covenant-keeping or punishments in case of covenant-breaking The one the Lord promises The other he threatens I finde no material difference in the conditions on Gods part in these covenants Life is promised in both in case of covenant-keeping and death is threatned in both in case of covenant-breaking Some indeed have endeavoured to finde a great difference in the life promised in the covenant of works and the life that is promised in the covenant of grace as also in the death that is threatned in the one and the other and thereupon move many and indeed inextricable difficulties What life man should have enjoyed in case Adam had not fallen And what death man should have died in case Christ had not been promised From which two endlessely more by way of consectary may be drawn by those that want neither wit nor leisure to debate them In which the best way of satisfaction and avoidance of such puzling mazes is to enquire what Scripture means by Life which is the good in the covenant promised and what by Death which is the evil threatned Now for the first Life containes all whatsoever that conduces to true happinesse to make man blessed in soul and body All good that Christ purchases and heaven enjoys is comprised under it in Gospel-expressions I am come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly John 10. 10. He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life 1 John 5. 12. On the contrary under Death is comprised all that is injurious to man or mankinde that tends to his misery in soul and body The damnation of Hell being called death the uttermost of evils being the separation of soul and body from God John 8. 51. 1 John 3. 14. Sinne which leads to it and is the cause of it is called death in like manner Ephes 2. 1. And the separation of soul from the body being called death sicknesses plagues are so called in like manner Exâ—d 10. 17. Now happinesse being promised to man in covenant only indefinitely under that notion of life without limit to this or that way of happinesse in this or that place God is still at liberty so that he make man happy where or how he pleaseth to continue happinesse to him and is not tied up in his engagement either for earth or heaven And therefore though learned Camero in his Treatise de triplici foedere Thes 9. with others makes this difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace In the covenant of Works which he calls nature life was promised and a most blessed life but an animal life in Paradise in the covenant of Grace a life in Heaven and spiritual And Master Baxter in his Aphoris of Justification page 5. saith that this life premised was only the continuance of that state that Adam was then in Paradise is the opinion of most Divines Yet with submission to better judgements I see not grounds for it seeing Scripture no way determines the way and kinde of this happinesse promised and in case that we take liberty to say that when long life is promised upon earth in many texts of Scripture that the promise is made good though it faile on earth in case it be supplied in heaven life being the marrow of the promise much more then is it made good when it is indefinitely promised without limit to a man whil'st on earth in case it be made good by his translation into heaven And indeed there are strong probabilities heaven being set out by the name of Paradise in Christs speech to the thief on the crosse and in Pauls vision in that rapture 2 Cor. 12. if we may make such a supposition of mans standing now he is fallen that he should not have continued a life of immortality on earth but have been translated into heaven He had that blessing from God as other living creatures to be fruitfull and multiply Gen. 1. 28. and how the world could have contained all those individuals at once which to eternity man should propagate cannot be imagined And to conceive that an end in time should be put to propagation when an animal life in the use of the creature should be continued is scarce consistent with reason But a thousand of these God can expedite when we are at a stand He promised life and he could have made it good and we see he limited not himself where or how to conferre it And what I have said of life promised the same I say of death threatned in case man upon sinne be brought into a state of misery Justice is done and the threat takes hold where and howsoever this misery be suffered whether it had been in sorrows and horrours on earth in separation of the soul first for torments and the body to follow or in a speedy dispatch of soul and body to hell Gods way of execution after the sinne committed on those that are not by Christ ransomed does not argue that the penalty in the covenant necessitated him to it might not he at once have poured out the whole of his vengeance on vessels of wrath when yet we know that he takes time for the execution of it A Learned Writer enquiring into this death that was here threatned saith that the same damnation that followed the breach of the second covenant it could not be When I suppose it rather should be said that in substance and kind it can be no other Infidels that were never under any other covenant then that of works and covenant-breaking Christians are in the same condemnation there is not two hells but one and the same for those that know not God and those that obey not the Gospel of Christ 2 Thes 1. 8. Neither is there any Limbus or distinct place for infants in original sinne and out of the covenant of grace Neither can I assent to that speech To say that Adam should have gone quick to hell if Christ had not been promised or sinne pardoned is to contradict the Scriptures that makes death temporal the wages of sinne It were I confesse to presume above Scripture but I cannot see it a contradiction of Scripture A burning Feaver a Consumption Leprosie Pestilence c. are in Scripture made the wages of sinne yet many go to hell and misse those diseases And if it be said Scripture so makes death the wages of sin that all must suffer it I answer Those Scriptures are all of them leges post latae appointed of God as his way upon mans fall neither absolute justice nor yet the penalty threatned necessitating him to that way of proceeding He takes the same way where his justice hath already satisfaction Those that are priviledged from death as the wages of sinne thus die God tied not up his own hands as States do their Judges and ministerial officers to one way of execution and this his way with the unbeleeving is voluntary and
make vessels some to honour and some to dishonour so God having more transcendent Sovereignty may make some creatures ever blessed and others during pleasure to remaine in misery 2. It stands not yet with Gods ordinate justice to strike his people where there is no fault The termes of the covenant being pre-supposed none can suffer that have not offended every one upon engagement from God must be happy that is innocent This is plainly implyed in those words In the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die sinne not and suffer not and more explicitely held out in those words do this and live under death is comprized all evil from which man upon covenant is free that doth not sinne Under life is comprised all blisse which upon covenant all are to enjoy that yeeld full obedience So that the inlet of suffering is from sinne Rom. 5. 12. God having as I may say tyed himself not out of Sovereignty to afflict when man hath not offended 3. When way is made by sinne to divine justice to bring evil upon man yet the reason why this or that evil is inflicted on this or that man is not alwayes mans provocation by sinne All afflictions are not punishments nor yet corrections or chastisements There are often other ends and motives Sometimes God looks solely at himselfe alone at his own glory in his strokes of this we have many instances John 9. 1 2. John 11. 4. The same we may say of the viper upon Pauls hand Acts 28. 4 5. Sometimes he looks at his people in the sufferings that he inflicts 1. The patients themselves laying afflictions upon them not as corrections respecting by-past faults but tryals for discovery of their graces That which God laid upon Job was not for his sinne but to make it appeare that Satan had formed a false charge against him that his whole service of God was upon by-ends and base accounts and that sufferings God appearing against him in contrary providences would presently draw him into all wickednesses It was a sore affliction to Abraham to leave his countrey and his fathers house to offer up his sonne Isaac yet these were no corrections or chastisements that we know but temptations 2. He looks upon others that are no sufferers to bring about mercy to one by the sufferings of another so it was in Josephs sufferings Gen. 50. 20. 4. The corrections that God lays upon the godly are far different from those that he layes upon the wicked His hand upon his own children differs much from his hand upon his enemies God deales otherwise with a Nation that is a stranger to him then he deals with a people that are his own Jerem. 