is added to the Gospel as the Rule is to the work-mans hand and the yoke of Gospel-obedience is nothing else but the duties that the Law requires as being the servant unto the Gospel the way of the Gospel is still the way of thy Precepts O God Vse 3 It is also for Consolation it is the greatest ground of comfort and the greatest gift of God even next unto Christ and the second Covenant that he hath made the Law a servant thereunto It 's much that the Lord has given us all the Creatures and they are all our servants Angels and Principalities and Powers all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo and the curse of the Law also persecutions afflictions death are all sanctified but above all that he has made the Law a servant to the Gospel For the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law all is from the Law and all our fear is from the Law and to have the Law of God to charge sin upon a man is the great ground of a mans terror because it comes to the Conscience with the Authority and Majesty of the great King the highest Judge and Law-giver now to have this Law made a servant and in subordination unto all a mans spiritual and eternal welfare it is a very high ground of a mans consolation and so a man under the second Covenant loseth only that which is evil in the first Covenant but all the good of the first Covenant he attains under the second whatever good the first Covenant can do him he hath that also purchased by Christ for him through the overplus of the Grace the superabundant Grace of the second Covenant that we may say Grace abounded much more thus Out of the eater came meat and out of the strong came sweetness and that which was the ground of the greatest terror in the world a man can now claim as his portion talk with as his counseller and feed upon as the sweetest of all his delights that his soul is even ravished with it Thus the Lord has subjected the Law to the Gospel and do you rejoice in its Ministration Thus have we brought this large Tract to an end which is the Key of all the whole Treasury of God wherein you have heard 1 That God in the Creation did deal with man in a Covenant-way 2 The foederati the Covenanters were Adam and his Posterity 3 The terms of this Covenant were perfect personal and perpetual Obedience 4 The Condition on Gods part was Life Spiritual Temporal and Eternal 5 This Covenant Adam brake not only for himself but for all his posterity 6 That the Curse of the Covenant broken is death spiritual temporal and eternal 7 That the Covenant of Works is not abolished by the fall but all unregenerate men stand under it still 8 That this is to every unregenerate man a desirable Condition 9 That under this Covenant all unregenerate men are for Irritation Coaction and Condemnation 10 There is a Translation out of this Covenant and an abolishment of it to all that are regenerate 11 The Subordination of it to the Gospel The END of the First Book BOOK II. THE Covenant of Grace Its AUTHOR FOUNTAIN and the Persons with whom it is made CHAP. I. The Author and Fountain of this Covenant Gen. 17.2 And I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly SECT I. The Person who makes this Covenant Jehovah and why he will deal with all in a Covenant way THE Covenant of Works as made with man in his Creation as violated by the Fall and as cancelled in his Regeneration and as subordinate and made subservient to the Covenant of Grace we have seen in the former Discourse and we now come to consider the nature of the second and better Covenant which all the Saints in Heaven are saved by which man can never break and the righteousness whereof sin can never spend There are in Scripture four eminent publick persons with whom this Covenant was made which are set down in two instances in the Scripture 1 With Adam where it is very darkly represented 2 With Noah Gen. 3.15 Gen. 9.9 and with his Sons which is a branch of the Covenant of Grace and is so brought in Isa 54.9 This is the waters of Noah to me 3 With Abraham and to him was the clearest manifestation of it who it may be was therefore called as a special term of honour the Friend of God because the Lord imparted secrets to him in a more evident familiar manner than he had done with the Saints of old as a man does with his friend Luk. 1.73 it is his Oath that he sware to Abraham to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made Gal. 3.16 and if you be Christs you are Abrahams seed and Gal. 4.22 23 24. Abrahams Family is made a type and a shadow of the two Covenants and the durable generation of men under them Abraham had two Sons which things are an Allegory they are the two Covenants c. and therefore Mic. 7. ult it is mercy unto Abraham and truth unto Jacob because in Abraham after a sort the Promise and the Covenant did begin and therefore it is mercy in making it but it is truth in keeping of it 4 With David Psal 89.3 I have made a Covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant And Isa 55.3 I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David and Act. 13.34 you will find it again repeated and therefore is Christ called the Son of David and also David that shall be King over them Ezek. 37.24 Hos 3. ult Act. 15.16 The Tabernacle of David is said to be raised up in the Primitive times but there is a time coming that God will raise up the throne of David also when that promise shall be fulfilled I shall give him the Throne of his father David of his Kingdom there shall be no end and when that Dan. 7.14 shall be accomplished He shall be brought unto the Antient of days and shall receive a Kingdom after the four persecuting Monarchies shall be taken down which we see not accomplished when that Scripture Rev. 11.17 shall be fulfilled That the Kingdoms of the Earth shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord. His they are now as he is the King of Nations but they shall be so also as he is the King of Saints and they shall subscribe unto the Lord and his name shall be called upon them c. I have made choice of this Scripture as setting forth the Covenant made with Abraham or rather renewed which God had made fourteen years before Gen. 15.18 but herein gave a more full expression of his entring into Covenant with him Wherein you may observe three things 1 That there is a Covenant the Lord will deal with Abraham in a Covenant way the Lord will bring him into the bond
a seeking their Fathers life as Absalom did David's Vse the young man well for my sake says the father but when Hushai said We will smite the King only the saying pleas'd Absalom well And the son shall betray the father to death Sennacherib was slain by his two Sons 4 The parting with Children at death and not knowing in what condition a man shall leave them is a great part of a mans vexation In this life it 's a great part of the Curse His Sons come to honour and he knows it not they are brought low and he considers it not c. That was Luther's comfort in his Will Lord thou hast given me Wife and Children and I give them to thee again Qui pater es pupillorum judex viduarum which art the Father of Orphans and Judge of the Widows But the contrary is a very great affliction unto the hearts of Parents and a great part of a mans misery that Children must suffer for the Parents sins and God may visit the iniquity of Parents upon Children to the third and fourth Generation 2. Parents also are a Curse to their Children 1 The sins of Parents are transmitted to the Children We see Adam did bring a Curse upon himself and all his posterity and the infants of Sodom were involved in the punishment of the sins that they were not in themselves guilty of Ezech. 4.25 God reserved the punishment of the Fathers for their Children for three hundred and ninety years together Chams sins and Canaans is punisht nine hundred twenty-five years after and Gehazi his Leprosie cleaves to him and his posterity and the Jews in Crucifying Christ say his blood be upon us and our children and so wrath is come upon them to the uttermost for many Generations 1 This is a punishment upon the Parent and a testimony of great wrath that not only Judgment comes upon himself but upon his posterity 2 It 's only in Temporal things for an Eternal Curse never comes upon Children but for their own sins but for Temporal Curses they are dispens'd in a way of prerogative and the Lord will lay those Curses upon Children which the Parents did deserve and they are gone down to Hell to receive 2 Parents prove snares and plagues to their Children by betraying their liberties losing of their priviledges Rom. 3.2 Vnto them were committed the Oracles of God Now when they shall forfeit them and part with their priviledges by little and little What a curse is this The Ordinances and the Truths of the Gospel are the greatest trust committed to Parents but when they provoke the Lord to call them Loammi and to cast them off then they are forfeited As Rom. 11. the natural branches are broken off and their posterity are cast out as an abominable branch only the Lord will in time graft them in again So many a Father does lose glorious priviledges and opportunities for his Children Saul did divest himself of the Kingdom and all his posterity Now would I have established the Kingdom to thee c. 3 By an evil example 1 Pet. 1.18 corrupting them by their vain conversation received by tradition from their Fathers Jer. 44.17 We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven as we have done we and our fathers our Kings and our Princes in the cities of Judah c. 4 The Father may forsake his Son yea he may forget When my father and mother forsake me says the Psalmist the Lord takes me up And the Father may betray the Son to death as we see Saul did Jonathan if he will not comply with his lusts he shall not live he throws a Javelin at him to kill him c. SECT III. Spiritual Death § 1. WE have thus far considered the first Branch of the Covenant's Curse and that consists in Temporal death Now let us come to consider the second Branch of it which is Death Spiritual and that is All the spiritual evil that can befal the soul of man in this life whether of sin or sorrow And it 's as possible for a man to weigh the fire and to measure the wind and number the stars or count the sand upon the sea-shore as to reckon the particulars wherein this Death consists Godly men that study the evils of their own hearts all their days yet cry out The heart is deceitful above all things who can know it Jer. 17.10 The word signifies an incurable disease it s only the Lord that can cure and search it and know the malignity of it And as it is said of Vertue and the beauty of Holiness if it could be seen with bodily eyes Mirabilem excitaret amorem sui it would stir up a wonderful love of it self so could the death of the soul and the evils of it be seen it would stir up hatred and amazement above all things in the world A godly man that sees but a little of it when God opens his eyes he abhors himself and loaths his own soul Job 42.6 And Luther blessed God that he did not shew him sin all at once but by degrees it would have sunk him with the apprehension of it This will be the study of men in Hell to all eternity to rake into this filthiness of the soul and the death thereof for Hell is the grave of the soul and the rottenness of it shall be studied there for ever And this shall be the work of that never-dying worm the souls reflection upon it self and its own loathsomeness and to loath it self for ever Consider 1 the soul is the darling and therefore the beauty of a man and the worth of the man lies in the hidden man of the heart which is in the sight of God of great price 1 Pet. 3.3 and therefore the deformity of the soul is the greatest The worth of the man is from the worth of the soul Prov. 10.20 The heart of the wicked is little worth His Lands and his Honour and his Cloaths may be worth much in the esteem of the world but his soul is worth nothing Therefore the value of a man is in his spirit though there be other things that we commonly prize men by yet those that judge aright count the Saints upon this account the excellent ones Psal 16.3 and all others to be vile men how great and rich soever Dan. 4.17 Psal 15. And a man does prosper truly as his soul prospers 3 Joh. 2. and not as his body prospers or as his estate prospers Therefore a man is filthy if his soul is filthy and vile as his soul is vile and he decays as his soul does from day to day 2 The great difference between men and men lies in their spirits Caleb had another spirit Numb 14.24 Our distinctions for the present are but for a time and death will make all equal that as we were all made of one body so we shall all be dissolved into the same dust they are all but for the time
But here it may be men will wonder that time should be spent amongst us in beating men out of this being under the first Covenant and getting life upon impossible terms to undertake perfectly to keep the Law and to seek justification by works seeing we are neither Jews nor Papists We know we cannot fulfill the Law but that there is iniquity in our holy things and we are so far from resting in our duties that we acknowledge our righteousness is as filthy rags that if God should look upon them as they are he must needs abhor them and us for them and therefore surely there are none amongst us that do so all this labour might be spared for we are so far from desiring it that we disclaim it and abhor it But I answer to this Answer that a man ought to read in other mens practices his own inclination this was a desire in Adam 1 Cor. 15.49 and in his Posterity who do all bear the image of the earthly for as face answers to face in the water so sin is alike in all men and that man perfectly likes an example of sinning in others that does not reflect upon himself and see that there are seeds of it in him that doth not read his own nature in another mans life 2. If there be the seeds of it in thy own heart then though it never should break forth into act yet there is just cause that God should loath thee for it as we do Toads though they hurt us not And indeed the main part of our enmity against God and Gods against us lies in the contrariety of our nature to him Col. 1.21 we are naturally enemies to God in our minds and this is the top of all a godly mans humiliation this is but a part of all that evil treasure that is within Psal 51.7 and there is more in the Ware-house than in the Shop And that Christian is never kindly humbled for any sin if his humiliation ends in the sin it self and ascend not to the fountain that is within him that raging sea that always is casting out mire c. We know that in the Saints there is no lust perfectly mortified in this life Rom. 6.6 for sin dies a crucified death and therefore though in a Saint it be still upon the Cross and dying daily yet it shall never be perfectly destroyed till this corruptible shall put on incorruption The Saints have the seeds of this sin of trusting in themselves in them also and this lust will not lye idle in them the flesh will lust against the spirit Gal. 5.17 and it shews how prone the nature of man is to it and the actings of it because it has shewed it self so in all ages And therefore one being asked why Pelagianism did spring up in all ages answered Because there were Pelagianae fibrae in the hearts of all men So if this be asked you Why this lust of carnal confidence always breaks forth into sinful acts c. you may also answer There are fibrae of it in the heart of all men Therefore if God have kept this lust from acting in thee so much as it has done in others O be thankful for so great a mercy but be careful that thou say not that it is not in thee because God has restrained the lust from acting for then it may be just with God to give a man over to the power of it and he shall see by experience that it 's a mercy to have it restrained seeing he cannot be wholly freed from it in this life It 's a great evil when God preserves men from sin for them to think there is no such danger in it Take heed lest God let out such a lust upon thee that will make thee a mourner all thy days and remember how presumptuous Peter was against his denial of Christ yet how soon he was guilty of it And how apt are Christians for not prizing a preservation from gross sins to walk fearlesly and then God often leaves them to the power of lust and shews them the mercy of his former restraint Indeed all lusts in the heart of man do not act alike some lusts do work directly and press men to sin as that of Whoredom and Drunkenness a man has distinct thoughts about them but there are some that do work indirectly and in a secret way to guide men in their practise and yet never come into distinct thoughts but work as principles that lye low and a man acts in the power of them and yet observe them not as in a Watch every one may observe the wheels that move but every one does not observe the spring from whence their motion proceeds as a Scholar that speaks and writes Latin he does not think of the rules of Grammar every sentence he speaks and yet those rules have an influence into every word and his whole discourse is framed after those rules so there are some sins as Atheism c. a man it may be never says in actual thoughts that there is no God and yet this principle sways with a man and is at the bottom of every sin And so it is with this sin it may not come into actual thoughts that there is Eternal life to be had by our works and we will exclude the righteousness of Christ and yet it may have a very great influence upon the man in his whole course as being a fundamental and mother-sin 1 So far as any man does desire to establish his own righteousness so far he desires to be under a Covenant of Works for justification and life but this is the disposition of every man by nature therefore every man by nature desires to be under the first Covenant still this was the great fruit of it amongst the Jews Rom. 10.3 and the words are very significant Going about to establish their own righteousness i. e. seeking or studying for it as students use to do It signifies to labour for a thing with a mans utmost endeavour even with all his might as Mat. 6.32 After these things do the Gentiles seek and it answers to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.31 Rom. 9.31 They followed after the law of righteousness but they attained it not The law of righteousness is the righteousness of the Law that is justification by it for the righteousness of the Law to be fulfilled in them by their own personal obedience not by faith but by works this they followed after with all their might And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imbecillitatem propriae justitiae denotat denotes the imbecillity of their own righteousness that it could not stand alone but they must set it up and support it and make it stand by their own opinion and presumptions Now you see this all along how men expect acceptation with God for their services Isa 58.1 Wherefore have we fasted and thou regardest not Men do think to be heard for
then from the condemnation of the Law and the sentence of it there is no appeal or redemption CHAP. III. How and whence it is that sin is irritated by the Law Rom. 7.8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence SECT I. How sin takes occasion and is irritated by the Law § 1. WE have seen that to be under the first Covenant though broken is unto every man in a state of nature a desirable thing though formally indeed men desire it not for they will all disclaim it but interpretatively and by consequence they do desire it as Prov. 8. ult it was finis operis though not operantis it was the end of the work Ezek. 8.3 though not of the worker and so men going about to establish their own righteousness and not submitting unto the righteousness of God and being contented to be acted by a spirit of bondage which is the spirit of the first Covenant which doth produce in them fruits answerable to the Covenant under which they stand this is in Gods account and in the censure of the Scripture an argument of an inward desire and contentment to be under this Covenant still Now because men do look upon it as a desirable condition let us examine what this condition is of a man fallen to be under the first Covenant as broken Divines do commonly say that a man that is in Christ is freed from the Law he being dead to the Law and the Law being dead unto him in some respects as was mentioned at first 1 For Irritation the Law hath not this power in men to irritate and exasperate and enrage their lusts by the restraint and the prohibitions of them and so they apply that place Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law That is saith Beza He exhorts them to Sanctification Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies and he does promise them sin shall not raign under the Law only forbidding sinning and thereby provoking and increasing lust but you are under Grace strengthning against sin and healing it and hence it is concluded from several other Scriptures that a man in Christ and under Grace is freed from the Law and irritation of it 2 For Co-action to keep them from sin by force for fear simply of the curse of the Law and to compell them to duty as a task-master against their wills when the Law they hate and the duty that is required of them that they hate and wish there were no Law and look upon it as a yoak and a burden insupportable for as a godly man says of sin so a wicked man says of duty that which I hate that do I. And it requires of him perfect obedience as a task-master he must work brick but gives no straw requires the full tale of duty but gives no strength nor assistance The Apostle says Gal. 5.8 if you be led by the spirit you are not under the Law the spirit that is in you is the spirit of the second Covenant a spirit of Adoption a spirit of liberty a free and a Princely spirit which enables you to perform duties out of an inward principle of love to them and delight in them unto them the yoak is easie and the burden is light for it 's their happiness and honour and meat and drink to do the will of their Heavenly father And so that place I conceive is to be understood 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law was not made for a righteous man that is neither in the restraining act of it or keeping from sin only for fear of the curse because he has an inward principle that lusts against it and as a fountain casts out the mud an inward antipathy a spirit lusting and rising against it that though there were no curse yet he would hate it and endeavour to avoid it nor in the constraining power of it to force to duty only as that which his soul hates and he comes hardly off too in any measure to do that which is required but he has a spirit within the Law written in his heart an inward principle suitable to what the Law requires of him as it is said of Christ in respect of that great Commandment was laid on him Joh. 10.18 This Commandment have I received of my father for of that I think he speaks lo I come to do thy will thy law is in the middle of my bowels I have power to lay it down and to take it up again He had an inward principle that made him ready and willing and chearful in it and in this respect the Law was never made for them as the only principle upon which they should act 3 For condemnation so as to be able to lay upon a man the guilt of his own sin and condemn him for it for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law there is a destroying power in sin and this it has from the condemning power of the Law do but take away the condemning power of the Law and the sting of death that is that power that it has to destroy the soul is gone because the guilt is taken off the sinner Now Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us And so Gal. 5.23 Against such there is no Law It is not spoken against such works but against such persons there is no Law partly because the Law is against none but those that transgress it and partly because those being the fruits of the spirit do argue and clear to a man that his Covenant is changed because he is acted by the spirit of the second Covenant and therefore he may thereby receive an evidence to himself that the condemning power of the Law is not against him any more Rom. 4.6 4 For Justification For blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works That no man is justified by the Law is evident Gal. 2. ult If righteousness be by the law then Christ is dead in vain And from hence I argue that if they that are in Christ and under the second Covenant are freed from the Law in all these respects then all those that are out of Christ are under the Law still in all those respects and therefore every unregenerate man is under the Law as a Covenant of works and under this Covenant he desires to be now the Covenant being broken he is under it for Justification Irritation Coaction and Condemnation Daven de luâ—ut actuali p. 397. which when we have lookt over it will appear that this is no such happy condition that a man should desire it In being freed thus from the Law the main part of a Christians liberty consists yet there is this difference the two last refer unto a person and state and in those his liberty is perfect and he is wholly freed from the Law
