opposition to Judaisme Heathenisme it needs not to be doubted and that implies a covenant What farther is desired must be lest to the blessing of God by providence on Ordinances The want of piety in the Parent is supplied by the piety of the Church into which the infant is received Seventhly saith he If the Predecessour may by this promise give right to Baptisme without the immediate Parent then I pray you tell us how farre we may go for this Predecessour how many generations Where hath Gods Word limited Ministers you may go to this Predecessour and no farther 1. I know few that say the Predecessour gives right without the immediate Parent but all concurre in a joynt way to communicate a covenant-interest but his question may have an easie answer 2. I demand in titles of Honour and inheritance of Lands which men claime by descent from their Ancestors where it is that they stay It will be soon answered that they stay when they can rise no higher to finde any other Predecessours vested in such honours or such inheritance Some can make no claim at all from Parents they are the first of their house of honour or inheritance This was the case of Abraham he had no interest from Terah such was the case of the Primitive Converts and such is the case of the Indians that now by a gracious providence are converted by the English Some can go no farther then their immediate Parents they were the first in honour or that gained an inheritance to their house This was the case of Isaac and of those children called by the Apostle holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. and will be the case of the children of the Indian Converts Others can rise to the third or fourth generation others can go as high as the Conquest some can claime beyond the Conquest by deeds beyond date so it is with some Christians all may go as high as Ancestours have been in Christianity Eightly If by vertue of that promise Predecessours may without the immediate parent give right to Baptisme then the children of an immediate parent apostatized from the Faith and excommunicated from the Church may be baptized I have spoke already to the children of Apostates and as to the children of excommunicate persons I readily yield his conclusion that I may baptize them against which he thus farther reasons If I may baptize the children of an excommunicate parent then I may baptize the children of one who is no Member of a Church for so is the excommunicate person so consequently the children of a Turk or Indian for they are no members of a Church and the excommunicated person is no other in respect of his communion in Church-priviledges I answer if excommunication be onely out of a particular visible congregation as some say then the reply is easie being thus excommunicate his right in the Church universal visible still remaines and into this it is that we admit Members by Baptisme 1 Cor. 12. 13. otherwise a Christian were a Christian respective onely to one congregation and that congregation falling his Christianity must fall with it and being taken into a new one he must be also admitted-anew by Baptisme But I farther answer A Church-Member may be considered either quoad jus ad rem or quoad jus in re either respective to a fundamental proper right or a present personal actual fruition of his interest An excommunicate man in the former sense is a Church-Member not in the later This excommunication is a sequestration not a confiscation He himself is suspended from present benefit not cut off from all title as several wayes may be made to appear 1. The Text saith Let him be as an Heathen or a Publican in respect of society with him or familiarity saith Master Cawdrey Diatribe pag. 218. not an Heathen and Publicane That Text 2 Thes 3. 14. is ordinarily understood of Excommunication yet there the caution is added Count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother vers 15. A brother is a Church-member an excommunicate person is a brother That which is for cure not only of the body but of the member in particular is not a total dismembring But this sentence is for cure of the particular member For the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord 1 Cor. 5. 5. Excommunication is not like poyson that is given to an enemy for death but a medicine that is given to a brother for life saith Gomarus in 2 Thes 3. 15. Certainly Gods casting out of his Kingdome Matth. 8. 12. taking away his Kingdome Mat. 21. 3. removal of his Candlestick Rev. 2. 5. the breaking off from the Olive Rom. 11. 17. is a sentence farre above Excommunication To let passe Authours of this minde Zanchy and Perkins quoted by Master Firmin The National Synod of France 1583. The Divines of Geneva Calvine Dr. Ames Danaeus Brochman quoted by Master Cawdrey Diatribe page 216. and examine it by reason Either the excommunicate persons sin divests the childe or else the Churches censure But neither the sin nor the censure Ergo. 1. Not the sin as may appear 1. By an Argument ad hominem Our Dissenting Brethren as we heard allow the Baptisme notwithstanding sin before the sentence of Excommunication It is not then the sin in their judgement that doth divest them 2. By an Argument ad rem No sin but that of nature descends to posterity man transmits not his personal vices neither fault nor guilt no more than his graces And for the sentence that cannot reach the childe I never read that Church-censures were like that plague laid upon Gehazi to cleave to him and to his seed In any legal proceeding the childe is not to be punished for the fathers fault there was a Law against it Deut. 24. 16. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers every man shall be put to death for his own sin and Amaziah King of Judah is commended for observation of it and in his acts of justice proceeding according to it 2 Chron. 25. 34. and we read not that any Ecclesiastical censure should transcend it The child of a thief is not committed with him to prison I see no reason that he should be committed with him to Satan I say then there is right to Baptism in the child of an excommunicate person I wish our Brethren would stick here not refuse those children whose parents are under no Excommunication As to the third our Authour 1. Premises a question Whether is this bare profession of Faith in Christ though Parents be grossely ignorant scandalous and refuse to subject to Church-discipline sufficient to make a man and continue him a Member of the Church visible And then proceeds to arguments as to his question I wonder how he can imagine that it makes any thing to his question
Exod. 34. 7. when he sets out his name in several particulars this is one by no means clearing the guilty Some indeed have said conceiting with themselves thereby to promote free grace that God justifies sinners as sinners which as it must needs if true bring in the salvation of all à quatenus ad omne valet argumentum then a man need no more but sinne to conclude his salvation and the more sinne the stronger evidence so it is utterly destructive to the Gospel and overthrows the whole work of Christs merit as the Apostle saith If righteousnesse be by the Law then Christ is dead in vaine Galatians 2. 21. So we may safely say If a man be justified as a sinner without a righteousnesse So that the truth is God justifies as righteous what he esteems as an abomination in man that he doth not himself but this in man is an abomination to him He that justifieth the wicked and condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord Proverbs 17. 15. Secondly Man hath no righteousnesse of his owne to bring in plea for his justification in which he can appeare before God in judgment This will be plaine if we consider the wayes of acquital where proceedings are just and legal This must be either as innocent when a man can plead not guilty to that which is given in charge So did David when Cush the Benjamite did traduce him Psalm 7. 3. If I have done this if there be iniquity in my hands And so did Paul to the charge of Tertullus Acts 24. 13. Upon this account Pilate was willing to have acquitted Christ I finde no fault in this man Luke 23. 