound on earth God will bind in Heaven his sins may be bound upon his Conscience as unpardoned till he does repent and he be as it were under a sequestration for a time of all the benefits comforts and emoluments of the state of Grace and being without left under the power of Satan who would carry him to sin whereby God would afterward awaken his Conscience c. for there are two ways that Satan does ordinarily work upon godly men when they are given over unto him and left in a measure by God in his power either wasting a mans Conscience and bringing a man unto such a hardness of heart and a spirit of slumber that a man lives in a wretched security and neglect of his duty towards God or peace with God and gives himself over to the pleasures of sin and the comforts of the Creatures with a kind of greediness and that for many days and years together as we see it in Solomon who under a spiritual judgment did not with hold his heart from any Creature-comforts or delight whatsoever or else Satan works upon the weakness of a mans spirit and his apprehensions of wrath God writing bitter things against a man and Satan drawing conclusions out of them to draw the man to despair of mercy and to seek his own destruction and so a man may go despairing and disconsolate all his days so that God may give him up to spiritual judgments 5. There being this principle within him and thus left in judgment unto the power of Satan he does strangely raise and improve and draw out this corruption and blow these sparks into a flame As Job 3.1 Then Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth Before under all his afflictions his mouth was full of blessing The Lord gave and the Lord takes blessed be the name of the Lord and shall we receive good things at the hand of God and not evil There is a seed of corruption in those that are most holy which if Satan improve he will draw forth in them very foul acts of enmity to God and contrariety unto themselves as we see in Peter at first his mouth was full of nothing but promises and engagements of adhering to Christ and though all men forsake thee yet will not I but being left into the winnowings of Satan at Satans desire he is first possessed with fear and that grows to a denial of Christ
and that denial increaseth to an oath and that swearing multiplies to cursings and to imprecations upon himself in the highest kind as the word is in the original as if he had wished Mat. 26 74. I would I might never find mercy at the hands of God or come where God hath to do that I might be separated from God eternally and damned body and soul if that I know the man And Isa 57.17 says God For the iniquity of his covetousness I smote him and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart c. Theodosius was an Emperour of a very meek sweet and gracious temper yet a Temptation so far got the head of him that upon an occasion of a Tumult in Thessalonia a servant of his that he had in a special manner respect for being slain he commanded an universal Massacre throughout the City that in a very short space 3000 men were slain by his command and that by a wile being invited to behold a Play for which cause the Emperour himself was by Ambrose kept from the Sacrament It were strange to consider unto what a height even the sins of godly men from the remainders of corruption that is in them may be improved 6. For the improvement of sins in godly men Satan may and commonly does make advantage of the Law of God and the commands and restraints thereof whereby sin will take occasion See it in King Asa the Prophet did prophesie and he put him into Prison because he shewed him his sin and instead of repenting for it he increased it for he was in a rage temptation had got hand over him and by the reproof Satan did stir up his lust And even the Gospel is by Satan turned into wantonness and all the Grace of it yea and all the glorious works of Grace upon a mans heart sin will take occasion from Gods drawing nigh and wax wanton under his love there is not any part of the Law of God or the Works of God or the Providence of God that Satan will not make use of and sin take occasion by to stir up and to improve corruption in a man even those remainders of sin that are in a Saint Quest § 4. If a godly man be under the irritation of the Law as well as a wicked man where then lyes the difference that a man in Christ is said not to be under the Law in this respect The difference lyes in these three things mainly Answ 1. An unregenerate man has no other use of the Law but this all the fruit that he has by it is to improve draw out and increase his sins but a godly man being under another Covenant as he has the Law written in his heart in his regeneration so he has by the Law Grace increased in the continued work of his Sanctification Joh. 17.17 there is in respect of his regenerate part a power of Sanctification and the whole Law of God tends to that end in him and this the Law works in him per se as he is regenerate though it works the other per accidens as far as he is unregenerate Grace receives strength by the Commandment according to the law of the mind as sin does according to the law of the flesh in the one sin is restrained and subdued in the other sin may be restrained but it is increased and as a damm set upon the waters which â—â—â—es them swell the higher 2. Through sin may â—â—â—e occasion by the Law in the regenerate yet this does not constitute sin in dominion it doâ—â— never rise up so high in a regenerate man as to amount unto a compleat raign and dominion as Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you so that a man should obey it in the lusts thereof for in the highest improvement of sin by the Law in the regenerate there is another law in the mind a spirit that lusts against the flesh that a man cannot be given up unto all iniquity it does never work in him all manner of concupiscence as it does in the unregenerate so as to make a man always go on in a presumptuous way of sinning but Grace and the spirit of Grace gives a check to it because a man loves the law of God and its precepts according to his inward man 3. Lastly it does never so far prevail in the regenerate as to bring forth fruit unto death as it does in the unregenerate Rom. 7.5 The motions of sin that were by the law wrought in me to bring forth fruits unto death But as the law is made a servant unto the Gospel so both the precept and the curse of the law is made subservient and subordinate this way for as the remainders of sin in the godly are sprinkled with the blood of Christ so are all the temptations of Satan and the improvements of sin by the law which is unto all unregenerate men a part of the curse of their Covenant sanctified unto the regenerate and are a means to shew them their own vileness and to humble them deeply before the Lord as we see it in Peter and David and to make them hate sin the more and to make them the more watchful over their own hearts and lay the faster hold upon Christ and the Grace offered in the Gospel by faith and to ply the Throne of Grace by constant and daily prayers and the more to long for their adoption and redemption and so this improvement of sin by the law does tend in the end to the further subduing of sin and at last to the utter abolishing of it that so the remainders of sin being wholly done away Satan may stir up sin and sin may take occasion by the Commandment no more And so as other fruits of the curse of the law are blessed and sanctified unto them as their afflictions their temptations and death it self so shall these fruits of the curse be also sanctified unto them and tend to their sanctification and end in the perfection of their holiness at the last So that as death is swallowed up in victory in a mans resurrection so is sin also in a mans perfect sanctification unto which through the Grace of the Gospel sin it self was over-ruled to be a means for as there are two ways of a mans pollution so there are also two means of a mans sanctification there are proper and natural means as Satan and a mans own lusts c. and there are occasional means as the law of God so there are of a mans sanctification the Word and the Spirit and the Ordinances and there are occasions which in their own nature do work no such thing but Grace takes occasion from the one as corruption does from the other the temptations of Satan and the improvement of sin by the law being sprinkled by the blood of Christ shall be as effectual to a mans sanctification as the other being not sprinkled with the blood of Christ
Saints that they are freed from the Coaction of the Law that they are not so under it as unregenerate men are For 1 they do no good by constraint The regenerate man is always ready to obey the will of God he is a man that acts from an inward principle and therein lives above the Law he that is born of God never sins but always obeys God 1 John every thing that the Law commands is pleasant to him and the Commandments of God are not grievous Cant. 3.10 as Christs Chariot in which he comes to us is paved with Love so is our way to Christ paved with Love and hence a man is never weary but the longer a man continues in the ways of God the more he is satisfied with them because where is a suitableness there is no weariness the Sun is not weary with shining nor the fire weary with burning nor are the Angels in Heaven ever weary of beholding God for ever because their happiness is perfected by it nor are the Saints in earth weary of doing the will of their Heavenly Father neither doing-work nor suffering-work to bear Christs Cross is not grievous to them to be reproached for his name's sake is counted all joy they despise the pleasures of sin for a season living in the sure hope of their enjoying rivers of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore CHAP. V. All those that are in Christ are translated from under the first Covenant Col. 1.13 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son or the Son of his Love SECT I. A Scriptural account of this Translation § 1. NOW we come to speak of the last Branch considerable in this Covenant and that is a mans translation out of it Wherein there are four things to be considered 1 That all that are in Christ are translated out of the first Covenant and under it no more 2 The nature and manner of this Translation 3 The abolishing of the first Covenant by a mans translation out of it and the introduction of a second by which the former is made old 4 The subserviency and subordination of this first Covenant in many respects unto the Covenant of Grace as Hagar even then when under the notion of a Covenant it is abolished to Believers The first of these we shall deduce out of these words when we have opened them unto you In the latter part of this Chapter there are mainly two things we are to consider 1 The honour of our Redeemer 2 The manner of our Redemption The honour of our Redeemer is set forth from vers 15 and the manner of our Redemption vers 13 14 and that in many particulars Here we may observe 1 The condition wherein the people of God are before their Conversion 1 They are under the power of darkness 2 They are out of the Kingdom of Gods dear Son 2 Their condition after Conversion They are freed there is deliverence c. and there is translation unto the Kingdom of his Son 1. By nature every man is under the power of darkness even the Elect of God as well as others The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which does properly signifie right and authority over any thing Man did by the first temptation sell himself to the Devil and as it were made a vertual covenant and compact with Satan and as it 's said of Ahab Quod venditur transit in potestatem emptoris He sold himself to work iniquity so it is with all by nature And therefore God in judgment gave man over unto the power of Sin and therein to the dominion of Satan and then Satans godship came in and he became the god of this World and the Prince of the power of the air By darkness is meant in Scripture ignorance sin and misery and of all this darkness Satan is the Prince and has the power he is the ruler of the darkness of this world Ephes 6.12 Condemnandi dominandi This power of darkness is double there is a condemning power and there is a ruling power that makes a man do the works of the Devil and that brings forth fruit unto death Now how comes Satan to have a condemning power the power of death it is by sin and how came sin to have a condemning power it is by the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 that is Heb. 12.14 the Law as a Covenant So that all the power Satan has it is by sin and the power that sin has it is from the Law as a Covenant being broken So that every Elect child of God is by nature under the Law as a Covenant for condemnation and irritation and by this means is under the power of sin and under the dominion of Satan Now a mans deliverance from this is by conquest and by power for it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deliver a man by force and set him free Rom. 7.24 When man had no strength to deliver himself but must have lain and perished under this power for ever yea had not so much as an ability of will to desire deliverance and when all the powers of darkness were put forth to keep a man under and Sin and the Law and Satan did their utmost the strong man armed kept the house then Christ a stronger than he breaks in destroys sin and death and him that had the power of death that is the Devil and by this means the Law has no power Sin has no strength Death has no sting and Satan has no dominion But man being under the power of darkness he is out of the Kingdom of Christ which is a Kingdom of Righteousness and free Justification Rom. 14.17 He is free from this for he is under the power of darkness or condemnation because under the power of the Law and under the dominion of him that has the power of death that is the Devil and Christs Kingdom is a Kingdom of light and holiness but they are under the power of darkness sin having by their Covenant dominion over them and they being by Satan led captive at his will and being acted by the spirit of the power of the air c. But all that are converted are under the Kingdom of Christ as it is a Kingdom of Righteousness for matter of Justification and as it is a Kingdom of Grace for the matter of Sanctification and Life and whoever comes under this Kingdom it is by Translation and they are thereby delivered from the power and the authority of the one as they are translated into the other and the word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does signifie to put a man out of one condition into another and to change a man from his former state in which he was as Luk. 16.4 My master puts me out of the stewardship c. And the Septuagint do use it commonly for transplanting a man out
to the terms of the same Covenant and these are the grounds why the way of Translation must be a way of Union SECT III. What the difference in a mans state before and after his Translation is Q. 3. WHat is the difference in a mans state before and after his translation How is a a mans condition changed from what it was before 1. His state is changed in Gods account and the Lord looks upon him no more as the Son of Adam and as growing upon the old root though God has in his eternal Purpose chosen his elect in Christ and given them to him before the world began yet they are not actually in him according to the rules of the word till they be converted and ingrafted into him and therefore they as well as others are dead in trespasses and sins and are without God and without Christ in the World Rom. 4.16 Gal. 4. But being once converted Abraham is their Father and Sarah is their Mother and they are Children of the bondwoman no more 2. Being in Christ and their Covenant changed they are under the Law and the rigour of it no more For that requires perfect holiness to justification and life in a mans own person Rom. 10.5 Rom. 5.16 17. The righteousness that is of the Law saith This do and thou shalt live And therefore it 's said By the offence of one man death reigned and not only so but it 's also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one offence But now faith is imputed unto a man for righteousness not of him that works but of him that believes in him that justifies the ungodly 3. Before he was under the Curse of the Law and the condemnation of it For the Law says Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book But now Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ there is a Supersedeas for the Curse Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us 4. Before he had right to no promise to no blessing by promise but now he is become an heir of Promise Gal. 4.28 We as Isaac are children of the promise c. There is a double right unto blessings there is a right of providence and of promise a jus politicum a jus evangelicum a publick and evangelick right An unregenerate man may have a right of Providence to Blessings but it is only a man in Christ that has a right of Promise and though he possesseth nothing yet he has a jus haereditarum an hereditary right hereditary to all things All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.22 5. A mans covenant being changed God is reconciled for the Covenant is a Covenant of reconciliation so that the Lord does look on him as an enemy no more A man stands in no relation unto God before his Covenant is changed but as he is Gods creature but when there is a translation out of the first Covenant into the second a man is said to be in God and to dwell in God and God in him God is now Christs Father and our Father his God and our God whereas before they were enemies to God 1 Thes 1 1. Joh. 4.16 2 Cor. 6.16 and God to them 6. A mans Covenant being changed his sufferings and services are accepted as being Christs for Joh. 15.5 it is fruit in him and born by vertue of Union with him that only is accepted of God Gal. 2.20 says Paul Nevertheless not I but Christ liveth in me Hos 14.8 Our sins indeed are our own but all our duties are his because they are done by vertue of Union with him and all that is done by us is tendred unto God as his Rev. 8.3 And as his passive obedience after a sort is said not to be full till all the obedience of the Saints is filled up Col. 1.24 so it may be said of his active obedience also and all our sufferings are Christs Gal. 6.7 Heb. 13.13 7. All things work together for good unto him whose Covenant is changed Rom. 8.28 Whereas to a man under the first Covenant God does watch over him for evil and every thing proves but an execution of the curse of his Covenant his blessings become curses according to the threatning I will curse your blessings his Table is made a snare and the Ordinances of God are cursed to him and he is cursed in every thing that he puts his hand â—nto but to a man in Christ not only all the blessings but even what is in it self a curse is â—lessed to him death is yours as well as life 8. Sin has no condemning power in a man in Christ though it 's true sin remains in him 1 Cor. 3. â—hich is in its own nature damnable that is it does deserve damnation yet it can never infer â—â—mnation it can never bring it upon a man 1 Joh. 5.12 because he that is in Christ is passed from death 〈◊〉 life 9. A man is brought into a state of communion with God for all communion is grounâ—ed on union There can be no communion with God till a man receives the Spirit of God for regenerate and unregenerate men are of another Generation and there is no more a principle of fellowship with God in a man before conversion than there is in a beast to have â—â—llowship with a man natural parts and natural conscience cannot do it if we believe we â—â—ve fellowship with the father and not else 1 Joh. 1.3 10. A man then becomes one with all the Saints and of the same body with them Ephes â— 10 There is a gathering together under one head and being a member of the Church of â—he first-born whose names are written in Heaven for from the head all the members are â—tly formed and bound up in the bundle of the living SECT IV. The APPLICATION Vse 1 1. IF the way of Translation be by Union then labour for Union with Christ and be not satisfied with any thing else Truly the state of Grace does not lie in the change of a mans opinion or the change of his actions simply but in the change of a mans Covenant and his Image and the foundation of both are laid in a mans union this was the Apostles great aim to be found in him Phil. 3.7 8. For as the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine neither can you except you abide in me for without me or separated from me â—ou can do nothing And without this all a mans Religion is worth nothing before God Joh. 15.4 5. Here I will shew what is the ordinary and usual way of Vnion and what a man must or â—an do towards his own Vnion I will not now enter upon the grand controversie about â—ur preparatory works unto Faith and Union which is insisted upon from that Scripture Making ready a