in point of Justification and Condemnation but in the two former as to Irritation and Coaction it is but liberty begun because sin in us is not perfectly destroyed therefore so far as there are remainders of sin in the Saints See Pareus in Rom. 7.5 they are lyable to an Irritation and a Coaction but yet in a far different manner from that which is in unregenerate men as will be shewed afterwards § 2. The Apostle having in the former Chapter spoken how sin entered into the world and death by sin and how righteousness and life entred by the Lord Jesus Christ that as sin reigned unto death so grace should reign through righteousness unto life eternal and shewing the fruits of this righteousness killing sin in us Therefore we are dead to sin and the old man is crucified and the body of sin is destroyed that we should not henceforth serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin for sin is a Lord and so long as the servant lives he is in subjection to his master but the servant being once dead is free from his master it 's a speech taken from all civil subjection which began with sin and ends with death Now sin is compared to a Master or a Lord to which a man is bound while he lives but being dead he is freed from the power and dominion of sin Rom. 6.11 12. Rom. 6.11 12 Therefore count your selves dead unto sin and let not sin reign in your mortal bodies any more Ver. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace Not under the Law as a Covenant and so irritating sin and exasperating it but under Grace that is subduing sin and hell Some refer these words to the dominion of sin and a mans freedom from that and some to the dominion of the Law and a mans deliverance from it as a Covenant but the main current of Interpreters make the Law the husband and the strength of sin to be by the Law unto condemnation and unto irritation as the Law does occasionally inflame the heart to evil and lust is enraged thereby and they say the Law is dead unto us as a Covenant it is a bond cancelled and taken out of the way Col. 2.14 and so we are dead to the Law by the body of Christ that is Christ as our surety having paid our debt satisfied the Law and received the discharge we are dead to the Law it has no more power to charge sin upon us See Ambros to Jerom. also Estius Calvin Par. c. nor to stir up sin within us they make the Law to be the husband the Soul the wife and the children to be the fruits of Sin which through the irritating power of the Law it does bring forth in us even all manner of concupiscence But other Interpreters as Beza Gomar and some others conceive that the husband is Sin the wife is every natural man that is in the flesh and the fruits are all sinful words and actions that do proceed from sin which are fruits unto death as the other husband is Christ the wife a Believing soul and the fruits all the fruits of Righteousness and Holiness which are called fruits unto God and therefore some have put them both together and so Reinolds in one place he calls Sin the husband Psal 130. the use of the Law p. 368. and in another place the Law the husband and the difference is not much whether we understand it of sin which takes occasion by the Law or of the Law as it does inflame and irritate sin for both of them may be truly said to be dead unto the Saints and they dead unto them though it seems by the ensuing Objections most probable that the Law is the husband Now the Apostle comes to answer a double Objection which ariseth hence For if sin take occasion by the Commandment and if it have a pollutive power by the Law and as he saith Verse the fifth The motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death then it seems there is a double evil that flows from the Law sin and death for by the Law the motions of sin work and by the Law men bring forth fruit unto death The words are an answer unto the first objection which lyes thus That which doth increase sin and sin works by it that is in it self sinful but the Law doth increase sin and sin works by the Law c. The Apostle answers it two ways 1 By Negation it doth not follow though the Law doth increase sin and sin works by the Law c. that the Law is therefore sinful Absit God forbid it is an abominable inference for the Law is holy and just and good and a beam of that infinite Holiness that is in God and by which Gods Holiness does shine forth upon us therefore the Law is not sinful for that which only does discover sin is not sin but it is the Law only that doth discover and forbid sin therefore c. 2 By a Translation of the guilt laying the blame upon corrupt nature and the sinfulness thereof which the Law doth forbid and discover for the Law entered that sin might abound and therefore of it self gives not occasion to sin Yet sin took occasion when none was given and did draw evil from that which is good in it self and suckt poyson from that which is holy For the Law is holy as well when it does by accident enrage sin as when by it self it discovers it Doct. Every man out of Christ is under a Covenant of works and under the irritating power of the Law The Law forbidding sin and discovering sin in him has no other fruits but to enrage it and increase it as Chrysostome says the flame of lust is increased thereby for without the law sin is dead that is ratione cognitionis it lyes dead man knows it not to be sin and comparativè ratione irritationis in point of irritation But the more clearly the law is discovered the more bitterly and violently does corruption work against it Whiles the law doth not come in a clear and convincing manner sin is quiet and a man does not sin with so much rage and violence against the law as he does after the discoveries thereof Sin was dead that is it did not put forth its utmost power to draw forth all manner of effects till the law came and by this means sin is made exceeding sinful as it is rendered by Erasmus sin is not only discovered but improved and so it is made exceeding sinful So that the fruits of the law to a man under the first Covenant is this Sin takes occcasion by the Commandment it does ripen his sins and improve them and it draws forth in him all manner of uncleanness 1 Cor. 15.56 The strength of sin is the law There is a
even in all his temptations of the Saints as well as wicked men to touch them Jon. 6.7 Job 5.19 and to leave in them an impression and stamp of his own devilishness and therefore the more men sin against knowledg and with despight and disaffection unto God the more he is pleased with it for as God loves holiness in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes unto conformity to God the more God delights in him so Satan loves sin in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes in conformity unto Satan the more spiritual his wickedness grows and Satan delights to act that man of all other 2 The dearer any thing is unto God the more Satan delights to abuse it unto this end and the more God hath set up any thing against sin the more Satan does endeavour to make that a means to draw men unto sin sometimes he seeks to abuse the Creatures of God and stir up lust by them as when a man looks upon the Sun when it shines and his heart is enticed thereby sometimes he looks upon a Woman and lusts after her sometimes he looks upon the Wine when its colour looks red in the glass and thus the Creatures of God are abused by Satan to draw out the lusts of men and whatever is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the ey and the pride of life 1 Joh. 2.15 16. Sometimes he abuseth the servants of God he will enter into Peter and he shall become a tempter unto Christ that he saith Get thee behind me Satan and the woman that God gave man to be a help she shall by Satan be made a dart and sometimes the Law and the Gospel which specially God has set up as a remedy against sin shall act it and improve it and draw it forth Now God leaving a man under the power and dominion of Satan the God of this world who works effectually in the children of disobedience he is as a conquerour over them and triumphs in this that he has made use of the Law of God and the Gospel of God that is made against sin to increase and ripen it yea even the motions and common works of the Spirit of God the heart of man rising and making head against them are the great means by which Satan draws men to the great transgression even to sin against God with despight and revenge § 3. But here is a question Question Are believers who are engrafted into Christ and come under him as a father as the second Adam that is have their Covenant changed as well as their image are these wholly freed from the law in respect of the irritation of it Rom. 6.14 it is said Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law but under grace Which as has been declared is not to be referred unto a mans justification as being freed from the Law for righteousness and life and from the curse of the law for death and condemnation but it is spoken of a mans Sanctification a man is not under the Law as irritating sin and increasing it but under grace not only pardoning but sanctifying and subduing it and in this respect the dominion and the ruling power of sin is taken away in the godly though the being of it remain The Apostle speakes wholly in this place in reference to a mans state of unregeneracy Vers 5 When we were in the flesh the motions of sin that were by the law c. And he speaks this in reference to his own estate before conversion I was alive without the law once and I had not known sin but by the law nor lust to be a sin and the danger of it but that the Law of God discover'd it unto me and so in my former state Sin took occasion by the Commandment and wrought in me c. The word in the Greek signifies to work a thing throughly and effectually and to work it out Phil. 2.20 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling And Rom. 7.18 To will is present with me but to perform or go through with the work I find not a power to do it And so sin by the Commandment wrought in him effectually or wrought in him which we heard before all manner of Concupiscence all lust was thereby drawn out Hath the law of God no such work upon a regenerate man one that is a believer does not sin in a regenerate man take occasion by the Commandment Is a Believer as perfectly freed from the Law for irritation as he is for condemnation Answer Christ says If the Son make you free you are free indeed and the special part of our liberty with which Christ has made us free is in being freed from the Law as a Covenant Some as Paraeus and others do distinguish thus Liberty from the Law is twofold 1 Perfect in respect of justification and condemnation that their perfect obedience to the Law is no way required for the one neither shall any of the transgressions of the Law be imputed for the other 2 Inchoate which is but begun in the Saints and shall be perfected and so they are delivered from the Law only for irritation and coaction but so long as sin remains in them so long they shall never be perfectly delivered from the Law in either of these But to make this plain and bring it down in the particular branches of it unto the meanest understanding There are many things to be considered which I shall now proceed to lay down to make out this general and received Doctrine that is so commonly delivered by our Divines 1. There are remainders of corruption in the best of the Saints Grace destroys the reigning of sin but not the being of it You read how that Abraham the father of the faithful had his unbelief and Moses the meekest man in his generation had his passion and provocation and spake unadvisedly with his lips David a man after Gods own heart yet he complains of his secret sins and Paul that great Apostle had the law of his members rebelling against the law of his mind 2 Cor. 7.1 There is a filthiness of flesh and spirit that is to be purged out as there is something wanting in their Graces and therefore they have a daily growth in Sanctification so there is something remaining of their corruption which requires a daily growth in their mortification therefore they are compared to the Moon Cant. 6.10 which has some spots in it because not wholly enlightned by the Sun they do defile themselves and therefore had need daily to wash their feet Joh. 17.10 2. These remainders of sin in them as they are promoted by Satan so they give Satan an access unto their spirits and are as the seed for him to work upon they are to him a seminary and so much as Satan has in a man so much power he has over him says Christ
Saints that they are freed from the Coaction of the Law that they are not so under it as unregenerate men are For 1 they do no good by constraint The regenerate man is always ready to obey the will of God he is a man that acts from an inward principle and therein lives above the Law he that is born of God never sins but always obeys God 1 John every thing that the Law commands is pleasant to him and the Commandments of God are not grievous Cant. 3.10 as Christs Chariot in which he comes to us is paved with Love so is our way to Christ paved with Love and hence a man is never weary but the longer a man continues in the ways of God the more he is satisfied with them because where is a suitableness there is no weariness the Sun is not weary with shining nor the fire weary with burning nor are the Angels in Heaven ever weary of beholding God for ever because their happiness is perfected by it nor are the Saints in earth weary of doing the will of their Heavenly Father neither doing-work nor suffering-work to bear Christs Cross is not grievous to them to be reproached for his name's sake is counted all joy they despise the pleasures of sin for a season living in the sure hope of their enjoying rivers of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore CHAP. V. All those that are in Christ are translated from under the first Covenant Col. 1.13 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son or the Son of his Love SECT I. A Scriptural account of this Translation § 1. NOW we come to speak of the last Branch considerable in this Covenant and that is a mans translation out of it Wherein there are four things to be considered 1 That all that are in Christ are translated out of the first Covenant and under it no more 2 The nature and manner of this Translation 3 The abolishing of the first Covenant by a mans translation out of it and the introduction of a second by which the former is made old 4 The subserviency and subordination of this first Covenant in many respects unto the Covenant of Grace as Hagar even then when under the notion of a Covenant it is abolished to Believers The first of these we shall deduce out of these words when we have opened them unto you In the latter part of this Chapter there are mainly two things we are to consider 1 The honour of our Redeemer 2 The manner of our Redemption The honour of our Redeemer is set forth from vers 15 and the manner of our Redemption vers 13 14 and that in many particulars Here we may observe 1 The condition wherein the people of God are before their Conversion 1 They are under the power of darkness 2 They are out of the Kingdom of Gods dear Son 2 Their condition after Conversion They are freed there is deliverence c. and there is translation unto the Kingdom of his Son 1. By nature every man is under the power of darkness even the Elect of God as well as others The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which does properly signifie right and authority over any thing Man did by the first temptation sell himself to the Devil and as it were made a vertual covenant and compact with Satan and as it 's said of Ahab Quod venditur transit in potestatem emptoris He sold himself to work iniquity so it is with all by nature And therefore God in judgment gave man over unto the power of Sin and therein to the dominion of Satan and then Satans godship came in and he became the god of this World and the Prince of the power of the air By darkness is meant in Scripture ignorance sin and misery and of all this darkness Satan is the Prince and has the power he is the ruler of the darkness of this world Ephes 6.12 Condemnandi dominandi This power of darkness is double there is a condemning power and there is a ruling power that makes a man do the works of the Devil and that brings forth fruit unto death Now how comes Satan to have a condemning power the power of death it is by sin and how came sin to have a condemning power it is by the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 that is Heb. 12.14 the Law as a Covenant So that all the power Satan has it is by sin and the power that sin has it is from the Law as a Covenant being broken So that every Elect child of God is by nature under the Law as a Covenant for condemnation and irritation and by this means is under the power of sin and under the dominion of Satan Now a mans deliverance from this is by conquest and by power for it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deliver a man by force and set him free Rom. 7.24 When man had no strength to deliver himself but must have lain and perished under this power for ever yea had not so much as an ability of will to desire deliverance and when all the powers of darkness were put forth to keep a man under and Sin and the Law and Satan did their utmost the strong man armed kept the house then Christ a stronger than he breaks in destroys sin and death and him that had the power of death that is the Devil and by this means the Law has no power Sin has no strength Death has no sting and Satan has no dominion But man being under the power of darkness he is out of the Kingdom of Christ which is a Kingdom of Righteousness and free Justification Rom. 14.17 He is free from this for he is under the power of darkness or condemnation because under the power of the Law and under the dominion of him that has the power of death that is the Devil and Christs Kingdom is a Kingdom of light and holiness but they are under the power of darkness sin having by their Covenant dominion over them and they being by Satan led captive at his will and being acted by the spirit of the power of the air c. But all that are converted are under the Kingdom of Christ as it is a Kingdom of Righteousness for matter of Justification and as it is a Kingdom of Grace for the matter of Sanctification and Life and whoever comes under this Kingdom it is by Translation and they are thereby delivered from the power and the authority of the one as they are translated into the other and the word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does signifie to put a man out of one condition into another and to change a man from his former state in which he was as Luk. 16.4 My master puts me out of the stewardship c. And the Septuagint do use it commonly for transplanting a man out
to convey the same nature and having transgressed his will being wicked it is a guilty cursed and forsaken nature that is conveyed unto all mankind from him they all sinning in him else corruption of nature might be their punishment but their sin it could never be 2. All Adams posterity comes under the Curse even they that never sinned themselves â—ctually and knowingly as Adam did after the similitude of Adams transgression even Children of a span-long Now the Curse is a Curse of the Covenant Death is a part of Juâ—tice and that must suppose sin upon the person upon whom it is inflicted and no man can â—ome under the curse of the Covenant who is not himself under the Covenant Now â—ad Adam stood Life should have been conveyed unto them and holiness but he falling â—in and death takes hold of them and the Scripture doth speak not only of death entring â—pon all but sin upon all and guilt Rom. 5.12 17 By one man sin entred into the world â—nd death by sin poena mediante reatu Thus if God will deal with a man in a Covenant-way it was necessary if they grow out â—f one common root that a Covenant be made with the first man for all his posterity and 〈◊〉 by Union they become guilty of this sin and come under the curse of the Covenant Now the Lord will have the grace and righteousness of the second Covenant conveyed the â—ame way by a second Adam a publick person Isa 9.6 that should stand in the stead of all his poâ—terity and become an everlasting Father and he will have Adam in all this to become â—he type of him that was to come Rom. 5.14 That as by one man sin entered into the world â—nd death by sin so by one man righteousness and life might enter by one Christ Jesus Reas 2 § 2. Herein our happiness lyes under the second Covenant that it is not made with us imâ—ediately but made with him who is the common head the second Adam and with us in â—â—e second place as we are one with him and no otherwise 1 Herein consists the chief â—â—nour and glory of this Covenant beyond the first because it is made with a more gloriâ—â— head and therefore though the first Covenant had much glory in it yet the second â—â—h far exceed in glory for the first man was but of the earth earthly and the second 〈◊〉 was the Lord from Heaven heavenly 2. And hence it is that the Covenant is sure and everlasting and an unchangeable Covenant because made with an unchangeable head and grounded upon an everlasting righteousness and therefore Rom. 4 it is of Faith that it might be sure 2 Sam. 23. because that makes us one with him with whom the Covenant is established and in whom all the promiâ—es of it are yea and Amen So that it being made with him and he being the surety of it â—nd we one with him it can never fail 3. Hence it is also an Ordered Covenant Heb. 9.12 Lu. 9.24 and therein David takes a great deal of comâ—ort that the mercies of it were the sure mercies of David How Because his Covenant was ordered in all things and sure That as the first Adam in the Covenant of works entred â—nto a Covenant in an order not only for himself but for all his posterity also but so as he himself was primus faederatus and all mankind in him So is Jesus Christ also and the Covenant made first with him and then with all his posterity in him so that it is in the mercies of the Covenant as it is said of the resurrection of the dead all shall rise but every man in his own order first Christ then they that are Christs at his coming c. So it is here all the people of God are in Covenant with him and they are all his Covenant people for all that are in Christ are Abrahams seed but yet every man in his own order first Christ and then they that are in Christ by reason of their Union and no small part of our happiness and comfort comes in this way from the order of the Covenant as will appear afterward if ever we come to handle this property of the Covenant of Grace Reas 3 § 3. Supposing man to be a sinner God cannot enter into Covenant with him immediately any more unless we do suppose that the Lord should forfeit the truth of his threatning and so deny himself for he said Gen. 2.17 The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Now while this stands in force against a man God cannot deal with him in any way but to destroy him therefore if he will bring in a second Covenant that must be a Covenant of mercy and reconciliation and in that there must be satisfaction to God as well as sanctification of man the sin must be sent to Hell as well as the sinner to Heaven Now this satisfaction man of himself can never give it cost more to redeem his Soul than if he had offered thousands of Rams and ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl or his first-born for his transgression and the fruit of his Body for the sin of his Soul as Mich. 6.6 7. But we cannot be redeemed by corruptible things and therefore if God will have satisfaction answerable unto the wrong the creature has done him it cannot be had from any creature wherefore he finds out one that is able to bear it one that is mighty the man of his right-hand that he should be made sin and become a curse And how doth the satisfaction that Christ gives to the Lord become ours It can be no other way but by Union and this union must be 1 Natural he must take upon him our nature for our debt was a debt of body and soul to be offered as a sacrifice unto the wrath of God And therefore it is said Heb. 2.1 He that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are both of one He must take our nature and in that nature suffer as being one with us for without shedding of blood there is no remission 2 Voluntary and by consent he becoming our surety and so under our Covenant putting his name into our bond Gal. 4.4 and voluntary on our part accepting of him as our surety and consenting to his Covenant and the terms of the agreement and the consent of the Judge to whom the debt was due and against whom the offence was committed Sin must be condemned by the ordination of the Judge and the Surety must accept and submit to what was required of him in order to a satisfaction and the consent and approbation of the delinquent also and by this is the Union made up and all that Christ hath done becomes ours And thus as man is a sinner God cannot enter into Covenant with him immediately but it must be a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator which can be no otherwise but as we are one with him and consent