4. Or else by way of satisfaction or discharge of the penalty which the Law imposeth so in all penal Lawes when the penalty is borne the delinquent is discharged Man cannot be acquitted as innocent his guilt is too palpable There is no men that sinneth nâ—t saith Solomon 1 Kings 8. 4 6. The Scripture hath concluded all under sinne Gal. 3. 22. The Law speaks that language that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God Rom. 3. 19. Man is under that guilt that he is wholly silenced which renders the way of salvation by works impossible Neither can he be acquitted by way of satisfaction where the way of pure justice is held the debtor under charge can never come out till he hath paid the uttermost farthing Mat. 5. 26. Which here amounts to such an heighth that man may be ever paying but never able to satisfie Our guilt is according to the majesty of him whose Law is transgressed and wrath incurred This is seen in Devils and damned souls who bear in their own persons the reward due to their sinnes That man that must suffer it in his own person may well say with Cain My punishment is greater then I can bear Gen. 4. 13. Thirdly Man in this sad and perplexed estate hath yet a righteousnesse of grace tendered him a righteousnesse without the Law but witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Rom. 3. 21. And this is by way of discharge of his guilt by anothers suffering Our name was in the Obligation in case of sinne to suffer death Christ was pleased by consent and covenant with the Father to put in his and as he was thus obliged so he suffered the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3. 18. We brake the Law and he bore the penalty whether idem or tantundem the same in specie or the same in value is scarce worth dispute So that it be yeelded that justice was answered and the Father satisfied and that we come out not on our own but our sureties account And this as I yet conceive is by Christs passive obedience His suffering in the flesh is our freedom his death is our ransome There needs no more than innocency not to die and when guilt is taken away we stand as innocent no crime then can be charged upon us But to reign in life as the Apostle speaks to inherit a crown there is farther expected which we not reaching Christs active obedience imputed to us not adding to ours but being in it self compleat is accounted ours and we are discharged And whereas some say Object that being freed from death upon that very account we reigne in life and therefore in case his sufferings deliver us from death they necessarily confer upon us life there is not nor can there be conceived any medium between them I answer Answ It is true of our natural life and death A man not dead is alive But taking death in Scripture-sense for the wages of sin which comprizes as we have heard all misery and life for an immarcessible crown of glory there may be a medium conceived between them and is not onely conceived but assigned by Papists in their Limbus infantum Neither will it serve to say that Christs active obedience served onely for a qualification to fit him for the work of suffering none but innocent man free from sin could be a sacrifice for sinne seeing Christ had been innocent though he had never come under the Law to have yeelded that obedience His person had not been as ours under the Law unlesse of his own accord he had been made under the Law Gal. 4. 4. Somewhat might be said for the subjection of the humane nature in Christ the manhood of Christ which was a creature but the person of Christ God-man seemes to be above subjection Much may be said for the subjection of the Sonne of David so considered he may say with David I am thy servant and the sonne of thy handmaid but not so of the Lord of David had he not for our sakes made himself a servant We know the mortality of the humane nature yet Christ had never died unlesse he had made himself obedient unto death neither needed he to have served unlesse he had humbled himself Phil. 2. to take upon him the forme of a servant See the confession of Faith agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines chap. 8. sect 5. and Dr. Featlies speeches upon it Fourthly This righteousnesse of Christ whether passive or active or both passive and active is made ours by faith This is our way of interest and appropriation of it to our selves Faith and no other grace this grace and no other Gospel-work gives us title and therefore as it is called the righteousnesse of God so also the righteousnesse of faith These two are promiscuously used and taken for one another Rom. 10. 3 4. Phil 3. 8. Called the righteousnesse of God being the free gift of God wrought by Christ who is God denied to be our own righteousnesse being neither wrought by us or inherent in us called the righteousnesse of faith not of works not of love not of patience or meekness It is alone faith and none of these graces that puts out it selfe to receive it
extreams the one much prejudicial to the Reader in Treatises of this nature to give us a bare skeleton of bones and sinewes leaving their Readers to clothe them with skin and flesh These serve better to help their memories that are already seen in the subject then to help those with satisfaction that are not already verst in it Memoriae mater ingenii noverca I would learned Amesius in his Medulla Theologiae Cases of Conscience and other learned Works had not affecting brevity herein been defective Sure I am the Reader might well wish that learned Camero's work De triplici foedere had by his own hand been more inlarged that he had spoken more fully where his Reader may see cause justly to close with him and given in his Reasons especially in several differences which he assigns beteewn the Old which he calls the subservient Covenant and the Covenant of Grace where many suppose they have cause to dissent from him The other extream might be the Readers benefit but would have been my burthen and that is an enlarged full discourse on every particular Divinity-head that may occur in the handling of this Subject a way which reverend Master Ball intended I have heard it from those that received it from his own mouth that his purpose was to speak on this Subject of the Covenant all that he had to say in all the whole body of Divinity a work that the whole Church might wish had not Divine providence determined otherwise that he had enjoyed life to finish That which he hath left behinde gives us a taste of it and the advantage the Church might have received by it I have thought it enough to handle each particular so as might well answer expectation in reference to the present subject To speak of Christ as a Mediatour of the Covenant and to set forth the distinct parts of his work in such mediation without handling the whole of the work and all the Offices incident to his Mediatorship To speak of his death ratifying the Covenant of grace waving the controversie of the extent of it in the intention of God or purpose of Christ It is sufficient to me to assert Faith to be a condition of the Covenant necessary to be put in by us to attain the mercies in the Covenant to speak of it so far as is here concerned without a large Treatise of the nature requisites and life of it so I may say of godly sorrow cessation from sin sincerity of obedience and the like Thirdly Those particulars relating to this subject which are most controverted and in this age disputed I have spoke to more at large to instance in some The conditions of the Covenant of Grace as well to the an sint whether there be any such conditions at all which in our times by several hands out of several Principles is denyed Or the Quae sint what these conditions be laying down rules and helps for the better discovery of them The supposed differences between the old and new Whether such that offer injurie to the Covenant under which the Fathers lived under Moses his administration or before his dayes making it a meer carnal Covenant consisting of temporal promises as the possession of the Land of Canaan and protection there or at the least a mixt Covenant and no pure Gospel-Covenant and the seals suitable Or such that put too great a limit to the Covenant in Gospel-times vesting it onely