God intending to justifie the ungodly had provided for him a righteousness which is therefore called the righteousness of God and his soul was so taken with this discovery of the Love of God Rom. 1.17 and the Grace of Christ that he saith I felt my self presently new-born and seemed to my self to have entred into Paradise 3. Hence there is wrought in the soul an exclusive resolution to taâ—◠〈◊〉 other way to Life and Salvation but this alone because there is salvation in no other neither is there any other name given under Heaven and therefore he confines all his thoughts and hopes and expectation unto Christ alone and his eye is only upon him he counts all things else as dross he undervalues all duties and performances all hopes and possibilities in nature as things not worthy to be named the same day with the righteousness of Christ and therefore he is desirous to glorifie God in this way of his Son and to submit to the righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 If he had the righteousness of Angels offered to him to be his he would undervalue all for he saith as it is not proportionable to his necessity so it is infinitely short of that righteousness that was discovered unto him 2 Cor. 3.18 He doth behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and therefore he takes up such a resolution as the Lepers did by which our Divines commonly ex◠〈◊〉 If we stay here we perish if we go into the city the famine is there therefore 〈…〉 the Syrians if they save us we shall live 2 King 7.3 4 and if they kill us we â—an but 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 those servants of Benhadad which is another instance used come with ropes about their necks cannot tell whether they shall be saved or hanged but yet they will go because they had heard that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings And as the Prodigal son in the Gospel I will go to my Father for if I continue here â—ere is nothing but death to be expected So says the Soul if I continue in sin there is â—othing but Hell to be expected and if I fly to the merits of duties there is no comâ—ort and peace to be had they all say salvation is not in me therefore to him will I â—ook for with him is mercy and in him is plenteous redemption And this confineâ—ent of thoughts is not easie for in danger the heart of man is in a hurry Psal 38.10 and runs â—o and fro as a Merchant it is tossed to and fro as a Meteor and a man turns every stone and knocks at the door of every creature and is willing to seek help any way â—s we see in Temporal deliverances what a hard matter it is to be confined to God â—one the heart of man will be plodding ways for its own deliverance and cannot stand â—till to see the Salvation of God And as the heart of man seeks out many inventions â—n a way of committing sin so also in getting off the guilt and the burden of sin â—ut after once this discovery is made to the soul it shuts the eyes upon all things else â—nd now he is willing to part with all his own righteousness and duties and possibilities all his former rotten hopes and whatever before was gain to him and which he â—hought should have brought him in glory at the last and to trust perfectly in the â—race revealed in Christ Jesus whom he chuseth to rule and guide him for ever 4. There is put into the soul an instinct after union with Christ and it doth breath â—â—d gasp after him from day to day the desires of his soul and the soundings of his â—wels all of them run out this way that he might know him and be found in him â—â—ving found the pearl of great price Phil. 3. Cant. 5. he can have no peace in himself till he has bought 〈◊〉 and now his heart being thus touched with a Magnetick touch there is mirrh dropt 〈◊〉 at the hole of the door an impression is left upon his soul that it must go after him 〈◊〉 Elisha had upon him when Elijah cast his mantle upon him What have I done to thee â—ow he follows him from Ordinance to Ordinance now he crys for Wisdom now he â—igs for it now in all his duties he drives no more that low trade of satisfying a natural conscience and those poor and low aims of flesh but it is the merchandize of Wisdom trading for Christ in his Ordinances alone Prov. 3.15 now if God offer him a bribe of all the creatures and indeed with this many a false heart goes away satisfied if he may have but a quiet conscience if he may have plenty peace and ease to his flesh yet still this soul who has an instinct after Union says what is all this to me if I go Christless c. His soul makes after him as the stone to the center as that alone which is the fountain of his happiness and the end of his hopes 5. The Soul accepts of Christ upon his own terms and receives him its whole bent Joh. 1.12 and all the faculties of it open to embrace him and he saith Lift up your heads O ye gates that the King of Glory may come in Whereas before his will was desperately shut against him and Christ would have gathered him but he would not now his will is brought off and the man is made willing Rev. 22.17 For the Covenant between Christ and the Soul is a Matrimonial Covenant and Marriage lyes mainly in consent and now the Soul says He shall be my Lord and my God for ever And this consent to him is to take him with all his Offices as a King as well as a Priest and to take him with all his Graces with his Love and Meekness with his Patience Humility Self-denial for the whole train of these Graces come into the Soul with Christ as his attendants with all the relations of God and of his people the meanest Saint he will own as a brother or as a friend he will take Christ with all his inconveniencies with his Cross as well aâ— with his Crown and can truly say I am as willing if the Lord shall call to bear the one as the other as willing to die for him as live with him to suffer with him as to be glorified with him Christ though with reproach with poverty and with disgrace Christ and a prison Christ and a faggot is welcome he is willing to follow him without the gate bearing his reproach and that he might fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ And he can say when they come as good Ignatius did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now I begin to be a Disciple c. Psal 1â— 6. He gives up himself unto him and leaves himself with him The poor leaves himself with thee He gives up himself unto Christ and gives the Lord
creatures because they cannot all expiate it Chrysost and make satisfaction for it These things the power of nature can never discover no though a man hath the letter of the Law but the Spirit of God makes use of these ends that the â—race of the Gospel may be the more glorious and the blood of Christ the more precious â—hich can purge such hellish stains as these and take away that evil that else were impossible 〈◊〉 be done away § 2. The Law is a Judge it has an accusing power as it is a witness against a man Joh. 5.45 Ezek. 22.2 and as a Judiciary power Wilt thou judge them son of man wilt thou judge them So that Miâ—â—sters pronouncing the sentence of the Lord in the Law are said to pass a sentence upâ—â— the actions and states of men he is convinced of all and he is judged of all 1 Cor. 14.24 And therefore â—â—e Apostle argues from the word and the judgment thereof unto God whose word it is and â—â—o shall be our Judge at the last day The Word is a curious discerner Heb. 4.12 As a man that is skillâ— in any Languâ—â—â— and able exactly to judge of the idiome and properties thereof and can â—â—â—cern any absurdity impropriety and incongruity in speech we say he is a Critick and â—â—t which one man may think an elegancy he thinks to be an impropriety so it is with the â—ord of God and the reason is because all things are naked unto that God that Judge with â—â—m in this Law we have to do and therefore when this Word is brought home to the â—â—nscience in a convincing way that the soul cannot deny it it is said to be a receiving of â—â—gement in a mans own heart before that great and dreadful day come Heb. 10.27 Now 〈◊〉 judgment of the Law is seen in these three Particulars 1 It revives sin 2 It conâ—â—â—ns the sinner 3 It does make a man stoop to and own this condemnation and lye â—â—n under it as his portion from which no man no power on earth can acquit 〈◊〉 1. The Law has this use as a Judge to revive sin Rom. 7.9 Rom. 7.9 Here is a double state that â—â—e Apostle mentions that he was in 1 He was alive I could do any duty and I thought â—tept the Law perfectly and also in presumption I thought my self in a good estate Phil. 3.7 and all â—â—y duties I counted gain such as should bring me in gain such as should bring me in great 〈◊〉 comes of glory at the last day and all this while sin was dead it was to me in respect of â—y present sense and sting as a dead thing and I was no more troubled at it nor affected â—â—th it than if there were no such thing sin was in its proper place and therefore seemed â—â—t heavy as Philosophers say That Elements are not heavy in their proper place though in â—â—â—mselves they are so So also whilst the strong man armed keeps the house all that he â—â—ssesses is in peace 2 But here is another state of Paul that is sin revived in the guilt and 〈◊〉 condemning power thereof the Law shewed him that there was a sting yet in it that â—â—â—ld be his ruin if it were not taken out of the way and that though the door was shut yâ—â— sin lay at the door of his Conscience Conscience is a door that will open Gen. 4.7 and being once opened either by the Ministry of the Word or by death and the presence of the Lord sin which now seems to be dead will in the guilt of it break in again What a miserable thing 〈◊〉 it to have such a door-keeper And then I died that is I saw my self to be a dead man Luther and 〈◊〉 a state of death wrath and condemnation and that death was my portion and Hell my â—roper place How was this change wrought that sin was thus revived that was dead when 〈◊〉 â—aul was without the Law and yet was alive when the Commandment came Paul was â—â—rn a Pharisee and therefore never without the Law in the literal sense of it he had the â—â—ter of the Law and he was according to that in the righteousness of the Law blameless â—â—â—t the Commandment came in the life and power in the spiritual sense and in the efficacy thereof set on by the Spirit of Christ making it a servant to the Gospel by this it was that sin was revived For without the Law sin is dead Rom. 5.13 Rom. 5.13 Before the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no Law The meaning is not that men were not esteemed sinners and punished as sinners or that all men were righteous before the Law was â—iven upon Mount Sinai for death as well as sin raigned from Adam till Moses but it must be either understood comparatively in respect of God that is God did not impute it so much or as so great a sin because they sinned against a dimmer light and a darker discovery of the will and mind of God or else which I rather conceive not imputed by their own Consciences they did not lay it unto their own charge as so great and so hainous because the abominable nature thereof was not so clearly discovered and therefore the Law entred that the offence might abound as the light discovers spirits as Index peccati non genitrix the Index of sin not the parent So that though men be sinners Ambros and very great and hainous sinners yet they do not charge themselves with it nor impute it unto themselves neither are they affected with it but walk cheerfully under the burden of it as if it were nothing Satan has by nature in every man a Kingdom and he does there most of all desire a peaceable and a quiet government and therefore he sets up that lust as Prorex and the Vice-roy in the man that is most affected in the soul in which the man takes most satisfaction and contentment that thereby he may keep the whole man in peace and therefore Mat. 12.45 though he go out of the man and be not cast out and does it for a further end going out in some bodily lust yet he walks in some dry places seeking rest and finding none he loves not to be disquieted in his government though he does many times make an improvement of it to bring into the man seven worse spirits And it is strange for a man to consider what a power the Devil has over men in this particular to keep all quiet There is a deceitfulness and a bewitching nature in every sin that a man is hardened by it there be strong holds Heb. 3.13 Isa 28.15 2 Cor. 10.5 strong reasonings for it and there are thick bossed bucklers for resistance Job 15.26 that men may not feel it there is a hardness of heart a feared Conscience there is a custom in sinning and
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
liberty and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word and therefore Jam. 2.8 we are exhorted to fulfill the royal Law and to keep the precepts of the Law and to walk in them The whole Law as to its second Table is fulfilled in this one word Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and for this cause Christ in his first Sermon frees it from its corrupt glosses and interpretation of the Pharisees and restores it unto its spiritual sense because it was to be of a perpetual use in the Church of God and it is so perfect a rule that Christ added no new precept to it but only interpreted and expounded the Law and restored it unto its primitive and original glory 3. Christ has left us an example and he is unto us not only the principle of holiness from whence it is derived Mat. 11.29 Phil. 2.5 but also the pattern to which it is conformed Joh. 13.15 Now the acts of Christ were of two sorts 1 Acts of Office as he was a Mediator by which he merited of God the Father pardon and acceptation for us and so we cannot imitate him but there are 2 acts of Moral obedience which he did as our Mediator and as our Pattern and in these we are to follow Christ unto this day for his whole life was nothing else but a spiritual Commentary upon the Law of God and herein we must be followers of all men as they follow Christ because there is a defect in all mens conformity to the Law but so there was not in Christ Joh. 4.3 4. So far as we come short of it even the best of the Saints we sin for what is sin but a transgression of the Law therefore to the Saints the Law is a rule of obedience or else they should never transgress it and if a man would try and examine his ways he must bring it to the rule for it is a rule for examination Adam was bound to the Law and therefore his least transgression was a sin and we are bound as strictly as Adam was and so far as a justified person comes short of universal obedience unto the whole Law he sins as well as Adam in the state of innocency only in the Gospel by the Mediation of Christ the sin is pardoned Therefore under the Gospel there is no other rule of obedience but the Law of God and every sin is a transgression thereof Christ came into the world to be made a curse for sin but not a cloak for it the Saints are bound to the Law under the danger of committing sin though not under the danger of incurring death and therefore sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression and Christ when he would shew a sin has recourse to the Law and also in all his temptations and so Act. 23.5 some expound that of Paul I wist not brethren that he was the high Priest because it is written Thou shalt not curse the ruler of thy people c. 5. The Law hath all the properties of a rule 1 It is recta right the Law of the Lord is holy and perfect Psal 19. 2 Nota known it is promulgated and made known in the authority of God himself I have written to them the great things of my Law and they have counted it a strange thing 3 Adaequata answerable unto the thing to be measured by it and so is this Law spiritual Rom. 7. and gives laws to the spirits of men and to their words and their actions there is no case can fall out that there is not a rule to be found for it in the word Psal 119.96 were our eyes opened to behold the wonders that are there I have seen an end of all perfections but thy law is exceeding broad In all the laws of men we can look beyond them but there is a latitude here Psal 119. that we cannot reach it was to David his counseller and it is such a counseller that you cannot put that case to it that it cannot resolve and fully clear if thou give ear unto it when thou walkest by the way it shall lead thee and when thou risest up it shall walk with thee as a friend and counseller 6. That is the rule of obedience to a man in this life by which God will judge him in the life to come and according to which he will reward him Rom. 2. They that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the Law as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse Joh. 12. There is one that judges you even Moses in whom you trust And Paul says The Lord will judge men according to my Gospel And the greater Grace there is rejected the greater shall their judgement be but the curse that is executed upon wicked men in Hell is the curse of the Law which the Lord Christ did undergo for those that are his and the reward both here and hereafter is very great in keeping of them there is great reward in this life the fruit is unto holiness and in the end everlasting life And though the Law be to all unregenerate men a Covenant of Works and a curse of the same Covenant made with Adam yet this is made a handmaid unto the Gospel and is the only rule of all Gospel or new obedience the strength to perform it is from the Gospel but the duties to be performed are from the Law the ability to walk is from the Gospel but the way in which we must walk is the way of the Lords precepts Objections answered § 3. There are some Objections against this that are necessary to be cleared not that I desire to enter upon a Controversie or a Polemical discourse but because it will help us to understand many Scriptures and so happily free us from many snares in which men are sometimes taken Object 1 Mat. 11.13 Luk. 16.16 It is said That the Law and the Prophets were till John since the Kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it therefore the Law was to last no longer and is not therefore as you say to be preached as a servant unto the Gospel because its service and its prophecie is ended for in John Baptists time it did expire it lasted so long and no longer Answ 1. It cannot be the meaning that the Law and the Prophets were to cease Luc. 16.17 and to be wholly abolished for Christ immediately confirms them and says Heaven and earth shall sooner pass away than a tittle of the Law shall pass which words are added as Interpreters generally observe to prevent that objection against or misinterpretation of this Doctrine of Christ the Law and the Prophets were till John but yet mistake me not as if I would be understood acsi post haec lex in ecclesia exauctoratae esset as if henceforward the Law should be abrogated Cartwr for Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass than