sprinkled upon the Book and upon all the people and all things under the Law were cleansed and sanctified by blood Exod. 24.23 therefore the Law in the administration of it unto them was never intended by God to set forth a Covenant of Works but it was a Covenant of Grace and is usually called a Covenant Deut. 29.10 11. They stood to enter into Covenant with God that he might establish them to be a people to himself and that he might be unto them a God Deut. 26.17 18 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and he hath avouched thee to be his people So that the Law was given by Moses in Gods intention plainly as a Covenant of Grace unto all those that were able to look upon the intent of God therein 2 But yet the Lords intention was also that it should be a copy of the Covenant of Works that God made with Adam before his fall which was never wholly blotted out of the mind of man because God would not have that wholly to perish and be forgotten and therefore it was delivered after a sort in the form of the Covenant of Works and in this respect the Lord has made it a handmaid to the Gospel not that the Lord did intend it for a Covenant of Works as if men should attain righteousness and life thereby but as faedus subserviens a subservient Covenant as that which in this manner God would make use of to advance the ends of the Gospel and the new Covenant By all this you see that the Covenant of which Circumcision was a sign and a seal was not the Covenant of Works but was the same that was made with Abraham because the Covenant was the same Circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of Faith and continued amongst the Jews in this Covenant and that Covenant that binds to the observation of the Ceremonial as well as the Moral Law is not a Covenant of Works but the Covenant made upon Mount Sinai did bind to the Ceremonial Law also nor was the Covenant that God made with Moses a Covenant of Works for Moses was Heb. 11.23 a Believer but Exod. 34.27 it is called the Covenant which I made with thee and with all Israel when I stood before the Lord forty days and he wrote the words of the Covenant the ten Commandments But more particularly the Lord did intend to make the Law given upon Mount Sinai a copy of the Covenant of Works and to be materially and for substance the same that he did make with Adam and with all mankind in him in the state of his integrity 1. Death reigned from Adam till Moses Rom. 5. Gen. 4. ult and therefore sin came in and we see that murder was a sin in Cain and publick worship was a duty Men did begin to call upon the name of the Lord so that the Law was in the World before Moses and it was not only written in the hearts of men 2 Pet. 2.5 So Beza Gen. 6.5 but it was taught in the publick Ministery before Moses for Noah was the Preacher of Righteousness and in the Ministry of the Word we know that the Spirit of God did strive with men Gen. 6.3 The word in the Hebrew is to strive in judgment and by way of argument for conviction so that the Law was given to Adam and Noah and Abraham as well as unto Moses and was for substance the same 2. It is given in the form of a Covenant of Works with a this do and thou shalt live and so it was afterwards by Christ and by the Prophets also preached it was to the carnal Jews plainly a Covenant of Works not in Gods intention but by their own corruption they going about to establish their own righteousness Rom. 10.3 and not subjecting themselves to the righteousness of God it is set forth to them as a Covenant of Works Now if the Lord will not give it as a Covenant why does he not propound it as a rule and lay down the precepts without any such terms of a Covenant as if men should attain life by it when he did never intend to deliver it as a Covenant in which men should attain life by doing but by believing Thus the Lord did that the terms of the first Covenant might be promulgated to the World and that they that did still desire to be under the Law might not plead ignorance of the terms that God required in the Law if they did expect life and happiness thereby 3. Though I say it be for substance and materially the same yet in many circumstances it differs from Adams Covenant for this was a Covenant of such promises and sanctions annexed to it as were not in the Covenant made with Adam and a Covenant confirmed by blood and thereby sanctified which Adams Covenant never had and therefore though it did for substance agree yet in many things there was a difference This Covenant given unto Adam in a state of Innocency and for substance renewed upon Mount Sinai when it was by sin wholly obliterated and blotted out God has made a handmaid or foedus subserviens a Covenant subservient to the Gospel it is Hagar Gal. 4.23 but the Covenant of Grace is Sarah and it is given in the hand of a Mediator not only by Moses but by Christ also for Christ delivered the Law to them Act. 7.38 Moses was in the Wilderness with the Angel who spake to him in Mount Sinai and with our fathers and what Angel was it but Christ he that saith I am the God of Abraham and he that was also tempted in the Wilderness and the Apostle says We are come to Jesus whose voice then shook the earth in the giving of the Law 1 Cor. 10.4 Heb. 12.25 26. it was his voice and then by an enumeration of particulars how the Lord has made every part of the Law as it is materially the first Covenant a servant to the Gospel for the discovery of sin the Law entred that the offence might abound and the Apostle says Rom. 5.20 I had not known sin but by the Law and also for the conviction of Conscience and the imputation of sin Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no Law and for the condemnation of sin that it may be a Schoolmaster to bring the sinner unto Christ the avenger of blood Gal. 3.10 a killing letter and the ministration of death to kill them and hew them and it restrains sin and puts a bridle upon a man and is a means of conversion the curse of the Law is sanctified and the threatnings sweet when the curse is taken out death has no sting the grave has no victory and it is to all under the second Covenant a rule a companion and a counsellor The Law is to be considered as I told you two ways 1 Largely as containing all the Doctrine delivered upon Mount Sinai and all things that may
stead that what he did was accounted to be ours whether to righteousness and life or unto sin and death but yet so that had he stood the same obedience was in their own persons required of his posterity for themselves as was required of Adam though not with the same respect not as publick persons and representative heads so that if they had not performed it they had fallen for themselves though all mankind had not fallen if Adam had stood for the woman was first in the transgression 1 Tim. 2. Rom. 5.12 and yet though the woman fell first all mankind did not fall in her fall but by one man sin entred into the world and therefore it was not every sin of a particular person that would have destroyed all mankind but of their representative only But the second Covenant hath this in it that the first never had in Adam the second Covenant hath a surety and that is something more than a publick person that is one that represents another and stands in his place and is bound unto his debt so that if the person ingaged pay not the debt the surety must and so Adam was not the surety for all mankind that he would perform the debt or bear the curse for them all there was no Covenant that had a Surety but Christ and he was a surety of the first Covenant Gal. 4.4 made under the Law and of a better Covenant to perform all the duties of the Gospel So that all that is required is of Christ as the second Adam only in his publick capacity and representation the Law is required of us but if we perform it not we have a surety that has undertaken it Thus as the first Covenant was made with the first Adam and all his posterity so the second Covenant is made with the second Adam and all his posterity also 2. We read of a Covenant made with Persons and people and promised unto them as special mercies a Covenant made with Abraham and Isaac a Covenant made with David 2 Sam. 23.5 The Lord has made with me an everlasting Covenant in all things ordered and sure And there is a Covenant made with a people also Jer. 31.31 God made a Covenant with the house of Judah a Covenant that he would bring them under the bonds of the Covenant and Esa 55.3 Every one that thirsts come to the waters c. and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David and Ezec. 16. I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine and therefore Zac. 9.12 By the blood of thy Covenant I have delivered the prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water 3. Men are said to make the Covenant and to break it Hezekiah exhorts them 2 Chron. 30.7 8. to give the hand unto the Lord 2 Chron. 30.7 8. it 's an expression of entring into Covenant as striking the hand is in the Proverbs an expression of entring into suretiship for another there are four expressions of it in 1 Chron. 29.24 All the Princes and the mighty men and all the house of the Kingdom gave their hands unto Solomon it notes a military subjection by way of Covenant and agreement between them they did take an oath of Allegiance unto him And so that expression to joyn the hand Ezeck 17.18 He hath broken the Covenant after he had given his hand c. and Job 17.3 to strike hand is to enter into suretiship or to be engaged in a Covenant so the saints are said to enter into Covenant with the Lord by sacrifice Psal 50.5 Esay 56. and they are said to take hold of the Covenant again they are said to break the Covenant which could not be if the Covenant were not made with them and not to be faithful and constant therein Psal 25.10 Lev. 26.15 4. It will appear from the promises of the second Covenant though it 's true that they are all yea and amen in him yet are they properly and formally made unto us either the first promises of grace or else of reward unto grace Promises of grace are He will give his Spirit and will give repentance he will heal our backslidings c. and we have an unction from the holy one c. And reward of service done either in the inward dispositions Blessed are the pure in spirit blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness c. or in the outward action 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that you may obtain 1 Cor. 15. ult your labour is not in vain in the Lord. And though the Covenant be made only out of free grace yet the Saints do claim these promises not only out of mercy but from the faithfulness of God 1 Cor. 10.19 1 Jo. 1.9 2 Tim. 4.8 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able he is faithful and just to forgive us c. And what is the ground of this but the Covenant of God whereby his faithfulness is ingaged 5. The Covenant of grace is a Covenant in the hand of a Mediator and confirmed by the death of the Testator Heb. it 's not only a Covenant but it 's a Testament 1 Christ is the Mediator now no man is a mediator between God and himself a Mediator is not a Mediator of one it must be a third person a dayes-man that must lay hold upon both therefore there is a Covenant made with Christ and Christ is a Mediator for the establishment of the Covenant with us also And 2 Christ is the Testator he died and left his Legacies of all the promises to the saints now no man gives a Legacy to himself In the Covenant made between the Father and Christ Christ is a party and a publick person but in this Covenant between God and us he is a Mediator and the Testator by whom we receive all the Legacies and Inheritance that he has purchased for us and granted to us Rom. 4.11 6. The Sacraments are seals of the Covenant of grace Now if we look upon the Covenant made with Christ and consider that his faith was perfect in God and he knew the Lord would not fail him but saies He is near that justifies me who will contend with me he will not leave my soul in Hell c. But though Christ had a strong faith yet we have but a weak faith and therefore had need of Sacraments and outward signs to confirm it wherefore the Sacraments are not to confirm the Covenant made with Christ but the Covenant made with the Saints he to whom the Covenant is made unto him the seals are to be applied and it would seem unreasonable for the Covenant to be made unto one and the seals to be applied unto the other therefore there is a Covenant made with the saints and to this Covenant the Sacraments are added as seals 7. There is a double oath to confirm this
connaturali in a connatural way so in the same way he glorifies him as it is in this life vision doth increase grace and answerable to the degrees of vision such are the degrees of grace so it 's perfect vision that doth perfect grace in the same way that Satan brought sin and death into the soul 1 Tim. 2.14 namely by the understanding for the woman was deceived as it is in 2 Cor. 11.3 so the same way will the Lord bring in grace and life into the soul it comes in by the understanding the eyes of our understanding being enlightned by a spirit of revelation Eph. 1.17 18. and the same way doth glory enter into the soul namely by the understanding also and therefore it must be in a way of vision 2. Divines do commonly conclude that the main and essential part of glory doth consist in contemplation This is life eternal to know thee the only true God Joh. 17.3 Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God And Heb. 12.14 For without holiness no man shall see the Lord. It 's the happiness of Christ in thy presence or in thy face is fulness of joy it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Plural Now the manner of the Hebrews is to put the Plural Number when the excellency and transcendency of a thing is expressed as Cant. 1.3 Thy love is better than wines or else to set forth the great variety of the glorious discoveries of God which the Lord gives unto his own people in Heaven and in this is the fulness of the joy of Christ after his Resurrection from the dead and so it is with the Saints Psal 17.15 Psal 17.15 I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness The Saints sleep in the grave and they do awake unto the vision of God and they shall see his face in righteousness and they shall be satisfied with his image the which in the original doth signifie full and perfect satisfaction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that there is no place to receive any more There is a great satisfaction in the discoveries of God to the soul here in this life in the joy of the Holy Ghost they do rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious but yet there is still something to be added they are not in such a condition but their faculties may be enlarged and their satisfaction increased but there is a full satisfaction hereafter unto which there can be no addition But what is meant by his image and likeness Here some do understand it of the image of God created in us which shall then be perfectly restored when they come to glory the good work that is begun in this life shall not be perfected till in the day of the Lord. Phil. 1.6 Though I do not find the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any where used in Scripture for the image of God created in man or renewed in him but two other words yet this word I find in Scripture to be put either for a corporeal or an intellectual image Exod. 20.4 Thou shalt not make a graven image or the likeness of any thing in heaven above not make unto thy self a corporeal or visible representation of an invisible God 't is said Num. 12.8 the image or the similitude of God shall he behold it 's spoken of an intellectual image and representation of God in a glorious manner unto the understanding full of glorious excellencies though under no shape and this was a priviledge that the Lord would give Moses a further discovery of himself beyond what he would do to any man upon earth And so I should take the meaning to be here it 's not the image of God in us but the discoveries and manifestations of God unto us that is unto our understanding in which our fulness of joy and satisfaction doth consist Cùm tenebrae mortalitatis transierint manè astabo contemplabor When the darknesses of mortality have passed away in the morning I shall stand and contemplate Austin In contemplatione divinorum maximè consistit beatitudo Beatitude consists in the contemplation of divine perfections Aquinas It 's true that this shall be the greatest torment in Hell the contemplation of their misery and the reflexion upon their own lost and irrecoverable condition it 's concluded that poena damni the punishment of loss is the greatest part of the torments there and that can no otherwise afflict or be a torment but by the contemplation thereof and surely in this doth the blessedness of God consist namely in beholding of his own perfections and the glorious persons delighting themselves in each other for the Lord is blessed for evermore and from everlasting when there was no creature but his blessedness lay in himself and the contemplation of himself was his blessedness and if this do make the Lord blessed surely then in the contemplation of him much more must the blessedness of the creature consist therefore happiness must consist in vision 3. Because the understanding is the leading faculty by which all good is brought into the soul it 's true that the souls in Heaven are called souls made perfect Heb. 2.3 Beatitudo cùm sit summa perfectio perficit totum Beatitude seeing it is the highest perfection perfects the whole soul in all the faculties thereof There are three things wherein the happiness of the Saints doth consist 1 A perfect Vision or perfect understanding 2 A perfect Fruition which is nobilissima operatio voluntatis the most noble operation of the will Medina 3 Perfect Joy and exultation joy unspeakable and glorious everlasting joy upon their heads Psal 16. ult in thy face is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore and by this means the whole soul is made perfect but yet the leading faculty still is the understanding and for this cause seeing blessedness comes in by the understanding Psal 17. ult satisfaction also comes into the whole soul by those revelations manifestations visions and discoveries of God made unto the soul Aquinas saith of blessedness that it is in intellectu primariò in voluntate per consequens secundariò In the intellect primarily and in the will by consequent and secundarily Seeing therefore that this vision doth carry with it Fruition Delectation and whatever may make the whole soul to become perfect therefore it 's no wonder if the Lord is said to be the portion of his people by way of vision and the blessedness of the Saints be said to consist therein Quest 2 § 2. Shall the Vision of God in glory be corporeal or shall it be intellectual only discoveries of God unto bodily eyes or unto the eyes of the understanding only Answ 1. The Essence of God in glory cannot be seen with bodily eyes it cannot be a corporeal vision which is manifest 1 from Scripture 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwells in light
is more abundant in them 1 Cor. 15. ult 2 When he doth exercise more grace in them and there is more of the inward man in them Rev. 3.2 though he doth the same duties yet it is more fruit to God than formerly when he doth it with more pleasure and the commandments are none of them grievous to him it is his meat and drink to do it his comforts do come in by his duties as well as by the promised rewards and he is also more constant in the performance of them and doth not perform duty only by fits inconstancy in any man is an argument of weakness 't is a reproach to have it said a mans righteousness is but as the morning dew and as the early cloud that passeth away § 5. We come now unto the last particular of the personal and appropriated relation of God the Father as he stands unto Christ and in him unto us as he is his Father and our Father our God and his God his friend so he is the fountain of the life of Christ and in him the fountain of spiritual life to us also 1 Joh. 5.11 and that is set down 1 Joh. 5.11 God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son we see of what person it 's spoken it is the Father that hath given us this life and laid it up in his Son as in a common Treasury Joh. 6.57 that from him it might be conveyed unto us So Joh. 6.57 As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Here in the opening of it I must shew 1 Whether this be spoken of Christ as he is God or as he is Mediator 2 How Christ as Mediator is said to live by the Father 3 What the life is that we have from Christ 4 That all this life that we have from Christ and is in him is from the Father he that is the fountain of the life of Christ is also the fountain of our life 1. Whether it be spoken here of Christ as he is God or as he is Mediator God manifested in the flesh That it 's not spoken of Christ as he is God there are three things do clearly make it manifest 1 It 's spoken of Christ with respect unto his Office for he speaks of himself as sent by the Father and sending is a term of office Now as he is sent by the Father so he lives by the Father but he is sent as Mediator and it wholly relates unto his Office in which he is by the Father imployed and therefore it is as Mediator that he lives by the Father 2 It 's spoken of Christ as he is fed upon by the faithful I live by the Father so he that eats me shall live by me which refers to him as he is made man for so he saith vers 34. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath eternal life c. Now the Father is the fountain of life unto Christ in the same respect that Christ is the fountain of life unto us but it is as Mediator that he is so to us as he hath flesh and blood for so he becomes unto us a natural head and therefore suited to be an object of our faith fit both to be our surety here and our Advocate in Heaven our surety here as having our nature and therefore being able to pay our debt and our Advocate hereafter as having our nature still upon him and therefore knows how to have mercy and compassion the same nature in him will incline him thereunto 3 I conceive that it were dangerous to say that as he is God so he lives by the Father though I often find that Divines writing of the eternal generation of the Son do speak of the Fathers begetting of the Son by the communication of the same Essence that he is God of God c. But surely he that is God must be without cause he must have his Being from himself he must be the first and the last he that hath his essence from another must have his sufficiency from another and he that is from another must be unto another for he that is the first cause he must also be the last end Rom. 11.36 For of him and to him and through him are all things c. and therefore he that is not God of himself is not God at all I dare not therefore say that he hath the Divine Essence communicated by eternal generation Calv. Institut l. 1. c. 13. §. 25. but rather he is à seipso Deus à Patre filius essentia ejus principio caret personae verò principium est ipse Deus it 's spoken of Christ therefore not as he lives in himself as he is God but as he is Mediator made by the Father the fountain of life unto us 2. What is the life which as Mediator Christ receives from the living Father There are two words in Scripture unto which commonly all things excellent or desirable are compared and those are Light and Life and so all misery is set forth under the two contraries and they are Darkness and Death as Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous in thy light we shall see light c. And so life also Psal 30.5 In his favour is life Psal 36.9 With thee is the fountain of life Psal 63.3 thy loving-kindness is better than life life is that which doth comprehend in it all good things as the lesser is comprehended of the greater for the life is more worth than meat and the body than raiment and so it implies that Jesus the Mediator doth receive all things that are good excellent and desirable from God the Father he doth live by the Father c. he is unto him the fountain of all good things But this is but general I find life in Scripture used four ways as standing in opposition unto a fourfold death in us 1 There is a death in reference to the guilt of sin a man being under the sentence of the Law dead and in opposition thereunto there is a life of Righteousness in Justification therefore it 's said Rom. 5.17 18. For if by one mans offence death raigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gifts of righteousness shall raign in life by one Jesus Christ therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification to life 2 There is a death in reference to the dominion of sin and thus we are said to be dead in trespasses and sins and so there is a life of Holiness and Regeneration when the Lord saith Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead Eph. 5.14 Joh. 5.25 When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear it shall live and so he doth