in the elect regenerate excluding all professed ones not yet regenerate not onely from Covenant-mercies but all Covenant-terms not admitting any to stand in any relation to God but those only whom his Spirit hath changed making the call of God in the largest sense convertible with Election and the seal of Baptism to be of no greater latitude unlesse by mistake mis-applied than the seal of the Spirit and determining it in the persons of the elect about which the meer congregational men and the Antipoedobaptists agreeing in the former do differ that they excluding the seed and leaving them in the same condition hope of education excepted with the Heathens In these and some others as the Reader may meet withall I have been more large in such things where all agree or where it much skills not whether we agree or differ as in what place whether on earth or heaven man had enjoyed immortality in case he had not sinned what need we to administer matter of contention our work is to make up breaches were it possible so far as it may stand with truth and not to widen them Fourthly I have not so tied up my self to the expresse immediate doctrine of the covenant but that I have occasionally drawn Corollaries or Inferences leading to other things of neer relation to and necessary dependance upon this of the Covenant I shall not need to give instance the Reader all along will meet with them such as I thought would be useful and to the judicious not ungrateful some of them practical that the whole of the Book might not be found to be Polemical ayming at least at that which the Poet so cries up Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dâ—lci Fifthly For that part in which Infant-Baptisme and its grounds are particularly vindicated from Antipoedobaptists the Reader may see their arguments and corrupt glosses are examined onely as according to my method laid down I have been necessitated and so that the Covenant had not been vindicated according to my duty in case that had been neglected And here those that please to heed may see First the dependance that this Controversie about Infant-Baptisme hath on the doctrine of the Covenant that a Scripture Covenant cannot be asserted but Infant-Member-ship Infant-Baptisme in the latitude as now generally used by Pastors in their Congregations must be upheld Secondly the order in which this controversie is here carried may so much the rather invite the Reader to it seeing what is in opposite Authors laid down scatteringly without regard to any head of doctrine in the Covenant to which it doth relate here it is reduced to its proper place and carried on in that manner as an orderly Treatise and not a personal conflict following adversaries no farther than as they stand in the way to cloud the truth that is there prosecuted and though many advantages are hereby neglected that might have been taken which adversaries use to prosecute to the uttermost and these adversaries would to the height have improved yet I am very well pleased making it my businesse that my Reader may not be troubled but edified Thirdly the Scriptures that are produced and ordinarily agitated in this controversie of Infant-Baptism are not only urged but a just Analysis of the context opened the full scope and drift laid down so that it may appeare that the words are not enforced but of themselves in their native strength commend that doctrine to us that of Jerome Apol. adversus Jovinian much takes with me Commentatoris
from him did repeal it but instead of a repeale did put a new sanction upon it Christ indeed as soon as he publickly appeared in the work of redemption was charged that he came to destroy the Law But this he did utterly disavow and men of faith in Christ should believe him professing that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Yea that there is a greater stability in the Law in every tittle of it in regard of the permanency then is in heaven and earth then is in the whole frabrick of the world And whereas the Scribes and Pharisees were then thought to be the only strict observers of the rule of the Law and the alone men that kept up the honour of it Christ asserts a necessity of a higher degree of obedience then the Scribes and Pharisees ever taught or practised Except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees c. which must be understood of righteousnesse inherent in conformity to the Law as appeares in the precedent words where Christ holds discourse about the Law and is more fully confirmed in the words that follow Christ on this occasion openeth the commandments of the Law shewing how farre Scribes and Pharisees went in their righteousnesse how farre we must transcend them if ever we come to the Kingdome of heaven Neither did the Apostles by any Commission from Christ repeal it but they add the same sanction to it Paul foreseeing that this very thing would be charged upon him as it was upon Christ saith Do we make void the Law through faith yea we establish saith he the Law Rom 3. 31. Our doctrine is a confirmation and no abolition of it And both he and other Apostles frequently in their Epistles urge precepts of the Moral Law as in force and having power and command over men in covenant Paul laying a charge upon children to obey their parents Ephes 6. 1. urges it from the fifth Commandment which he there sets out with a mark of honour as the first Commandment with promise and paraphraseth upon the promise annexed to it against which children might enter their challenge if in Gospel-times the Law had lost its commanding power And requiring obedience from wives to husbands the Law is quoted for it 1 Cor. 14. 34. Having proved the equity of Ministers maintenance by an argument drawn from civil right and common rules of equity in three particulars he adds Say I these things or saith not the Law also the same And so quotes a Text of the Law the Law as delivered by Moses for it is written in the Law of Moses Thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corn 1 Cor. 9. 9. and then cleareth it from an exception that might be taken against it So James 2. 8. If ye fulfil the royal Law Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well The Law is of force in that grand duty so in other precepts there mentioned Do not commit adultery Do not kill verse 11. yea it is of force in the least duties ver 10. He that shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all 1 Thes 47 8. We have the seventh and eighth Commandment quoted as of force with Christians As also Rom. 12. 19. Avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord quoting the Law Deut. 32. 35. Neither is it capable of any repeal being the Law of nature written in the hearts of heathens Rom. 2. 15. more clearly therefore in the heart of Adam These are of those things that are prohibita quia mala The transgression of them was forbidden because evil of their own nature The Creation standing the Law could be no other If no Law had ever been promulged or given of God to man yet murder and adultery had been sinne Christ not changing the Law of Creation but taking to himself the nature of man the same as it was first created when he came to save man must of necessity keep on foot that law that was from the beginning stampt upon him So that we see it is not abolished but ratified neither is it in a capacity of abolition It is confest by a great party of those that in this appeare as adversaries that there is no liberty to sinne in the dayes of the Gospel There be not many that will avouch the contrary if they do they must know that they have the Gospel against them that hath in a readinesse to avenge all disobedience 2 Cor. 6. 10. The Apostle writes to beleevers that they sinne not 1 John 2. 1. And this is the definition of sinne 1 John 3. 4. Sinne is a transgression of the Law As for those that 〈◊〉 beleevers have no sinne cannot sinne it is to little purpose to speak to them or having any thing to deale with them If they believe not John they will not beleeve me telling them that that there is no truth in them 1 John 1. 