30. 11. Though I make a full end of all Nations whither I have scattered thee yet will I not make a full end of thee but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished Though both suffer yet they do not equally and alike suffer So it is with the Elect and reprobate both suffer from the hand of God but there is great difference in their sufferings 1. They differ in the cause from whence their sufferings respectively do arise The sufferings of the wicked are out of pure wrath wicked men being under a state of wrath The sufferings of the people of God are out of present displeasure but yet out of love Prov. 13. 11. Heb. 12. 6 7. 2. They differ in the end of their sufferings A piece of silver is trode upon with the feet to scoure and brighten it but a worme or spider to crush or spoile it 3. They differ in the respective improvement that either make of them the godly are are bettered by their afflictions their sufferings are their purges and purifications Psalme 119. 67. Their eares are thereby opened for discipline Job 36. 10. the wicked are more and more hardened by them and grow more and more wicked under them Esay 1. 5. 2 Chron. 28. 22. The Sunne hardens the earth but softens the butter and the wax The sufferings of the people of God many times proceed from as high displeasure in God as can stand with love and the more high the sinne is the greater and sorer is his displeasure They work in God as great a dislike as can stand with his purpose not utterly to leave and cast them off When David had sinned in that high manner as he did the Text saith The thing that David did displeased the Lord 2 Sam. 11. ult Few men have had more of Gods heart then he yet we see his heart rises in sore displeasure against his wickednesse We may see how he takes him up for it we can scarce see in all the Scriptures a man so chidden The Prophet reckons up the courtesies and high favours that he had received from God I anointed thee King over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into thy bosome and gâ—ve thee the house of Israel and of Judah and if that had been too little I would more-over have given thee such and such things And as he had before aggravated his wickednesse in a parable so in expresse termes he further layes it open Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord in doing evil in his sight thou hast killed Vriah the Hittite with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife Then he falls to threatnings three great evils as we may there see follow upon this evil yet all this while that the Lord thus chides him that he thus threatens and beats him he doth not cease to love him as appears in Nathans words verse 13. The Lord hath put away thy sinne some will have love and anger to be inconsistent hatred and wrath inseparable God is angry as they say with none but those that he hates and when anger appears love is no more But all know that this is false among men a father is many times angry with his child that he would be loath to hate It is as false with God he was wrath with Moses but he never hated Moses he owns his with much love when he manifests much dislike and distaste of their present actions 6. These sufferings of the godly must by no means be accounted satisfactions of divine justice as coming from vindicative wrath nor any part of the curse that is due from vindicative justice for sin Having a tendency not to harme but to reforme not to destroy but amend they are only fatherly corrections and chastisements not properly at least as some rigidly understand the word punishments satisfaction was the work of Christ and the whole of the curse was divolved upon him Gal. 3. 13. Papists do distinguish between the friendship that is lost by sinne and the justice that is deserved The friendship that is lost is made up again as they confesse of free grace but the justice deserved must by the offender
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
is performed to the beleeving and penitent To finde a promise made and made good that is tendered and performed to a man unbeleeving impenitent is indeed a labour One replying to this question What if I have not those conditions in me as to feel my self hungry thirsty and heavy-laden answers If you finde not these or such conditions in you Objections answered then you are not to apply your self to those promises that are made to such as have those conditions in them But you are to seek out for other and more suitable promises which are absolute and without condition It is worth asking where those suitable promises are to a man void of faith For that before by the Authour was mentioned or to a man impenient and not so much as hungring after them such a one I meane that upon good grounds is able to charge the want of these upon his soul I am sure they are under heavy Scripture-woes even Gospel-menaces and can they at the same time be fitted to receive the mercy of a promise Where are his promises that hungers and thirsts not when Christ saith Wo to you that are full for you shall hunger Where is his promise that mourns not but goes on frolick in his way When Christ saith Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall weep and lament Luke 6. 25. Where is the unbeleevers promise when the Lord sayes He that beleeveth not is condemned already because he hath not beleeved in the name of the only begotten Son of God John 3. 18. Where is the impenitent mans promise when the Psalmist saith The wicked shall be turned into hell Psalme 9. 17. and the Apostle That no unrighteous person shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven 1 Cor. 6. 9. But instance is given Isa 43. 25. I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own name sake But this is not the unbeleeving the impenitent mans transgressions they still stand on record and the bond uncancelled This excludes motives from us not graces wrought in us when God justifies a beleever it 's for his own name sake or else he is a loser in his glory when he justifies those that beleeve in Jesus Rom. 3. 26. and Faith gives not glory to God as Rom. 4. 20. but takes glory from him As Peter said of the creeple that was cured His name through faith in his name hath made this man strong Acts 3. 16. So we may say of every sinner justified and pardoned His Name through faith in his Name hath acquit and freed him When God pardons a penitent man it is not for the merit of his returne that he pardons him if this were so Peter who is so zealous to advance his name in the place quoted had not presently urged Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord Acts 3. 19. It is not for his honour to pardon any other This is with him a rule which he will for ever follow Those that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 3. 30. The same Author saith Conditions and qualifications are mentioned in some promises and therefore we may safely inferre are understood in all promises of life and salvation unlesse God deny himself He hath threatned death and condemnation against an unqualified man namely the unbeleeving and impenitent and therefore hath not promised them life and salvation Beleeving penitent ones have the promises of life to be made good to them exclusively to all others To lead the sinner to Christ for the gaining of the qualifications of grace in the way of his Ordinances is to lead him right He is the Author of our faith and he is a Prince to give repentance But to perswade a sinner to look for life in the want of all these or to tell him of Assurance of life without sense of these is to deceive him That happy Doctrine of free grace so timely abused even as soon as clearly preached is now no lesse abused Then inferences were made from it for encouragement to abound in sin Rom. 6. 1. Now inferences are drawn to cry down duty Righteousnesse imputed must overthrow righteousnesse inherent The Apostle would not suffer the former the Ministers of Christ must not bear the latter CHAP. XXX A people in covenant must come up to the termes of the covenant being engaged to God they must answer their engagements HEnce farther follows that all people in covenant must come up to the termes and propositions of the covenant Entring covenant they must see that their hearts art upright in it How do we aggravate their wickednesse and hold in detestation all those persons that break covenant with men that having past a promise especially having put upon it the sanction of an Oath yet violate and transgresse it These first involve themselves in the guilt of lying which every where in Scripture is followed with judgements an Art which they learne of the Devil who is a liar and the father of lies John 8. 44. And therefore with him have their doome in the lake that burnes with fire and brimstome Revel 21. 8. Secondly in the pollution of Gods Name which we should have in fear and dread Deut. 28. 