the Romans in praelio in a battel sometimes sed nunquam in bello never in war so does Satan against the Saints but they surely have the victory in the end and therefore faith has its triumphing as well as its relying act c. 4. Corruptions of men shall tend to the Saints spiritual advantage though God is not the Author of sin yet he is the Orderer of it 1 He doth not let out the corruptions of other men any further than for the good of his Saints The wrath of man shall praise thee no man shall desire thy land I suffered thee not to touch her the Lord withholds men from hurting his people and his restraining grace is not only upon their acts but upon their corruptions also so as they are not let out but unto the Saints spiritual advantage also 2 Not only the corruptions of other men but those of the Saints themselves the falling out of any new and eminent fall the Lord will make as a new conversion Luke 22.32 When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren the foundation is laid anew and there is also a renewing of justification a more fast application of the Righteousness of Christ I will take away thy filthy garments and I will cloath thee with change of raiment Zac. 3.4 I have caused thy iniquity to pass from thee and this makes way for a glorious assurance and for an eminent imployment for God sets a Mitre or a Crown upon his head and he was thereby fitted for the great work of the Temple and taken into society with them that stand by 5. All a mans imployment it is a testimony that a man is a vessel of honour when in every condition he is fitted for the masters use and it 's a token that a man is called unto any imployment in mercy when he has the graces of that condition drawn forth a man may be called to the Ministry or the Magistracy but not in mercy without this there is an election to an imployment as well as to life Paul was separated from his mothers womb unto the Gospel of Christ c. If David be a shepherd he follows the Ews great with young and he doth it with faithfulness and if he be taken from the sheepfold to feed Jacob the Lords people and Israel his inheritance he doth it with the integrity of his heart and the skilfulness of his hand Acts 13.22 Vis me constituere pastorem ovium aut regem populorum ecce paratum est cor meum c. sometimes friends sometimes enemies sometimes the chief of the Princes were against David but God was with him 6. Even death it self and the agonies thereof for even death it self is yours it is a servant and not an enemy because it doth improve and further a mans spiritual interest 1 As men dye in the Lord Rev. 14.13 death is theirs by virtue of their union with Christ that as they bear fruit in him so they dye in him death cannot dissolve the union between a soul and Christ 2 As they die to him so they live to him that is Rom. 14. ◠they make him their end in living and dying they would live no longer than he might be glorified as Paul says and they would then die when he might be glorified that Christ might be magnified in my body Phil. 1. and they count not their lives dear 3 It is a life of glory that death lets the Saints into it opens the door unto a weight of eternal life it doth perfect the purer part of man delivers him from the body of sin for he that is dead is freed from sin and it doth let him into the beatifical vision and thereby his sanctification also is perfected as it is recorded of Bernard when he was sick unto death there was a great while nothing heard of him but this Tempus perdidi quà m perditè vixi but at last he adds Hoc meum solatium duplici in re Christus regnum possidet quà filius quà passus hoc secundo nihil ei opus fuit sed mihi dedit and under this consolation he fell asleep 2. All the creatures belong to the spiritual Kingdom reductivè as they do belong to the priviledges of the Saints for all things are yours because you are Christs there is a double right jus politicum evangelicum now in this manner they belong to the spiritual Kingdom 1. In respect of their continuance for it is for their sakes that the world stands By virtue of the ancient curse Cursed be the ground for thy sake the earth would sink under us but that the Lord Jesus did put under his hand and keep it from ruine by virtue of the new Covenant therefore he is brought in as the upholder of all things who also purged our sins and is sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 for the Lord did not continue the creatures in their being to serve his enemies but the subordination of creatures depends upon the second Covenant as appears Hos 2.21 and the Lord will surely manifest it in these two things 1 In the latter days the Kingdom and Dominion of the whole Earth shall be taken out of the hands of the enemies and shall be given into the hands of the Saints to the end of the world Dan. 7.18 and then all the wicked of the earth shall lick the dust of their feet and it is in order thereunto that it is continued to this day 2 As soon as the Lord has gathered in the number of his Saints and has perfected their graces he will take down the stage of this world and overturn it that it shall be no more at least such as now it is Now they that are the heirs of this world as Abrahams seed are called they are translating and Gods children being called home the Lord will not continue the world for servants but he will break up house-keeping and he will send every one of them unto their own place c. the tares and the wheat do grow till the harvest but the Lord will not suffer the tares to grow again after the harvest and therefore the very continuation of the creatures belongs unto the spiritual Kingdom as one part of the priviledges of the Saints 2. The restitution of the creatures for as they were made subject unto vanity by sin for they all came under mans Covenant and therefore you have heard in mans fall the curse took hold upon them they being made for the use of man Rom. 8.20 21. they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and therefore they wait for the manifestation of the glory of the sons of God not that all the creatures shall be continued in being for many of them shall be consumed in that last conflagration but yet the substance shall continue as standing monuments unto Gods glory as matter of praise and of delight unto the Saints which shall be begun in the
our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 which we do by his Grace yet there is a concurrence of ours therein 5 That the Patience and forbearance of God even towards the Vessels of mercy may be so much the more exalted Num. 14.17 Moses says Let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken the Lord long-suffering and of great mercy even his forbearance is an act of his power it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is an impotency in a man that he cannot forbear if he be injured it is utterly a fault amongst you but it is not so with God it is his Power that he can forbear 't is the patience of his power and therefore we are not consumed when we daily provoke him the imagination of a mans heart being continually evil he is God and not man Gen. 6.5 Gen. 8.21 Hos 11.9 therefore Gen. 6.5 and 8.21 they do seem to cross each other in the first place 't is said the Lord will destroy man because the imaginations of his heart were evil and in the other I will not again curse the ground for mans sake for the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth it seems to be given as a reason of two contraries he will and he will not every imagination of the heart of man is evil therefore I will no more curse the Earth for his sake it seems strange reasoning it is by the Jesuites and Arminians looked upon as an extenuation of Original sin There is now that infirmity come upon him which was in Adam indeed a sin but now it is become a disease an infirmity a condition of Nature and therefore humanae infirmitatis miserebor I will pity humane infirmity so A Lapide and others who make the being of sin in us to be no sin but there is quite another sence of the words the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken either causativè or adversativè and so it is rendred sometimes quia because and sometimes quamvis although Glass Rhet. pag. 606. Our translators take the first for the imaginations of the heart or because the imaginations of the heart of man are only evil and so Brentius Pareus c. Si vellem semper genus humanum diluvio punire c. If I should always bring upon them a flood for their iniquity I should not leave a man upon the earth all man-kind would be destroy'd for the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth and therefore now having smelt a savour of rest from a sacrifice I will not for this cause destroy them any more by a flood But many of the learned render it adversativè and so it is although so Exod. 13.17 The Lord led them not thorough the land of the Philistins although that was near it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 34.19 Let my Lord I pray thee goe amongst us for it is a stiffe-necked people that is although it be a stiffe-necked people and so it is an expression of the wonderfull patience of God that though men provoke him daily and all the imaginations of their hearts are evil continually yet hoc non obstante I will shew my patience towards them and will no more curfe the ground for mans sake c. and it is spoken of all men not only wicked men but godly men for whose sake the Lord doth spare the creatures for it is for the Saints sake that the world stands and that the earth is not destroyed and yet the imaginations of their hearts are evil from their youth and by this the patience of God towards the vessels of mercy as well as towards the vessels of wrath is very highly exalted 6 That the Lord may hereby shew how great a grace that donum perseverantiae gift of perseverance is and what an almighty power doth concur thereunto Adam had no sin and yet he fell from his first state how then shall we stand that have in us nothing else but sin something of the venom of the old Serpent that is ready to open unto him upon every suggestion and ready to take fire by every temptation a sin that doth easily beset us or compass up about Heb. 12.21 And the great aim of Satan without and sin within is to extinguish grace that this seed may dye in the man but it is maintained and there is an almighty power that does it therefore 1 Pet. 1.15 We are kept by the mighty power of God through saith unto salvation or else we should perish every day and this exalts the grace of the second Covenant unto the souls of the Saints because there is not only a grace of conversion but of perseverance also the Spirit of Christ having once taken possession of the soul takes possession for ever never to leave it again if Christ hath cast out the strong man he will never himself be cast out till Satan be stronger than he which is never possible 7 That the souls of the Saints may be kept here in a continual longing and a groaning condition for glory there is nothing so great an evil as sin and therefore nothing should make the soul weary of this life so much as sin because it cannot end but with our life and this is one blessed fruit of it Rom. 8.13 We groan for the Adoption but why do we groan 2 Cor. 5.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are many burdens that the people of God are under in this life but there is no burden like unto that of the body of death that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a weight indeed Heb. 12.1 and they groan therefore to put off this tabernacle because without it there is no putting off this body of sin but by being freed from this prison we are so apt to be in love with this present life that we had need of something that might be bitterness to us and imbitter it to us so that we take not up our rest here but that the soul may look for and hasten to the coming of the day of God and may rejoyce to put off this Tabernacle be willing that the flesh should be destroyed that thereby there may be the destruction of the body of sin in us also And thus we see the Soveraignty of God working for the Saints in this great state of the being of sin in the Saints in this life bringing much good unto them as well as much glory unto himself thereby § 3. 2. As the being of sin comes under the Soveraignty of God so doth the rising of it in the heart which doth never break forth into act it is true that the heart of man is an evil treasury and it is an evil fountain but though it be always issuing yet it doth not vent it self the same way but sometimes in this kind and sometimes in that Seneca in omnibus omnia vitia sunt licèt non se exerunt c. Mar. 7.21 22 23. For out
the first Covenant Doth this Covenant afford the least reward to any services that have the least imperfection adherent to them And can sinners offer to God any such perfect services Will it not thence hence necessarily follow that such as stand under this first Covenant have all their services rejected all their sins imputed to them their persons hated their blessings cursed and all the curses of the Law bound fast on their consciences by the sentence of the righteous God What are all their seeming services but real sins and what are all Gods rewards to them but real curses albeit seeming blessings What can they expect for such unsanctified services but unsanctified rewards which are indeed real curses But to treat somewhat more distinctly of the misery which attends such as are under the first Covenant we may consider it under these two Heads that both the Law and Gospel The Law to such as are under the first Covenant the means of death which are means of Life and Salvation to such as are under the first Covenant prove as to them means of Death and Condemnation First as to the Law it proves the means of death and condemnation to such as are under the first Covenant two ways 1 In regard of its coactive Rigor 2 As it irritates Sin 1. The Law doth by its coactive Rigor work death and condemnation in such as are under the first Covenant Doth not the Law exact of such perfect obedience 1. By its compulsion but gives them no strength to perform it It 's true the Law requires obedience of those who are under the second Covenant also but the promise gives what the Law requires But of such as are under the first Covenant perfect obedience is required but no intern principle is engraffed duty is required but no love or delight therein conferred Yea do not such perform duty as godly men commit sin May they not say of sin as Paul doth of duty Rom. 7.15 What I would that I do not And what Paul saith of Sin may not such say the same of Duty What I hate that do I The Law discovers sin to those that are under the first Covenant but did it ever cast out any one sin discovered by it Sin is sometimes wounded by it but did it ever kill any one sin Are not the hearts of such like Ezechiels pot in which the scum did arise but then boyled in again The Law drags such to the Tribunal of God as a righteous Judge but can they ever come to God as a Father Is not this the priviledge of such only as are under the second Covenant Lastly the Law drives such as are under the first Covenant unto self-condemnation but can any thing but the Gospel work Justification and Peace of Conscience So deadly and mortiferous is the Law to such as are under its violent compulsion and coaction as it is a Covenant And whence is it that the Law hath such a compulsive power over such as are under it as a Covenant 1 Is it not from those Principles of self-love and legal fear implanted in the heart of man whereby he is constrained to duty and restrained from sin by the threats and terrors of the Law which move Conscience as extern weights move artificial Automata or machines O! what a great power has Conscience over such when acted and enflamed by the terrors of the Law Doth not Paul Rom. 7.1 assure us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Law doth Lord it over a man so long as he continues under it as a Covenant And how doth the Law as a Covenant Lord it over the man but by ruling in the Authority and Sovereign Dominion of God in and by which it will at last judge the man And oh with what rigor and compulsion doth it rule over his Conscience and thereby restrain him from sin and constrain him to duty Again 2 Doth not the Law receive much Authority and force from the Spirit of God setting it home on Conscience and thereby terrifying and wounding the sinner 3 Is there not also in all men under the first Covenant a sinful Weight or Bent of Lust which makes the yoke of divine Precepts extreme irksome and burdensome to them And doth not this adde much to the rigour and severity of the Law Doth not the Law of God lay the same rigorous restraint on the lusts of those who are under it as a Covenant which the Providence of God lays on the lusts of Diabolick spirits And oh what a miserable case are such in who lye under this tyrannick compulsion of the Law as a Covenant If their lusts rage within but dare not vent themselves because the Law holds a rod over Conscience how do they burn like fire in an Oven and now and then flame forth in rebellious thoughts against God and his Law wishing there were no Law Or else if lusts break forth into Act how soon doth the Law bind over Conscience unto wrath and condemnation and oh what stings and torments follow hereon And is it not also a miserable case for the sinner to be compelled and forced by the Law to do those good offices which he really hates Would it not be a great torment to a Saint to be constrained to bow down and worship the Devil and is it not as great misery to a person under the first Covenant to be compelled by the Law to worship God whom he hates as much as an holy man hates the Devil And is not this the genuine cause of all that hypocrisie which is lodged and deeply radicated in those under the first Covenant that all their omissions of sin and performances of Duties proceed meerly from the violent tyrannick compulsion of the Law as a Covenant And as the Law doth by its rigorous exaction more or less prevail on Conscience so their hypocrisie is more or less radicated and refined Oh! how partial and inconstant are such in their abstaining from sin and performing Duties How disagreeable are those good works they do to their Natures and Principles and thence how little pleasure and delight do they find in the doing of them Yea the rigour and tyranny of the Law over such most eminently appears in this that in constraining and forcing men to duties it is so far from giving strength that the more they perform duties the less strength they have to perform them the more they hear meditate or pray the less strength they have to perform those duties as they ought So also for the Laws restraining such from sin the more they are restrained the stronger their lusts grow and break forth with greater violence in the issue Whereas one under the second Covenant the more the Law restrains his lusts the weaker they grow and the more it constrains them to duty the stronger they grow in the performance of them because together with the restraints and constraints of the Law there is conveyed a force and strength by the
Promise to abstain from the sin forbidden and to perform the duty required So much for the compulsion of the Law 2. The Law works death by irritating sin 2. To such as are under the first Covenant the Law works Death and Condemnation by its Irritation of sin The Law was in its first Institution and still is to those that are under the second Covenant a sanctified Instrument for the restraining and keeping under of sin but to those that are under the first Covenant it proves accidentally by reason of the violence of Lust and Gods Curse an occasion of irritating and enraging sin It 's true the Law as a Crystal glass discovers the soveraign holy pleasure of God forbidding sin but doth not the lustful bent of mens hearts affect sin even because forbidden And the Law discovering unto such the pravity and vitiosity of sin how do their hearts boil up with hatred against the Law because it strikes at sin wherein they place their chiefest good Again when the Law comes to put a bridle and curb on their Lusts are they not hereby like an untamed Colt the more enraged and furious And is not this the genuine reason why such as live under the clearest and brightest promulgations of the Law oft have their lusts boiled up to the highest pitch Yea is it not hence that the unpardonable sin takes its first rise namely from the lusts of such who living under bright notices and discoveries of both Law and Gospel and receiving some tastes of good things to come at last continuing still under the first Covenant have their lusts more irritated by the Law Moreover the Law condemning such as are under the first Covenant for sin and thereby injecting sparks of Hell-fire into their Consciences the fire-brands of dreadful terrors and despair how are their lusts enflamed hereby what revenge against God what excess of riot are they hurried into hereby Doth not also the righteous God by an invisible secret Curse suffer such as desire to be under the Law as a Covenant to have their lusts irritated and exasperated thereby Lastly doth not the wise and holy God permit Satan so far to abuse the Law as thereby to draw men into sin And oh what a pleasure is it to Satan to make use of that which is most deâ—â—â—â—o God thereby to draw men into sin And doth not this discover to us the miserable 〈◊〉 of such as are under the first Covenant that the Law of God which is so excellent in its own nature and of such excellent use unto the Saints should be so much abused for the irritation of Lust It 's true the Law may sometimes irritate sin even in such as are under the New Covenant yet it is not from any dominion it has over such neither doth this irritation so far prevail as to bring forth fruit unto death as it doth in those under the first Covenant who are under the complete dominion of the Law unto whom it hath no other use but to exasperate and improve their lusts And as the Law so also the Gospel and all the means of Grace To such as are under the first Covenant the Gospel and all other Blessings prove Curses yea all the Providences of God and comforts of this life prove snares and curses to such as are under the first Covenant 1 What greater Jewel is there to be found or desired among the Sons of men than the Gospel of Grace Is not the heart and bosom of God hereby laid open unto sinners O! what sweet attractives and cords of love are there in the Gospel to draw the soul out of its miserable and sinful state unto eternal Beatitude And yet lo how is this rich odor of life turned into a pestiferous odor of death to such as are under the first Covenant Is not that which is in it self the greatest blessing made by such the greatest curse The same food that nourisheth Believers unto eternal life of what use is it to those under the first Covenant but to nourish their incurable disease of self-sufficience Are not these mens lusts offended at the spirituality and simplicity of the Gospel What false Glosses and Comments do they put thereon How is the Grace of the Gospel by such turned into wantonness what controversies to their lusts make about it 2 So also for all Means of Grace Providences and temporal blessings which draw the hearts of Believers nearer to God are not the hearts of those under the first Covenant driven from God thereby Do not all their Duties though never so Evangelic center in Self Is not this the great Idol unto which their hearts are chained do not all the lines of their Devotion and Religion terminate in this center Oh! what an ample field of Contemplation is this to expatiate in were not our Meditations confined to the limits of a Summary The Second Part of the following Discourse regards The Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace explicated in in the Explication whereof our Author is more copious distinct and potent even to Admiration The Heads discoursed of by him and the method he makes use of in discoursing of them may with facility be apprehended by the Table of Contents that which I design in this Summary is some short Reflexions on such Heads as are not directly or professedly discussed by our Author And 1. 1. Its differences from the first Covenant We shall begin with the Differences between the first and second Covenant 1 In the first Covenant God dealt with man in a way of soveraign Empire and Dominion mixed with infinite Wisdom Justice Benignity and somewhat of Grace though without the least dram of Mercy there was indeed something of Grace in appointing the Reward but nothing of Grace in the infallible conduct thereto But now in the second Covenant the principal motive and Fountain that gave origine thereto was free Grace and Bowels of warm tender Mercies what was the foundation of this Covenant but the absolute and soveraignly gracious pleasure of God Were there any Objective Ideas of good any reasons grounds or motives foreseen by God which moved him to give grace to Jacob rather than to Esau Did not Esau and Jacob stand on equal ground as to Divine Election Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau Mal. 1.2 3. It 's true the free Grace of God hath deep Reasons in it self but yet no reasons or motives without it self to move or rule it in its egresses towards the creature Yea doth not the Grace of God find as much and as good reasons in Esau as in Jacob in Cain and Judas as in Peter and Paul in the worst as in the best of Men by Nature Yea what more agreeable to the Methods and Designs of Grace than this to shew mercy to the vilest of sinners How oft doth the free grace of God take hold of such as are most graceless and whence