8. He that pleaseth may see a large confirmation of this truth in Mr. Burg Vindiciae Legis and Master Boltons Treatise of the true bounds of Christian freedome page 77. to 88. Therefore one much forgets himselfe who in a Treatise of the two covenants bespeaks his Reader in these words Consider this seriously that if you be beleevers and married to Christ the Law hath no more power over you then a dead husband hath over his relict and living wife which he presently interprets of a commanding power and denies that the Law hath any commanding power over a beleever Which assertion of his that it may be the more observed he puts into his Index The Law hath no commanding power over a beleever The same Authour yet says that the Law is a discoverer of and convincer of sinne to beleevers It is a curb to the pride and presumption of beleevers as well as of unbeleevers But if a husband cannot by reason of death command his wife how can be convince her of her faults or be a curb or restraint to her Job was in right of command over his wife as long as he had power of reproof to tell her of her folly and to endavour to put a stop to it In his answer of an objection he yeelds that though the Law should be dead to a beleever and a beleever dead to the Law yet it doth not thence follow that they should sinne must sinne or will sinne Upon this supposition I say there is not in them a capacity of sinne or possibility of sinning He further sayes There would be no sinne were it not for a Law for the Law gives if I may so terme it a being to sinne and therefore is called the strength of sinne for if a man should swear covet or kill and there should be no Law prohibiting the same doubtlesse it would not be evil for the Law makes it evil And if the Law
inflicts the Lord 4. His way of dealing as a Father in love and not in vengeance Now turne to Heb. 12. 5 6 7. and there we shall see the Apostle 1. Quoting this Scripture 2. Checking them for not heeding it 3. Commenting upon it Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children My sonne despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sonnes for what sonne is he whom the Father chasteneth not These words of the Apostle confirm all the Old Testament proofs before mentioned give a shrewd check to all those that would cast them off and are a full New Testament-proof of the point in hand our aversaries tell us that the children of God in New Testament-times have that great and happy priviledge to be free from all chastisements for sinne The Apostle on the other hand sayes that it is their happinesse to be chastised and would be their sorrow if they were without chastisement For this cause saith the Apostle many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 1 Cor. 11. 30. There we see judgements inflicted the persons suffering and the cause of suffering assigned The judgements are set out 1. By the quality or kinde such as were visible on the outward man as their sinne was open so was their suffering 2. By their several degrees in which they suffered some weak languishing under infirmities some sick taken with diseases some fallen asleep surprised with death The persons suffering are set out 1. By their multitude many 2. By the application of the stroke Corinthians had sinned and Corinthians suffered The cause is implyed in the illative particle For and exprest in the foregoing words their unworthy addresses unto the Lords Table sinfully eating and drinking they eat and drink their own judgement and though it cannot be said that all were in grace that thus suffered yet there were some at least in grace among them in that the Lord chastened them in the world that they might not be condemned with the world The Lord Christ speaks fully to this in his letter from heaven to Laodicea the Church of Rev. 3. 19. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten As Scripture expresly holds out this truth so it is also clear in reason if God should not hold up his Sovereignty in this way of exercise of discipline upon his children his love could not be continued to them but would be withdrawn from them as we see in Christs words but now mentioned Rev. 3. 19. as also in those words of Solomon and the Apostle Pro. 3. 11. Heb. 12. 5 6 7. The love of God is such to his children and such a league of friendship is past between them say our adversaries that it will not suffer him to strike them We say his love is such that he cannot forbear to strike and will not suffer that they should sinne and carry it with impunity There are indeed some such parents that are so indulgent that children must neither have check nor stroke from them what course soever they take they scarce hear words much lesse do they suffer stripes These call this love but a wiser then they calls it by the name of hatred Prov. 13. 24. He that spareth the rod hateth his sonne but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes Pity will not suffer to make children smart But it is greater pity that the want of smart should bring them to the condemnation of hell Prov. 23. 13 14. With-hold not correction from the childe for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell A childe in sinne must either be beaten or spared Beating will not be his death but sparing tends to his condemnation The similitude is not ours but the Holy Ghosts One of the most terrible texts in all the Bible may be found as one sayes Hoses 4. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredome nor your spouses when they commit adultery He spares not some that he may for ever spare them chastening them in the world that he may not condemn them with the world He spares some and everlastingly destroys them 2. Otherwise God would be reconciled to the sinne of his people and in league not only with their persons but with their wickednesse which is most abhorrent to his holinesse We read of Gods reconciliation to the world but never to the wickednesse of the world God may be at peace with those that have sinned not imputing their trespasses but he will never be at peace with sin 3. It will not stand with his honour to suffer his to go on in impunity in these ways Their wickednesse will be said to be by his allowance Men in sin are ready to say as the Psalmist observe that God is such a one as themselves Psalme 50. 21. and that because they sinne and he keeps silence And men of the world will say the same if his people go on in sinne and prosper This the Lord sees and takes care this way to prevent Ezek. 39. 23. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them He will make it appear that he is no patron to them in that which is evil 4. God hath given in charge to Magistrates his vice-gerents for to punish They are revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil Rom. 13. 4. they are sent of God for the punishment of evil doers 1. Pet. 2. 14. They have no commission to spare upon supposal of any interest in God or grace when they are found in any acts that are wicked What they do God does they acting by his command and by vertue of his commission For further clearing of this point and if it may be to work a right understanding I shall lay down severall Positions 1. God considered in his absolute Sovereignty may inflict sufferings without injustice on his innocent creatures there is no absolute necessity that sinne should go before all manner of trouble Punishment cannot be without a fault that alwayes implies guilt where justice is followed Yet such is Gods Sovereignty that he may lay affliction where there is no transgression We do it upon our fellow-creatures we tread upon wormes that never did offend us God may much more do it upon his creatures yea God does it How much do bruit creatures suffer in the world and unwillingly suffer as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. 20. and that from Gods hand that hath made them subject to these suffering that which God doth unto one creature he may do unto any creature that which he doth to the meanest he may do to the most noble creature As a potter may