5 8. Taking it in vaine in falsehood and deceit into their mouths endeavouring to bring in that God whom they pretend to serve in whom is all their expectation as a party in their falsehood and ungodlinesse This high crime is charged upon Israel in taking to themselves again those servants that according to covenant they had dismissed Jerem. 34. 15 16. Ye turned and polluted my name and caused every man his servaut and every man his handmaid whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure to returne and brought them into subjection to be unto you for servants and for handmaids Therein is the overthrow of all bonds of humane society of all converse and commerce whether in more publick or private negotiations Truth is the upholding and perfidiousnesse is the bane and utter destruction of it When Papists have maintained that Faith or covenant is not to be kept with Hereticks reformed Churches have concluded upon it that there is no safety of any league or intercourse of dealing with them The example of John Husse is a sufficient warning Those that hold no such principles yet being such in their practices are equally dangerous We look upon these as given up to a very Spirit of Atheism if not wholly in their judgements to deny a Deity and to utter with their mouths that which the Psalmists foole sayes in his heart yet utterly slighting his Sovereignty and disregarding his judgements They have arrived at that dedolency that the Apostle mentions Ephes 4. 19. and therefore rankt by him with the worst of Heathens Rom. 1. 31. and put into that black bill of ungodly persons that will be found in the last and
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
or at least used in a sense more large then to denote a covenant wheresoever it doth not hold out an agreement of two parties with engagements on both hands So the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whensoever it is used in that sense seemes to be taken improperly Seeing in its received signification according to good Interpreters it doth denote not a covenant but a mans last Will and Testament which never is of force but by the death of the Testator Heb. 9. 16 17. which is not true of a Covenanter his death is not required to make the covenant valid So Ravanellus Testament saith he in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken 1. Properly for the declaration of a mans Will concerning that which he would have done after his death and is ratified by the death of the Testator for it is not of force while the Testator liveth Heb. 9. 16 17. 2. Improperly for a covenant which living men enter among themselves Rivet also Exercit. 103. in Gen. speaking of those words of the Apostle Gal. 4. 24. These are two Testaments Testament there he saith is not to be taken in a proper signification for that which is done by a dying man and ratified by his death but for a covenant-agreement or order as Pererius hath well observed Alsted in his Lexicon Theologicum having spoken to the sense in which translatours of the Bible sometimes use it as the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resolves We must yeeld somewhat to custome After saith Testament properly signifies a just declaration of a mans Will concerning that which he would have done with his goods after his death The Greeks properly call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Estius is very full setting out the Original denotation of the word together with the received signification of it For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he if you look to the Etymologie of the word holds out no more then a disposing and with Greek Authours as Budaeus witnesseth in his Commeâ—t on the Greek tongue signifies in general a covenant-agreement or promise yet the common and most received signification is the same as Testamentum in the Latine which is the declaration of a mans Will concerning that whith he would have done after his death The Apostles Application of a Testament properly so called to the covenant of God Heb. 9. 16 17. hath troubled many Interpreters Erasmus on this acount questions the Authors skill in the Hebrew tongue and Cajetan calls into question the authority of the Epistle Most conclude from hence that the Original of the Epistle was Greek in that there is not Hebrew words to hold out such expressions and the Syriack translator was put to it to keep the Greek word and put it into a Syriack Character For the clearing of this doubt it is not enough to say that these words are sometimes promiâ—â—uously used Berith for a Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a Covenant as Camerarius notes out of Aristophanes a Greek Poet as Rivet observes Seeing the Apostle applies a Testament in the proper received sense to that which signifies a mutual agreement For the salving of which Estius reckons up several opinions which he rejects some of which others of good note follow and afterwards acquaints the Reader with his own thoughts in words drawn out to such a length that I shall refer the Reader if he please to the Authour himself Dixon on the words saith The Articles of the covenant also evince it to be a Testament and the promiser bound to make his word good and so to die For Jer. 31. The Lord Christ promiseth to reconcile his people to God to take away their sinnes and to be their God Justice required satisfaction of them before they could be reconciled satisfaction they could not make themselves therefore he who promised to make the reconciliation with God was found to make the satisfaction for them to God and if satisfaction for them then to under-lie the curse of the Law for them and so to die Gomarus says The covenant of the New Testament is both a covenant and a Testament It is a covenant because it is an agreement between God and man concerning salvation promised and faith owing by man And a Testament because it is established upon the promised death of the Son of God and an heavenly inheritance by it so that it may not unworthily be called a Testamentary covenant or a Testament-covenant by reason of the concurrence of both in one And after concludes Simply it is a covenant by reason of the mutual agreement between God and beleevers Respectively a Testament by reason of the way and manner of the chief and most eminent part in the covenant that is the promise of grace whereby God promiseth to be our God propitious to us and to give us everlasting life as an inheritance by the death of his Son Junius in his parallels undertaking to give satisfaction hath a remedy with me worse then the disease though learned Mr. Grayle endeavours his Vindication After a large discourse in what latitude the word Berith is taken The Apostle he saith shewes the limitation of it out of the Types and shadows of the Law in the fifteenth and following verses when he shews that the grace of God was herein more eminent and conspicuous in that he gave unto his not a covenant but a Testament giving in his reasons because a covenant must have contained mutual conditions which if either part did not performe the covenant were void but a Testament is an instrument of liberality and bounty by which men are called and made heirs without eying of any duty that is to be done by them Here by the way we see that in case it be a covenant according to him it hath mutual conditions and therefore he is together with Ravanellus Gomarus Vrsinus before quoted to whom may be added Peter Martyr on Judg. 2. giving the like definition wholly against those who make this inference That it cannot be proved to be of the general nature of covenants that there should be such a convertibility as that both must seal or contract or perform But for his position that God hath not given a covenant to his people I wonder how it slipt from him Such unwary expressions in a seeming tendency to advance grace from pious persons have made way for strange superstructions He might have said that those Types and Shadows of the Law did argue it to be more then a bare and common covenant being ratified by blood which led to the blood of the Mediatour And so Rivet as I understand him answers Paul in his Epistle to the Hebr. saith he chap. 9. doth not argue from the simple signification of the word but from the circumstances of the covenant But his denying it to be a covenant is that which I must oppose He is large indeed to shew in what latitude the word Berith
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