7 212 2 14 356 2. 21 22 425 6. 7 176 8. 14 59 10. 12 175 11. 14 237 13. 8 97 14. 4 348 14. 5 6 7 347 Joel 2. 7 379 2. 23 355 2. 25 417 Micah 5. 2 135 5. 7 422 7. 20 125 Habakkuk 2. 4 329 3. 2 330 3. 9 420 Zephany 2. 4 322 Zachary 1. 17 188 2. 5 369 3. 1 2 408 4. 2 3 353 422 4. 7 424 5. 6 8 39 6. 8 136 11. 10 163 13. 7 323 Malachy 2. 3 182 2. 13 15 16 11 3. 3 316 Matthew 3. 16 128 6. 22 23 350 7. 14 15 192 8. 11 234 241 10. 29 30 417 11. 29 169 13. 24 25 415 13. 29 ibid. 13. 52 399 16. 19 202 222 22. 1 321 22. 14 234 22. 32 358 26. 74 188 28. 18 383 Mark 10. 13 201 11. 13 279 14. 71 539 Luke 13. 32 431 446 15. 21 378 16. 13 192 16. 22 234 17. 20 21 388 18. 16 201 19. 9 198 21. 9 212 21. 18 417 22. 31 188 192 22. 32 439 John 1. 1 410 1. 2 134 5. 22 382 5. 23 418 5. 26 330 6. 27 136 6. 44 314 15. 1 324 17. 2 385 20. 17 375 Acts. 2. 38 194 13. 10 438 Romans 3. 1 206 5. 3 396 5. 13 93 6. 14 37 38 45 7. 7 91 7. 9 93 329 7. 24 62 8. 28 395 9. 2 3 196 9. 4 217 234 9. 31 25 10. 3 ibid. 11. 16 196 234 238 11. 17 210 325 11. 24 62 14. 17 388 15. 8 9 162 1 Corinthians 4. 8 358 5. 12 13 205 6. 17 192 7. 14 196 213 214 220 224 11. 3 321 12. 4 5 6 218 13. 12 290 15. 24 398 15. 28 323 15. 56 39 2 Corinthians 2. 14 333 6. 10. 373 Galatians 3. 16 124 126 3. 17 18 19 86 108 4. 21 22 121 5. 18 50 Ephesians 1. 4 5 134 4. 14 15 400 5. 15 378 5. 31 192 Philippians 1. 8 399 1. 19 366 2. 20 399 3. 9 26 240 4. 7 373 Colossians 1. 13 61 381 2. 8 257 2. 14 83 2. 19 327 1 Timothy 1. 9 52 2 Timothy 2. 26 406 Hebrews 2. 1 2 185 2. 5 235 2. 7 8 387 6. 7 213 8. 6 158 10. 22 362 10. 38 329 10. 39 371 12. 22 340 James 1. 15 435 1. 22 334 1. 24 53 54 90 3. 15 445 1 Peter 1. 7 375 2. 9 377 3. 21 190 2 Peter 1. 4 246 1. 5 332 1. 20 425 1 John 5. 6 7 338 5. 11 328 5. 19 406 Revelations 2. 1 389 2. 17 424 3. 21 330 4. 5 391 7. 3 4 210 12. 11 186 13. 8 164 13. 17 217 14. 1 323 16. 1 413 19. 14 322 20. 1 255 21. 3 218 21. 6 255 21. 12 16 373 22. 15 233 ERRATA PAg. 33. lin 11. after made known read have no cause to complain because they are left under that Covenant they desire to be p. 41. l. 23. ior mercy r. death p. 49. l. 10. dele the last sin p. 52. l. 41. r. 1 Tim. 1. ◠p. 54. l. 47 48. dele the property of an unregenerate man is to justifie God p. 55. l. 23. dele the first and p. 56. l. 25. for there r. that Item l. 41. r. lime that which doth quench other fires sometimes kindles this p. 59. marg r. Use 4. p. 61. l. 59. r. 1 Cor. 15.56 p. 61 c. Title r. scriptural p. 62. l. 57. r. is passed p. 65. l. 29. r. Dominion only p. 78. l. 10. from the bottom r. for publick politick Ib. l. 9. from the bottom dele the second hereditary p. 97. l. 8 9. dele Hos 13.8 I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps c. Item v. 10. dele c. p. 100. l. 5. r. Diabolus p. 101. l. 36. for unchangeable r. unblamable p. 118. l. 55. r. nolentibus p. 149. l. 22. for Son r. Sun Item l. 40. for work r. make p. 165. l. 4. r. enter into Covenant p. 168. l. 10. r. last way to salv p. 170. l. 34. for utterly r. entirely p. 174. l. 13. r. as he paid the debt p. 176. l. 34. for ways r. days p. 177. l. 31. r. I am not at Item l. 56. for curse r. Covenant p. 184. l. 24. r. that curse is the c. p. 242. l. 5. dele three p. 247. l. 58. r. Smalcaldian war p. 302. l. 53. for right r. light p. 303. l. 57. dele § 2. p. 317. Sect. 3. Title r. to Christ p. 329. l. 57. r. than any creature p. 331. l. 14. r. live himself p. 332. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 338. l. 57. r. is in the recumbency p. 339. l. 60. for 5. r. § 4. p. 340. l. 20. dele § 4. p. 346. l. 51. r. as she said p. 349. l. 25. r. they and their fathers p. 350. l. 20. r. incommutabili ad commutabile p. 365. l. 39. r. specious Idol p. 385. l. 29. dele 1. Item l. 58. r. is put p. 388. l. 14. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 389. l. 23. r. Divine Law p. 412. l. 5. r. Papista p. 417. l. 19. for three r. four p. 418. l. 54. r. the people of God see God A DISCOURSE OF THE Two Covenants c. BOOK I. Of the Covenant of Works CHAP. I. The Curse of the first Covenant Gen. II. 17. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die c. SECT I. The Explication of the Text. § 1. IN the Covenant God made with Adam there was a Life promised of which the Tree of Life was a Seal and there was a Death threatned which was seal'd by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the threatning Thou shalt die the Promise is implied This do and thou shalt live and therefore the one is called the Sacrament of Life and the other the Sacrament of Death And this was a Covenant not made with Adam as a particular person but as a Representative from whom all Mankind were to descend by Natural Generation and therefore God did make a Covenant with Man in his Head But the Covenant God made with the Angels was Personal because they were created all at once and they were not to have their Being by descent one after another Hence it is that in Adam all sin and in Adam all die Rom. 5.12 1 Cor. 15.12 Act. 17.26 because God did intend to make of one blood all Nations Now the Covenant being made with Adam in the behalf of his Posterity and he breaking it brings himself and all his Posterity under the guilt of Sin and under the power of Death which is the curse of the Covenant So that the Covenant of Works did not cease by the fall Ephes 2.1 but it stands still in force unto all those that are as yet in the first Adam 1. This will clearly appear if we consider that God dealt with man in a Covenant-way in his Creation Man stands bound to God by a double bond
deterr'd from sin and kept in obedience to the Covenant All the threatnings in the Word since the Fall are but conditional which argues that it is to no other end but that they might be avoided and prevented He tells us the danger before that we may escape God under the first Covenant will'd that Adam should have continued in his obedience and avoided the curse of it and the Lord to manifest he neglected no means to this end created in him a holy nature gave him a righteous and an easie Law made a glorious promise to his obedience added a fearful threatning upon his disobedience therefore God did not will the death of a sinner And we may say with the Scripture He doth not afflict willingly the children of men Lam. 3.33 but as Tertullian says of the earnest prayers of Gods people so I may say of importunity in sinning Coelum tundimus We assault Heaven he says Misericordiam I put it vindictam extorquemus We extort vengeance 2 But God had decreed the fall of Adam and that this curse should come and it could not have been against his will how can it be said then that God will'd his obedience and continuance therein There is good ground for a double will of God which the Scripture speaks of a will of complacence and a will of efficacy approbationis effectionis a will of approbation and of effection the one is a general and a conditional will manifested to the Creature whereby the Lord approves and rewards obedience and perseverance therein in all persons whomsoever And this is his revealed will without determining any thing of particular persons in whom he will work this obedience But the other is a secret will toward that particular person in whom he will work this obedience and to whom he will give grace to continue in it God did in his revealed will manifest to Adam what he did require of him what he delighted in and what he would reward him for but he did not tell him that he would give him grace and a supernatural assistance to cause him to continue in obedience but he left him to the mutability of his own will and in the hand of his own Counsel God wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth 1 Tim. 2 4. God wills that all men should believe but he will not work faith in all men He wills that all men should be saved but he will not bring all men to Salvation he wills the one voluntate approbante by a will of approbation but the other decernente by a decreeing will So Davenant his answer to Gods love to Mankind pag. 220. 3 Threatnings and Promises are of great necessity and use even to a creature in the state of Innocency with whomsoever God will deal in a Covenant-way even the purest Creatures may and ought to make use of them and to fear to offend God because of his wrath for even our God is a consuming fire Now of what use could this have been to Adam in innocency having no sense or fear of sin or suffering but more of this afterwards 4 Even the Creature in the state of innocency has nothing in it to satisfie the Holiness of God he gives a command and adds a promise but as if the Lord were jealous of him he adds a threatning to keep him in obedience and so he did with the Angels he put no trust in them he charges even them with folly Job 4.18 though not with actual yet with possible folly The best Creatures as Creatures are changeable therefore the Holiness of God can never take full contentment and satisfaction in any thing but in Christ who is by the personal union impeccable 5 How comes it to pass that this Tree proved so hurtful to man That totum genus humanum per infinitam successionem perdiderit It destroyed all mankind throughout such an infinite succession Luther proposes the question and says the cause was not in the fruit for fructus protulit nobilissimos it produced most excellent fruit but the ground was in the Word of God and his prohibition Arbor vitae vivificat virtute verbi promittentis arbor scientiae occidit virtute verbi prohibentis the tree of life vivifies by virtue of the word promising and the tree of knowledge kills by virtue of the word prohibiting It 's the Word of God that is the cause of life and death to the Creature God exalts his Word above the best of the Creatures and it is dearer to him than Adam was in Innocency or the Angels he has exalted it above all his Name Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather than a tittle of it and therefore he will not now spare us for the breach of it But why did God give Adam this Commandment having given him so freely all the other Trees of the Garden Preceptum exploratorium Paraeus Arhor diviri cultus fuit why should he forbid him this one it was a precept for trial a tree of divine worship They were not one tree says Luther though here so called collectively but Nemus quasi sacellum quoddam a wood as it were a Chappel God loves to try the obedience of the best of his Creatures to give them matter and occasion to exercise the Graces that he has given them As every word of God is a tried word and has been in the furnace often and Gods people have found it true so every grace wrought by that word is a tried grace and the trial of it is to the Saints now and so it should have been to Adam precious as the Apostle Peter says The trial of your faith is more precious than gold 6 But what need had Adam of such a Tree being he had a Law written in his heart of obedience to all Gods requirings as the Sun has a law of motion He was freely and fully carried after it by a command within he was a living Scripture a walking Bible but yet the best of the Creatures had need as of daily assistance and direction so also of daily admonition and a publick Monitor The Angels themselves as they have new service daily to do for God so they have a new supply from the spirit of Christ to quicken them daily We read in Ezek. 1.13 there is a spirit of fire that goes up and down amongst the living creatures which denotes the active daily and vigorous supply of the Spirit of Christ and the constant working of it Surely men may see yea those that are learned in the School of Christ what need there is of a Ministery Some say what need is there to have the same things taught that we know as well as they do and may be better Yet though you do know them there is need we should stir you up by way of remembrance 7 But why should it be so great an offence to eat of this Tree seeing God made it pleasant to the eye and
good for food and a Tree in it self very lovely and desirable It was only the will of God that made it so to be because the Lord had forbidden it and it 's the will of God that is the only rule of the obedience of the Creature therefore things are good because God wills them and therefore evil because he forbids them for 't is the will of God that is the rule of goodness There is a vanity in the creature to dispute the commands of God we take it ill and as an intrenching upon authority to have our commands disputed much more may the Lord. It was Abraham's honour he did not reason pro and con Rom. 4.19 I find this rule deliver'd by Glass Gram. pag. 349 Verbâ—â—â—â—â—tum additâ—r infinito ad majâ—â—m certitudinem câ—â—eritatem perfectionem confirmationem exprimendam but obey'd God without disputing The threatning is call'd sometimes the curse of the law Deut. 29.21 and sometimes the the curse of the Covenant It is expressed in our Text Gen. 2.17 thus Dying thou shalt die This denotes 1 Certainty Gen. 37.33 Without doubt Exod. 19.12 13. surely 2 Extremity and the perfection of a thing Exod. 21.19 It 's said He shall cause him to be thorowly healed that is Medicando medicabitur plenam denotat cuationem 3 Suddenness Zach. 8.21 They shall say let us go speedily to pray before the Lord. 4 Continuance and perseverance Gen. 8.7 And he sent forth a Raven exibat exeundo that is continenter he did continue to go from the Ark and returned no more And so in the expression here there seems to be these four things Dying thou shalt die i. e. Thou shalt surely perfectly suddenly and eternally die Whence the Doctrine is That the punishment of the breach of the first Covenant and the curse of it was a certain sudden utter and eternal death SECT II. The Temporal Curse § 1. WHatever is excellent or desirable in Scripture is comprehended under the name of life and by death is comprehended whatever is evil and whatever may make the creature miserable The thing threatned being death in general not this or that particular death or evil therefore we must understand it of all kind of death and this I shall branch under these heads First Temporal death and that consists in these particulars 1. All the Creatures are cursed to him and that in these regards 1 He lost his right to all the Creatures that were given him for his use God gave Adam an inheritance and put all in subjection under his feet but by sin he forfeited them all that he has not a right to the bread that he eats nor to the air he breaths in There is indeed a right of providence and a right of promise that man has to the Creatures but neither of these a man has from the first but both from the second Covenant the one as the Providential Kingdom and the other as the Spiritual Kingdom is in the hand of Christ It is as Christ employs them in the world and so gives them these things as a reward of their service and their portion in this life or else they have them by patience only as a condemn'd man has many comforts till his execution but cannot claim them by any right and so it 's with them for he that had forfeited both foul and body must needs have forfeited all things else Therefore all the Creatures are given him by a new Covenant-title they are all Christs Psal 8.6 7. Heb 2. Isa 49.8 and by him dispensed to some as Sons and to others as Servants as he is pleased to imploy them For it 's by his Covenant that the Earth is established that it doth not perish and all the Creatures in it by vertue of that Curse Cursed be the ground for thy sake Now if a curse upon man would bring him to destruction then a curse upon the Creatures had not a second Covenant come in would have wrought their annihilation Act. 1.26 Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place Judas had no place of his own but Hell and Christ himself standing in a cursed condition though he were Lord of all yet he was in the world as one that had right to nothing He became poor had not a house to lay his head in nor an Asse to ride on but lived upon the benevolence of his servants He had not a Chamber to eat the Passover in And when he died whereas all men have their Graves he had none but another mans But how was it that Christ the heir of all things should be so in want but as he stood under our Covenant and came under our curse and did represent our persons and therefore it 's said Dan. 9.26 That the Messiah shall be cut off not for himself So we read it Dan. 9.26 But others read it Et nihil erit ei He shall have nothing he shall have no inheritance in his life and shall die as if there were no hope in his death 2 All the Creatures deny their service to him When thou tillest the ground it shall not give its strength that 's a fruit of the curse upon the Creatures for man's sin the Sun shall refuse to give its light and the Clouds their rain and the Heavens their influence and that we have any of these it 's by virtue of the second Covenant it 's by Christ that the Sun shines and the rain falls upon the just and the unjust Hos 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me and then the Heavens shall hear the Earth and the Earth shall hear the Corn and the Wine then all the Creatures shall give their fruit and influence Rom. 8.19 20 there 's a bondage of corruption from which the Creature desires to be delivered by which I think is not meant dissolution for surely no creature but desires its own preservation therefore I judge it 's meant of service and subjection in being subordinate to the lusts of wicked men And although the Creatures themselves be made for service and of their own natures rejoyce and triumph in it as the Sun does rejoyce as a Giant to run its course yet since sin came into the world there is such a sympathy in the Creature of the wrong done to God thereby that the Creatures would withdraw themselves the Sun would cloath it self with sackcloth and the Moon be turn into blood the Stars would withdraw their shining and all the rest would do so also but that the Lord has subjected them in hope of a restauration and a glorious condition that they shall have even a new Heaven and a new Earth c. And God makes the Sun to rise upon the evil as well as on the good but upon the evil for the sake of the good And were God's people taken all out of the wilderness of this world the Creatures should be delivered and serve the lusts of wicked men no more
And therefore the Sun was withdrawn at the death of Christ not that it could not behold such a horrible sight as some do express it but it was in wrath to shew that he was under the displeasure of God to whom he crys out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and all his Disciples forsook him and fled and not an Angel lookt out of Heaven to comfort him 3 The Creatures that men have in their possession are cursed there is a curse upon them which blasts them that they are subject unto vanity and are become vanity of vanities Eccles 1.2 There is an universal decay by reason of Gods curse come on all things that are for mans use but many times there is also a particular curse that does haâ—â—en their decay sooner than else it would have been as it is in Estates Hos 5.12 á moth and rottenness and a lion enters into families And we read of a flying Roll Zach. 5.2 3 4. that 's the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth and it enters into the house of the thief and the swearer and consumes the stones and makes holes in the bottom of the Bag Job 20.28 the substance of his house shall depart his honour and memory shall be gone and so their names are written in the earth the name of the wicked shall rot God does many times rot mens names presently that they perish they are consumed as in a moment 4 Whatever they have by the Creatures shall be with much toil labour and weariness In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread We see how much toil and labour the Husband-man has to put some life into the dead earth all things are full of labour Eccles 1.8 man cannot utter it and how much weariness there is in every calling and condition of life nay even in our very Recreations how much pains there is to extract a poor small contentment that even the pleasure of it does nothing recompence the labour to get it God having made the Creatures even like to Paracelsian Physick a little spirit mixt with a great deal of unprofitable matter a great deal of dross with a little gold and much chaff with a little corn and a great deal of labour before a man can beat it out Every condition of life is full of labour 5 Even those Creatures that a man is acquiring for his good become instruments of vengeance for his destruction for all the Creatures are arm'd against a man The Stars in their courses fight against him Exod. 23.25 the Heaven that sends down destroying influences the Sun that scorches the Earth and destroys all the labours of man and the Rain that drowns the World and the Earth that opens its mouth to swallow him up and the meanest of the Creatures flys and lice destroy him and a mans meat and drink become his bane God curses his bread and water and it shall bring diseases on him The Angels they keep you out of Paradise with terrour Gen. 3. destroy whole Armies meet men with a drawn sword as they did Balaam Sometimes a man is eaten with worms as Herod was and sometimes God fights against us as he did against Cambyses and the Devil doth possess our bodies and destroy our goods as he did Job and he waits but for a commission to hurry us to Hell and to be the instrument to convey us thither upon all occasions as being Satan our adversary § 2. The curses upon a mans body are various and great As 1 Continual weariness and wasting and sickness and a disorder and jarring between the humours of a mans body Deut. 28.21 and old age which is a continual disease though indeed it 's true as Solomon says Gray hairs are a crown if found in the way of righteousness And it 's an honour with Mnason to be an old Disciple but yet it is in it self a fruit of the curse that bringeth with it the decays of nature for man if he had not fin'd should never have waxed old nor had any deformity for he was created at first a very glorious Creature and had no blemish from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot but now there is not the fairest face but it has some blemish and there is a strange ugliness and deformity come upon men though upon some more than others The botch of Egypt the Itch the Scab that shall not be healed c. We read in Eccles 12.2 3. a description of those evil days wherein all the comforts of a mans life are taken away a man cannot say he has any pleasure in them in which he is much disabled for service to God and man by reason of his weakness and infirmities All things that are comfortable in this life do decay and it is with a man as in Winter-weather when a shower or two does not cleanse the sky but the end of one misery and disease is the beginning of another And there is a more particular description of the miseries â—hat attend man in his age in the third verse of that Chapter The keepers of the house the 〈◊〉 and hands are weak the defence that God has given this house of clay they through â—â—â—â—ness and palsie do tremble and the legs and thighs the poor pillars and supports of 〈◊〉 house do buckle through weakness and bow the grinders cease because they are few and the eyes that look out at the windows are weakned and the doors shut in the streets and the mouth closed And he desires not company because he is unfit for it he keeps home and sits alone and his sleep does easily depart from him at every noise he rises up at the voice of a bird c. and desire fails to any of the pleasures of this life We see a Comment upon much of it in the 2 Sam. 19.35 and then death comes and there is a dissolution of this house of clay and after death the dust returns to the earth as it was and this glorious body of man so curiously fed and so sumptuously cloath'd must become food to the worms and rot in its own filthiness and putrefaction and in all these respects the body is become a vile body corruptible mortal a body of death and it lies down in dishonour in the grave 2 And there is this great curse also upon the body of man it is become an instrument of sin to the soul and so an instrument for the devil to use Sin indeed is not properly and formally in the body but in the soul Mich. 6.7 and therefore it is properly call'd the sin of the soul for it 's the soul that is the arch-rebel sin is formaliter in corde redundanter in corpore formally in the soul but by redundance in the body But yet there is this curse come upon the body and the members of it that it 's imploy'd as a servant to the soul in sinning and