do them that ye may live and go in and possesse the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you Deut. 5. 33. You shall walk in all the wayes which the Lord your God hath commanded you that ye may live and that it may be well with you and that ye may prolong your dayes in the land which ye shall possesse Deut. 30. 16. In that I command this day to love the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgements that thou mayest live and multiply and the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in the land whither thou goest to possesse it Deut. 6. 24 25. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as it is this day And it shall be our righteousnesse if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us We may so interpret those Scriptures and the Jewes as it appears for a great part did so interpret them that they hold out a covenant of Works when Grace was not at all acknowledged to assist in doing nor Christ known at all to satisfie for failing and to expiate for transgression These seeing nothing but a reward upon labour and punishment in case of transgression They may yet be so interpreted as taking Grace in the Work for change of the heart and putting it into a posture for obedience according to that even in Moses Deut. 306. I will circumcise thy heart and the heart if thy â—eed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live and so these duties are only Gospel qualifications of truth and sincerity of obedience In this sense which they may well bear and I take to be their native sense here is no more than what we finde in the Gospel from Christ and the Apostles They that have done good shall rise unto the resurrâ—ction of life John 5. 28. To them that by patient continuing in well-doing seek for glory and immortality eternal life Rom 2. 5. Where as in many other places we may see that according to the New covenant a man may make the attaining of life the end of his work and the Reader may see phrases of his nature to be New covenant New Testament and Gospel-language unlesse they will charge Christ and the Apostles to have Old Testament-spirits To save a mans self may be so understood as to bear a sense purely legal anti-Evangelical and opposite to Grace or Faith in Christ and so it is used by the Apostle or a phrase very near it For by Grace ye are saved through Faith not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. Not obscurely shewing that if we are saved of our selves it is not of Grace not of Faith and not the gift of God Yet the phrase may be understood in a Gospel-sense as requiring and implying no more than our endeavour in a state of grace through the assistance of the Spirit to walk in Salvation-way To strive to enter in at the strait gate and to seek the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse of it and so we finde it used and that more than once in Scriptures 1 Tim. 4. 16. Take heed unto thy self and unto the doctrine in so doing thou wilt save thy self and them that hear thee Ministers taking heed to doctrine save hearers and yet are no saviours in opposition but in subordination to the Lord Jesus Ministers and others taking heed to themselves save themselves and yet are no self-saviours in opposition to free grace the merit of or faith in Christ Jesus Peter in his first Sermon after receiving of the holy Ghost preâ—cht the Gospel yet he urg'd this which some will have to be no other than a covenant of Works Save your selves from this untoward generation Act. 2. 40. And the Apostle preacht no other thing than Christ and him crucified when he called on the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. To be found in our own righteousnesse in that sense that Paul uses it Phil. 3. 8. doth exclude the righteousnesse of faith that was no bottom on which he durst stand yet in the sense that Ezekiel uses it the soul is delivered by it Though Noah Daniel and Job stood before me they would but deliver their own soules by their righteousness Ezek. 14. 14. so Ezek. 18. 22. In his righteousness that he hath done he shall live Noah was an heir of the righteousness of faith Heb. 11. 7. as the Holy Ghost himself witnesseth yet the same Holy Ghost tells us that his own righteousness delivers his soul So Solomon saith Righteousnesse delivers from death he doth not only say it would deliver were it exact and compleat but such as it is it doth deliver Prov. 20.2 David as Paul observes describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works Rom. 4. 6. Yet the same David puts blessednesse upon works Psal 112. 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his commandments Psalme 119. 12. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord Blessed are they that keep his testimonies that seek him with the whole heart Ps 128. 1. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walketh in his wayes And so also the Apostle James Who so looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word that man shall be blessed in his deed James 1. 25. The Apostle Peter tells us We are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1 5. Our salvation is not in our own keeping It is not our own care that frees us from destruction yet John saith He that is begotten of God sinneth not and keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not 1 John 5. 18. Here are the same words affirmed and denied and both from one and the same mouth of truth a different sense therefore is to be enquired after A righteousnesse which is the condition of the covenant of Works out of our own inherent strength and abilities in an exact perfection is denied a righteousnesse not of us but through grace wrought in us in sincerity which the covenant of Grace calls for is asserted and required Ninthly Though the whole Law that Moses delivered from God on Mount Sinai to the people and is among the sacred Oracles of God for posterity do containe a covenant of Grace yet the Law is taken sometime in that strict sense as containing a covenant of Works and holding forth life upon condition of perfect obedience So the Apostle Rom. 10. 5 6. puts an opposition between the righteousnesse of the Law and the righteousness of Faith So also Gal. 3. 18. If
regard of persons for Themselves Posterity For themselves it is much to be able with the Psalmist to say Thou art he that took me out of the wombe Thou didst make me to hope when I was upon my mothers breasts I was cast upon thee from the wombe thou art my God from my mothers belly Psal 22. 9 10. This puts upon confidence in prayer as an argument drawn from long continued acquaintance as there follows Be not farre from me for trouble is neer Ver. 11. Such have timely knowledge of God sucking in somewhat of him while they suck milk from the brests An expression of height setting out this birth-happiness that hath sure more in it then can be applied to sinners of the Gentiles see how the Psalmist yet farther pleads it with God O Lord truely I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid Psal 116. 16. an allusion to the law of servants who were the inheritance of the Master in whose house they were Exod. 21. 4. Levit. 25. 16. I am such saith the Psalmist thy servant thy servant with all earnestneâ—â— of affection I am of thine inheritance I am one of those that are thy house-borne-servants my mother was thy hand-maid I have therefore this relation to plead and this he pleads again and again in the same words Psal 86. 16. This great priviledge Isaiah in like manner takes notice of Isa 49. 1. The Lord hath called me from the wombe from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name The Apostle mindes the Ephesians of their former condition and will have them to remember the time past when they were without Christ being aliens from the Common-Wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope without God in the world But there never was a time in which men of this birth-priviledge were in that condition these are Gods heritage from the wombe and with Timothy some in greater some in lesse measure from children have the knowledge of the Scriptures if not with John Baptist full of the Holy Ghost from the wombe Luke 1. 15. which yet doubtlesse is the happinesse not of few who are eminent in sanctification whose growth in grace is seen and yet the beginnings not known Howsoever it is with them for personal qualifications yet they are nigh when others are afarre off Ephes 2. 