the argument seems of force We vindicate Gods justice in commanding works though to us now impossible seeing once we had power to reach the highest of his precepts and his command is no rule of our empaired strength but of our duty But if men never had that power and the Law never required it it is injustice according to all parties to exact it Answ Let those that fall to the Arminians in this tenent that they may make the Law an imperfect rule and an insufficient direction see how they can avoid it how they can vindicate Gods justice thus impeached But the Orthodox party have still maintained that Adam had in his integrity that faith that doth justifie though then it performed not that office of justification as he had that faculty whereby we see dead bodies though then there was no possibility of such sight there being no dead bodies to be seen And that faith in Christ is commanded in the first precept of the Law is manifest There we are commanded to have God for our God no Interpreter will deny that the affirmative is contained in that negative Thou shalt have none other gods but me Now God is the God of beleevers Heb. 11. 16. No man can have any communion with God but by faith in Christ And so consequently this faith is there required what Expositor of the Law doth not put trust and affiance in God within the affirmative part of the first commandment as well as fear love and obedience And without Christ there can be no affiance or trust If we conceive the moral Law to reach no farther then the duties expressely there named or the evils forbidden we shall make it very scant and narrow we shall see small reason of that of the Psalmist Thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psalme 119. 96. But in case we take in all that by necessary consequence may be inferred according to the approved rules of interpretation then scarce any duty is more clearly laid down then this of faith in Christ And whereas one faith A man cannot preach Faith in Christ out of the Moral Law I say a man out of the Moral Law may evince the necessity of Faith in Christ unto every one that lives in Gospel-light to whom Christ is tendred The Law requires the duty and the Gospel discovers the object no man out of the Law could have evinced Abraham that he must offer his sonne nor that he must have left his countrey but when Gods minde was made known to him the Moral Law did binde him to obedience and he had sinned against the Moral Law in case he had refused There is no command given of God to any man at any time of an nature whatsoever but the Moral Law ties him to the observation of it not immediately explicitely but upon supposition of such a command intervening Therefore ye shall observe all my Statutes and all my judgements and do them I am the Lord Levit. 19. 37. Faith in Christ being commanded of God I John 3. 23. the Moral Law obliges to obedience of it See Molin Anatom Arminianis cap. 11. Respons Wallaei ad Censuram Johannis Arnol. Corvini cap. 11. Ball on the covenant page 105. Burges Vindiciae legis page 117. A farther difficulty here offers it selfe Obj. and an obstruction laid against that which in this Treatise is after intended If the covenant or second covenant as opposite to that of works be in Christ and grounded on the work of reconciliation then it is commensurate with it and of no greater latitude and only the elect and chosen in Christ the called according to Gods purpose being reconciled only these are in covenant when the Scripture as shall be God willing made good confines not this covenant within the limits of the invisible Church known only to God But it is as large as the Church visible To this I answer Answ that the Prophetical office of Christ as Shepherd and Bishop of our souls and so much of his Kingly office as consists in a legislative power hath its foundation as well as the covenant in this work of reconciliation Had not this been undertaken by Christ for mankinde man had never enjoyed that light man had never had an Oracle or an Ordinance as the fruit of his Prophetick office yet these Ordinances are not commensurate with reconciliation nor of equal latitude with election So neither is the covenant but either of both in order towards it As Ordinances therefore are Christs gift from heaven as the fruit of his death and resurrection when yet all that partake of these Ordinances do not yet die or rise with Christ So is the covenant when yet all in covenant are not stedfast in it nor obtaine the graces of it Therefore I know not how to admit that which a Divine singularly eminent hath laid down That all the effects of Christs death are spiritual distinguishing and saving Seeing gifts of Christ from his Fathers right hand are fruits of his death yet not spiritual distinguishing and saving That they are in some sort spiritual I dare grant that is in ordine ad spiritualia if I may so speak they have a tendency to a spiritual work That they are distinguishing from the world as it is taken in opposition to the Church visible I yeeld for I do not enlarge the fruit of Christs death to all man-kinde assenting to Master Owen and Master Stalham in the grounds that they lay of Gods respite of the execution of the whole penalty on man with the continuance of outward favours not to be upon the account of Christ but for other reasons yet I know not how to affirme that Ordinances which yet are fruits of his death are all saving spiritual and distinguishing seeing they neither conferre salvation nor saving grace on all that partake of them So that Christ is a Mediatour of this covenant and yet those enter into it that have not reconciliation by Christ Jesus The Ephesians that were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Ephes 2. 13. that is brought into a visible Church-state in the fruition of Ordinances made free of that city whose name is The Lord is here Ezek. 48. 35. CHAP. XVIII Farther differences between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace A Farther difference of importance between these covenants is in the conditions annext unto either of them and here the difference is brought to the height This alone so diversifies them that they are not barely in circumstance and way of administration but in substance two distinct covenants The least difference in conditions diversifies bargains and agreements on what part soever the difference is Conditions of the covenant between God and man are of two sorts either such in which God engages himselfe or in which man is engaged either the stipulation on Gods part or else the restipulation on the part of man The former unto which God is engaged are either rewards in case of
not necessitated Upon these grounds it is that I finde no reason to widen the differences between these promises and priviledges in either covenants The identity of conditions in the covenant of Works and Grace on Gods part we have seen The great diversity in the conditions called for from man comes to be spoken to And in the first place this difference offers it self The conditions of the covenant of Works were in mans power being left to the freedom of his will he had abilities in himself without seeking out for further assistance then a meer general concurrence to perform them This ability in man to answer whatsoever was called for at his hands from God appears First in the integrity of his nature Being made like God his principles must needs carry him to a conformity with God and these principles were connatural to man in his first being and beginning Man being made of God to contemplate his glory and to enjoy communion with himself he made him not defective in any of those noble qualifications that serve for it or have a tendency to it Papists indeed will have this to be a supernaturall gift of grace and above the glory of mans first creation Bellarmine compares it to a bridle given to curb that lust which riseth against reason in us That rebellion of lusts in man they conceit would have been if man had not fallen which as it layes a high charge upon God in such an aspersion of his pure work drawn after such a patterne so it makes way for other opinions that the first motions without consent are no sins and that lust in the regenerate is not sin But as the bottom is rotten so also the building that is raised upon it is ruinous There was an happy agreement in man as well with himself as with his Creatour The fall brought in a necessity of support and supply of Grace Secondly this appears from the equity which must be granted to be in the command of God which requires that the work given in charge be not above his abilities that is charged with it The Arminian argument from a command to abilities to keep the command from a threat to conclude a power to keep off from the thing threatned is of force as long as the person under command keeps himself in the same station and strength as when the command was given But applying this to man in his fallen estate who had sinned away his abilities the strength of it is wholly lost The command of God retains its perfection when we are under the power of corruption The Law is nothing abated though we be weakened 3. It appears in the work it self which was charged upon man upon performance of which he was to expect happinesse There is no more explicitely mentioned then that negative precert Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die This all may yeeld might easily have been kept if the command had been heeded or the menace observed The Jews