of this life the Princes robes and the beggars rags lie down together but the difference in their spirits is eternal and therefore the blessing or the curse upon the soul is much more than that on the body or the estate many of these being but for the time of this life 3 Sin is chiefly an act of the soul The sin of the soul membra sunt arma the members are but weapons it 's the soul that 's the hand and the chief cause of enmity lies therein and therefore the chief vengeance lights upon that God will punish sin not only here but eternally Therefore as the greatest blessing is upon the soul so the greatest curse also And as the School-men say of Glory so we may say of Wrath it is Radicaliter in corde redundanter in corpore radically in the heart but redundantly in the body the main object of wrath and curse is the soul 2 Pet. Mat. 16. 4 The great evil that sin does a man it fights against his soul and the great loss that it occasions is the loss of the soul men do often complain of losses but they may be all made up in this life as Job's were or if not yet the afflictions of this present life are not worthy of the glory that shall be reveal'd they work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and Quaedam amittere ut majora lucreris non amissio est sed mercatura to lose some things that thou maist gain better is not loss but a thriving trade But the loss of the soul is the great loss that can never be made up and therefore the curse of the soul is the great curse 5 The curse of the soul being taken off all other curses are taken off also as the curse remaining on the soul all blessings are turn'd into curses they may be blessings in the thing but they are curses to the man So on the other side all cursings are turn'd into blessings they may be curses in the thing but they shall prove blessings to the man To the unclean all things are unclean for their minds and consciences are defiled Tit. 1. When once Grace comes into the soul malediction goes out all things shall work for your good and the curse is taken off from all the Creatures for your use Life is yours and death is yours so that as the precept of the Law is made a servant to the promise of the Gospel for it was added by way of subordination and subserviency thereunto so the curse of the Law is made a servant to the Grace of the Gospel also and a Saint has a sanctified use of that as a blessing which is in it self a curse 6 The chief satisfaction that was given for sin has reference to the soul In the sacrifice there was offred the life and the blood but it was the blood that made an atonement for the soul and without shedding of blood there is no remission And when Christ came to stand in our stead as a surety the main of the sufferings he endured were in his soul Isa 53.10 God made his soul an offering for sin Christ did as our surety and therefore he put his name to our bond and was made under the Law Now being our surety he was to pay our debt and that was mainly in the soul The Sacrifice that was to be accepted of God was to be a whole burnt-offering now if Christ had but suffered in his body it had been but a half burnt-offering He offered himself Heb. 9.10 therefore it must be his whole manhood and before his bodily suffering came while he was in the Garden he says My soul is heavy unto death Mar. 14.33 amazed or astonished the word is rendred a failing of spirit his spirit died even within him his thoughts were wholly abstracted from all things else and the wrath of God that lay upon him did wholly fill up his soul c. Now in all these respects the curse upon the soul which is spiritual death is the greatest part of the Curse far greater than that upon the body upon Creatures or Relations § 2. And now let us come to consider wherein this Curse upon the Soul lies 1. It lies in this That a man has forsaken God as his chief Good and as his utmost End Man in his Creation was carried towards God as that chiefest Good wherein his happiness consisisted and acted towards God as him to whom all his actions were refer'd and wherein his blessedness lay and therefore Augustin speaking from a spirit renew'd and having the same principle begun in him says Omnis copia quae non est Deus inanis egestas est All plenty that is not God is poverty And Bernard says Animam Dei capacem quicquid est Deo minus non implebit nothing less than God will fill the soul capable of God Man having all in God must needs do all for him and refer all to him for he that is the chief Good must needs be also the utmost End Now the death of the soul lies mainly in this first it 's taken off from God as the chief Good for that 's the first thing sin does Jam. 1.14 it draws a man away from God who was the Center where the soul rested Psal 116.7 Return to thy rest O my soul They have forsaken their resting place they have wandred upon every mountain And therefore Jude v. 18. all the lustings and inclinations of the soul they are call'd ungodly lusts because they have nothing else in them that being the main bent in them all to take off the soul from God and carry it away from him Jer. 2.13 It 's forsaking the fountain of living water And Heb. 3.12 It 's departing from the living God And hence it is that repenting is call'd returning because we have departed from him and conversion is nothing else but returning to God as a mans chief Good And man being thus departed from him God is not in all their thoughts for they look for no good from him their good lies not in him and therefore they live without God in the world they know him not they love him not they expect nothing from him it 's to them as if there were no God to judge nor reward and hence it is that men can live without the favour of God all their life-long and never be troubled because they have not made it their happiness But take a man that has set up this as his happiness a frown is to him as the messenger of death and not to see the Kings face puts him into the shadow of death for he can breath in no other air as Absalom said He could not live unless he saw the Kings face And so David God had hid his face which made him like to them that go down into the pit Man in his Creation as he was wholly of God so he was wholly for him and so it is when the Image
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies 1 ye that covet earnestly or vehemently desire so the word is used Mat. 12.38 16.24 Mar. 10.35 12.38 2 Ye that demand or make it your petition so Mat. 15.28 20.21 3 Ye that study contrive labour with all your might so Mat. 16 25. Mar. 8.10 43 44. Luk. 23.20 4 Ye that consent to this as best determine as Mat. 13.28 Joh. 9.54 Mat. 17.4 5 Ye that delight or take pleasure Mat. 9.13 12.7 Heb. 10.5 8. It follows to be under the Law The Apostle Paul speaks of being under the Law in divers senses 1 There is a being under the Law for justification and life Gal. 4.4 5. that is under the Law as a Covenant Christ was made under the Law to redeem us that were under the Law 2 There is a being under the Law for condemnation Gal. 3.10 Rom. 6.14 As many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse 3 There is a being under the Law for irritation that is stirring up a mans corruption Sin taking occasion by the Commandment became exceeding sinful Gal. 5.8 4 There is a being under the Law by compulsion If you are led by the spirit you are not under the Law that is the Law as only inforcing and compelling as an unregenerate man is as a slave and having the spirit of a servant not of a son who does all he does from an inward principle and disposition suitable to the Law in whatever it does command But it will appear that being under the Law in all these senses are grounded on being under it as a Covenant as we shall see hereafter and that he that is freed from it as a Covenant is not under the Law in any of these respects but by vertue of the second Covenant is delivered from it Only here I think Pareus and others say that to be under the law and desire so to be is the same with Gal. 3.10 They that are of the works of the Law that is that seek righteousness and life by the works of the Law and this is properly to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works which was the natural sin of the Jews and with which error and heresie they endeavoured to overspread all the Gentile Churches going about to establish their own righteousness and therefore typified by Hagar which the Apostle makes Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem above the Christian Church is Sarah that did receive the Doctrine of the Gospel without any mixture of their own righteousness but did trust perfectly in the Grace that was revealed to them by Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 10.3 So here to be under the Law is to seek to be justified by the works of the Moral or Ceremonial Law as being works of righteousness that we have done For though the whole Ceremonial Law were Gospel under a veil yet they not being able to look to the end of it as the Apostle says they did perform it as works of righteousness 2 Cor. 3. in which they did expect justification and life for their obedience to them and performance of them without looking into the things shadowed in those types Now the Apostle says not only that men were thus under the Law but so they did desire to be Therefore looking upon these as being a patern of all mankind and in whom the dispositions of all men may be read I do hence observe Doct. That to be under the Law as a Covenant of works is unto every natural man a very desirable condition He is not only born under the first Covenant but under that Covenant he does desire to continue In the handling of it I shall first prove it and give the grounds of it and answer some Objections that may arise in the hearts of men against it and then make the application of it There is in the fall of man a double misery come upon him 1 His being under Adams Covenant 2 His bearing Adams image And in this state all men by nature desire to live and die And that men do still desire to bear the image of the Earthly Adam is plain because they resist the image of God in Christ that blessed image that by the holy Spirit is offered to them in the Gospel And we find how much they do hug the image of old Adam in themselves Now though their desire to be under his Covenant be the foundation of all their misery yet men apprehend it not so much The offer of the second Covenant they hate and reject the Covenant of Christ as much as they despise his Image yet they perceive it not Therefore to prove it we must take the most convincing course we can First this was the evil that God saw Adam's nature to be prone to and therefore he not only cast him out of Paradise as a just reward of his apostacy but also in a particular manner forbad him the use of the tree of life Gen. 3.22 Gen. 3.22 God having made for our first Parents coats of skins now he saith Behold the man is become like one of us it is an Ironical exclamation wherein God derides the falshood of Satan and the folly of man This is the Godship that Satan promis'd en Divinitatem promissam Behold the promised Divinity And the knowledge of good and evil was nothing but a miserable and shameful nakedness which before man knew not And now here follows exilii decretum ratio decreti the decree is Gods will to cast man out of Paradice and the ground of it is lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of Life But why must not man after the fall taste of the tree of Life seeing before the fall it was not forbidden It is answered Non in esse sed in intentione futurum erat peccatum not in the action but in the intention it was to be reputed sin And Interpreters give this as a reason that thereby God might take away occasion of sinning from him and God doth not only aim at keeping us from sin by his Word but by his Rod also And they observe that there was by the fall a double corrupt disposition in Adam's heart which the eating of this tree would have drawn forth 1 Looking upon it as a Creature which he might conceive to have a vertue in it to preserve life he might put forth his hand which notes a voluntary act and so he might conceive though God hath threatned death yet here is a tree that can preserve life and of this I will eat and live And so he might have sin'd wilfully and out of contempt of the threatning of God by deifying a Creature and setting it in his place and giving it Gods power and so the life that was denied him by God he might think to make up in the Creature as men commonly do 2 Looking upon it Sacramentally as it was a Creature and
their much speaking and stand upon their justification I fast twice in the week and pay tythe of all that I possess says the Pharisee The Apostle Rom. 9.31 says They followed after the righteousness of the Law by their own performance of the works of the Law And to this end because they could not rise up to the spirituality of the Law they did therefore bring down the Law by their interpretation unto their own obedience and all was to make their own righteousness available for justification Therefore Paul saith Concerning the righteousness of the Law blameless Phil. 3. The young man says All these have I kept from my youth Therefore the Papists teach That men may perfectly fulfill the Law Bellar. de Justific l. 2. c. 2 3. and do also some works of Supererogation over and above the Law that the formal cause of Justification is inherent righteousness though Christs righteousness is the meritorious cause Christ having merited that our righteousness may justifie c. And though not works by nature yet by Grace even Faith it self as a work is that which God accepts being performed by us instead of all the righteousness required in the Moral Law These and many more are the ways by which men seek to establish their own righteousness in matter of Justification 2 As for Salvation also All men would be working and doing something for Heaven Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life What shall we do to work the works of God Joh. 6. They were all upon a way of doing they did expect a reward for all They had a high esteem of their own services and therefore they did boast themselves and glory in them it 's the law of saith only excludes boasting Rom. 3.27 The Creature being sinful is lifted up by works proud of a little God knows And therefore Jehu says Come see my zeal for the Lord of hosts and there is nothing in the world that the pride of man will appear more in than in righteousness for pride is an overweening apprehension of a mans own excellency and the higher the excellency the greater the pride Rom. 7.9 I was alive says Paul without the Law alive in performances and alive in presumptions he thought he had done much for God and therefore his zeal did rise to a madness in persecuting of the Church It 's a hard matter for a man to be a painful Preacher a zealous professor a faithful Statesman or a man that has laid out himself for the publick any way but his heart will swell with privy pride therein yea even though he do profess to despise and to disesteem the praise of men § 3. But now more particularly so far as any man does not submit unto the righteousness and the grace of the second Covenant so far he manifests his desire to be still under the first Covenant but all men by nature refuse to submit to the righteousness and the offers of the second Covenant and therefore they desire to continue under the first The Scripture speaks of mens actions and dispositions many times interpretatively not as they are in the intention of the sinner but as they are in truth and in the interpretation of God Prov. 8. ult Men are said to love death all those that hate wisdom and despise Christ and live without him love death Now men will all say that they do hate death but yet in Gods interpretation they hating the only way and means to life they do all of them love death So we read in Ezech. 8.5 They did these abominations that I might go far from my sanctuary It was not their intention in so doing actually and formaliter but interpretative it was because they had set up an image of jealousie in the Sanctuary which would provoke God to remove and yet if they had been asked they would all have said they would by no means have the glory of the Lord to remove So men do not actually desire to be under the first Covenant but yet so long as they reject the offers and the grace of the second so long in Gods interpretation they do desire to be under the Law still and their rejection of the better Covenant offered argues they like and love that under which they are and reject the righteousness of God which is the same which is called the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of faith as the Apostle says Phil. 3.9 Not having my own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is of God by faith And it 's called the righteousness of God partly because it is found out by God and by God only imputed and therefore is only an act of free grace whereby God will make a sinner righteous before him Rom. 1.17 and partly because Christ offered himself by the eternal spirit without spot to God which is his own Divine nature and so unto all the actions and the sufferings of his Humanity the Godhead gave an efficacy and an excellency even from his person they being all the actions and sufferings of him that was both God and Man And unto this righteousness men through the pride and unbelief of their spirits and contrariety to the Gospel will not submit They have not subjected themselves unto the righteousness of God 1. All a man's sins do stand out and will not submit to the righteousness of God for whoever imbraces the offer of the second Covenant and the grace thereof must take Christ for Sanctification 1 Cor. 1. as well as for Justification for he is made both and he came with water and blood to answer those ways of legal purification and so he must come into every soul but above all sins a mans darling his right hand and his right eye must be parted with and therefore Christ says Joh. 5.44 How can you believe that seek honour one of another The power of any lust in the soul will keep it from believing and accepting of the grace and mercy that 's offered in the second Covenant And so through the power and dominion of sin men cannot submit to the righteousness of God And how miserably is many a man held in captivity this way we all see they are by the snares of darkness led captive by Satan at his will 2. All the gifts and abilities that are in a man are against it for faith is the highest self-denial 2 Cor. 8.2 and gifts do puff up and therefore not many wise are called The wisdom of this world is enmity against God and all their parts and learning their wisdom whether it be natural or acquired doth make them but the stronger enemies and set them the farther off from Christ Hab. 2.4 now this stands in the most direct opposition to faith for that soul that is lifted up his heart is not upright in him In troublesome times to have a mans heart born up by a fleshly prop
The word of the Prophet is but wind and the word of the Lord is not in them it will come upon themselves so let it be done unto themselves let it be eternal judgment that is threatned and men do scoff and say 2 Pet. 3.3 Where is the promise of his coming And the heart of man does from its pride infinitely scorn all those things and goes on with the greater resolution in any evil 4 There is in every lust a principle and root of enmity against God for men naturally are haters of God and enemies to God and there is nothing but lust makes them so Rom. 1.31 Col. 1.31 Now as in every man there is all sin vertually and seminally so there is all sin in every sin and there is in every sin a principle of sin that will produce all manner of iniquity as we may see in the first transgression it was but one sin and one act of sin yet there was in it all manner of defilement that has filled the nature of man with all manner of pollution The sin of the Devils was but one and that a spiritual sin also and it has filled the Devils with all that Devilish malignity that has manifested it self in them ever since Now as there is in every sin a principle of enmity against God so radically and seminally there is in every sin the sin against the Holy Ghost even the great transgression Psal 19.13 even secret sins they do make way for this sin against the Spirit of God Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which is direct enmity against God with despight and revenge and it is opposition that above all things in the world draws it forth and the more clear a mans light is the more spiritual the opposition that is made against him is the sooner the man comes into the great transgression And these are the great grounds in lusts which take occasion from the Commandment the violence of lust the more it is opposed the more it desires and desires by resistance are kindled and increased and from the pride of the heart it raiseth opposition with the greater impatience and resolution come what will come and all this coming from a principle not only of collateral but of direct enmity against God it is with despight and revenge In these sin takes occasion by the Commandment and the opposition thereof improves it and draws it forth As it is in grace affliction improves it and opposition draws it forth temptations and desertions confirm it as there were many acts of grace in Job that had not been drawn forth but by affliction so it is with many of the Saints many men had never been so gracious but by opposition as we see it in Luther and in many of the Martyrs that their Graces rose by their opposition and persecution So many men had never been so wicked as we see it in the Pharisees had they not lived under such glorious means of Grace and so clear Convictions which set bounds to their lusts which made them break out with the greater rage for Christ says to them If I had not come and spoken to you you had had no sin but now there is no cloak for your sin for by the opposition that their lust met with it was drawn forth more impetuously § 2. There is yet a further ground of this irritating power of the Law and that is from the curse of God that is come upon all men under the fall which came not only upon man but upon all things else for mans use and so though it be the curse of the Law yet it comes even upon the Law it self so far as it concerns man as well as upon all the Creatures yea the Lord Christ himself is so far a curse unto men in their sins that as he is a sanctuary to his people so a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence a gin and a snare unto others for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel Luk. 2.34 For judgment says he Isa 8.14 Joh. 9.39 I am come into this world and yet he says in Joh. 12.47 I came not to judge and condemn the world but to save the world This indeed was his intent primarily and per se but the other falls out through the sinfulness of men occasionally and by accident and that which is good in it self does become evil unto the man and that which is a blessing in it self doth to him become a curse so it is with the Gospel and with all the ordinances thereof 't is the savour of life to some but of death unto others the same meat is wholsome nourishment unto some to others it feeds the disease in an unsound body and the same light which is pleasant unto a good and a sound eye is a pain and a trouble to a weak eye which is sore or bloodshot c. And therefore it puts no malignant nor sinful quality into the Law or Gospel or the Ordinances but only these meeting with a man of an unsound spirit do occasionally stir up these corruptions and sinful dispositions which were in the men before and thereby do increase them and by this means it becomes a curse to the man though it be a blessing to the people of God There is a double curse that is come upon all things by the fall 1 They are all of them empty and deceiving 2 They are all of them corrupting and defiling this is the curse that is come upon all the Creatures 1 They do a man no good for they are vanity though a man looks for profit by them yet they profit not Eccles 1.14 and that is one part of the curse that comes on the Law in respect of men that a man shall receive no good by it it shall be but an empty word and it does fall upon a man as rain upon the Wilderness it has laboured in vain as even Christ himself says My work is with the Lord but in vain to the people for they received no good by it but they have sown the wind it is spoken of all their religious services Hos 7.7 they were empty and unprofitable and would do them no good at the last day bring them in no more harvest than a man might expect that did sow but the wind And in Jeremy 't is said They shall not profit this people at all for there is a vanity in Ordinances as well as in Creatures and the staff of the bread of life may be taken away even then when our bread it self may continue c. 2 They are polluting for though all the Creatures can do a man no good yet they can do him much hurt and add to the defilement of his spirit and draw out his sins and ripen them and fill up his measure they can ripen the briers and thorns Heb. 6. and this was all the fruit that many of the Jews had by the Ministery of