13. at the pools brim waiting the Angels moving of the water John 5. 3. Salvation is of the Jewes saith our Saviour John 4. 22. Saving Ordinances are their inheritance They are happily seated under that joyful sound which is able to save the soul Jam. 1. 21. Salvation is of his house who is the sonne of Abraham Luke 19. 9. As it is full of consolation to Beleevers in respect of themselves so also in reference to their posterity their children are Gods children they being the Lords inheritance their children are his heritage in like manner they bring â—orth children to God and he ownes and challenges their seed as his Ezek 16. 20. An infinite love in God an unspeakable comfort to a perent when the Infant who by corruption of nature is in Satans jawes and in no lesse danger of hell than Moses sometimes was of the water and not so much as sensible of his condition God pleases in this sad state to look upon him and to make it the time of love finding out wayes for his freedome What the Apostle speaks from the Prophet Rom. 10. 10. of Gods care of the Gentiles is certainly true being applied to infants I was found of them that sought me not and made manifest to them that enquired not after me Had we that hopelesse opinion of our children as Papists have of theirs that die without Baptisme what a wretched case were it with David to part with an infant out of the world How could such mourne in any other way than as those that are without hope parting with an infant without any part in Christ and in no better posture towards God than the seed of the sinners of the Gentiles doomed both by the Psalmist and the Prophet Jeremy Psalm 79. 6. Jerem. 10. 25. Pour out thy wrath on the heathen that have not known thee and upon the families that call not upon thy name they might with Rachel weep for their children and refuse to be comforted because for eternity they are not But we finde God more rich in mercy entring covenant with his and their seed Christ himselfe imbracing them in their infancy and taking them into his special love as those that bear his name and though death should prevent their Baptisme whereby they have an actual interest in visible Church-priviledges yet he that hath appointed Ordinances is not tied to them but where he hath entered covenant can save without them Bellarmine confesseth that the desire of Baptisme in one that is in the number of the Catechumoni instructed in the principles of Christ and not baptized doth save though the text John 3. 5. so much urged by that party against the salvation of infants understood with their Comment be in the letter against it why then should not that grace which would shew it selfe in like desires when the person is of capacity qualifie for salvation in like manner Finding this love in God these bowels in Christ we may safely conclude that children have blisse parents have comfort parents and children have their interest in Church-Ordinances and Administrations And let God have the glory FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL Table Relating to the chief Heads handled in this Treatise A Abraham CIrcumcision was not a Seale of Faith peculiar to him pag. 239. Arguments evincing it ibid. All his seed were not in Covenant but his seed by Promise only pag. 298 He was not taken into Covenant as a natural Father but as a natural Father accepting Gods tender pag. 299 His seed is entitled to saving mercies on Gods termes ibid. His houshold-members out of Covenant not circumcised page 425 See Circumcision Root Actions Immanent and transient pag. 132 See Justification Adam Was in Covenant with God pag. 9 His integrity was connatural pag. 103 Stood not in need of a Mediatour p. 91 In what sense imperfect ibid. In case he had stood whether he had been translated out of Paradise into Heaven p. 100 He might have gone quick to Hell if Christ had not been promised p. 102 See Covenant Adoption Adoptive-right to Baptisme questioned p. 454 Angels In Covenant with God p. 7 Needed not a Mediatour p. 91 In what sense their obedience was imperfect ibid. Antiquity For Infant-Baptisme cleared p. 416 Apostasie Total and partial p. 453 Assembly Of Divines vindicated p. 406 Assurance Is to be gathered from the conditions of the Covenant p. 195 See Spirit B. Baptisme SIgnifies not barely dipping but every way of washing It is the door for admission into the Church visible p. 275 Pharisees not denied it seeking but being tendered rejected
to you on the Sea without a Pilate To you Orphans without a Spirituall Father and first you see what cause there is for our constant expectation and preparation for death Gods own Ministers and servants must dye God needeth no mans labours or parts Moses Joshua Paul Peter must die sola mors non habet fortasse said Austin only Death hath no may be It may be thou mayest be rich it may be thou mayest thrive in thy trading it may be thou mayest have comfort in thy Children and friends but thy death hath no may be Oh! let not the world let not your Shops let not trading take off your hearts from this Meditation but think you hear God speaking to you set not your house but your souls in order for thou must die And secondly here is some comfort though there be cause of much sorrow that though your Faithfull Pastor he dead yet the chief Pastor of your souls is not He that setteth Pastors and Teachers in the Church he that sendeth forth labourers into his harvest he liveth for ever as one in the Ecclesiasticall History when newes was brought him that his father was dead Desine blasphemias loqui saith he pater enim meus immortalis est cease to speak blasphemy for my Father is immortall Thus let this honey fall into your gall this Wine into your water The great and Chief Shepheard of your souls is not dead Lastly now the will of God is done concerning our deceased Brother your duty is to be much in Prayer to God that there may be a Joshua after Moses That God would joyne your hearts together as one man to seek out a Pastor for you which shall feed you according to his holy will The Lord hath made a great breach upon you be sensible of it and seriously consider how all your soul-comforts and advantages are bound up in this matter Ministers are compared to the Sun and Salt nihil sole sale utâ—lius can you be without the Sun in the heavens without bread for your body so neither without this bread of life for your souls or without this light to guide you in the wildernesse of this World to eternall happinesse FINIS A Funerall Oration at the Death of the most desired Mr. Blake By Mr. Samuel Shaw then School-master of the Free-School at Tamworth WIth a face sadder then usuall with an heart sadder then my face but upon an occasion sadder then them both I who was deputed to this work by him to whom I now perform it am here rather to receive the expressions of your sorrow then tell you the resentments of mine own Being sensible of my stupefaction caused not through the want of my affections but the want of their object I desire out of a pious pollicy to supply my drynesse by taking your Tears and putting them into my pump so hoping to revive mine own which yet I judge are rather drowned then dryed up And yet when I have done this I know that all my expressions will fall short of the greatness of my grief as much as my grief does of the greatness of its cause This numerous Company of Pious groaners these so many blacks not made but occasioned to be Mourners badges of profession becomming badges of that grief which for its greatness can be equal'd by nothing but their former happiness which they once enjoyed the universall gloommess of this day represents to me rather the funerall of a Town then a man and the fall of a Church rather then a single pillar and rather induces me to think that ye are come to quench the unmercifull heat of a feaver then only to bedew that which was the subject of one But if it may be hold a little and suffer your eyes a while to a new employment even to see where you are what you are doing whose Obsequies you are solemnizing with so great devotion and take the dimensions of your losse if it be capable of any which indeed is so great that they only can know it who knew not him and they onely can feel who