the Law which is a glass to discover sin and a rule to guide in duty to the end of the world and there will be use of this rule without as long as Heaven and Earth shall last and this frame of Heaven and Earth shall continue till the image of God be perfectly renewed in all the Saints and the law written perfectly in their hearts and they are a law fully unto themselves and so can live above the law and can live upon the law till then you will need the law without and so long this law shall continue and be of use in the Church of God 2. The meaning therefore is that the state of the Old Testament which is here called the Law and the Prophets that is that manner of discovering of the mind of God unto his people which was in the Law and the Prophets that was unto John that is by speaking of Christ to come and promising a higher and a greater light and a greater measure of the spirit in after times but yet it was not accomplished but in 1 Pet. 1.12 To them it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things that are now reported to us to whom the Gospel is preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into So that the state of the Church of God under the Old Testament and the manner of revelation of the mind of God and that measure of dispensation of the Spirit of God and not the Typical part only as some would have it is here meant So that the Ceremonial Law and the Prophets did but speak of Christ to come and did vanish in John's time the Substance being come the Shadows must fly away but also all that manner of dispensation being more obscure and less spiritual and less powerful all that did end because the Law and the Prophets did but speak of Christ to come but John of Christ already come Behold the lamb of God c. so much that word in the Original signifies 3. At the coming of Christ the Law and the Prophets were as it were taken away not by abrogation but by way of excellency as when the Sun rises the Stars disappear and are darkned and all mens eyes gaze on the Sun This is a new and a higher and more glorious way of discovery 2 Cor. 3.10 That which was glorious had no glory in respect of the glory that excelled because now Christ was manifested to be more fully that which he was stiled to be before Dan. 8.13 the word Palmoni signifies the wonderful numberer of secrets or as Junius and Glass what has innumerable secrets And there are divers such names given unto Christ in the Scripture his name shall be called Wonderful Counseller to set forth his nature and his actions Prov. 30.1 Ithiel and Vcal c. The Angel Dan. 9. prays unto Christ to discover unto him how long the Vision concerning the daily Sacrifice and the desolation of the Sanctuary shall be for as Christ is the head of the Angels so he is the teacher of the Angels also and the secrets of the Counsels of God he knows and he reveals them unto the Angels in answer to their prayers Rev. 5. Now there being a fuller and a more glorious way of revelation and a fuller dispensation of Grace the state of the Old Testament under the Law and the Prophets is to be done away not by way of Abrogation but by way of Excellency and so these Scriptures also I conceive are to be understood They shall say no more The Lord lives that brought up his people out of the land of Egypt Jer. 2.3 c. Not that this mercy should be wholly forgotten but as it were darkned and obscured by a greater mercy and a more glorious deliverance and that place also They shall no more teach one another saying Know the Lord for they shall be all taught of God from the greatest unto the least that is there shall be a more full and glorious way of discovery that in comparison of that abundance of light when the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the fulness of Grace vvhen the vveak shall be as David there shall be no need of those former vvays of instructions but they shall have their teaching more immediately from the Lord and so that place There shall be no more need of the light of the Sun and of the Moon there shall be a fuller and more glorious light there shall novv seem to be no need of these former vvays of instruction by them and also that place they shall see his face Rev. 22.4 not that men shall have the Beatifical vision here but that there shall be a fuller manifestation of God insomuch that in comparison of what it was before it shall be even as seeing his face in glory as there shall be no more death no more sorrow no more crying not that absolutely there shall be no more for while there shall be sin there will be cause of sorrow and there shall be death till the Resurrection when the change of them that are found alive at the Lords coming shall be to them instead of death death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed immediately before the giving up of the Kingdom of Christ unto the Father but the peace and prosperity of the Church shall be such all the former persecuting Monarchies being destroyed that there shall be in comparison of what there was in former times no more death nor sorrow nor crying under persecutions and groaning and mourning under the cruelties of men no more And thus you see for all this the Law and the Prophets continue till Heaven and Earth be no more Object 2 But it is said in this Text Gal. 3.19 that this subserviency of the Law was but to last till the seed should come unto whom the promise was made and afterwards be given in the hand of a Mediator Vers 16. But till then and that seed is said to be Christ and therefore now Christ being come who is that seed this subserviency of the Law is ended for till then it was to last and no longer Answ 1. Some would seem to understand this only of the Ceremonial Law which they say is afterwards said to be a School-master to bring men unto Christ and so Beza seems to carry it namely that the School-master is only the Ceremonial Law which I conceive our former whole discourse of the use of the Moral Law in this great work of bringing a soul to Christ by discovering of sin and restraining sin and shewing a man the way of Gospel-obedience hath fully rectified but if we consider what is said vers 12 13. this will be clearly manifested for he speaks of that Law that saith He that doth them shall live in them and of that Law that saith Cursed is every one that continues not
in all things written in the book of the Law to do them which cannot be meant of the Ceremonial Law but of the Moral Law and therefore if this Interpretation could stand the answer were easie that the subserviency of the Ceremonial Law was to end when the seed came and yet the Moral the copy of the first Covenant was still to remain and might be a servant to the Gospel and Gospel-ends but it must be understood of the Moral and that was the Law that was added till the seed came 2. Some by the Law understand the whole Pedagogy of Moses in the Ceremonial Judicial and Moral Law and so Beza and Pareus that way of discovering of the mind of God under the time of the Law which was to last only till the coming of Christ the promised seed and all these were added because of transgression that the Jews might thereby be stirred up to long for Christ to come and to pray and wait for the consolation of Israel being shut up under the Law and this darker and obscurer and less spiritual administration till Faith should come that is the dispensation of the Gospel which was afterward to be revealed as it is ver 23. for though the Saints were heirs of the Promises yet they were during that administration as it were under the morning twi-light the Sun not being yet risen as Beza has it and so by the Law he understands the same that before we understood in the continuance of the Law and the Prophets untill John and makes the sense of the words to be the same 3. Some do conceive the seed to be meant primarily indeed of Christ personal but yet in the second place of Christ Mystical Christ with the whole body of Christ and the Church the promise being made unto Christ primarily being primus foederatus the second Adam and the Head and Prince of the Covenant yet so that as the first Covenant was not made with the first Adam in his person only but together with him with all his posterity in him so the Covenant is first made with Christ the second Adam but yet not with him apart from his body but with them in him and so they understand the seed to be not only Christ in himself though he be primarily meant but also Christ in his body all the faithful and then the meaning seems to be this that so long as there are any of this seed to come or to be brought into the body of Christ and to be continued and kept there so long there will be this use of the Law Reinolds the use of the Law as given for the Seed discovering sin restraining it and condemning it that they may with the greater earnestness fly to the city of refuge And as for those places Rom. 6.14 and Rom. 7. it is spoken of Adam as under the Law as a Covenant and as a Husband irritating strengthning and stirring up sin in us sin taking occasion by the Commandment for so he saith Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law as a husband stirring up sin in you and thereby bringing forth fruit unto death but under grace as pardoning and so healing corruption and subduing sin and breaking the power thereof and so you are not under the Law provoking sin and strengthning it but under Grace healing sanctifying and subduing it Gal. 5.18 As many as are led by the Spirit are not under the law irritating sin and forcibly compelling unto duty Thus a man may be freed from the Law in these evil effects of it which are but fruits of the Curse even upon the Law of God it self accidentally as it meets with a corrupt nature and yet the Law remain unto those good ends for which it was given in the hand of a Mediator for our Salvation and to advance the Grace of the Gospel Vse 1 § 4. First then it is for Instruction in several particulars 1. It shews us the great end of God in publishing the Law it was for the Saints and for their good only The Law was published by Christ he was the Law-giver of him Moses received lively Oracles Act. 7. and Heb. 12. the end and giving of the Law was in reference unto the seed to whom the promise was made As there is a double end of the Gospel so there is of the Law 1 That which was intended principally and by it self and that only was Salvation both in the Law and in the Gospel to advance the ends of the Gospel 2 There is an accidental end Intentio principalis per se that which follows not from the nature of the thing but from the evil disposition of the subject and so unto all unregenerate men the Law doth discover their sins and make them out of measure sinful doth irritate and stir up their corruptions and so doth heighten and increase them and their condemnation for them as the Gospel doth but yet we may say of the Law as Christ does of himself That he came not into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved yet by accident he did condemn the world being despised and set for the falling as well as the rising of many in Israel but the proper and principal intent of his coming was salvation and not damnation so here I may say of the Law as it 's said of Christ had there not been some souls that Christ did intend to life he had never come into the world so had there not been a seed unto whom the Law vvas to be a servant the Lord had never given the Lavv never renevved it for there vvas condemnation enough in the vvorld before and death enough before and the vvrath of God did abound upon men the Gospel brings it not upon them but leaves them under it neither vvas it Gods intention in the Lavv to bring them under further condemnation though it does through their corruption prove so but had it not been for the seed the Lavv had never been added as a handmaid to the Gospel so that all the use of the Lavv and the discoveries of it to unregenerate men they do ovve to the Saints for it vvas for their sakes only that Christ did reveal it again to the vvorld 2. See the folly of those that cry dovvn the preaching of the Lavv it vvas published by Christ the foundation of the Gospel and the only Gospel Preacher the great Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gloss and Jerome do expound the vvord Isa 41.27 and yet the Lavv is dispensed unto the seed by and in the hand of this Mediator he that loved this seed so that he laid dovvn his life for it abased his glory and veiled his Godhead yet he did as a fruit of his love unto this seed deliver the Lavv unto them and in the days of his flesh interpreted it and vvill you slight his Love vvill you say it is
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
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
judgement he went down to the grave as a guilty person but yet says Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hell under the power of death but wilt shew me the path of life 4 Of Justification He is near that justifies me he was justified in the spirit as he died as a publick person under our sins so he rose and when he arose he was justified and declared to be accepted by the Lord. 5 A promise of success Isa 53.10 The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand and by his knowledge he shall justifie many He shall build his Church the stone hewed out without hands and shall break the Mountains and the Images to pieces Zach. 6.12 he shall build the Temple of the Lord. 6 Of a seed He shall see his seed the word in Hebrew signifies a successive generation as the Stars of Heaven or the sand on the sea shore 7 Of glory Phil. 2.10 Heb. 2.7 He has a name above every name crowned with glory and honour and made the head over all things Eph. 1.20 21. and sits down at the right hand of God in glory 8 Of Victory The Lord will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong He shall lead captivity captive Psal 110.1 1 Cor. 15.25 and shall raign till he has put all his enemies under his feet 9 Of a Kingdom and Government Joh. 5.22 Rev. 11.17 10 Of Worship Heb. 1.6 Phil. 2.10 Every knee shall bow to him And all these Promises the Lord confirmed by Oath to him There is a twofold Oath there is not only an Oath that God has sworn to us that we may have consolation but unto Christ also for he was made a Priest by an Oath Heb. 7.21 so that this Oath was in reference unto this great undertaking of the Priesthood 1 Christ does accept this Office that he may be the Fathers servant in it and he does promise obedience unto his Fathers will he did not glorifie himself in it Heb. 5.1 Joh. 10.18 Psal 4.7 8. Heb. 10.7 That all men may know that I love the Father 2 According to this Covenant he is careful to perform all as God the Fathers servant in all his Government in the world and to let no part of the will of God be undone 3 Upon all these Promises he does exercise faith for their accomplishment He is near that justifies me Joh. 12.49 and so when upon the Cross he crys out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why is God called the God of Christ but by Covenant he takes a new Covenant-right unto God for us 4 Answerable unto this Covenant Christ doth follow God with Prayers that he may have the glory and the victory that the Lord promised him and that in the Covenant was made over to him before the World was Joh. 17.4 5. and that he might have all the glory that he now has in Heaven Phil. 2.4 Being sat down at the right hand of God where he is exalted by Covenant and is in constant expectation when his enemies shall be made his footstool and the Lord will never cease shaking and working in the World till the whole Covenant between God and Christ be fulfilled and the Mystery of God finished The Covenant of Grace is in the New Testament commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which does signifie both a Covenant and a Testament and it 's so commonly translated if we look upon it as a Covenant so Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sponsor or surety Heb. 7.22 and if we consider it as a Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.2 so Christ is appointed heir of all things of all the Promises in the behalf of his people that they are made first to him and to us in him 1. We shall consider Christ in this Covenant as the Surety and this very consideration of him as a Surety implys and concludes a Covenant The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the Learned derived from striking or taking hands one with another as the manner was in making of Covenants in time past and to strike hands is an expression of a Covenant Prov. 22.26 Be not thou one of them that strike hands Prov. 6.1 2. If thou be surety for thy friend if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger thou art insnared with the words of thy mouth 2 Chron. 8. Prov. 11.22 Amicitiae soederis pactionem denotat And so it is said Though hand join in hand yet the wicked shall not go unpunished And therefore the Lord Christ by becoming a Surety did give his hand that is he did enter into Covenant with the Lord and so his name is put into our bond Gal. 4.4 5. he is said to be made under the Law and that as a Covenant and when the Apostle saith He is the Surety of a better Covenant whereas the main of Christs Suretiship refers unto the first Covenant the Covenant of Works broken and therefore in respect of our debt he is the Surety of the first Covenant yet the Apostle does not so express it but of the better Covenant because the commutation of the Person the bringing in of a Surety does properly belong unto the Covenant of Grace and it is a part of the Covenant of Grace that there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Propitiation one to stand in our stead or to make satisfaction to the Justice of God for the breach of the Covenant of Works and therefore the whole Suretiship of Christ doth refer unto the Covenant of Grace of which his standing in our stead and paying our debt is a principal part 2. God is said in Scripture to be the God of Christ and Christ calls him not only his Father Mat. 26. but his God also My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He shall cry unto me Thou art my Father and my God Now one Person cannot be said to be the God of another the Father is not the God of the Son but the Father for the Godhead is equal in them both and the Son thinks it no robbery so to be therefore as he is the Son Joh. 20.17 the Father cannot be called his God but as he is Mediator and so that grand Promise I will be thy God is made to Christ as well as unto us Now how comes it to pass that God is the God of Christ it is by Donation and Stipulation the Lord bestows himself upon him and he doth accept of him to be his God in Covenant and so though as he is the second Person God is his Father yet as he is the Mediator and he comes into Covenant with him so he is his God and it is a new Covenant-right to God that Christ has taken as Mediator 3. We have a Seal set unto this Covenant made with Christ Sacraments are sealing Ordinances Rom. 4.11 and the great end of