of his native soil as they do that plant Colonies from one Country to another and such a Translation is here meant that whereas before a man was under the Kingdom of Satan and the condemnation and dominion of death now his state is changed that is by the change of his Covenant and he is translated or transported into the Kingdom of Righteousness and Holiness This is the Translation that is here meant a change of a mans state through the change of his Covenant upon which follows the change of his image and the change of his nature also A man is translated into it 1 As a Kingdom of Righteousness by the change of his Covenant 2 As a Kingdom of Holiness by the change of his Image Doct. All those that are in Christ have a change of their state they are translated out of their former Covenant Here are two things to be spoken to 1 That the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant 2 The necessity of such a change and the reasons and grounds thereof Rom. 11.24 § 2. First the Scripture does speak of such a Translation or change of Covenant Says the Apostle Rom. 11.24 For if thou wert cut out of the Olive-tree which is wild by nature and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good Olive-tree how much more shall these which be the natural branches c. Abraham is called the root because after a sort the Covenant began in him and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful and all that grew by nature upon this root they were the children of God and the natural branches unto whom the sap and sweetness and fatness of the true Church all the Promises and Priviledges of the Covenant of Grace did belong and those that were truly under this Covenant they were not broken off but some of them that were under it by profession only they were for their sins in judgment broken off and the Gentiles that were wild Olives strangers to Abraham's Faith and Covenant they were grafted in that is taken into the Covenant of Abraham which is the root upon which they were ingrafted and are made partakers of all the Promises and the Priviledges of the Covenant of Abraham as if they were the natural branches Therefore here are men that are wild Olives that are ingrafted here are branches broken off that are ingrafted in again So that in Conversion there is an Ingrafting a Translation of a man from one stock to another from one root unto another and that is by changing of a mans Covenant for it is by his Covenant only that Abraham is his root c. Some indeed are ingrafted only by an outward profession some by inward implantation into the inward and spiritual part some into the outward priviledges of the Covenant only but some partake of the sweetness and fatness of the true Olive-tree Joh. 5.24 c. Christ says He that believes in him that sent me shall never come into judgment but is parted from death to life The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a passage from one place to another And Joh. 3.14 He is passed from death to life There is a twofold state of death and life and there is answerable a double passage a relative mutation as to a mans Covenant and a physical mutation as to his Image Rom. 7.1 2 3 The law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth the woman is bound to her husband as long as he liveth but if her husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband c. It is a dying or a being divorced from the former husband that gives her liberty All the Ancients do generally make the Law the husband from which a man being dead unto the Law is divorced and some Modern Divines as Beza and others make sin the husband as being irritated by the law but the thing is much the same and a man being ingrafted into Christ is freed from the law of the husband It is also a being redeemed and the main of our redemption lyes in it Gal. 4.5 as Christ was made under the law so we were under it now he was under it as a Covenant to fulfill the precept and to satisfie the curse and he did this that he might redeem us that were under the law in both these respects so that looking upon the law as a Covenant Christ is said to redeem us from being under it changing a mans father and his mother Mich. 7.20 Luc. 1. Gal. 4. and growing on another root and belonging to another stock as it is said Rom. 4.15 Abraham the father of us all that were before strangers unto Abraham therefore it is said to be his mercy unto Abraham and his oath unto our forefathers and Sarah the mother whereas before we were the children of Hagar All men by nature are under the law children of the bond-woman for the two Mothers are the two Covenants and so long as a man remains under the first Covenant he is the son of the bond-woman but we that believe are as Isaac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of the free-woman being discharged of the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and contrary to us which Christ took out of the way nailing it to his Cross c. This â—lotting out of Ordinances Chrysostome and Oecumenius understand not only of the Ceremonial Law given by Moses but also of the Moral Law and the Law of the forbidden fruit given to Adam c. and so Zanchy and others c. Though some other late Divines will understand it of the Ceremonial Law only which I conceive it cannot be because it is spoken for the consolation of the Gentiles that they were delivered from this hand-writing of Ordinances under which they never were So that this change of Covenant is in Scripture set forth by being cut off from the former root and ingrafted into another a change or passage from a mans former state a being dead to a former husband a redemption from a former bondage an alliance to another father and having a bond cancelled that was against a man by its exacting and condemning power SECT II. The necessity of a Translation from the first Covenant 1. THE necessity of this Translation is manifested several ways 1. From the nature of the Covenant as it is broken and mans misery under it for the Covenant in self is unchangeable and eternal as well as the Covenant of Grace and it says for ever This do and thou shalt live it still says Gal. 4.4 5. Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them the soul that sins shall die And to establish it Christ was made under the Law that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and what the Law saith it saith unto them that are under the Law still So that while men continue under it their
to the terms of the same Covenant and these are the grounds why the way of Translation must be a way of Union SECT III. What the difference in a mans state before and after his Translation is Q. 3. WHat is the difference in a mans state before and after his translation How is a a mans condition changed from what it was before 1. His state is changed in Gods account and the Lord looks upon him no more as the Son of Adam and as growing upon the old root though God has in his eternal Purpose chosen his elect in Christ and given them to him before the world began yet they are not actually in him according to the rules of the word till they be converted and ingrafted into him and therefore they as well as others are dead in trespasses and sins and are without God and without Christ in the World Rom. 4.16 Gal. 4. But being once converted Abraham is their Father and Sarah is their Mother and they are Children of the bondwoman no more 2. Being in Christ and their Covenant changed they are under the Law and the rigour of it no more For that requires perfect holiness to justification and life in a mans own person Rom. 10.5 Rom. 5.16 17. The righteousness that is of the Law saith This do and thou shalt live And therefore it 's said By the offence of one man death reigned and not only so but it 's also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one offence But now faith is imputed unto a man for righteousness not of him that works but of him that believes in him that justifies the ungodly 3. Before he was under the Curse of the Law and the condemnation of it For the Law says Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book But now Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ there is a Supersedeas for the Curse Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us 4. Before he had right to no promise to no blessing by promise but now he is become an heir of Promise Gal. 4.28 We as Isaac are children of the promise c. There is a double right unto blessings there is a right of providence and of promise a jus politicum a jus evangelicum a publick and evangelick right An unregenerate man may have a right of Providence to Blessings but it is only a man in Christ that has a right of Promise and though he possesseth nothing yet he has a jus haereditarum an hereditary right hereditary to all things All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.22 5. A mans covenant being changed God is reconciled for the Covenant is a Covenant of reconciliation so that the Lord does look on him as an enemy no more A man stands in no relation unto God before his Covenant is changed but as he is Gods creature but when there is a translation out of the first Covenant into the second a man is said to be in God and to dwell in God and God in him God is now Christs Father and our Father his God and our God whereas before they were enemies to God 1 Thes 1 1. Joh. 4.16 2 Cor. 6.16 and God to them 6. A mans Covenant being changed his sufferings and services are accepted as being Christs for Joh. 15.5 it is fruit in him and born by vertue of Union with him that only is accepted of God Gal. 2.20 says Paul Nevertheless not I but Christ liveth in me Hos 14.8 Our sins indeed are our own but all our duties are his because they are done by vertue of Union with him and all that is done by us is tendred unto God as his Rev. 8.3 And as his passive obedience after a sort is said not to be full till all the obedience of the Saints is filled up Col. 1.24 so it may be said of his active obedience also and all our sufferings are Christs Gal. 6.7 Heb. 13.13 7. All things work together for good unto him whose Covenant is changed Rom. 8.28 Whereas to a man under the first Covenant God does watch over him for evil and every thing proves but an execution of the curse of his Covenant his blessings become curses according to the threatning I will curse your blessings his Table is made a snare and the Ordinances of God are cursed to him and he is cursed in every thing that he puts his hand â—nto but to a man in Christ not only all the blessings but even what is in it self a curse is â—lessed to him death is yours as well as life 8. Sin has no condemning power in a man in Christ though it 's true sin remains in him 1 Cor. 3. â—hich is in its own nature damnable that is it does deserve damnation yet it can never infer â—â—mnation it can never bring it upon a man 1 Joh. 5.12 because he that is in Christ is passed from death 〈◊〉 life 9. A man is brought into a state of communion with God for all communion is grounâ—ed on union There can be no communion with God till a man receives the Spirit of God for regenerate and unregenerate men are of another Generation and there is no more a principle of fellowship with God in a man before conversion than there is in a beast to have â—â—llowship with a man natural parts and natural conscience cannot do it if we believe we â—â—ve fellowship with the father and not else 1 Joh. 1.3 10. A man then becomes one with all the Saints and of the same body with them Ephes â— 10 There is a gathering together under one head and being a member of the Church of â—he first-born whose names are written in Heaven for from the head all the members are â—tly formed and bound up in the bundle of the living SECT IV. The APPLICATION Vse 1 1. IF the way of Translation be by Union then labour for Union with Christ and be not satisfied with any thing else Truly the state of Grace does not lie in the change of a mans opinion or the change of his actions simply but in the change of a mans Covenant and his Image and the foundation of both are laid in a mans union this was the Apostles great aim to be found in him Phil. 3.7 8. For as the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine neither can you except you abide in me for without me or separated from me â—ou can do nothing And without this all a mans Religion is worth nothing before God Joh. 15.4 5. Here I will shew what is the ordinary and usual way of Vnion and what a man must or â—an do towards his own Vnion I will not now enter upon the grand controversie about â—ur preparatory works unto Faith and Union which is insisted upon from that Scripture Making ready a
under the sense â—reaking the Law The Law holds a man under this conviction and self condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a man cannot 〈◊〉 off from it that a man shall say with David Psal 51. My sin is ever before me And 〈◊〉 3.2 3. here we are all compared unto prisoners I am shut up under the Law it is my 〈◊〉 and if that be not enough to manifest that our bondage under it is sure and there 〈◊〉 way to escape he says we have a garrison to attend us as the word signifies 1 Pet. 1.5 the same â—â—d is used of Gods keeping of us to salvation So that the soul is kept under by it and alâ—â—â—s poring upon its misery and cannot look off it it is shut up under it and this is meant â—he spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word in the Greek is used partly for the Holy Ghost self and partly for the inward dispositions that it works in the hearts of men as a spirit â—â—ve and fear and joy that is such a temper and frame of soul wrought by the Holy â—â—â—ft and foâ—t is the Spirit of God by the Law working upon a man such a frame of heart â—â—â—r of sorrow or fear Hos 4.12 A spirit of whoredom is in the middle of them c. â—â—s they were bent to backsliding So when a man cannot cast off his fears and the bondage 〈◊〉 own heart then a man is said to be under a spirit of bondage and a spirit of fear and â—â—â—e sinners are all their life long by fits Heb. 2.15 The soul of man desires nothing 〈◊〉 than the pleasure of sin and peace in it and therefore it does as a Deer when it is wâ—â—â—ded it runs and leaps and does all that possibly it can but haeret lateri lethalis aerundo â—â—â—â—â—rtal arrow sticks in the side A man runs to the pleasures of sin to his old companions as â—â—re to King Jareb for help and if that will not do then he runs to Duties and the man â—â—ys and crys and all will not heal the man and he cannot cast the sight of his sin behind back and it is as gastly and as unwelcome even as Hell it self A man is under Conviction 〈◊〉 a wild Bull in a Net full of the fury of the Lord and he beats every way but the â—â—e he strives the more he is ensnared till at last his soul lyes down under the apprehensiâ—â— of it and does possess the sins of his youth Joh 13.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the thoughts of a mans heart called the possessions of his heart for all that a man does possess is by thoughts and that 〈◊〉 which a mans thoughts dwell most that a man is said to possess most Job 17.11 Now the man crys 〈◊〉 What fruit have I now in those things whereof I am ashamed Oh wretched man that I 〈◊〉 who shall deliver me from the body of this death And his soul lyes down in his shame and â—â—ths and abhors himself continually is afraid at the shaking of a leaf expects daily when â—â—e instrument and messenger of vengeance shall come for him and Job 31. His life draws â—â—er to the destroyers and he doth seem to smell the savour of death and of unquenchable fire Lex est carcer spiritualls verè infernus Luth. â—â—d his soul is continually filled with horrour and amazement the terrors of the Almighty set him round about he is so fast in prison that he cannot get forth he is under the wrath 〈◊〉 God as Christ is said to be in prison and David so speaks of himself also § 4. Now how doth the Law in all this advance the ends of the Gospel how is it as â—agar added because of transgression 1. It prepares the soul and the Spirit thereby works those qualifications required to be 〈◊〉 the soul that comes to Christ for Christ will not come into an unprepared soul his subâ—â—cts are a people prepared for the Lord. He sent John Baptist before to prepare his way for there are valleys to be filled Mat. 11. and there are mountains to be laid low Come all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you take my yoke having had experience of the iron yoke of sin 2. The Law prepares the soul by making the opinion of a mans own righteousness die and letting him see a perishing need of Christ Phil. 3. that what was before gain he may now count loss therefore there is hereby wrought in the soul a longing for Christ and an instinct of Union with him the Law is as the avenger of blood unless it did pursue many men would never regard to fly to the city of refuge 3. It will make the Grace of God the more glorious and the blood of Christ the more orient and Salvation the more acceptable when in such a time of extremity the Lord brought light out of darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 and then a man says I thank my God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And therefore there be several dispensations of God some have less of those breakings by the hammer of the Law than others have for the Lord is a free agent but there are no men in the world that prize Christ and exalt his righteousness and relie more upon his Grace 1 Tim. 1.13 14. than they do that have lain under most of these breakings and have been longest in this wilderness 4. It makes a man fear sin ever after that which he hath had so great a smart for when he was under the hammer of the Law Psal 85.8 he will speak peace to his people and to his Saints but let them not turn again to folly Hos 3. ult When a man shall remember the bitterness of his spirit in times past and call to mind the gall and the wormwood then sin is loathed by him David commits Adultery no more Paul Persecutes no more Peter denies Christ no more c. 5. It makes a man pliable to do whatever God would have him Lord what wilt thou have me to do A little child shall lead them Isa 11.6 Disobedience is grounded in pride My soul shall weep in secret for your pride Jer. 13.17 And there is nothing breaks a mans pride and make a man walk more humbly with God than this does Mic. 6.8 6. This makes a man to set a high price upon the spirit of Adoption that enables him to cry Abba father after he has had experience of a spirit of bondage The bread in his fathers house had never been so pleasant to the Prodigal had he not been in want and tasted husks Heaven is never so sweet as it will be after the trials of this life when men have comâ— out of great tribulation and made their garments white in the blood of the Lamb then to be gathered into Abrahams bosom it is much the sweeter to rest from
in all things written in the book of the Law to do them which cannot be meant of the Ceremonial Law but of the Moral Law and therefore if this Interpretation could stand the answer were easie that the subserviency of the Ceremonial Law was to end when the seed came and yet the Moral the copy of the first Covenant was still to remain and might be a servant to the Gospel and Gospel-ends but it must be understood of the Moral and that was the Law that was added till the seed came 2. Some by the Law understand the whole Pedagogy of Moses in the Ceremonial Judicial and Moral Law and so Beza and Pareus that way of discovering of the mind of God under the time of the Law which was to last only till the coming of Christ the promised seed and all these were added because of transgression that the Jews might thereby be stirred up to long for Christ to come and to pray and wait for the consolation of Israel being shut up under the Law and this darker and obscurer and less spiritual administration till Faith should come that is the dispensation of the Gospel which was afterward to be revealed as it is ver 23. for though the Saints were heirs of the Promises yet they were during that administration as it were under the morning twi-light the Sun not being yet risen as Beza has it and so by the Law he understands the same that before we understood in the continuance of the Law and the Prophets untill John and makes the sense of the words to be the same 3. Some do conceive the seed to be meant primarily indeed of Christ personal but yet in the second place of Christ Mystical Christ with the whole body of Christ and the Church the promise being made unto Christ primarily being primus foederatus the second Adam and the Head and Prince of the Covenant yet so that as the first Covenant was not made with the first Adam in his person only but together with him with all his posterity in him so the Covenant is first made with Christ the second Adam but yet not with him apart from his body but with them in him and so they understand the seed to be not only Christ in himself though he be primarily meant but also Christ in his body all the faithful and then the meaning seems to be this that so long as there are any of this seed to come or to be brought into the body of Christ and to be continued and kept there so long there will be this use of the Law Reinolds the use of the Law as given for the Seed discovering sin restraining it and condemning it that they may with the greater earnestness fly to the city of refuge And as for those places Rom. 6.14 and Rom. 7. it is spoken of Adam as under the Law as a Covenant and as a Husband irritating strengthning and stirring up sin in us sin taking occasion by the Commandment for so he saith Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law as a husband stirring up sin in you and thereby bringing forth fruit unto death but under grace as pardoning and so healing corruption and subduing sin and breaking the power thereof and so you are not under the Law provoking sin and strengthning it but under Grace healing sanctifying and subduing it Gal. 5.18 As many as are led by the Spirit are not under the law irritating sin and forcibly compelling unto duty Thus a man may be freed from the Law in these evil effects of it which are but fruits of the Curse even upon the Law of God it self accidentally as it meets with a corrupt nature and yet the Law remain unto those good ends for which it was given in the hand of a Mediator for our Salvation and to advance the Grace of the Gospel Vse 1 § 4. First then it is for Instruction in several particulars 1. It shews us the great end of God in publishing the Law it was for the Saints and for their good only The Law was published by Christ he was the Law-giver of him Moses received lively Oracles Act. 7. and Heb. 12. the end and giving of the Law was in reference unto the seed to whom the promise was made As there is a double end of the Gospel so there is of the Law 1 That which was intended principally and by it self and that only was Salvation both in the Law and in the Gospel to advance the ends of the Gospel 2 There is an accidental end Intentio principalis per se that which follows not from the nature of the thing but from the evil disposition of the subject and so unto all unregenerate men the Law doth discover their sins and make them out of measure sinful doth irritate and stir up their corruptions and so doth heighten and increase them and their condemnation for them as the Gospel doth but yet we may say of the Law as Christ does of himself That he came not into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved yet by accident he did condemn the world being despised and set for the falling as well as the rising of many in Israel but the proper and principal intent of his coming was salvation and not damnation so here I may say of the Law as it 's said of Christ had there not been some souls that Christ did intend to life he had never come into the world so had there not been a seed unto whom the Law vvas to be a servant the Lord had never given the Lavv never renevved it for there vvas condemnation enough in the vvorld before and death enough before and the vvrath of God did abound upon men the Gospel brings it not upon them but leaves them under it neither vvas it Gods intention in the Lavv to bring them under further condemnation though it does through their corruption prove so but had it not been for the seed the Lavv had never been added as a handmaid to the Gospel so that all the use of the Lavv and the discoveries of it to unregenerate men they do ovve to the Saints for it vvas for their sakes only that Christ did reveal it again to the vvorld 2. See the folly of those that cry dovvn the preaching of the Lavv it vvas published by Christ the foundation of the Gospel and the only Gospel Preacher the great Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gloss and Jerome do expound the vvord Isa 41.27 and yet the Lavv is dispensed unto the seed by and in the hand of this Mediator he that loved this seed so that he laid dovvn his life for it abased his glory and veiled his Godhead yet he did as a fruit of his love unto this seed deliver the Lavv unto them and in the days of his flesh interpreted it and vvill you slight his Love vvill you say it is