at their worst could observe the commands of non-licet meats and this was a command of like nature yet this was not all unto which man was tied Being made in the image of God he had clear light to discern good from evil and as all yet retaine darkly and obseurely so he had the Law written in his heart clearly Adultery Murder though no otherwise condemned then by that light which he had by creation in that estate had been sin The former positive Law was evil because forbidden take away the prohibition and there had been no sin in eating These are forbidden because evil The Law imprinted by creation being presupposed there needed no further Law to make them sinful They that never had the written Law are condemned for these practices by that Law which by nature is written in their hearts But against these there was in nature an Antipathy Mans pure nature had them in abhorrency As now there needs no Law more then nature doth suggest to forbid the eating of poyson feeding on dust or carrion So then there needed no more Law to condemne these practices so that obedience in that state was in mans power must necessarily be yeelded The conditions of the covenant of Grace are not performed but by special grace a power from God must concurre for their work in man Man hath no abilities in himself to answer what God requires and if he rise not up to the terms of this covenant till he raise himselfe he will for ever fall short of it As the covenant was vouchsafed of grace so grace must make us meet to partake of the benefits of it This appears 1. In the state and condition in which God findes man when he first enters covenant with him yea after covenant entred till a change be wrought and abilities conferred to answer that which God in covenant requires This state of man the Apostle expresses Ephes 2. 1. Dead in trespasses and sins alive and in power for nothing at all but sinne This was the condition of Heathens never in covenant and so of the Jews who were a people in actual covenant and owned of God as his inheritance as God willing shall be shewn Their conversation was the same as the Apostle there confesseth Among whom we also had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others This in abundant other expressions in Scripture is discovered holding forth the same thing Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly That infant Ezek. 16. 4 5. had no more possibilities of life then is to be found even in the state of death Reas 2. It appears in that power which is exercised by God in the change of those in covenant with him whom he fits for himself for Eternity This power in Scripture is set out in several expressions First Creation Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works All ability to good is from the frame into which grace puts us As there is a power out of man which gives him Being So also there is an answerable power for his new Being He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not 1 John 5. 18. Secondly Quickning The dead have not power to raise themselves without a further power for their Resurrection Neither is it in the power of man Who is dead in trespasses and sinnes Eph. 2. 1. Thirdly Taking away the heart of stone and giving an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. To change the nature of things which is here done is the work of an Omnipotence which was Satans argument not denied by Christ If thou be the Son of God command these stones to be made bread Mat. 4. 3. Fourthly Causing
cast him nor doth it make him worse than sin hath made him Answ and the Word of God doth discover him and that is dead till grace quicken and raise him His heart is of stone till grace take it from him and in enmity against God till grace circumcise and work that change to love the Lord with all the heart c. Secondly This is not an absolute death in which man is through sin and therefore the similitude holds not that equals a stock stone or dead carcasse with him It is only a death respective as to spiritual obedience he is dead There is in him a life natural able for all actions and motions of the life of man as man There is in him also a moral life able to improve naturals to a civilized conversation That to which feare or hope can work a man thither he may raise himself by the freedome of will this puts no new life into him nor works any chang of nature in him He is also able for those works which God sanctifies as his instrument for the work of a spiritual life He 〈◊〉 read and hear the Word hath power to know much in it and retain it Thirdly he is a subject susceptible slands in a capacity of a life of grace of spiritual actions and motions having an understanding will affections wanting not any faculties in their substance The new man attaines not a new soul but only renewed qualifications which yet are of more glory than the faculties themselves carrying such a glorious resemblance of God Better know nothing than not know God to desire nothing than not to desire good The want of this turned Angels into Devils and so man stands in a vast difference from stocks stones and those to whom he is thus injuriously compared This doctrine is not injurious to man as it is traduced Object 3 Thirdly some say This will render preaching vaine all mans-paines for Conversion of soules will then prove uselesse and to no purpose we may let men alone till God work and when he hath begun his work they will set on working This indeed speaks hard to a sort of men in our times that deny any previous working in the soul for regeneration or any preparatory work to conversion So that all uncoverted stand equally distant from the grace of it in so much that it can be said of no one rather than another which Christ said to the Scribe Thou art not far from the Kingdome of God Mar. 12. 34. I see not how these can make the preaching of the word of any use Our Brethren that went into America and offer the Gospel to savage Indians there may as well finde Christ there as bring him thither The dark places of the earth may be equally happy with those where light is in most glory if light contribute nothing to the work of change and the happy frame of Christ in us But those that have learnt that infused habits are wrought in the soul in the same manner as those that are acquired may easily return a satisfying answer That opinion that the soul is by an immediate creation infused how generally soever it is received yet never was thought of force to render the way of marriage uselesse for procreation God infuses not a soul by creation into any but an organized body an Embryo fitted to receive it Neither can this opinion of the power of grace in the work of Conversion render in vain the labours of those that are spiritual Parents Conviction is in order before Conversion and men must see themselves necessitated to do what they do before ever they enter upon it The soule knoweth what it doth when it first beleeves and sees a necessity to accept Christ before it receives him which is the work of the Word in the soules of those that are brought to Christ Jesus It is not in vaine for God to send his Ministers to shew the mysteries of the Kingdome of heaven to those that are blinde when this is the way of God to open their eyes and give them sight It is not in vain that he sends them to those that are without strength when this is his way to enable them with power It is not in vain that Paul plants and Apollos waters when yet it is God that gives the increase when God will use Paul and Apollos for the increase that he gives Ministers should perswade and people improve endeavours as though they were Pelagians and no help of grace afforded They should pray and beleeve and rest on grace as though they were Antinomians nothing of endeavour to be looked after So the injury that the Pelagian doth to grace and the Antinomian to our endeavours will be on both hands avoided CHAP. XX. Farther differences in the conditions in the Covenant of Works and the conditions in the Covenant of Grace 2ly THe conditions on mans part in the Covenant of Works kept man within him self for righteousnesse That righteousnesse in which he was to stand in Gods sight was inherent wrought by himself co-natural to him flowing from the principles of his creation in conformity to God And therefore properly his own as now a mans reason will and affections are properly his He needed no other nor no more righteousnesse than that in which he stood Though he had that faith which now serves to justifie yet it needed not nor could be improved to take in any other righteousnesse without himself for justification Man stood then on his own bottome His dependance was on God for being but that being which God pleased to communicate was in that integrity and purity that he needed not any farther But the conditions of the Covenant of Grace carry man out of himself He must be righteous with a righteousness extrinsecal or else he will never be able to stand in judgment Paul was as high as he that was highest in that righteousnesse which he could lay claime to as his own wrought by himself as well before conversion as after Before conversion he was as high as a Pharisee or a Jew according to the letter could reach either in priviledges or duties as we may see in that gradation of his Phil. 3. Circumcised and therefore of the body of the people of God and no alien from the Common-wealth of Israel Circumcised the eighth day and therefore born of Parents in the same Church-communion Of the stock of Israel and so the seed of Abraham and not descended of ancestors that had been Proselytes Of the Tribe of Benjamin of that part of Israel that held the truth of worship of whom was salvation and not of the Apostated tribes An Hebrew of the Hebrews and therefore had not forgotten the language of Canaan As touching the Law a Pharisee a man of no vulgar account but of the most exquisite Sect Concerning zeal persecuting the Church therefore not luke-warme or cold in the faith As touching the righteousnesse that is of the