Baptism is sealing He received the sign of Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of Faith a seal of the righteousness which was his by Faith and he is accepted of God thereby and what Abraham had by Circumcision the Saints have by Baptism Col 2.11 12. Mat. 3.16 Now the most illustrious sealing of all other was in the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus when he was baptized went straightway out of the water c. never any Ordinance was graced with such a Presence the whole Trinity appeared in the work and what was all this for but to make way for that great sealing which was grounded upon the Covenant between the Father and the Son This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So that in this the Covenant between the Father and the Son was visibly sealed Gods acceptation of him and of all the Saints in him 4. The Scripture doth hold forth this Covenant unto us in the terms of it Christ doth publish his commission unto the world Isa 49.1 2. how the Lord had called and fitted him from the womb made his mouth as a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand he hid me and made me a polished shaft and said Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified And what is the service that the Lord called him to to bring Jacob to him But then the Lord having undertaken the work and seeing how few of the Jews should be converted he seems to complain I have laboured in vain but yet he comforts himself it was for God he did work and his reward was with him Now the Lord does inlarge his grant not only to raise the tribe of Jacob but also to be for salvation to the ends of the earth I will give thee for a Covenant to the people to establish the earth and to cause them to inherit the desolate habitation Isa 49. We have in this Chapter related the very arguments that were between him and his Father who said of him Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified 2dly Why must such a Covenant pass between the Father and the Son in such a solemn manner The Lord will deal with Christ in this great work in a Covenant way 1. Because he will have Christ to be propounded unto the World as the second Adam For God did intend to bring all the elect under one head that as the offence was by one so the free gift by grace might also be so Rom. 5. God did intend that all man-kind should come under a double head and so be presented unto him in the last Judgment the first and second Adam and therefore the Lord speaks as if there were but two men in the World the first Adam 1 Cor. 15.47 and the second and the first Adam must be the Type of him that was to come therefore as the first Adam had a Covenant made with him and an Image stampt upon him for himself and for all his posterity so must the second Adam also have and therefore he must be the second Adam by Covenant made with him as a publick person and as a representative head for all his posterity that seed and generation that should be born of him 2. That he might thereby advance the free grace of the Father and of the Son 1. The free grace of the Father is much exalted by it in two things 1 In the motion of it it came first from him his taking of us actually into Covenant is a part of the purchase of Christ and he hath bought the Souls of the Elect it is the price of his blood and it is because he dyed that he doth not abide alone but the taking of Christ into Covenant it did not come first from Christ but the motion was the Fathers the Son can do nothing of himself I came not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me 2. Joh 5.19 In his accepting a Covenant it was free with him to make it and therefore the obedience of Christ was free with him to accept if Christ had offered himself and had laid down his life it is true it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that God in Justice could expect and it was a price sufficient for all that ever Christ did purchase yet there is grace in the bowels of all this because it was free with the Lord to accept of the righteousness of another to become ours This gracious acceptation and imputation the Lord doth shew forth abundantly in the Covenant made with Christ himself for being a Covenant it must be free 2. It doth also exceedingly advance the Grace of the Son in this That Christ being God equal with the Father having a perfect dominion over his own actions and being Lord of his own life having a power to lay down his life as he saith No man takes it from me but I lay it down John 10.18 That he should freely and voluntarily bind himself in a Covenant in this manner to abase himself to stand in our stead to bear our sins and to be under a Curse for us and to consent unto this cheerfully and willingly as a thing in which he is pleased and delighted to shew forth therein the love of his Father and to his people and to undertake all of it Heb. 9.10 and to bind himself thereunto by his own voluntary consent who otherwise was not could not be bound For there is this difference between the Covenant of the first and the second Adam the first Adam was bound to obey by a bond of creation and he was bound to be subject but the second Adam was not so he was perfectly free and yet he is willing by Covenant to be bound And the Lord herein dealt as Aelian hath a Story of Zaleucus a Ruler in the City Locris who had made a Law against Adultery that it should be punished with the loss of both eyes and his son was afterwards accused and condemned of the same offence and the whole City in honour to his Father became Suitors unto him to spare his Son but the story says he did first put out one of his own eyes and afterwards one of his Sons and thereby satisfied the Law And so between a just legislator and a merciful father he divided himself Had the Lord so dealt with us and laid part of the punishment upon us and part upon Christ we had been undone but Christ undertook all for us to pour out his soul to death Isa 53. last and bear the sins of many being that to which he was not bound and that which he could not have been forced to and yet to make himself by Covenant a debter it exalts free Grace nothing more 3. The Lords intention was in the whole work of Redemption to deal with Christ in a judicial way as he is the judge of all the World that he may have his justice satisfied Rom. 3.25 He doth all to declare
Covenant only upon his account thou art by sin cut off from God the fountain of all blessings and thou must receive nothing from him immediately but in the hand of a Mediator It is as a King gives some great thing to a stranger at the request of a Favorite the man can only look upon himself as one that hath received his favour â—ut it is not for his own sake but for anothers my person is not accepted as in my self but in him nor my duties but as in him if God speak to us it is by him and if we speak to God it is by him so that we have nothing to do with God immediately nor receive any thing from him immediately but it is through the Angels hand the Angel of his presence and it belongs to us only by Union the debt iâ— paid in him and our duty performed in him Here is nothing but matter of self-denial and abasement for us and we have a continual need for there is a proneness in all men being brought unto God to be too forward to câ—me unto him in their own names and not to exercise thoughts of Faith upon their Priest by whom they have access to God as they should do and there is no way to keep the Soul humble more than this * Tota vita nostra tentatio est ab insidiante superbiâ nec ipsa tuta est victoria Ambros Ephes 7.3 12. 3 It is of great use for a man to know his place and station for his consolation 1 In this that it being the Covenant made with Christ a man comes under Christs Covenant which is a better Covenant than that which Adam had given him or of the Angels themselves he now stands under the same Covenant that Christ himself is under as Mediator 2 It is of great consolation in this that whatever is required in the Covenant he is the surety so that the Lord hath laid help upon one that is mighty and it is primarily required of him and of us in him as he hath undertaken for us therefore though we want ability yet there is strength in him and he is ingaged to dispense it there is no worthiness in us but there is enough in him and he is ingaged by Covenant to present it to his Father for all the duties of the Covenant are required first of him and all the promises of the Covenant are dispensed first unto him Vse 2 § 2. The second Use is of Exhortation If the Covenant of Grace be made with Christ then if you would have an interest in Christs Covenant you must become one with him Thou art bound unto God by a double bond of creation and stipulation and that Covenant under which thou art by nature makes thee one with the first Adam and that bond of the Covenant hath held the Devil in chains of darkness which none can loose but he that loosed the pains of death he can loose the chains of darkness the curse and bond of the Covenant and that is by a translation into a better Covenant which is only by Union And to allure you and speak to your hearts consider the glories of that Covenant that was made with Christ into which I desire you to be translated 1 In this Covenant the Lord shall be thy God as he is Christs God and thy Father as he is Christs Father 2 Thou shalt be freed from the dominion of the Law The law has dominion over a man whilst he lives but saith Paul I through the law am dead to the law all that is good in the Law thou shalt have but all that is evil and hurtful thou shalt be freed from 3 From the guilt and dominion of sin from the guilt of sin for here is a righteousness without works in this Covenant God justifies the ungodly and from the dominion of sin Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over thee 4 By this Covenant the Spirit is given in all the gifts and graces of it 2 Cor. 3.6 5 By this Covenant the Angels are your servants and all the creatures are yours 6 By this Covenant the World stands and the government of the World is changed Isa 49.8 He has committed all government to the son John 5.22 a Kingdom he hath received from his Father and there is yet a further addition to his dominion that he is to receive when all the persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down Dan. 7.14 and when the residue of the Gentiles shall come in Isa 66.19 Pul Lud and they that have not heard of his name shall come unto him for the coming in of the Jews shall be a new resurrection even life from the dead If this be so that the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ as the second Adam then there are not two Covenants one made with Christ and another with the Saints but as they make up one body with him so it is one and the same Covenant under which they both stand only in this Covenant Christ hath the preeminence he being the head and we the members and therefore it is made with him primarily and with us as in him so that without an interest in him we have no title to it 1. Consider that Christ is not alone in this Covenant it was not a Covenant made with him for himself but as a common person a representative head a second Adam that thereby he might become an everlasting Father to all the elect of God but the Covenant was made with him for your sake and that you might come under it as you were under the Covenant of the first Adam And therefore the Lord is said to give him as a Covenant to the Nations Isa 42.6 and chap. 49.8 The Covenant was not therefore made with him for himself Isa 42.6 and 49.8 but for our sake It 's questioned amongst Interpreters Why Christ is called the Covenant it self and not the person with whom it is made I find in Scripture that when the Lord would express any thing eminently he doth it in abstracto in the abstract Psal 12.2 that being put for the concrete with a commutation also of the subject the faithful fail it is fidelitates from the sons of men So Psal 68.19 He shall lead captivity captive that is a multitude captives And Ezek. 44.6 Thou shalt say unto the rebellion that is Jer. 50.31 to the rebellious house c. Pride is put for the person that was eminently proud So when the Lord would express the eminent and great hand that Christ hath in the Covenant of Grace he doth say he is the Covenant it self as he is said to be our righteousness our sanctification our reconciliation and our peace because these are gloriously wrought by him and he hath the chief and only hand in them and so he is here said to be the Covenant and that in two respects 1 Because the Covenant is made with him in himself and for his own sake
obedience the condition foederis praestiti Jer. 7.12 Jer. 11.5 They must obey that God may perform Esay 54.9 10. Jer. 32.40 and how many temporal afflictions were inflicted on them And so I may say to any soul that keeps Covenant with God thy sufferings will say to thee cavendae tempestates flenda naufragia Austin de Nat. Grat. cap. 35. And thus we should take heed of keeping the Covenant or else though the Lord continue faithful in reference to the promises of eternity because Christ is the surety yet in regard of temporal promises you may go without them and many of them never be performed unto you But you will say may a man that is in the Covenant of Grace break the Covenant may the Covenant of Grace be broken as the Covenant of Works was If it may not be broken to what end do you exhort us to keep it It 's true that the Covenant of Grace cannot be broken a man that is once in Covenant is ever in Covenant and the grounds of it are these 1. The Love of God that made the Covenant is an everlasting Love and therefore the Covenant it self is every where called an everlasting Covenant and the Lord saith If you can bring another flood upon the Earth and if you can stop the Sun in his course and change the Ordinances of Heaven then the Covenant might be broken that he had made with his people Therefore Rom. 8. the Apostle saies that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord for the Lord loves us with an everlasting Love 2. It is a Covenant made with the persons of men mens persons are first taken into Covenant and there is this difference between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works in the later Covenant the works were taken into Covenant first and then the person for the works sake and so long as their works continued holy so long their persons were to be accepted and find favour and honour with the Lord Gen. 4.7 If thou doest well there is an elevation and a lifting up of the face but if thou dost evil cursed is thy person for thy works sake and there is an ira redundans in personam wrath falling on the person that doth immediately follow thereupon but now in the Covenant of Grace it is quite contrary mens persons are first taken into Covenant and accepted and then their works for their persons sake the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering and therefore till the person be in Covenant the works are abominable before God Now the works of the Saints may not always be accepted of God he may be and is often displeased with the acts of his covenant-people but yet their persons alwayes find acceptance with him their persons are the same I will visit their offences with a rod and their sins with scourges but my loving kindness I will not take from their persons my Covenant I will not break Psal 89. there is an ira simplex simple anger that doth reach to the sin but not to the person he is never a child of wrath more after his person is taken into a state of adoption with the Lord. 3. Their union with Christ is that which puts them into the second Covenant Gal. 3.29 as this union gives them interest in Christs righteousness and Sonship so it doth first state them in the Covenant which is the ground of all the rest the intendment of God was that the union between Christ and them should be the means to convey all this to their souls all comes in by Union Now so long as the Union between Christ and a soul continues so long the Covenant cannot be broken but this Union is indissoluble sin cannot nay death cannot separate between God and a soul in Covenant with him and therefore as they live so they dye in the Lord and sleep in Jesus 4. The righteousness of this Covenant is an everlasting righteousness Dan. 9. The Lord hath finished transgression and made an end of sin in the great condemning power of it and brought in everlasting righteousness such as sin could never spend for he is the son of righteousness the Lord of righteousness and therefore his Covenant can never be broken seeing the righteousness of the Covenant can never be expended 5. Christ is the surety of this better Covenant and therefore though we pay not the debt that we owe he hath undertaken it and the Lord will expect all of him and thence he is said to lay help on one that is mighty Psal 89. he will take your words no more but Christ is able to pay it as he did the debt of the first Covenant so he is able to perform the duty of the second the Lord hath ingaged him in it and he expects all from him as from the surety of the Covenant which he hath undertaken 6. Lastly This Covenant can never be broken because there is an everlasting principle of Grace begun in the Soul that doth always lay hold of the Covenant and cleave to it and consent to it and work towards it for it is incorruptible and immortal seed and therefore Jer. 32.40 This is the Covenant I will make with you I will write my law in your heart c. that you shall never depart from me In a Married condition there may be many failings in a Wife or a Husband as neglect disobedience c. but the Marriage Covenant is never broken till she take another Husband and the Covenant of Grace is a Marriage Covenant Now though there be many errors and failings in a Wife yet unless thou chuse another Husband and subject thy self to another Lord the Covenant between God and thee is not broken It is a matter of wonderful consolation that the Covenant between us and the Lord is a Covenant of salt that the sins of the people of God though they be many yet they cannot break the Covenant How should the consideration of this rich Grace and Mercy make the Saints triumph over Death and Hell O death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory blessed be God we are more than Conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord. But yet you had need be exhorted not to break this Covenant 1. By reason of the falseness of our own hearts Jer. 2.24 for we are like a wild Asse in the wilderness that doth traverse her paths that no hedges or fetters can hold her in so much that the Lord speaks it with admiration How weak is thy heart Ezek. 16.30 That it 's not able to hold out against any temptation not able to bear any one affliction but immediately it 's ready to depart from God Gen. 49.4 unstable as water there is a treachery and a perfidiousness of spirit in the best of us and therefore we had need be often called upon Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall and let us take