never enjoyâ—d him I speak not to aggravate your loss but the sense of it as for the cause of it it admits of no addition Whilst he lived it was as impossible for him not to love you as it was for you adâ—quately to return his love His care answered his love and if his successe had answered his care we might happily have this day wanted an object of so great sorrow in enjoying him His writing were not read without satisfaction His Sermons were never heard without an approving silence seldom without a following advantage His kindness towards you could â—ot be considered without love his awfull gravity and secretly-commanding presence without reverence Nor his conversation without imitation To see him live was a provocation to a godly life to see him dying might have made any one aweary of living When God restrains him from this place which was alwayes happy in his company but now he made his chamber a Church and his bed a Pulpit in which in my hearing he offered many a hearty prayer for you And his death made him mindfull of you whose life made you unmindfull of him And I did not see that any thing made him so backward to resign up his â—ure soul to God as his unparalell'd care for you and your proficiency in godliness which seemed as little to him in comparison of what he desired as it does great to others in comparison of what they finde so that I sate by him and I only when with as great affluency of Tears as words he prayed Lord with some ingeminations charge not on me the ignorance of this people And indeed your ignorance had not been so remarkable had not his Knowledge and desire still to communicate it been so With what a grace and majesty have you heard him Preaching who is now alas confin'd to a worser wood Could you ever resist the power by which he spake or find in your hearts to contradict any thing that ever he said but when on his sick-bed he said I am a dying man Ah! who would not there have contradicted him if they should not have contradicted Gods Decree His Wisedome Justice and Tenderness were such predominâ—nt Graces in him that it is as much my inability to describe them as my unhappinesse not to imâ—tate them And truly to think to expresse them were infinitely to injure their greatness It is a sad thing that so many resplendent graces should never be so truly nor so fully discovered as by the loss of him that had them and that we should not so justly consider that he had them till we have not them But yet your losse might be the better borne if ye were sure it had nothing of a Judgement in it But I fear that within a short time it will appear as truly that God hath taken him away in anger as now it appears sadly that he hath taken
that was a mighty motive to draw a party in war to have the gift of vineyards and oliveyards to be the fountain of honour able to make Captaines over thousands hundreds fifties It is no lesse to draw on a party in Religion as every turne of State respective to Religion is a clear evidence If these stumble upon truth they yet hold it upon such carnal motives that they are neither true to it nor receive the comfort of it Make truth then the greatest advantage there is glory enough in it without any farther garb to have it in admiration own it though with a scracht face where you find it though you be otherwise at losse it will bring an hundred-fold with it If I can but gain these things at thy hands I shall not feare that this piece shall run the hazzard of thy censure spare no errour in it so that thou wilt gladly take up and rest satisfied in all the truths that thou findest That truth may have the first place in thy soul is the desire and prayers of him that can do nothing against but for the truth Thomas Blake November 27. 1652 Imprimatur EDM. CALAMY An Advertisement to the Reader touching this second Edition READER IT was once the sad complaint of Reverend Davenant that Religionis nostrae mysteria quae sunt ad parem solatium animarum promulgata in solam penè litigandi pugnandi materiam vertantur The great mysteries of Religion those pretious Beamings of the Sunne of righteousnesse which were shed abroad for the begetting of spiritual heat and life in the beleeving heart were often eclipsed and their influence much debilitated through the intervening body of cloudy Controversies This way Satan gained upon the Church in its Infancy which gave occasion to that good admonition we have upon record from the blessed Apostle Heb. 13. 9. Be not carryed about with diverse and strange doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace What these diverse and strange doctrines were Interpreters have their different thoughts which I shall wholly wave the Reader may yet observe the Apostle hinting at and tacitely reproving the pronenesse that was in men eagerly to pursue studiously to sweat and tug about empty notions whilest the spiritual sense and feeling of truth in the heart was little heeded The same Apostle traces Satan in the same design among the Colossians Cap. 2. Which puts him upon that pathetical exhortation Cap. 3. To seek the things that are above to lay out their zeal and centre their affections upon things of a more solid sublime and spiritual nature viz. the application of Christ in the power of his death and precious in-comes of his Spirit for the mortification of lust What unspeakable advantage this continued enemy of a beleevers life and comfort hath gained in our age not to mention the spoyles made in the intervening our present breaches sad decays two fully evidence yea so fully that did not a graciory word uphold and everlasting armes fix themselves underneath our ruines had been uncapable of any further breach In the midst of these astonishing providences and terrible dispensations the Lord such is his infinite wisdome and goodnesse hath brought forth meat out of the strong and honey out of the destroyer These windy stormes have through rich grace more deeply rooted some whilest others have been tossed to and fro these Controversal collissions have brought forth much light thus Satan lyes bleeding under his own weapons Among other precious treasures which the Church through mercy doth enjoy here thou mayest see truths of the greatest concernment to beleevers polemically vindicated practically improved that mens judgments might be ballanced and their hearts feel the weight of truth both which necessarily make up a beleevers acquaintance with the truths of Christ as they are in him The Covenant of grace both in its sure mercies and distinguishing priviledges is a truth of the greatest magnitude appearing rather as a glorious constellation than shining with the light of a single starre It is a rich Cabinet of Diamonds rather than any single jewel How far the Reverend Authour my ever Honoured and endeared Father hath been serviceable in the hands of Christ for the unsealing of this rich Cabinet the abundant acceptance which this Treatise found from men eminently judicious when it was wrapped up in the swadling bands of blurred papers before it went abroad doth fully speak I need not adde those many special acknowledgments from some of the ablest pens in the Nation which after the Authors death were found upon the file in his study much might be spoken by me did not my relation to him command a silence the Lydian Princes tongue would break no bonds when violence was offered to his father give me leave to apply that to the Reverend Author which sometimes was observed of the Athenian Orator that in his publique discourses he did not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but aculeos in animis auditorum relinquere And if I may without envy adde holy Melancthons pythy verse upon Luthers picture Fulmina erant linguae singula verba tuae But I shall forbear craving only thy patience in receiving an account how far thy gain will be doubled in this second Edition In the first the Learned Author was necessitated to take notice of several controversies which were then started these afterwards growing more personal therefore only beautiful in their season are in this wholly waved and truths asserted in Thesi In the first several expressions through the natural brevity of the Authours stile were