change out of it and they instance in our conceptions of and resolutions about things Kekâ—rman p. 107. A transient act is not terminated within the subject but hath its effect and is terminated upon some other object Now if by way of analogy we may apply these to God for we otherwise can reach none of his actions it is easie to conclude that justification of a sinner is a transient and no immanent act It works man from a state of wrath to a state of friendship and love of a vessel of wrath brings man into favour and esteeme which though it work no Physical change in man yet the whole effect is terminated in him That act of Pharaoh had as real an effect upon Joseph and was terminated in him in his advancement out of prison for rule in Egypt as though a Physician in case of sicknesse had wrought a cure upon him Though I were not able to hold it our that justification were a transient act but according to our conception of the actions of man it should rather appear to be an action immanent in God so in him that it had no effect out of him yet I must follow the Scriptures that make justification an act in time not from eternity Paul having mentioned a state of sinne under which the Corinthians were saith such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified 1. Corinth 6. 11. Once they were not but now they are in a state of justification It hath its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which it is acted a season in which it is vouchsafed It is affixed to faith Acts 13. 38. Now faith is not from eternity it comes by hearing A Ministery is continually employed for reconciliation and pardon of sinne 1 Cor. 5. 19. John 20. Which were in vain if justification were as election from before the foundation of the world They work them not to election but only call upon them to make their calling and election sure There are seniors and juniors in this priviledge one obtains it before another Andronicus and Jâ—nia were in Christ before the Apostle Rom. 16. 7. These evident proofs would take with my faith above a thousand such subtilties But herein the Schools in their application of these acts to God speak according as to the point in hand to the minde of Scriptures Fourthly Object It is farther objected that Christ is the Lamb slaine from the beginning of the world His death hath been of efficacy in the Church through all ages And he bore our sinnes in his body 1 Pet. 2. 24. All our sinnes did meet in him Isa 53. 6. and therefore from the beginning we were justified I answer Answ it profited all those and only those in each age to whom it was revealed and by whom it was applied and not those that have no interest in him Over and above the Decree of God for mans salvation there was a necessity of the death of Christ for our redemption which Christ in the fulnesse of time paid on the Crosse And over and above the death of Christ there is a like necessary of the application of it to our soules for life The work of redemption was finished on the Crosse when Christ triumphed over principalities and powers But much of the work of our salvation was behinde Election did not overthrow Christs redemption but did establish it Redemption doth not overthrow our application but doth establish it likewise There is a farther work of Christs to be done his intercession in heaven being one part of his Priest-hood which he is gone to discharge as the High Priest into the holiest of holies A farther work to be done by man through believing Not to have interest in Christs death is all one as though he had not died He that beleeves in him shall not perish See Baxter of Justification Aphorisme 15. Davenant de morte Christi cap. 5. p. 58 c. Lastly it is said by another If Faith be a condition of the Covenant of Grace Object then it can be no instrument of our justification If it be a condition in this Covenant it justifies as a condition and then it cannot justifie as an instrument and so I pul down what I build and run upon contradictions I answer Answ I should rather judge on the contrary that because it is a condition of the covenant in the way as it is before exprest that it is therefore an instrument in our justification God tenders the gift of righteousnesse to be received by Faith He covenants for this Faith for acceptation of this righteousnesse By beleeving then we keep covenant and receive Christ for justification We as well do what God requires as receive what he tenders We do our duty and take Gods gift and thereby keep covenant and receive life and so Faith is both a condition and an instrument Here I might by way of just corollary infer that a justified man reconciled to God in Christ is a man fitted for every duty unto which God calls which he is pleased to require Faith is his justification the instrumental work of his reconciliation to God and all things are possible to him that beleeveth Mark 9. 23. There is not a duty commanded but a beleeving man through Christ is strengthned for it The Word works effectually in thâ—se that believe as 1 Thes 2. 13. We see the great works that were atchieved by those of ancient time both in doing and suffering Heb. 11. and all of those are ascribed to Faith what Christ can do as in reference to duty that they can do to acceptation They can do all things through Christ that strengthens them Phil. 4. 13. Christ overcomes the world John 16 33. And this is their victory whereby they overcome the world 1 John 5. 4. Christ treads down Satan Rom. 16 20. And they resist him strong in the Faith 1 Pet. 5. 9. A man of Faith is for universal obedience He is a man for dependance on God for the fruition of all promises A word from God is enough for Faith He knows how to rest upon him for the good things of the earth he is above anxious thoughts what he should eate what he should drink or wherewith he should he clothed knowing that godlinesse hath the promise of this life 1 Tim. 4. 8. and therefore Though the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no heard in the stalls yet he will rejoyce in the Lord he will joy in the God of his salvation Hab 3. 17 18. he knows how to rest upon him for spiritual priviledges for adoption of sonnes for evelasting salvation He rests upon this that he that liveth and beleeveth in Christ shall not die for ever He knows how to manage all states and conditions he knows how to
most perillous times 2 Tim. 3. 3. How much more then will God and man have in detestation those that have entred covenant in an immediate way with God for faith and obedience and to stand out in opposition to sinne and Satan yet making defection from God by sinne and unbeliefe stand up in rebellion against him Is the dreadful Majesty of the great God of no more regard than to pretend to him engage with him and then stand up in hostility against him Is there any thing so lovely or honourable in sin to allure men to run upon the wrath of God that they may welter in it or any thing so unpleasing in the wayes of God that neither the dread of his name nor the blisse held forth in promise can perswade to embrace them A viler thing cannot be named than a Christian in sinne a Christian in wayes of unbeliefe and wickednesse Were the name of a Christian off and no covenant bonds engaging to the Lord then there were no more than a creature in rebellion and that were bad enough the work of Gods hand to strive with its Maker But standing vested in this covenant-relation honoured with this glorious Name here is an addition of Hypocrisie Apostasie and defection We hate none more than those that are false to us and we may well conclude that God hates none more than those that are false to him and therefore challenges his people whether they have found any iniquity in him Jerem. 