his wisdom and industry could not find out And what is that secret of the Covenant The Covenant is the secret and it is with them that he may make it known unto them therefore there is a mysterie in the dutys of the Covenant that is not revealed unto all but it is unto them that fear him and the Lord will do it suitably unto our frame as our grace comes in by constant supplies of the Spirit of God so doth our knowledge also and all by a daily increase of light from the Spirit and this is by a frequent repetition of the same act of faith and therefore the people of God love to repeat it and thereby they see farther into these mysteries from day to day and they do the more exceedingly prize the mercy of the Covenant as the greatest mercy they can injoy 3. How is this work to be done and what is it for a man to renew his Covenant 1. He that will renew his Covenant with God must be deeply sensible of the breach of Covenant and of the unfaithfulness of his heart therein It should deeply humble us to consider that no bonds should hold us If there were no other tye upon us but that of our creation that we had our being from him and that out of nothing but when unto this natural and necessary bond we have added a voluntary and have consented unto the Lord yet now for us to forget the Covenant of our God and prove perfidious to him and draw back is this your return unto God for his Grace in taking you into Covenant and who doth always remember Covenant mercies for you even then when you forget duty to him Is this your requital of the Lord who in the performance of the Covenant did not spare his Son when he cryed that he might be saved God was so resolved upon his Covenant with you that the death of his Son was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and he was delighted in it in performance of the grace of the Covenant made with you And also the Lord Christ met with variety of discouragements not only the weight of sin in the guilt of it which he complained of as his own though he knew no sin Psal 40.12 but the wrath of the Father the rage of his enemies the hour and the power of darkness the falshood of his Disciples and yet when he was tempted to come down from the Cross he doth hold it out that he might thereby shew that he loved you to the uttermost and would save you to the utmost And now for you Prov. 20.25 after vows to make inquiry whenas no man doth receed or go back from the Covenant in which he hath ingaged himself without infamy and it 's as odious as for a man to prove false to his friend and betray him and as unfair dealing it is as for a Servant to run away from his Master or a Soldier from his Commander and as David says by way of reproach he hath broken his Covenant and laid his hand upon him that was at peace with him yea for the Wife of a mans bosom to betray a man and to forget the Covenant of her God for a man to forget his Oath that he took at his Baptism and as the Jews did labour to make their circumcision uncircumcision and to do this unto a God that was never a Wilderness to you nor ever gives you cause to repent of your ingagement surely hereby you see not only your perfidiousness and unthankfulness but also fully to make forfeiture of all Covenant mercies to bring upon your selves all the curses of the Covenant Gen. 2.28 Num. 14.34 and to put God upon breach of Covenant with you who have behaved your selves so unfaithfully towards him and thereby you acknowledge though you have subscribed your names in the register of Zion yet you deserve unto your perpetual ignominy to have them expunged thence and to be written in the earth and given up to an everlasting forgetfulness So it was with Josiah when he made his Covenant his heart was tender and he did humble himself before the Lord for their Covenant-breaking 2 Chron. 34.27 31. Neh. 10. And Ezra 10. it doth follow upon a great humiliation a man that is not sensible of and his heart not affected with the breach of Covenant that man is not fit to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 2. It must be with a resolution of heart to break all other Covenants men are said Isa 28.15 To make a Covenant with death and hell that is they were as secure Isa 28.15 and as fearless of it as a man that hath a person in Covenant with him whom he looks upon as his friend and fears him not and thus they make a Covenant with sin and ingage themselves to serve other gods and so when the people renewed the Covenant in Joshuah's time you see the Command you have chosen the Lord to serve him Josh 24.22 put away therefore your strange gods and so the command was to put away their strange wives Ezra There are cords of vanity and there are bonds of iniquity by which men do bind themselves Now all these Covenants must be broken if a man come to renew his Covenant with the Lord for the answer you must give to the Covenant must be the answer of a good conscience and that Conscience that reserves to it self any league with sin unbroken 1 Pet 3.21 is not a good conscience before God a Covenant that is sinful is in it self void and a nullity because in every such ingagement there is dolus deceit and error which are destroying to the nature of a Covenant which should be free and deliberate and therefore it is in all such Covenants as with Herods Oath they bind to nothing but repentance for Juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis and therefore a man must resolve to break Covenant with all sinful ingagements if he do intend to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 3. A man must know the terms and read over the Articles of the Covenant anew for no wise man will set his hand to an obligation of which he is not well acquainted with the condition and if there were no other cause nor ingagement upon man to know the will of God and their own duty this were enough they have bound themselves to serve him and therefore by the same Covenant they are bound to know the rules by which he will be served for Deo serviendum non est ex arbitrio sed ex imperio so doth Josiah 2 Chron. 34.30 he caused to be read in the ears of the people all the words of the book of the Covenant and then he stood up and made a Covenant before the Lord to perform all the words of the Covenant written in the Book 4. It must be with a free and full consent of heart for the Covenant in the renewing of it must
another unto the end of the world thy seed after thee in their generations and therefore Abraham is call'd the rock out of which they were hewed Isa 51.1 and the hole or the pit out of which they were digged and he is call'd Rom. 11. the root upon which they did grow and out of which they did spring not onely in their natural estate but also in their covenant state the covenant did as it were begin in him And the next person with whom the covenant of grace was eminently renewed was David 2 Sam. 7.14.19 Psal 89.28 29 30. the Lord did not only speak of David's person but of his house for a great while to come and when the Lord took a whole Nation into Covenant as he did the Nation of the Jews it was not made only with them that were present and then alive or men grown up but with their seed also so that their children were taken into the same covenant with their parents though they were not able to understand the nature of the covenant nor to restipulate and not only they that were present but Deut. 20.15 with him that is not here with us this day Deut. 29.11 13 14 15. who are they that are hereby meant their Posterity unto whom this covenant did alike belong there was a foundation laid for them to come into this covenant as soon as they should be born into the world Ipsos Deus anteverterat gratiâ suâ multis antequam nati essent seculis Calvin Meaning thereby their Posterity in all succeeding generations and therefore Eezek 16.18 I entred into covenant with thee and thou becamest mine and then vers 20. Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me and hast sacrificed them to be devoured c. this is only spoken in reference to the covenant so they were children born unto God and so the Lord was their God Neither was this dispensation of the covenant of grace to the Jews only but also unto the Gentiles for Rom. 11. they were grafted in to be the seed of Abraham by vertue of the covenant of Abraham for he was the father of us all now as the natural branches were broken off so were the others grafted in but the Jews were broken off themselves and their Posterity disinherited for many generations therefore the Gentiles are grafted in they and their posterity and thence Act. 2.39 The promise is to you and your children and unto them that are afar off Ephes 2.17 i. e. the Gentiles also and their children the promise belongs to them whomsoever the Lord shall call it 's for themselves and for their seed after them Zacheus a Publican being converted Luk. 19.9 Christ tells him salvation is come to his house where by salvation coming to his house cannot be meant unto himself or his person but that his whole Family is taken into covenant with God thereby and the reason of it is given because that he himself is a son of Abraham that is he is brought under Abraham's Covenant the tenure of which Covenant is not only to a mans self but also unto his family and his seed Act. 16.31 c. and so Paul to the Jaylour Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine house the meaning is not that all of them should be saved eternally as if one man could be saved by another mans faith but salvation is commonly put for the ordinary means of salvation Acts 28.28 Now this Covenant-way is the only ordinary means of salvation Heb. 2.3 and when the Jews shall be taken in in the latter days of the world though it 's said that the Lord will make a new Covenant with them in those days yet it s but the old Covenant renewed they shall be taken into the Covenant of their fathers for so Rom. 11.24 the natural branches that were cut off shall be grafted in again to their own Olive-tree as they were cast off Parents and children disinherited so shall their grafting in again be so that 't is a part of the Gospel and a gâ—orious doctrine of the covenant of grace that children are taken into the same Covenant with their Parents and there is never a Covenant made with the Parents in the Scripture but the children are expressely mention'd as coming under it and therefore our faith is to receive it and rely upon it 2. The People of God have believed it and exercised their faith upon it and that both Parents for their Children and the Children for themselves 1 Parents for their Children it was this that Adam did rejoyce in immediately after the revelation of the second Covenant in behalf of himself and his Posterity when he Gen. 3.20 called his wifes name Evah Gen. 3.20 because she was the mother of all living and this is conceived by Interpreters to have a threefold respect 1 As an Expression of his own Faith in the Promise to shew that the woman that should have brought Death into the world and was first in the transgression and should have been the mother of none but dead children now he saith That she should be the mother of all the living the Covenant of grace and life beginning in her for life and immortality never saw light till the Gospel 2 An expression of thankfulness for so great a mercy that he might keep the mercy in memory and that was the ancient manner to give names sometimes to places Jacob call'd the place Bethel the house of God as the Altar Jehovah Nissi c. and sometimes the Monument of his mercy preserved in a child Samuel one asked of God and here Adam continues the memory of his mercy in the name of his wife it 's spoken by way of gratitude Merc. ut vel ipso nomine beneficium tantum agnosceret Merc. The Name is a Memorial of the Mercy 3 An expression of consolation the woman being first in the transgression was much affected with the displeasure of God from which they fled and of the misery that she had brought upon her self and all her Posterity if the Lord should prolong her days that they should labour in the sweat of their brows till they were turn'd to the earth c. Adam now comforts her and tells her Be of good cheer there is a seed yet that shall come from thee that shall overcome death and him that had the power of death that is the Devil and therefore he doth not call himself the Father of all living but her the Mother of all living and thus Adam did comfort himself with the Promise made unto his Posterity in the Covenant as soon as it was revealed And so did Evah exercise faith this way first in Cain as some conceive Gen. 4.1 Gen. 4.1 she said I have gotten a man from the Lord the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Vulgar answerable per Dominum by the Lord Trem. adds Ã
they have no interest in it in respect of the spiritual priviledges and saving Graces of the same Covenant 3. There 's a two-fold Faith that the Scripture speaks of there is true and saving justifying faith which is call'd the Faith of Gods Elect and there is a temporary faith or a faith which is in profession only Math. 13. Heb. 6.4 Act. 8. and not in truth as we see in the stony ground and the temporary Believers and in Simon Magus and as it 's true saving faith that doth give a man an interest in the graces of the Covenant and makes a man Abrahams seed in reference unto grace so there is a visible faith a profession only that which only men are able to judge of to whom the power of the Keys for the dispensing of Ordinances are committed and this gives a man a title to the visible and external Priviledges of the Covenant in for◠Ecclesiae as we see Simon Magus profession of Faith was ground enough for the Apostles to administer Baptism unto him the Seal of the Covenant though afterwards he did quickly manifest that he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Though therefore the Gentiles can never claim Abrahams Covenant as his seed according to the flesh nor many of them a spiritual right as not having the saving faith of Abraham yet they may claim relation to Abraham as an Ecclesiastical father and from a profession of the faith of Abraham may claim a true and a real interest in the external priviledges of Abrahams Covenant though they cannot pretend to his saving Graces and spiritual priviledges having never had any experience of a work of Conversion and Regeneration Quest 8 § 8. Why will the Lord have the Covenant run by way of entail in reference to the outward Priviledges of it and not in reference to the inward Graces of it The Covenant that was made with Adam was to convey the one as well as the other and the image that he had received he was to convey to his Posterity and the promise of Life spiritual and Life eternal was made unto his Posterity in case of their Obedience as well as unto himself and therefore as all dyed in him so all should have lived in him Nos omnes in Adam◠peccavimus in eo sententiam damnationis accepimus omnes Bern. S. 1. de Advent So that by the first Covenant Adam might have conveyed not only outward Priviledges but inward Graces also and whereas now by reason of the fall all Mankind do convey death to their Children Tertul. but not life and so they are become non tà m parentes quà m peremptores not so much parents as destroyers therefore seeing that the first Covenant is broken why doth not the Lord only take the Elect into Covenant and extend the Covenant of Grace unto none else and so make it with particular persons as the Covenant of the Angels did run or if he will make it to descend from Father to Son why doth he not convey the Graces of the Covenant from Parents to Posterity as well as the outward priviledges of the Covenant Why does not the Covenant run for all the Benefits of it as well as for some only the internals of the Covenant as well as the externals Answ 1. The Lord will not have the Graces of the Covenant entail'd from Parents unto Posterity 1 Because the Curse of the first Covenant is now become ex traduce by propagation and all the Posterity of Adam do now as naturally convey the Curse by reason of their broken Covenant as Adam should have conveyed life and blessing if he had stood in his integrity and therefore whatever the immediate Parents be Adams sin comes alike upon all whether they be godly or wicked and the child of a godly Parent is as truly and as deeply guilty of the sin of Adam in his birth as the child of the most wicked man that is that is an entail left upon all mankind that can never be cut off while there is a man born upon earth Rom. 5.12 for in Adam all dye because in him all sinn'd and therefore the children of godly Parents as well as others are born the children of wrath Gregor so that Timothy though there was faith unfeigned that dwelt in his Grandmother and his Mother yet he himself must be converted by the ministry of Paul or else he had no benefit by the faith of his Ancestors Rom. 3.29 and thence the Apostle saith We look upon the Jews as a people holy unto the Lord and the only visible Church upon earth and the Gentiles as strangers unto God who follow'd dumb Idols as they were led and yet in reference to their natural condition the Apostle says there is no difference for all men have sinn'd and come short of the glory of God and therefore all in their births are alike corrupted with the sin of Adam that being imputed but the personal sins of their Parents are not imputed unto them and therefore they are said Joh. 1.13 to be born not of blood that is Joh. 1.13 not by a fleshly generation so some or else as Calvin it is bloods ut longam generis successionem melius exprimeret though Grace has continued long in that line and has as it were run in a blood and comes upon a man by succession as it were for many generations as it was with Timothy c. nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man Idem significat c. If the parents be godly and they never so earnestly desire that their children might be godly also as it was Abrahams desire for Ismael that he might live in Gods sight it was spoken of living before God as in Covenant with him as it appears by the answer that the Lord returns unto him but yet for all that his desire is not granted as concerning him though he saith I will make of Ismael a great nation and many nations shall come from him yet in Isaac shall thy covenant-seed be called and with him will I establish my Covenant c. therefore the Covenant in respect of the grace of it can never be entailed upon posterity because every man begets a son in the likeness of the first Adam as he himself did immediately after his fall Gen. 5.3 and thereby conveyed the image that by sin he had brought upon himself and his posterity 2 Because under the second Covenant it 's the Election of God that takes place and puts all the difference between men and men between whom in themselves there is no difference It 's true that it 's a great dispute Whether the Lord in Election did consider man in massa pura or corrupta and I conceive it was an act of Soveraignty and therefore God respected ma◠in massa pura as a creature and not in massa corrupta as a sinner as the potter hath power over the clay of
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