obscure and occasioned the readers stumbling In this they receive an additional light what passages might seem abstruse now are enlarged In the first the method was unavoidably clouded in several places through digressions and appendices In this each head is digested in its proper place In the first several things were omitted which now upon second thoughts and deeper wading into the controversies herein handled are by the learned Authour in this inserted And the whol of this don by the Authors own hand which he had no sooner taken off and sent it to the Presse but the Lord dispatched a fiery chariot for him which took him away to the enjoyment of Truth it self what thou readest of him now was sealed with his death They that were acquainted with his state and frame of spirit in that juncture of time when it was finished must needs testifie there was no room for any carnal end to byasse or self-interest to steer his notions Respective to the doctrine here asserted I shall assure thee from the mouth of this blessed Author that as he sweetly laid down his life in clear and unspeakable assurance of glory so he dyed without the least Scruple in any of the truths here vindicated I shall no longer entertain thee in the porch but give thee possession of the house craving only thy Candor in the perusal of it orphane children
though under the eye and care of endearing friends yet sometimes may feel the want of a parental wing I am not without fears that this Orphane Treatise may complain of som Errata's through the Authors unexpected death the slow progresse of the Presse and my great distance from it The God of truth teach thee how to profit break every shell that thou mayest taste of the kernel clear up truths to thy apprehension and imprint them upon thy heart so prayes he who beggs thy prayers for him because he is Thine in our Lord Jesus Samuel Beresford A Scheme of the whole This Treatise contains 1. An Introduction 2. The body of the Treatise The Introduction doth contain 1. The figurative acceptions of the word Covenant 2. Requisites in a Covenant properly so called Chap. 1. 3. A distribution of Covenants into the in several kinds 4. Seven Reasons of Gods dealing with men in a Covenant way 5. The Covenant between God and man defined The body of the Treatise contains a distribution of the Covenant into the Covenant of Works Chap. 2. Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace is considered 1. In the general nature of a Covenant 2. Joyntly with the Covenant of Works 1. As considered in the general nature of a Covenant we may observe 1. A Covenant in the proper nature of it between God and fallen man asserted Chap. 3. 2. This explained in several propositions 1. The Covenant of Grace is between God and man and not between God and Christ Chap. 4. 2. The outward and not the inward Covenant is a Covenant properly so called 1. Asserted and argued Ch. 5. 2. Cleared in 6 positions Ch. 6 3. The conditionality of the Covenant of Grace 1. In five arguments proved Ch. 7. 2. Objections answered Ch. 8. Ch. 9. 4. God keeps up his sovereign y 1. In the power and authority of his Law Ch. 10 11 12. 2. In exercise of Discipline and correction for sin Ch. 13. 2. Consider joyntly with the Covenant of Works we see 1. Their agreement in eight particulars Chap. 14. 2. Their differences 1. In the Covenants themselves 2. In the Conditions annext Differences in the Covenants are 1. Primae The Covenant of Works was entered in mans integrity Chap. 15. The Covenant of Grace was entered in mans fallen condition 2. A prima ortae Differences à prima ortae The Covenant of Works was for mans preservation of Grace for mans restitution Ibid. The Covenant of Works had its precedency in time of Grace followed after Asserted Objections answered The Covenant of Works was of small time in use of Grace is of everlasting continuance chap. 16. The Covenant of Works had no Mediatour Asserted Objections answered of Grace was in and by a Mediatour Asserted Works incumbent on the Mediatour held forth 1. To bring men into a capacity of Covenanting 2. To bring men within the verge of the Covenant 1. By his tender of it 2. Shaping the heart for it 3. To bring the soul up to the termes of the Covenant 4. To crown those that come up to the terms of it chap. 17. Differences in the conditions 1. Supposed on Gods part Death threatned Life promised The same in both Asserted Objections answered chap. 18. 2. Real on mans part 2 Differences asserted 1. In the Covenant of Works the conditions were in mans power of Grace they are not performed without special grace Asserted in 6. Reasons chap. 18 Objections answered chap. 19 2. In the Covenant of Works the conditions kept man within himselfe of righteousnesse chap. 20 of Grace the conditions carry man out of himself to be righteous by anothers righteousnesse 3. In the Covenant of Works conditions were for mans preservation Ibid. of Grace conditions were for mans reparation 3. Conditions discovered 1. Serviceable for mans returne to God which is Faith 1. Explained the sense of it given and reasons evincing it Chap. 21 2. In 4. Propositions cleared 1. God will not justifie a wicked person 2. Man hath no righteousnesse of his own for justification 3. Man hath a righteousnesse of grace tendered Ibid. 4. This righteousnesse is made ours by Faith Asserted Explained 1. Faith in the Sovereignty of God doth not justifie 2. Faith justifies as an instrument 3. Objections answeâ—ed chap 22. 1. Asserted Ib. 2. Object answ 4. Corollary drawn A justified man is fitted for every duty Ibid. 2. Serviceable for mans reparation in his qualifications to hold up communioÌ„ with God which is repentance 1. Objection a prevented It is not the same with faith Chap. 23. 2. Duty explained In the pre-requisite godly sorrow Asserted in six particulars limited Ibid. In the essentials Privative Cessation from sinne Ibid. Positive Returne to God 3. Objections answered 1. Joyntly against Faith and Repentance They are mans conditions not Gods chap. 24. 2. Particularly against repentance it self 1. It is not hereby made a Covenant of Works 2. Repentance necessarily flowing from Faith is not thereby diserabled Ibid. from being a condition in the Covenant of Grace 4. Degree of obedience required in our returne 1. Perfection of degrees not called for of God in Covenant 2. Covenant of Grace doth not call for perfection and accept sincerity Asserted Objections answered 3. Our Evangelical righteousnesse is imperfect Chap. 25. 4. Covenant of Grace requires and accepts sincerity 4. Corollaries drawn 1. Necessâ—â—y of a constant standing Ministery to bring men into Covevenant with God and to bring them up to the termes of it 1. Explained 2. Asserted 1. In seven reasons evincing that such a Ministery is established 2. In reasons evincing such a Ministery to be thus established 3. Objections answered Joel 2. 28 29. Vindicated ch 26 Jer. 31. 31. c. Vindicated 2. Schooles and Nurseries of learning in order to a gifted Ministery Asserted Chap. 27. Objections answered 3. Orderly way of admission of men into a Ministerial function necessary 1. Asserted by several reasons Chap. 28. 2. Explained by distinguishing of Callings 3. Ordination defined in the parts of it explained 4. Ministers of Christ must bring their people up to the termes of the Covenant 1. Explained 2. Asserted Chap. 29. Objections answered 5. People in Covenant must come up to the termes of the Covenant Chap. 30. The Covenant of Grace is either the Old or New Covenant In which observe 1. Agreement in 6 particulars Chap. 31. 2. Differences Chap. 32. Differences 1. Real in six particulars 2. Supposed or imaginary Nine Positions premised for a right understanding of the Old Covenant Chap. 33. Differences themselves assigned Differences assigned are 1. Laying the Old Covenant too low 2. Putting too great a restrainâ— on the New I. Laying the Old Covenant too low 1. Supposing it to consist of meere carnal promises 1. Interests to which this deives Popish Socinian Antipaedobaptistical Chap. 34. 2. Contrary asserted and the spiritualty of the Old Covenant maintained 2. Supposing it to be a mixt and no pure Gospel Covenant Chap. 35. 1. Meaning enquired