2 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone farre from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain A servant doth not use to quit one Master and betake himself to another but he gives some reason of his change One that hath been engaged for the ways of God as all are that are called by the Name of God and dignified with the title of a Christian would be hard put to it to give a reason of his revolt from God When God and vanity are set in competition that God should be refused and vanity chosen when the fountaine of living waters that never can be drawn dry is left and cisternes broken cisternes chosen that are alwayes running dry How does the holy Ghost set out these 2 Pet. 2. 22. The dog is turned to his own vomit againâ—â— and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Can the sow find no other place than filth nor the dogge no other food than his vomit A returne to sinne is more loathsome than these and such are all the wayes of all men in sinne of all of a Christian profession that are seen in ungodly ways Nothing so glorious as a Christian that holds to his principles that answers in conversation to his profession Nothing so inglorious as a Christian in sin A Jew outwardly and a Heathen inwardly a face for God and a heart for iniquity When such as these came out of the holy land for Babylon they there said in way of reproach of their God These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36. 20. Rom. 2. 24. Insomuch that God is put to it for his vindication not to suffer them to carry their sin with impunity Ezek. 39. 23 24. 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 and gave them into the hand of their enemies so fell they all by the sword according to their uncleannesse and according to their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them This falsehood in covenant draws present sufferings National plagues I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant Levit. 26. 25. Every Christian Nation under sufferings may sadly reflect upon all that they groan under and say their iniquities have procured these things unto them But this breach of covenant with God hath greater evils even unto eternity following upon it Men of sinne and unbeliefe that lie in distrust and disobedience can claime no interest in the grace and mercy of the covenant God in covenant engages to Faith and Repentance these as we have seen are his termes when men come not up to them they dis-interest themselves and disengage God from any tye of conferring blisse and savation upon them Their own folly and madnesse puts a barre to their own happinesse and glory They cannot be self-saviours yet they will not go out of themselves for salvation by another when they have received the sentence of death in themselves they will not come to Christ that they may have life He may worthily bear his own debt that in pride of spirit refuses anothers bounty Christ offers himself as a Surety in our stead to make payment for us in his own person The unbeleever will stand on his owu bottome and make pay out of his own store or perish Having heaven and hell set before them the tender of the one and the terrour of the other quitting heaven and all the glory of it and happinesse in it they make choice of that fire that is prepared for the Devil and his Angels covenant-breaking having the certaine doome of destruction fastened upon it Assurance of salvation cannot be gained but in a way of covenant-keeping yea the conditions of the covenant are the basis and never failing bottome of our Evidence and Assurance It is gathered thus He that believes and repents shall be saved This is evidently laid down in Scriptures A man void of saving faith and impenitent may give his assent to it Then the sould is to assume to it selfe but I beleeve and repent therefore I shall be saved These two as at large hath been shewn are the conditions of the covenant these we must finde wrought in our souls or else all Evidence is wanting and when these are concluded an undeceiving interest in salvation follows There is a twofold work to be done on the soul that is in sin in order to bring it to salvation There is a third to be done for assurance of salvation The first work is to set the soul free from Hell to deliver it from the sentence of Death to which by the rule of justice man stands condemned A man must be fetched out of prison before he can be for any preferment or place of honour This is done by the blood of Christ Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace This is the price of our ransom Being redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1 18. Secondly to make a man meet for heaven A man so vile as sinne makes is a man fit for nothing but hell and must have a change wrought before he be meet for heaven Upon this ground the Apostle is
receives into covenant and appoints the seale hath prescribed a time when it shall be applied A man that hath a grant from King or State hath ipso facto right to the seale and the right necessarily followes upon the grant though he must stay till a sealing day before he possesse it For the exception of women though foederatae yet were not to be circumcised I say 1. Master Marshal hath sufficiently answered that they were of the circumcision and it was an exception against Sampson by his parents that he would go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines Judg. 14. 3. Had he married in Israel as he ought in obedience to God and his parents he had married a wife of the circumcised though that sex by nature is in an incapacity of that signe or seale In diverse places of England the husband being admitted by verdict of a Jury into an estate the wife is virtually admitted his admission is her admission so it was in circumcision 2. They had doubtlesse actually received that signe of circumcision as in New Testament times they do Baptisme Acts 8. 12. Acts 16. 15. but that it was a signe whereof they were in an incapacity It is farther added If then I should farther grant the conclusion That infants of beleevers were to be signati yet you would not say they are to be partakers of the Lords Supper because it is not appointed for them So in like manner if it were granted you that infants of beleevers were to be signed yet it followes not that they are to be baptized unlesse you can prove that it is appointed to them and the truth is if it were granted that children were foederati yet it were a high presumption in us to say therefore they must be signati without Gods declaration of his minde and if it were granted they must be signati it were in like manner a high presumption in us to say therefore they must be baptized without Gods declaration of his minde concerning that Ordinance To this a reply is made by another hand that there is difference between a seale for initiation and a seale for confirmation a seale wherein no more is of necessity than to be passive and that wherein we are to be active yet to come more near to them I am content to yield the conclusion supposing that his argument is of force Every Church-member hath true title to all Church-priviledges But infants are Church-members the Lords Supper is a Church-priviledge and therefore infants have true title to it But then I must distinguish jus ad rem and jus in re every infant hath right to it yet by reason of infancy hath his actual interest suspended Paul by birth had right to all the priviledg of the Citie of Rome being born free Acts 22. 28. yet it does not follow that he was to give his vote or appear in Assemblies as a free Citizen in the time of his minority James the sixth was crowned in Scotland and Henry the sixth in England in the time of their minority so that they were reckoned among the Kings of Nations yet neither of them did in their own persons exercise regalia till yeares of discretion As these infants of title were crowned so infants that are Church-members are to be baptized when yet an infant can no more partake as a Christian ought of the Lords Supper than an infant King can wield the great things of his Kingdome An infant-heir from the first instant of his fathers death and a posthumous childe from the time of his birth stands seized of his fathers inheritance The whole title is vested in him how ample soever and in no other and he is received into it and lives upon it yet he is held from the managing of it till he can improve for his own and the publike benefit So that the taking into covenant is a sufficient declaration of Gods minde that the signes and seals in an orderly way should be granted to them and all these appeare to be cavils and not answers As these exceptions are causlesly taken against the connexion between the covenant and eale so quarrels are raised against some phrases in common use among Divines relating to this thing as making the metaphor of a seale the Genus of a Sacrament which if an errour was the Apostles errour Rom. 4. 11. and many such like with which it is needlesse to trouble the Reader CHAP. LVII The with-holding infants of Christian parents from Baptisme is the sin of Sacriledge HEnce farther followes that the Prohibition of infant-Baptisme or with-holding them from that Ordinance that are the issue of Christians is the sinne of Sacriledge This is plaine from the premisses they are the Lords His heritage Psal 127. 