to heal thee but there is something of God made over in the personal promises of the Gospel that never saw light before and that is Mercy and Grace which is the Glory of the Gospel an Attribute that was never known but under the second Covenant And as all Gods Attributes were not made known to Adam by his personal interest so neither were all the persons unto those perfect high and compleat ends that now they are unto the Heirs of Promise The Lord did give Adam an interest in his Son but not his Son to take the Nature of Adam to be made lower than the Angels for the suffering of death He gave him also an interest in his Spirit but not to heal his corruption and to perfect his Graces or help his infirmities or be an Advocate to plead his Cause before God and his own Soul also for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also signifies an Advocate as well as a Comforter Christ is an Advocate without us and the Spirit within us inabling us to plead for our selves before his Throne Now in these respects though Adam had personal promises yet these of the Gospel are now more glorious and of a higher nature and of a larger extent and therefore they are better promises 2. The greatest Gift that ever God did bestow upon a Creature is a Person and therefore the giving of Christ is call'd by way of excellency The gift of God Joh. 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God And unto us a Son is given It was a great gift that the Lord should give to Adam the Lordship of the whole world the inheritance of all the Creatures but there is no excellency in Creatures in comparison of the glorious persons in the Trinity Answerable to the excellency of the thing given we do rightly value the gift and answerable unto the gift of his Son we may also conclude of the Father and the Spirit for the gift of the Son is upon that ground so great because he that has once attain'd an interest in the Son the whole God-head is become his 3. All the interest that a Soul has in the blessings of God and benefits by him have their foundation in our interest and propriety in the persons themselves they are made over to us by these personal promises and a man can have no more benefit by God than he has interest in him as the Psalmist having spoken of all the benefits and blessings that they have by God he comes at last to shew the title and the conveyance of them all Psal 144. ver the last and that is Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah The ground of all our benefits by Christ is our Union with him and the intendment of Union is Communication and till a man become one with him he can savingly have no benefit by him as 't is said 1 Cor. 3.22 All things are yours and you are Christs it 's your interest in his person that gives you a title to his inheritance as the Wife can have no claim to the estate and the honours of her Husband but by her Union with him and interest in his person and answerable unto mens interest in persons such is their title unto benefits by them and they that have no interest in God can have no title to any of the blessings of God and therefore the fundamental promises and mercies are those that are personal He that hath the Son hath life 1 Joh. 5.12 there is no life from the Son but by Union with him you must eat his flesh and drink his blood which are terms of Union if ever you hope for everlasting life by him 4. From our interest in the Persons the personal promises give us boldness and access to him we have says the Apostle boldness and access to come to God by Christ Ephes 3.12 Now a Child comes to the Father with boldness because he has an interest in his person as a Father and a Wife has access unto her Husband with boldness because she has an interest in him whereas all ungodly men are strangers to God and therefore cannot ingage their hearts to draw near to him for they have no interest in him and therefore must stand without and can have no access 5. The great promises to Christ as Mediator lye in this that he has an interest in persons and by personal promises they are made over to him Psal 89.26 He shall call me my Father Psal 16.5 my God and this Christ glories in the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup and it is this Christ takes hold of in his desertion my God my God that high speech of Faith taking hold of these personal promises It 's a glorious inheritance that God has given to Christ for he hath made him heir of all things but yet his inheritance in all the Creatures is nothing in comparison of the inheritance he has in the Lord as he is his God Joh. 3.35 and in the Spirit which is therefore called the Spirit of Christ because he received not the spirit by measure As the great delights of the God-head from everlasting were in the persons one of another Prov. 8.30 I was by him as one brought up with him and I was his delight daily so the great delight of Christ is in his interest in the person of the Father He has also a great delight in the Saints because they are his Seed and his Spouse and therefore he doth rejoyce over them as a Bridegroom over his Bride but yet the main delight of Christ as Mediator doth lye in his interest in the person of the Father and of the Spirit and as God made over his person first unto Christ by the Covenant of Redemption so by that Covenant in him he made it over unto us for he is Christs Father and our Father he is Christs God and he is our God Joh. 20.17 I ascend to my Father and your Father my God and your God 6. The main comfort of a Christian comes in from personal relations of the Covenant and they are all of them grounded in personal promises He is our Father and our Husband and our Friend and all of these are personal relations and speak an interest in the person and the great support of Faith in the worst times lyes in this as we see in the Church Isai 63. doubtless thou art our Father When the Lord was displeased with them and had hid his face and poured upon them spiritual judgments hardned their hearts from his fear and variety of temporal judgments for the Adversary had trodden down their Sanctuary yet now when they have nothing else to lay hold of it is upon a personal relation that they pitch doubtless thou art our Father and it 's according to our relation to his person that the Lord exhorts us to come to him All our Prayers when we pray is Our Father
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
now are in prison who sometimes were disobedient in the days of Noah They were then men upon Earth but they are now Spirits in prison 5 He gave the Law and he did appoint and institute all those legal ways of worship and all those types and shadows of the Law which were but praeludia humanitatis preludes of the humanity that it might be represented unto the faith of his people as lively as might be till the fulness of time appointed by the Father was come Heb. 12.25 6 He it was that brought Israel into Canaan and planted them a Church there unto himself Esay 5.1 2. I will sing unto my well-beloved a song of my beloveds concerning his vineyard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is generally conceived to be a name given unto the Messiah and he had a vineyard in a fruitful Hill he fenced it and gathered out the stones planted it with the choicest Vine and built a Tower in the middle of it and made a Wine-press therein and all this is the act of him whom he doth call my Beloved 3. The Father did prepare the nature that Christ was to assume unto union with himself Heb. 10.5 Burnt offering hadst thou no pleasure in but a body hast thou prepared me he that called him to be a Sacrifice he did prepare a body c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this is included the soul also that very individual nature though formed by the Holy Ghost yet according to the appointment of the Father Col. 2.9 for in him was the fulness of the Godhead bodily to dwell that is he was to take our nature thus prepared into a personal union with himself so that not only that Christ should take the nature of man but that very individual soul and body that he was to take was appointed and prepared by God the Father which he would have to be as a Sacrifice to himself and unto him he would give this grace of union that it should become one with the second Person in the Godhead 4. This very humane nature thus prepared by the Father and by the Son thus assumed the Father did fill with all habitual grace Col. 1.19 Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell the meaning is not only that he should have fulness of grace in himself but such a fulness also that he might convey and communicate unto us that all the fulness of the creatures should be derived from him Joh. 1.16 That of his fulness we may receive grace for grace he hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son and he is therefore said to receive the Spirit without measure because he has the Spirit so as to fill all the Saints the Spirit so as to dispense the Spirit this cannot be spoken of Christ as God for so he cannot receive the Spirit and so he cannot receive grace but it 's spoken of him in reference to his humane nature which the Father prepared and anointed as he saith The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for the Lord hath anointed me he cannot be said to be anointed as God but as he is Mediator and therefore there is a double grace comes from the Father upon this nature of Christ a grace of Vnion and a grace of Vnction also so that though the Godhead of Christ were infinitely holy yet his Godhead doth not qualifie the humane nature but he being the Fathers servant and the grace that was to be dispensed was by the appointment of the Father therefore it is the Father that laid up this grace in the humane nature of Christ as in a common Treasury making him a second Adam that he might dispense it unto us 5. Having in this manner prepared him the Father did send him forth into the world and owned him before the world to be his Son at his Baptism Mat. 3. ult A voice came from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son and in his Transfiguration Mat. 17.5 it was again repeated and 2 Pet. 1.17 God the Father gave him glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased God the Father did declare him to be the Son of God with power partly by the doctrine that he preached for no man spake as he spake he spake of heavenly things as one that had seen them for he came down from Heaven as one that came out of the bosom of the Father and also by the Miracles that he wrought the Lord did give a testimony to him to be the Son of God by opening of the eyes of the blind healing the sick raising the dead c. So that the Father did eminently owne him to be his Son before all the world that men might believe in him which is a thing of mighty concernment to us and Heb. 1.6 when he brings his first begotten Son into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him so that he is owned by the Father before men and Angels as the person that it was the design of the Father to set up as the Head of all Principalities and Powers for the happiness of his Saints and the glory of God the Father 6. The Father did appoint how long he should live upon earth and what death he should dye He was delivered by the determinate counsel of God and therefore Christ tells them Act. 2.23 My hour is not yet come and that is given as the reason why they that were so malicious had not seized upon him sooner it was because his hour and the power of darkness appointed by the Father was not yet come he was to dye a crucified death being made a curse for us for it 's written Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree Gal. 3.13 7. The Father also becomes Christs Executioner It is true sin did not only set God against us but all the creatures also and therefore Christ standing in our stead he shall have men to be his enemies and they shall seek to destroy him he shall be delivered into the hands of men and they will serve the turn to destroy his body but it is no more that they can do but it is the soul of man that was the great Traitor against God and men cannot reach the soul to afflict it therefore it pleased the Father to bruise him when he made his soul an offering for sin and therefore his great satisfaction being there his great purchase is made thereby for it is said He shall see of the travel of his soul which then mainly begun in the garden though it 's true all his life time he had been a man of sorrow but specially when he cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. yet he had then some lucida intervalla but in the three hours darkness when he fought it out between God and him alone then the Lord did inlarge his faculties
is more abundant in them 1 Cor. 15. ult 2 When he doth exercise more grace in them and there is more of the inward man in them Rev. 3.2 though he doth the same duties yet it is more fruit to God than formerly when he doth it with more pleasure and the commandments are none of them grievous to him it is his meat and drink to do it his comforts do come in by his duties as well as by the promised rewards and he is also more constant in the performance of them and doth not perform duty only by fits inconstancy in any man is an argument of weakness 't is a reproach to have it said a mans righteousness is but as the morning dew and as the early cloud that passeth away § 5. We come now unto the last particular of the personal and appropriated relation of God the Father as he stands unto Christ and in him unto us as he is his Father and our Father our God and his God his friend so he is the fountain of the life of Christ and in him the fountain of spiritual life to us also 1 Joh. 5.11 and that is set down 1 Joh. 5.11 God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son we see of what person it 's spoken it is the Father that hath given us this life and laid it up in his Son as in a common Treasury Joh. 6.57 that from him it might be conveyed unto us So Joh. 6.57 As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Here in the opening of it I must shew 1 Whether this be spoken of Christ as he is God or as he is Mediator 2 How Christ as Mediator is said to live by the Father 3 What the life is that we have from Christ 4 That all this life that we have from Christ and is in him is from the Father he that is the fountain of the life of Christ is also the fountain of our life 1. Whether it be spoken here of Christ as he is God or as he is Mediator God manifested in the flesh That it 's not spoken of Christ as he is God there are three things do clearly make it manifest 1 It 's spoken of Christ with respect unto his Office for he speaks of himself as sent by the Father and sending is a term of office Now as he is sent by the Father so he lives by the Father but he is sent as Mediator and it wholly relates unto his Office in which he is by the Father imployed and therefore it is as Mediator that he lives by the Father 2 It 's spoken of Christ as he is fed upon by the faithful I live by the Father so he that eats me shall live by me which refers to him as he is made man for so he saith vers 34. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath eternal life c. Now the Father is the fountain of life unto Christ in the same respect that Christ is the fountain of life unto us but it is as Mediator that he is so to us as he hath flesh and blood for so he becomes unto us a natural head and therefore suited to be an object of our faith fit both to be our surety here and our Advocate in Heaven our surety here as having our nature and therefore being able to pay our debt and our Advocate hereafter as having our nature still upon him and therefore knows how to have mercy and compassion the same nature in him will incline him thereunto 3 I conceive that it were dangerous to say that as he is God so he lives by the Father though I often find that Divines writing of the eternal generation of the Son do speak of the Fathers begetting of the Son by the communication of the same Essence that he is God of God c. But surely he that is God must be without cause he must have his Being from himself he must be the first and the last he that hath his essence from another must have his sufficiency from another and he that is from another must be unto another for he that is the first cause he must also be the last end Rom. 11.36 For of him and to him and through him are all things c. and therefore he that is not God of himself is not God at all I dare not therefore say that he hath the Divine Essence communicated by eternal generation Calv. Institut l. 1. c. 13. §. 25. but rather he is à seipso Deus à Patre filius essentia ejus principio caret personae verò principium est ipse Deus it 's spoken of Christ therefore not as he lives in himself as he is God but as he is Mediator made by the Father the fountain of life unto us 2. What is the life which as Mediator Christ receives from the living Father There are two words in Scripture unto which commonly all things excellent or desirable are compared and those are Light and Life and so all misery is set forth under the two contraries and they are Darkness and Death as Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous in thy light we shall see light c. And so life also Psal 30.5 In his favour is life Psal 36.9 With thee is the fountain of life Psal 63.3 thy loving-kindness is better than life life is that which doth comprehend in it all good things as the lesser is comprehended of the greater for the life is more worth than meat and the body than raiment and so it implies that Jesus the Mediator doth receive all things that are good excellent and desirable from God the Father he doth live by the Father c. he is unto him the fountain of all good things But this is but general I find life in Scripture used four ways as standing in opposition unto a fourfold death in us 1 There is a death in reference to the guilt of sin a man being under the sentence of the Law dead and in opposition thereunto there is a life of Righteousness in Justification therefore it 's said Rom. 5.17 18. For if by one mans offence death raigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gifts of righteousness shall raign in life by one Jesus Christ therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification to life 2 There is a death in reference to the dominion of sin and thus we are said to be dead in trespasses and sins and so there is a life of Holiness and Regeneration when the Lord saith Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead Eph. 5.14 Joh. 5.25 When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear it shall live and so he doth
the Romans in praelio in a battel sometimes sed nunquam in bello never in war so does Satan against the Saints but they surely have the victory in the end and therefore faith has its triumphing as well as its relying act c. 4. Corruptions of men shall tend to the Saints spiritual advantage though God is not the Author of sin yet he is the Orderer of it 1 He doth not let out the corruptions of other men any further than for the good of his Saints The wrath of man shall praise thee no man shall desire thy land I suffered thee not to touch her the Lord withholds men from hurting his people and his restraining grace is not only upon their acts but upon their corruptions also so as they are not let out but unto the Saints spiritual advantage also 2 Not only the corruptions of other men but those of the Saints themselves the falling out of any new and eminent fall the Lord will make as a new conversion Luke 22.32 When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren the foundation is laid anew and there is also a renewing of justification a more fast application of the Righteousness of Christ I will take away thy filthy garments and I will cloath thee with change of raiment Zac. 3.4 I have caused thy iniquity to pass from thee and this makes way for a glorious assurance and for an eminent imployment for God sets a Mitre or a Crown upon his head and he was thereby fitted for the great work of the Temple and taken into society with them that stand by 5. All a mans imployment it is a testimony that a man is a vessel of honour when in every condition he is fitted for the masters use and it 's a token that a man is called unto any imployment in mercy when he has the graces of that condition drawn forth a man may be called to the Ministry or the Magistracy but not in mercy without this there is an election to an imployment as well as to life Paul was separated from his mothers womb unto the Gospel of Christ c. If David be a shepherd he follows the Ews great with young and he doth it with faithfulness and if he be taken from the sheepfold to feed Jacob the Lords people and Israel his inheritance he doth it with the integrity of his heart and the skilfulness of his hand Acts 13.22 Vis me constituere pastorem ovium aut regem populorum ecce paratum est cor meum c. sometimes friends sometimes enemies sometimes the chief of the Princes were against David but God was with him 6. Even death it self and the agonies thereof for even death it self is yours it is a servant and not an enemy because it doth improve and further a mans spiritual interest 1 As men dye in the Lord Rev. 14.13 death is theirs by virtue of their union with Christ that as they bear fruit in him so they dye in him death cannot dissolve the union between a soul and Christ 2 As they die to him so they live to him that is Rom. 14. ◠they make him their end in living and dying they would live no longer than he might be glorified as Paul says and they would then die when he might be glorified that Christ might be magnified in my body Phil. 1. and they count not their lives dear 3 It is a life of glory that death lets the Saints into it opens the door unto a weight of eternal life it doth perfect the purer part of man delivers him from the body of sin for he that is dead is freed from sin and it doth let him into the beatifical vision and thereby his sanctification also is perfected as it is recorded of Bernard when he was sick unto death there was a great while nothing heard of him but this Tempus perdidi quà m perditè vixi but at last he adds Hoc meum solatium duplici in re Christus regnum possidet quà filius quà passus hoc secundo nihil ei opus fuit sed mihi dedit and under this consolation he fell asleep 2. All the creatures belong to the spiritual Kingdom reductivè as they do belong to the priviledges of the Saints for all things are yours because you are Christs there is a double right jus politicum evangelicum now in this manner they belong to the spiritual Kingdom 1. In respect of their continuance for it is for their sakes that the world stands By virtue of the ancient curse Cursed be the ground for thy sake the earth would sink under us but that the Lord Jesus did put under his hand and keep it from ruine by virtue of the new Covenant therefore he is brought in as the upholder of all things who also purged our sins and is sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 for the Lord did not continue the creatures in their being to serve his enemies but the subordination of creatures depends upon the second Covenant as appears Hos 2.21 and the Lord will surely manifest it in these two things 1 In the latter days the Kingdom and Dominion of the whole Earth shall be taken out of the hands of the enemies and shall be given into the hands of the Saints to the end of the world Dan. 7.18 and then all the wicked of the earth shall lick the dust of their feet and it is in order thereunto that it is continued to this day 2 As soon as the Lord has gathered in the number of his Saints and has perfected their graces he will take down the stage of this world and overturn it that it shall be no more at least such as now it is Now they that are the heirs of this world as Abrahams seed are called they are translating and Gods children being called home the Lord will not continue the world for servants but he will break up house-keeping and he will send every one of them unto their own place c. the tares and the wheat do grow till the harvest but the Lord will not suffer the tares to grow again after the harvest and therefore the very continuation of the creatures belongs unto the spiritual Kingdom as one part of the priviledges of the Saints 2. The restitution of the creatures for as they were made subject unto vanity by sin for they all came under mans Covenant and therefore you have heard in mans fall the curse took hold upon them they being made for the use of man Rom. 8.20 21. they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and therefore they wait for the manifestation of the glory of the sons of God not that all the creatures shall be continued in being for many of them shall be consumed in that last conflagration but yet the substance shall continue as standing monuments unto Gods glory as matter of praise and of delight unto the Saints which shall be begun in the
and that is semen ejus quaerens panem non derelictum not forsaken though begging of their bread the Jews in this misery that they are yet grow rich where-ever they come the temporal promise is fulfilled to them 4 The term righteous may be restrained to such as are eminently righteous as to works of mercy So it follows vers 26. He is ever merciful c. So among the Hebrews mercy towards the poor is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness § 2. There is also a Providence circa mala about evils for his Kingdom rules over all and this malum evil is either culpae of sin or poenae of punishment concerning both which the Soveraignty of God doth gloriously work though it be in a far different way First the Soveraignty of God in his providential Kingdom is conversant about the evils of sin they do all come under the government of God and that it is so will appear from Gen. 45.5 6 7. Gen. 45.5 6 7. it was the observation that Joseph had about that unnatural act of his brethren he looked upon a double hand in it one was theirs which he from a principle of meekness and forgiveness was ready to pass by and over-look and another was a special hand of providence in this sin of theirs and that he speaks of three times as being much affected with the Soveraignty of God ordering of that sin of theirs both in respect of him and themselves Ye sold me but God sent me in that sin of theirs there was an over-ruling hand of Soveraignty and that he tells them three times together That it was God sent him and that it was not they that sent him Ye sent me out of malice and God sent me out of mercy you to destroy me God to preserve both you and me you sent me that I should be a slave to man God that I might be a father to Pharaoh and a Ruler of all the land of Egypt We see what a glory here is over this sinful action in respect of Joseph Pharaoh Egypt and the whole family of Jacob and this was not a casual thing something that came to pass by accident or by chance but it was by counsel a Soveraignty that did with wisdom lay this as a design and plot before-hand Gen. 50.20 so Gen. 50.20 You thought evil but God meant it unto good the word in both places is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie a plotted thought done by counsel Psal 10.2 Let them be taken in their devices that they have imagined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is spoken there of plotted designed evil and so it was here the good was done by counsel and it was a thing that comes not to pass without foresight but God meant and plotted it for good and therefore we read Exod. 28.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opus ingeniosè inventum a work that is artificially done upon which many thoughts went before it was brought unto a ripeness and perfection and such was this work here also they plotted upon evil and the Lord plotted and designed this their evil unto good Esa 10.6 7. so Esa 10.6 7. the King of Babylon comes against Jerusalem and the Lord sends him not by any command for the work was displeasing unto him as done by them and for which he will visit them vers 12. but arcano imperio by a secret act of the Soveraignty of God so ordering things in providence that this should come to pass and therefore Ezech. 9.1 they are called the visiters of the city men appointed by the dominion of God unto that office but yet the man had a thought of nothing less than to do Gods work in it or to submit unto his dominion or execute his counsel which unto them was secret he meaneth not so he thinks not so there are two words used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tacite secum cogitare he hath not such a thought that did ever enter into his heart he never had so much as the least secret imagination of any such thing and the other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie a devised designed and plotted thing it was a thing that he never consulted never designed in all that he doth to execute my displeasure against an hypocritical Nation but yet he shall do my work while he doth wholly intend his own and design that only and yet the work that shall be done upon Sion is the Lords work vers 12. and by these two Scriptures it will clearly appear that the Soveraignty of God is conversant about the sins of men things in themselves evil and forbidden of God and yet his Soveraignty reacheth unto them And this I shall branch into two heads 1 The Soveraignty of God over a mans own sins for the good of his people 2 Over other mens sins he doth so imploy his Soveraignty about the sins of men that they shall be ordered for the good of the Saints 1. The Soveraignty and Supremacy of God in reference unto the sins of his own people the Lord doth so rule and order all things thereby that their own sins shall in some kind work for their good that which in its own nature is only evil can by an almighty over-ruling hand turn into good which no man in the world is able to do they may make good use of things in themselves good but they are never able to bring good out of that which is per se malum of it self sinfull as sin is and this I shall demonstrate to you in four things 1 In respect of the being of sin 2 In respect of the rising of sin 3 In respect of the actings of sin 4 In respect of the raging of sin in an open violent scandalous way 1. It will appear in reference unto the being of sin in the Saints The Lord who has forbid all sin even in the Principles and being of it and has sent his Son to take away sin yet he has in his Soveraignty so ordered the condition of the Saints here that sin shall have a being in them and they shall never be perfectly freed from it so that it will be true of the best while they are here he that saith he has no sin deceiveth himself there will be reliquiae vetustatis as Austin calls it a Law in the members a body of death To be without sin here is given to us as praeceptum a precept in this life or else Original sin were no sin and the being of sin were against no Law of God the Law requires a holy Nature as well as holy Actions but in the life to come it shall be given to us as praemium a reward here as a Law and hereafter as a Reward And why has the Sovereignty of God so ordered it that those that shall be freed from sin perfectly in the Life to come and whom Christ shall present without spot or wrinkle or any such thing why will he suffer
them to have the Remainders of sin in them in this life and they shall never be freed from it till their dissolution We shall easily see that he as the Lord of all has ordered this by his Sovereignty and Supremacy for the good of his people and that it was for their sakes 1 That hereby he may exalt the Grace of Justification unto the Saints for God to pardon sins past it were rich mercy infinite mercy but for the Lord to leave sin remaining in a man and while he is conflicting with it and fears he shall be overcome with it every moment sees himself still to remain a sinner and yet the grace of Justification still to hold out that as there is in me a Fountain of sin so God is the Father of mercies and he doth not only pardon at first but when I sin and endeavour to make a breach upon my Justification again he shews mercy still and doth multiply to pardon Isa 55.7 this exalts the Righteousness of Christ imputed in justification for tolle morbos tolle vulnera nulla erit medicinae causa Dam. Therefore a man doth daily wash his feet and sees the Sun of Righteousness to rise upon him daily that he may be justifi'd not only from the Acts of sin but also from the remainders and Reliques of sin that are in him Joh. 13.10 And this also doth exalt the grace of God the Father justifying When the Apostle had had more than ordinary experience of the remainders of corruption in him and was much afflicted looking upon himself as a miserable man by reason thereof and judging himself worthy to be destroy'd for it and might by reason thereof have expected the sentence of death every moment now he looks upon the grace of the Gospel as justifying and he finds a new sweetness in it there is now no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 Not only the sins committed before Conversion but the sins remaining after do justly make the soul liable to condemnation but such is the grace that justifies us that there is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus 2 That there may be a continual Conflict kept up in us our life is a Warfare and therefore Job 14.14 it is said all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the days militiae meae of my warfare this is not against enemies without against spiritual wickednesses in high places only but against enemies within in a special manner the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and by this means the war is maintain'd The Lord will have the time of this life to be tempus militiae a time of warfare and the other life laetitiae of triumph as Bernard speaks this laboris of labour that mercedis of reward and there is no conflict in the world like unto this to have two contraries in the same place each of them striving to destroy one another and yet neither of them compleatly and totally prevailing for they are contrary Gal. 5.17 and there is a greater opposition against sin than there is against the Devils themselves or any enemies without there are the sorest battels fought between flesh and spirit in the same soul and with greater displeasure and indignation against them than Saints against the Devil himself for this is the greatest evil to them because it is in them and because the Lord will have a conflict that so the graces of his People may be both exercised and also tryed and improved the power of Grace and the truth of it would never have been so gloriously seen if there had not been such a principle of corruption drawing it forth daily 3 That he may keep his people humble there is no one thing that the Lord takes more care of than that the Saints should not be lifted up it is the end of Affliction to hide pride from their hearts and of temptations and desertions in the flesh that they might not be lifted up in themselves and exalted above measure Now it 's true it 's matter enough to humble one if duely considered to call to mind what he has been as it did Paul I was a persecutor and a blasphemer and injurious 1 Tim. 1.13 As some of the Heathens having risen to be Kings from small beginnings would keep something still to put them in mind of their Original as one being a Potters son would be served only in Earthen Vessels all his life-time The remembrance of what is past might humble a man to say Such were some of you such were ye but it is much more effectual to humble a man to consider that very iniquity is not fully purged unto this day but there are still some remainders of it upon me there is still a law in my members that rebells against the law of my mind that when I would do good evil is present with me and this makes me to look upon my self as a wretched and a miserable man and makes me to loath and abhor my self the same sore is running upon me still I am sensible I have the leprosie and therefore I can take no pleasure in my self the Devil comes and hath something in me there is a Principle that is prone to close with any temptation there is a sea of corruption that doth but wait for a wind nay if the Devil should never disquiet it yet it is a Fountain that will cast mire out of it self c. 4 That the Saints may be exercised in Prayer and Repentance daily Now it is that which the Lord requires of them every day Pray without ceasing and a man is Nulli rei nisi poenitentiae natus c. Now that there may be something that we may ask of him daily to give us that is a further degree of Grace a greater measure of purging and that we may apply the Righteousness of Christ for to mortifie sin in us as well as to satisfie God for sin and that there may be always something that we may confess and bewail before God and repent of and mourn for this sin is still left in us And look what benefits the people of God do receive from these constant and daily exercises all these do flow from the Sovereignty of God towards them in leaving of the remainders of sin in them and by this means we come to have a part in that great honour which belongs to Christ and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking away of sin It 's true Christ only doth it by way of satisfaction and he is the only original of our sanctification but yet we do it as having our spirits also acted by the Spirit of Christ and so our wills and desires joyning and concurring with him in that work therefore we are said to mortifie the deeds of the body and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts to purge
our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 which we do by his Grace yet there is a concurrence of ours therein 5 That the Patience and forbearance of God even towards the Vessels of mercy may be so much the more exalted Num. 14.17 Moses says Let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken the Lord long-suffering and of great mercy even his forbearance is an act of his power it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is an impotency in a man that he cannot forbear if he be injured it is utterly a fault amongst you but it is not so with God it is his Power that he can forbear 't is the patience of his power and therefore we are not consumed when we daily provoke him the imagination of a mans heart being continually evil he is God and not man Gen. 6.5 Gen. 8.21 Hos 11.9 therefore Gen. 6.5 and 8.21 they do seem to cross each other in the first place 't is said the Lord will destroy man because the imaginations of his heart were evil and in the other I will not again curse the ground for mans sake for the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth it seems to be given as a reason of two contraries he will and he will not every imagination of the heart of man is evil therefore I will no more curse the Earth for his sake it seems strange reasoning it is by the Jesuites and Arminians looked upon as an extenuation of Original sin There is now that infirmity come upon him which was in Adam indeed a sin but now it is become a disease an infirmity a condition of Nature and therefore humanae infirmitatis miserebor I will pity humane infirmity so A Lapide and others who make the being of sin in us to be no sin but there is quite another sence of the words the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken either causativè or adversativè and so it is rendred sometimes quia because and sometimes quamvis although Glass Rhet. pag. 606. Our translators take the first for the imaginations of the heart or because the imaginations of the heart of man are only evil and so Brentius Pareus c. Si vellem semper genus humanum diluvio punire c. If I should always bring upon them a flood for their iniquity I should not leave a man upon the earth all man-kind would be destroy'd for the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth and therefore now having smelt a savour of rest from a sacrifice I will not for this cause destroy them any more by a flood But many of the learned render it adversativè and so it is although so Exod. 13.17 The Lord led them not thorough the land of the Philistins although that was near it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 34.19 Let my Lord I pray thee goe amongst us for it is a stiffe-necked people that is although it be a stiffe-necked people and so it is an expression of the wonderfull patience of God that though men provoke him daily and all the imaginations of their hearts are evil continually yet hoc non obstante I will shew my patience towards them and will no more curfe the ground for mans sake c. and it is spoken of all men not only wicked men but godly men for whose sake the Lord doth spare the creatures for it is for the Saints sake that the world stands and that the earth is not destroyed and yet the imaginations of their hearts are evil from their youth and by this the patience of God towards the vessels of mercy as well as towards the vessels of wrath is very highly exalted 6 That the Lord may hereby shew how great a grace that donum perseverantiae gift of perseverance is and what an almighty power doth concur thereunto Adam had no sin and yet he fell from his first state how then shall we stand that have in us nothing else but sin something of the venom of the old Serpent that is ready to open unto him upon every suggestion and ready to take fire by every temptation a sin that doth easily beset us or compass up about Heb. 12.21 And the great aim of Satan without and sin within is to extinguish grace that this seed may dye in the man but it is maintained and there is an almighty power that does it therefore 1 Pet. 1.15 We are kept by the mighty power of God through saith unto salvation or else we should perish every day and this exalts the grace of the second Covenant unto the souls of the Saints because there is not only a grace of conversion but of perseverance also the Spirit of Christ having once taken possession of the soul takes possession for ever never to leave it again if Christ hath cast out the strong man he will never himself be cast out till Satan be stronger than he which is never possible 7 That the souls of the Saints may be kept here in a continual longing and a groaning condition for glory there is nothing so great an evil as sin and therefore nothing should make the soul weary of this life so much as sin because it cannot end but with our life and this is one blessed fruit of it Rom. 8.13 We groan for the Adoption but why do we groan 2 Cor. 5.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are many burdens that the people of God are under in this life but there is no burden like unto that of the body of death that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a weight indeed Heb. 12.1 and they groan therefore to put off this tabernacle because without it there is no putting off this body of sin but by being freed from this prison we are so apt to be in love with this present life that we had need of something that might be bitterness to us and imbitter it to us so that we take not up our rest here but that the soul may look for and hasten to the coming of the day of God and may rejoyce to put off this Tabernacle be willing that the flesh should be destroyed that thereby there may be the destruction of the body of sin in us also And thus we see the Soveraignty of God working for the Saints in this great state of the being of sin in the Saints in this life bringing much good unto them as well as much glory unto himself thereby § 3. 2. As the being of sin comes under the Soveraignty of God so doth the rising of it in the heart which doth never break forth into act it is true that the heart of man is an evil treasury and it is an evil fountain but though it be always issuing yet it doth not vent it self the same way but sometimes in this kind and sometimes in that Seneca in omnibus omnia vitia sunt licèt non se exerunt c. Mar. 7.21 22 23. For out