3. The Lords servants Levit. 25. 42. holy ones Rom. 11. 16. 1 Cor. 7. 14. Children of the covenant Acts 3. 25. interessed in the priviledges of the people of God Mark 10. 14. Therefore they are to be given to God Caesar will account it a robbery if that which is his due be denied God will account it a robbery if that which is his be denied Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods Matth. 22. 21. Adversaries fasten the brand of will-worship on the practice of it But if Baptisme be any worship according to the minde of Christ then infant-Baptisme is out of all danger or possibility of will-worship In case infants were not within he verge yet their Baptisme could be no will worship we set not up of our selves the Ordinance that we apply to them but make application of the Ordinance that Christ hath instituted In case they have no title there is onely a misapplication of worship instituted and no devise of worship To this is replied and demand made whether infant-communion were not will-worship whether baptizing of Bells were not will-worship yet these are but misapplications of an instituted ordinance to a wrong subject I answer none of these were will-worship nor yet the Baptisme of the Horse in Huntingdon-shire but the horrid prophanation of an instituted worship Baptisme is still Gods but the application mans and here the will is not carried to a devise of an ordinance but alone to the application of it Our adversaries making it a corruption of the Ordinance of Baptisme acquit it from will-worship But in infant-Baptisme we neither devise an Ordinance nor of our own heads make application of it we know they belong to the family of Jesus Christ we know Christs order to admit them to the priviledge that was proper to those of his family and as faithful stewards we follow the will of our Master not our own will but the will of Christ Jesus Could they wash their hands of Sacriledge as we are able to clear our wills and wits from devise of a worship it were better with them The times were when men looked upon things consecrate as holy to the Lord in a
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
emolument that is attractive of him There must be a desire to please God and not men as Paul saith Gal. 1. for so a man cannot be a servant of Christ This fear to displease men whereby we do not reprove sin so Zealously so Cordially and Faithfully as we should hath eclipsed the comfort of some godly Ministers at their death It is too true that the Wise man saith The fear of a man is his snare Prov. 29. 25. The Camelion for fear saith Aristotle turneth into the likeness of every object it meeteth with These are the special qualifications of a Godly Minister whereby he will be able to say with Paul I have fought a good fight 1 Tim. 4. 7. Yea with CHRIST I have finished the worke thou gavest me to do John 17. 3. To all which must be added diligence and labour all the names they have denote labour more then glory office more then dignitie now in all these things there is one particular which doth much quicken and that is temptation one of those three things Luther said made a Divine we are not to desire temptations but God for the most part doth prepare those Ministers whom he intends to be serviceable by such exercises This is the sawing and the polishing of the stone by this he is brought into the deep waters and seeth the wonderfull works of God by this he is able to understand the depths of Satan and by this he is adapted to be a most speciall Instrument to comfort and refresh others when they shall see theirs is not a singular condition they must not think none are tempted like them for they shall find that even Pauls have had the buffetings of Satan and that by these soule temptations they have learned more then all Books or authors could teach them And thus I leave the first Doctrine and proceed to the second which is That a Godly People cannot but affectionately mourn under the losse of their faithfull Ministers You see here what these Ephesians did with what affection they were moved because they should never see Pauls face more Grace doth not lie in extinguishing but regulating affections Christ wept and they argued from thence behold how he loved him Joh. 11. 35 36. So that Nazianzens commendation of his Mother Nonna that she never wept under the many troubles she underwent submitting all to Gods hand was rather Stoicisme then Christianitie It is said of Ambrose when he heard of the death of any good Minister he could not forbeare weeping how then can a people forbeare when their own Minister their own Pastor is taken away should not the Congregation be a valley of tears or a place of mourners now there are these grounds for it 1. Because of that experimentall soul-good and spirituall advantage the Godly have reapt thereby Oh! when thou shalt remember what quicknings what meltings what warning of heart thou hast had this will cause grief to think they are gone Carnall naturall men never are affected with the losse of a Minister they never got any good by their Preaching it was no converting Ministry no inlightning no comforting Ministry to them and therefore the loss is no more troublesome 2. They must needs mourn because they have just cause to fear their sinnes have caused God to deprive them of such helps your unthankfulness your contempt and low thoughts of the means of grace your unprofitableness and negligence may make you mourn for if God upon the abuse of naturall Creatures will take away his Wine his Bread his flaxe will he not much more remove the candlestick for unfruitfulness under spiritual mercies mourne then lest thy sinnes thy unfaithfulness thy deadness and dulness of heart have provoked God to take such guides away yea in the third place may not some mourn who by their Disobedience and unwillingnesse to submit to Christs yoak and opposition to his way have so filled the Ministers heart with grief and sadness as thereby to hasten his death making his life the more uncomfortable and causing him to mourn in secret for your stubbornness and disobedience Thus your sinnes not only meritoriously but efficiently may concurre to the removing of him by death Consider that place Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that rule over you c. that they may give their account with joy and not with grief some make this particular to relate to the former that they may watch over your souls with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you A grieved Minister a discouraged Minister cannot do his duty so powerfully it will be unprofitable unto you you will find it in his study in his sermons A dull people are apt to make a dull Minister 4. There is cause to mourn because of the excellencie of the relation between a Pastor and a People in some respects it is above all naturall relations They are spirituall Fathers your souls receive good by them They are Instrumentall to bring you unto eternal glory and therefore there is more cause of Mourning in this respect then when God breaketh naturall relations no Father or Mother or friend happily hath done that for thee which his Ministery hath done 5. There is cause to mourn because it is a sign of Gods anger and displeasure to a people you are not so much to look upon it as the losse of a man as a token of Gods anger to the congregation The righteous man perisheth and none layeth it to heart Isaiah 57. 1. Who knoweth what soul-Judgements what bodily Judgements may hereafter come vpon you and therefore it is for a people to be sensible and mourn when the desire of your eies so I may call the Minister as well as the Wife is taken away The desire of your eies you long to see him in the Pulpit again and the desire of your eares you long to heare him again 6. There is cause to Mourn because of the sad consequents that many times falls upon the death of a faithfull Pastor sometimes the learning and soundness of a Minister keepeth a People from licentious errors and corrupt opinions His Gravitie and Pietie hath a speciall influence upon many but upon his removall then the weeds of a mans heart growes up After my departure saith Paul Wolves will arise from among your selves Acts 20. 29. Pauls presence was a great means to hinder them 2. What good Foundation is laid in Faith what Godly Order may be begun there is danger that all these will die when a Faithfull Minister dieth I wonder that you are so soon removed saith Paul Gal. 1. Alas that which the Ministers of God have with many years diligence many Prayers and much opposition brought about when the Minister is dead may quickly be destroyed so that we may wonder how such a Town such a place should be over-run with Bryars and Thornes immediately 3. Another sad consequent is sometimes divisions and breaches among the People while a Godly Minister is alive he is like