to a more particular acquaintance with sin and self therefore the Lord doth let such lusts rise up in a mans heart A man that haply never thought that he could be tempted to be an Atheist and deny that there was a God the Lord will let forth such sinful risings and motions in his heart that he shall be ready to call all into question and see that it is possible for the corruption of his nature to make him like that fool that saith in his heart there is no God and a man that never questioned whether the Scripture was the Word of God or no for it is the faith that he hath been brought up in which he received from his parents yet the Lord will let that lust rise in thee which may bring thee to question the authority of the Scriptures whether they be of God or no. There is in a man a principle that tends to a denial of the doctrine of godliness and this principle lies deep and works mightily in our lives and therefore that they may see that this root of bitterness is in them the Lord will suffer them to rise up unto actual thoughts and then the man will say I thought I should never have doubted whether there was a God or no or a Heaven or Hell or a Scripture but now I see to what my natural corruption is ready to lead me and by this means his soul is not only humbled for those bosom-principles of Atheism but these bosom-principles of Religion are laid anew and more firmly in the soul which else would not have born the stress of a work of grace upon them 4 That a man may be drawn out to hate sin the more therefore the Lord doth let it rise in a man and infest him As a mans darling lust that has risen in him most and most troubled him that sin when he is converted he hates above all other Hos 14.8 and so Rom. 7. there is not only the being of sin but the rising of it Rebelling against the law of the mind and leading me captive to the law of sin and death when I would do good evil is present with me that the soul may see its misery the more and so hate its adversary the more for to love God and hate sin is our great work and the more the goodness of â—od is discovered unto us the more we should love him and the further the evil of sin is discovered unto us the more our hearts should be ingaged to hate this also It is true a man should hate sin in the root hate it at all times but specially when it rises within us and presents it self to us with the greatest enticement as Christ hated Satan always but then specially when he assaulted him with a temptation to worship him so should we deal with sin as Junius faith of himself he being a modest man a wanton woman came to kiss him and he gave her a box on the face he hated impudence at all times but specially when it was offered him and so it is in this particular also when lust doth rise in the soul presenting it self to be chosen he hates it then most as wicked men hate godliness always but specially when it comes nearest unto them and they are pressed to it then their hearts rise against it 5 The Lord doth in his Soveraignty permit that lusts should arise in his people but it is to awaken them and the Lord makes this an excellent remedy against a secure condition for if his people will sleep God has three ordinary ways to awaken them 1 By letting out corruption 2 By affliction 3 By desertion it is the first of them is the worst because there is not a greater evil than sin and there is not any thing that doth use to affect the hearts of godly men and awaken them more than to find former lusts revivâ— in their hearts which they thought had been dead long ago A man has formerly set himself to mortifie such a lust and prayed against it and used all means and now he hath through mercy in a good measure attained it but the man grows proud and secure and carnally confident then the Lord lets his lust revive again and the man shall see that his enemy is not dead but that the said root of bitterness still remains only the Lord by his Soveraignty permitted it to spring forth for such an end 6 It is that which is matter of repentance to the people of God continually they are not humbled barely for the sins of their lives that break forth in their conversation in the world but also those sins that do arise in their hearts and they do apply the Righteousness of Christ for the one as well as the other and they are more humbled for lust rising in their heart if they could be separated than for lust breaking forth in the act because this defiles the inward man the soul and so it 's said of Hezekiah That he humbled himself for the pride of his heart so confidence in creatures is what we ought to be humbled for and weep in secret for our pride and repent of all the inward risings of sin in our heart though not any discovery of it be made in our lives and conversation § 4. 3. The Soveraignty of God is seen in the actings of sin also and therein it doth order all for the good of his people sin shall not be always kept within bounds as fire in the bosom but it shall appear in the life many times and the members shall become weapons of unrighteousness lust conceived shall bring forth sin as there are many thousand lusts stirring in the heart that do never come into act they are conceived but do never bring forth there is much plotting in the world against godliness but they do bring forth the wind Esau says I will slay my brother Jacob but he never did it and Gâ—hazi had in his heart a hankering after Vineyards and Olive-yards c. and so they in Neh. 4.11 We will come upon them and destroy them and they shall neither see nor know c. But the act doth not succeed accordingly there are many devices in the hearts of the crafty when their hands cannot perform their enterprise Job 5.12 and so the Lord doth with sin in the souls of his people but yet sometimes it shall break forth into act it was as new wine in the soul and the act shall give it vent it was secret but the Lord by an act will permit it to be visible and legible when it was in the soul it is but thirst in the desire but it is drunkenness in the act when it is come to the full and all this doth the Lord permit by a supreme providence for the good of his people 1 That they may see the power of sin and the tendency thereof it is such a filthiness as would overspread the whole man it is a leprosie in the
Saints their smell is as Lebanon and therefore is resembled to the Roses and Lillies Hos 14.7 which is the most fragrant smell else they are of no worth for they are done not for the worth of the thing but for the acceptance that they should find with the Lord and let him come and eat the fruit of his pleasant things It is the Lord before whom we must appear i. e. before the judgment seat of Christ and therefore to find acceptance with our Judge is our great concern Now how comes Christ to be accepted of God It is by the Covenant made with him and by vertue of the same Covenant we are accepted Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in his beloved our services in him are accepted and our persons also It 's your Covenant only that 's the ground of your acceptation as Luther says well it is not from the dignity and worth of the duties but from the nature of the Covenant by which they are offered and under which they stand 1 The Father loves you 2 The services are holy and from a holy heart But 3 it is from a Covenant in which the Lord hath promised to accept all his peoples services as fruits in Christ 8. And Lastly The glory of the Saints is the glory of Christ and it is the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven that makes Heaven the place of Glory it is to enter into your Masters joy and to be dissolved and be with Christ is a Saints hope were it only the reward of your own graces it were much but to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God is a great priviledg but O! what is it for a Soul to sit with Christ upon his Throne As he overcame and sat down with the Father upon his Throne so also shall we be exalted by him to sit upon his Throne in Heaven CHAP. III. The Covenant of Grace made with Believers opened and applied Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee SECT I. The Covenant as made with Believers explicated and demonstrated § 1. THat the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ primarily as the second Adam has been formerly cleared unto you but when we look farther into the Scripture we find also that God did establish that Covenant with the Faithful and with their seed and this the Text holds forth clearly to you when I have but premised this position That the Covenant that God made with Abraham is the same for substance with the Covenant under which the Saints under the New-Testament do and shall stand to the end of the world Luk. 1.72 which I conceive is to perform the mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the oath which he sware to our Father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of all our enemies might serve him without fear c. and Rom. 4.11 He received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the rigteousness of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised that he might be the Father of them that believe though they be not circumcised and the Father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only but do walk in the steps of the faith of our Father Abraham and therefore vers 16. he is said to be the Father of us all If you are Christs then are you Abrahams seed and heirs of the Promise and Galat. 4.28 now we brethren as Isaac was are children of the promise c. so that both Jews and Gentiles are Abrahams seed because they come under Abrahams Covenant therefore there is the same Covenant now for substance Act. 3.25 that was made with Abraham and hence Acts 3.25 't is said ye are the children of the Covenant which God made with your Fathers Therefore as Abrahams Covenant so the Covenant made with the Saints is made with them and with their seed Hence we do learn in the next place Doctrine Doctrine That the Covenant of grace that was principally made with Christ is also made with the faithful the members of Christ In the opening of this Doctrine there are three things to be spoken to 1 To prove that the Covenant is made with the Saints 2 To shew why it must be so 3 To shew the different manner how it 's made with Christ and with them 1. That the Covenant of grace is made with the Saints and they are all federates therein Rom. 5. 1 Cor. 15.47 will appear by these arguments 1. From the type of the first Adam for he is made the type of him that was to come Now the Covenant that God did make with Adam was not made with him only but with all his posterity as appears plainly because the curse of the Covenant being broken comes upon them all in Adam all dyed because in him all sinned now the Covenant must be as large as the Curse and the Curse coming upon them must argue the Covenant to be made with them and so it is in the second Covenant also God has not only taken Christ into Covenant but he being an everlasting Father has taken in all his seed for he is the Father of all the faithful and the Lord enters into Covenant with them also So that all his posterity were bound unto the same Covenant and to perform the same obedience or to endure the same Curse that he did if they did transgress And whereas it may be said then as all that was required of the first Adam lay upon his posterity so all that is required of the second lies upon his posterity also and as what Adam was to perform they were in their own persons to perform so what Christ did perform that also lies upon all his posterity to perform in this there is a great deal of difference between Adam and Christ the first Adam stood before God as a publick person as a representative head that is such a one as personates and acts the part of another by the allowance of the Law so that what he doth is by the Law accounted to be done by him whom he represents and what is done unto him is accounted by the Law to be done unto the other so in the Law an Attorney appears for another receives money or takes possession for another and that stands good in Law as if a man had done it in his own person and so Embassadors do represent the Princes or States from whence they come and from whom they are sent what they do the Prince that sends them is accounted by the Law of Nations to do if they act according to their commission and what is done unto them the Prince doth take as done unto himself c. And so indeed Adam was a Common or a Publick person standing in our
stead that what he did was accounted to be ours whether to righteousness and life or unto sin and death but yet so that had he stood the same obedience was in their own persons required of his posterity for themselves as was required of Adam though not with the same respect not as publick persons and representative heads so that if they had not performed it they had fallen for themselves though all mankind had not fallen if Adam had stood for the woman was first in the transgression 1 Tim. 2. Rom. 5.12 and yet though the woman fell first all mankind did not fall in her fall but by one man sin entred into the world and therefore it was not every sin of a particular person that would have destroyed all mankind but of their representative only But the second Covenant hath this in it that the first never had in Adam the second Covenant hath a surety and that is something more than a publick person that is one that represents another and stands in his place and is bound unto his debt so that if the person ingaged pay not the debt the surety must and so Adam was not the surety for all mankind that he would perform the debt or bear the curse for them all there was no Covenant that had a Surety but Christ and he was a surety of the first Covenant Gal. 4.4 made under the Law and of a better Covenant to perform all the duties of the Gospel So that all that is required is of Christ as the second Adam only in his publick capacity and representation the Law is required of us but if we perform it not we have a surety that has undertaken it Thus as the first Covenant was made with the first Adam and all his posterity so the second Covenant is made with the second Adam and all his posterity also 2. We read of a Covenant made with Persons and people and promised unto them as special mercies a Covenant made with Abraham and Isaac a Covenant made with David 2 Sam. 23.5 The Lord has made with me an everlasting Covenant in all things ordered and sure And there is a Covenant made with a people also Jer. 31.31 God made a Covenant with the house of Judah a Covenant that he would bring them under the bonds of the Covenant and Esa 55.3 Every one that thirsts come to the waters c. and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David and Ezec. 16. I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine and therefore Zac. 9.12 By the blood of thy Covenant I have delivered the prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water 3. Men are said to make the Covenant and to break it Hezekiah exhorts them 2 Chron. 30.7 8. to give the hand unto the Lord 2 Chron. 30.7 8. it 's an expression of entring into Covenant as striking the hand is in the Proverbs an expression of entring into suretiship for another there are four expressions of it in 1 Chron. 29.24 All the Princes and the mighty men and all the house of the Kingdom gave their hands unto Solomon it notes a military subjection by way of Covenant and agreement between them they did take an oath of Allegiance unto him And so that expression to joyn the hand Ezeck 17.18 He hath broken the Covenant after he had given his hand c. and Job 17.3 to strike hand is to enter into suretiship or to be engaged in a Covenant so the saints are said to enter into Covenant with the Lord by sacrifice Psal 50.5 Esay 56. and they are said to take hold of the Covenant again they are said to break the Covenant which could not be if the Covenant were not made with them and not to be faithful and constant therein Psal 25.10 Lev. 26.15 4. It will appear from the promises of the second Covenant though it 's true that they are all yea and amen in him yet are they properly and formally made unto us either the first promises of grace or else of reward unto grace Promises of grace are He will give his Spirit and will give repentance he will heal our backslidings c. and we have an unction from the holy one c. And reward of service done either in the inward dispositions Blessed are the pure in spirit blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness c. or in the outward action 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that you may obtain 1 Cor. 15. ult your labour is not in vain in the Lord. And though the Covenant be made only out of free grace yet the Saints do claim these promises not only out of mercy but from the faithfulness of God 1 Cor. 10.19 1 Jo. 1.9 2 Tim. 4.8 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able he is faithful and just to forgive us c. And what is the ground of this but the Covenant of God whereby his faithfulness is ingaged 5. The Covenant of grace is a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator and confirmed by the death of the Testator Heb. it 's not only a Covenant but it 's a Testament 1 Christ is the Mediator now no man is a mediator between God and himself a Mediator is not a Mediator of one it must be a third person a dayes-man that must lay hold upon both therefore there is a Covenant made with Christ and Christ is a Mediator for the establishment of the Covenant with us also And 2 Christ is the Testator he died and left his Legacies of all the promises to the saints now no man gives a Legacy to himself In the Covenant made between the Father and Christ Christ is a party and a publick person but in this Covenant between God and us he is a Mediator and the Testator by whom we receive all the Legacies and Inheritance that he has purchased for us and granted to us Rom. 4.11 6. The Sacraments are seals of the Covenant of grace Now if we look upon the Covenant made with Christ and consider that his faith was perfect in God and he knew the Lord would not fail him but saies He is near that justifies me who will contend with me he will not leave my soul in Hell c. But though Christ had a strong faith yet we have but a weak faith and therefore had need of Sacraments and outward signs to confirm it wherefore the Sacraments are not to confirm the Covenant made with Christ but the Covenant made with the Saints he to whom the Covenant is made unto him the seals are to be applied and it would seem unreasonable for the Covenant to be made unto one and the seals to be applied unto the other therefore there is a Covenant made with the saints and to this Covenant the Sacraments are added as seals 7. There is a double oath to confirm this