did all by Covenant and Christ dying did give Legacies that by the means of death they that are called may receive the promise of eternal Life it is a Testament confirmed by the death of the Testator Surely it shall be performed for it is a Covenant made unto Christ and if you did love him your hearts would rejoyce more in the performance of it as to Christ than unto your selves § 3. I come now unto the fourth particular in the opening of the point That is the Terms of the Covenant as they did pass between the Father and the Son and are set forth in the Scripture A Covenant is an agreement upon certain Conditions unto which two persons or parties by mutual consent do freely bind themselves So that in a Covenant properly and so in this there are four things 1 The parties that make the Covenant must be free 2 The Articles or Terms must be propounded 3 There must be a mutual free and full consent 4 By this consent they are bound each to other 1. In a Covenant the parties must be free and in their own power and therefore in Vows to God or Covenants with men if one under the power of another do Vow or Covenant it is in his power under whom he is to disannul and make it void Numb 30. 4.8 And therefore Divines do here commonly observe two things 1 The difference between a Law and a Covenant a Law being the act of a Superior that hath power over another doth bind whether the party bound thereby doth consent or no for it is an act of the Will of a superior upon one that is subject to his will but it is not so in a Covenant it doth require consent in both parties 2 They distinguish between the Covenant that passed between the first Adam and that which God made with the second Adam The Covenant made with the first Adam was such that though his consent was necessary to make it a Covenant else it had been only a command yet unto this Covenant by the right of creation he was bound to consent and consenting it was but his duty and there was a duty which lay upon him antecedente◠to consent unto that Covenant and the terms that God should propound But it was not so in the Covenant that God made with the second Adam he was free to accept of the terms of the Covenant or no when God had propounded them so that there was no duty that lay upon him anteceeding his consent So that the Covenant between God and man is not properly such a Covenant as is between God and Christ and between man and man in which each party is free and not bound to any thing but by his own consent Now 1 consider God is free and a debtor unto none God the Father who hath the first and the great hand in the Covenant and in propounding the terms thereof is debtor to none For he that is the first cause and the last end of whom all things are and to whom they are he can be debtor unto none but so God the Father is of whom are all things And that is Aquinas's rule * Deus non est debitor quia ad alia non ordinatur sed omnia adseipsum Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 Rom. 11.36 2 Christ is free and in his own power 1 If we consider him as the Son the second person with whom properly the Covenant was made for God did agree with the Son that he should take the nature of man upon him and in that nature suffer and satisfie and his very taking of mans nature was an act of obedience and duty that was due from the Son by Covenant and he did it in reference to the will and command of the Father as he did all other things either doing or suffering in that nature John 1.2 The word is God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2.7 and therefore is free even as God himself and is not bound unto any duty but by his own consent 2. If we consider Christ as man in that he was not free for he was bound unto the Law and to all the duties of it as he was a creature It 's true he having taken the nature of man was by his Covenant bound to offer that nature as a sacrifice for Gods satisfaction and for mans sanctification in that nature he was to be made sin and to bear our Curse If we do consider Christ as meer man then he was bound indeed unto the Law by right of creation as well as we but if we consider him as God and Man so we cannot say that he is bound for actiones sunt suppositorum And our Divines generally say that there is a communication of properties between the two natures so that he does offer himself by the eternal Spirit Heb. 4.14 All his actions and passions in our nature are not only humane but Divine being from him who was both God and Man and that he was no otherways bound to obey God in that nature than he was to assume the nature no Law did require that his obedience should be the obedience of God and that God should be satisfied by the blood of God and that he should suffer that did never sin this was from the Covenant of God the Father and the superabundan◠grace of God the Son And therefore when Christ saith that he received a commandment to obey it refers only to his obligation by covenant and not by any antecedent duty that he did owe his Father 2. The terms of the Covenant or Articles of agreement that did pass between the Father and the Son are contained in two things 1 Something that the Father did require of the Son 2 Something that the Father did promise the Son 1. There is a service that the Father doth propound unto the Son and that is double 1 That he should take upon him the form of a Servant The children being partakers of flesh and blood that he should take part of the same Heb. 2.14 Bernard Rom 3.26 He took not only the form of a Servant that he might be subject but also of an evil Servant that he might be beaten he was willing to take the body that the Father had prepared for him that he might be bruised by him 2 That in that nature he should perform whatever was necessary for the satisfaction of God or the sanctification of man and in all things he must be Gods servant do his will and serve his ends deny himself humble and abase himself that his Father may be exalted Isa 42.1 1. He did whatever is required unto the perfect satisfaction of God The Justice of God is twofold 1 Remunerative justice in reference unto the precept of the Law as man was a creature 2 Vindicative justice in reference to the curse of the Law as man was a sinner and he that shall give a perfect satisfaction to Justice must perform
your right Hand and pluck out your right Eye deny your selves that nothing shall be exalted in the heart but Christ and nothing must be dear to a man in comparison of Christ he must sell all to buy the Pearl Matt. 13.45 and part with it with joy not only part with a mans sins but his righteousness and priviledges and take them up by a new title as Paul he suffered the loss of all things Phil. 3.8 9. but found them all in Christ and attained them by a far better and more glorious title A man must do it as you do in Copy-holds a man must bring in his old Copy into the Court and there must be a surrender made and then you shall take it up again and have a new and a better state in it c. A man must part with sin as a snare and with self as a sacrifice and lay them all down at Christs feet he must be his utmost end that gives order and measure to all the means tending thereunto c. 3. The will of man is desperately shut against Christ and against this way of closing with him partly from a mans ungodliness because it is the highest way in which God will be honoured and partly because a man hates the terms and conditions that Christ must be received upon a man cannot give up all unto Christ sin is sweet and self is dear and the great God of the world the Idol that a man has worshipped all his life time now for a man to come and change his God it is that which the will of man is hardly brought unto and therefore Christ puts it upon the will John 5.40 You will not come to me who ever will let him come and take of the water of life freely Rev. 22. I would have gathered you but you would not The Lord does knock at this everlasting door and men bar the door against him and harden their hearts and will rather cleave to the Law and seek to patch up a broken Covenant and will venture their eternal estates upon it nay if they be convinced that there is no life to be had elsewhere they will venture to sit down in a state and way of death rather than they will come unto Christ that they may have life 4. When the Lord brings a man into the bond of Christs Covenant and he becomes an heir of Promise there is an almighty power put forth upon the will to perswade it and to open the heart to accept of Christ and to be subject unto him upon his own terms Gen. 9.27 The Lord shall perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Sem which all the rhetorick of the Angels in Heaven and Ministers the Angels upon Earth could never do none but the Spirit of Christ can open the heart it is alone in his power that has the Keys of Hell and Death Ut velimu sine nobis operatur cùm volumus nobiscum cooperatur August de Grat Lib. arb Chap. 17. Phil. 3.8 praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati giving power to the will to choose Christ and so determining a mans will upon this glorious object that a man seeing Christ to be the chiefest of ten thousands he also desires him and so by preventing grace he does work the will and by assisting grace he works the deed that a man chooses the Lord for his portion and as that which above all things he desires to injoy and place his happiness in and unto him he cleaves with full purpose of heart for ever Act. 11. 23. And thus a man looking upon Christ as the person in whom there is a Covenant and an Image laid up and seeing the glory of that Covenant and the beauty of holiness that is in that Image of both he desires to be made partaker but there is the greater excellency because the person goes with them there is an excellency in the dowry but there is more in the person the soul thus accepting of Christ and catching at the terms of the Covenant as a dying man does at any thing looks upon it as a golden Septer held forth to him by the law condemned and as the brazen Serpent exalted upon the Pole to a sin-stung soul and the heart does greedily and with all its might take hold of it as a man would do a Cord let down as the only means to pluck him out of a dungeon or to save him from drowning and perishing Now to give you some arguments to inforce this that men should take hold of Christs Covenant 1. He is given by God the Father as a Covenant to the Nations Isa 49.8 And it will prove a high act of unthankfulness not to accept of him as a gift from God their sin was much aggravated John 1.11 John 1.11 He came to his own and his own received him not a man does not receive Christ that does not take him in this manner as offered by God the Father as a Covenant our ends in taking of Christ should answer Gods ends in giving of him now God did give him as a Covenant and an Image and we should receive him for both those ends and the Lord has used all means to inforce you to it that you may lay hold of this Covenant he did so with Adam at first Adam still thought that his former Covenant continued and would have given life and therefore he still had a mind to the Tree of Life but God to let him see there was no hope by that Covenant sent an Angel there with a flaming Sword and all that man might come to Christ â—ev 2.7 who is the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of God and came in the place of the old Tree of Life and he hath taught men that by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified and that that way to Heaven is stopped and that door barr'd for ever God sets the guilt of sin and terrors of the law upon any man that would be justified by his works 2. It is Christs Covenant and therefore lay hold of it for Christ is the standard of all excellency and the more any thing relates to him or holds forth of him the more glorious it is The second Temple was more glorious than the first because of Christs presence in it and John Baptists Ministry the greatest of all that were born of women and yet the least in the Kingdom of God was greater than he and therefore to you that believe he is precious 1 Pet. 2.7 and when he shall raign over Israel and they be converted to him he shall be the glory of his people Israel How should we therefore lay hold of him and take him as worthy of all acceptation 3. Consider the glory of this Covenant 1. In it thou hast an interest in God in all the persons in Trinity for I will be thy God is the grand promise thereof Now to have the Lord for a
the greatest trials all true friends love most forsake not one another the fire burns hottest in Winter by an Antiperistasis God found Israel as Grapes in the Wilderness saw her in her blood and that was the time of love Cant. 1.13 my Love is as a bundle of Myrrh which is bitter yet he shall lye between my breasts all true love is like wild-fire the more you cast water upon it it will flame the more Cant. 8.6 Many waters cannot quench it true Lovers will bear any afflictions one for another in all their afflictions he is afflicted and when his Children are persecuted he sayes why persecutest thou me Let God saith Ambrose turn the adversaries of the Church against me and â—quench their thirst with my blood I had rather sayes Bernard men should murmur against â—me than against God The soul that loves God is willing to undergo any reproach for God and be dishonoured so God may be honoured And there is also the sweetest communion between friends opening their hearts one to another and each striving that they may exceed The Lords heart is contracted towards other men his heart is straitned he cannot discover himself to them but there is a secret of his Counsel and a secret of his providence the one is in the heart and the other upon the Tabernacle of those that are in Covenant and they pour out their whole hearts also to the Lord as Hannah did and â—ly Lord all my desires are before thee they keep nothing back and there is the fullest â—ommunication the Lord gives up all that he has unto such a soul Lev. The High-Priest was not to marry a Harlot nor a Widow and he shall inherit 〈◊〉 things I will be his God all that is in God is as truly thine for thy good as if thou hadst infinite wisdom and power and holiness in thy own hand and the soul gives up all unto God his love and his joy and fear c. for God will not marry a Harlot that hath any reserve from him but he will have all the strength of the soul the Apostle saies they gave themselves up to the Lord their bodies were the Lords Rom. 12.1 5. God and the soul know not how to live asunder tell my Beloved that I am sick of Love and as Augustin saith after the death of his friend Nebridius that he was in a streight desiring to dye because he knew not how to live by halves yet he was willing to live that his friend might not wholly dye but might yet live in part even in him And truly though relations amongst men be notions in a great measure and their affections do not answer them and fill them up yet with God they are not so but there is something still that fully answers every relation wherein he stands unto you and whereas your relations here are but for the time of this life it is but till God shall part us by death relations unto the Lord are eternal and it is entring into this Covenant that does invest thee with these relations It is also to this Covenant that all the promises are annexed they do all meet as lines in this center and therefore till a man be in Covenant he is not an heir of the Promise we that believe are Abrahams seed Gal. 4. and heirs of the promise if once by entring into Abrahams Covenant you become his seed then all the promises are yours but never till then for before all the curses of the first Covenant were thy due but not any one promise of the second Covenant belongs to thee which is the Covenant under which Abraham and David and all the Saints do stand and by which they hold their happiness at this day for it is the inheritance that is by promise now there is no way to be made blessed with faithful Abraham and to attain the sure mercies of David the blessing of the new Covenant but by this for they are all fruits of the Covenant and streams that flow from this Fountain 6. and Lastly The Covenant of Grace is the last Covenant that ever God does intend to make with mankind or tender to him 't is true he did make a former Covenant and you brake it and the Lord has made a second but he will never add a third Covenant Heb. 6.18 The Lord willing to shew the immutability of his Counsel c. God doth not change his Covenant because he has sworn the oath now binds him that he cannot change yet it was the unchangeableness of his purpose that he might manifest that to be the ground why he did it by an oath that we might be assured the mind of God will never change to eternity it is by this Covenant only that he intends to bring all his Sons to glory and he will never make another therefore as I may say of Christ This is the last way Salvation that ever God will take He that believes in him shall be saved but he that believes not in him shall be damned There is no hope of another the Lord has no more Sons in his Bosom to bestow And as these be the last Ordinances and therefore in the Lords-supper you shew forth the Lords death till he come so it 's here it 's the last Covenant that ever God will make and if you do not accept of this and like the terms of it you can never have the Lord to become your God in Covenant for ever Now it will be said What should we do and what is required on our part that we should enter into Covenant with the Lord All Covenants must be by mutual consent and out of choice and election and therefore some do derive the word in Hebrew signifying a Covenant from a verb which signifies to chuse because a Covenant must be an act of choice and therefore there must be something done on our part though God offer the Covenant we must accept it and that we may do the duty on our part it 's a work of almighty power Ezec. 20.37 and I will bring you into as the word signifies I will make you to come into the bond of the Covenant Now when the Lord in this Covenant is pleased to put forth the grace of it in the day of his power there are these three things that he does work the soul to wherein our entring into Covenant doth consist answerable to these three expressions 1 Jer. 11.2 Hearken to and hear the words of the Covenant a man doth learn and generally observe the terms of the Covenant upon what terms God offers a Covenant unto him 2 That in 2 Chron. 30.8 Give the hand to the Lord which is a token and an expression of a mans free and full consent to it when he does understand it there is a mighty power inlightning the understanding and bringing about and inclining the will to consent to it 3 Joshua 24.23 Incline your hearts unto the Lord or take
obedience the condition foederis praestiti Jer. 7.12 Jer. 11.5 They must obey that God may perform Esay 54.9 10. Jer. 32.40 and how many temporal afflictions were inflicted on them And so I may say to any soul that keeps Covenant with God thy sufferings will say to thee cavendae tempestates flenda naufragia Austin de Nat. Grat. cap. 35. And thus we should take heed of keeping the Covenant or else though the Lord continue faithful in reference to the promises of eternity because Christ is the surety yet in regard of temporal promises you may go without them and many of them never be performed unto you But you will say may a man that is in the Covenant of Grace break the Covenant may the Covenant of Grace be broken as the Covenant of Works was If it may not be broken to what end do you exhort us to keep it It 's true that the Covenant of Grace cannot be broken a man that is once in Covenant is ever in Covenant and the grounds of it are these 1. The Love of God that made the Covenant is an everlasting Love and therefore the Covenant it self is every where called an everlasting Covenant and the Lord saith If you can bring another flood upon the Earth and if you can stop the Sun in his course and change the Ordinances of Heaven then the Covenant might be broken that he had made with his people Therefore Rom. 8. the Apostle saies that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord for the Lord loves us with an everlasting Love 2. It is a Covenant made with the persons of men mens persons are first taken into Covenant and there is this difference between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works in the later Covenant the works were taken into Covenant first and then the person for the works sake and so long as their works continued holy so long their persons were to be accepted and find favour and honour with the Lord Gen. 4.7 If thou doest well there is an elevation and a lifting up of the face but if thou dost evil cursed is thy person for thy works sake and there is an ira redundans in personam wrath falling on the person that doth immediately follow thereupon but now in the Covenant of Grace it is quite contrary mens persons are first taken into Covenant and accepted and then their works for their persons sake the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering and therefore till the person be in Covenant the works are abominable before God Now the works of the Saints may not always be accepted of God he may be and is often displeased with the acts of his covenant-people but yet their persons alwayes find acceptance with him their persons are the same I will visit their offences with a rod and their sins with scourges but my loving kindness I will not take from their persons my Covenant I will not break Psal 89. there is an ira simplex simple anger that doth reach to the sin but not to the person he is never a child of wrath more after his person is taken into a state of adoption with the Lord. 3. Their union with Christ is that which puts them into the second Covenant Gal. 3.29 as this union gives them interest in Christs righteousness and Sonship so it doth first state them in the Covenant which is the ground of all the rest the intendment of God was that the union between Christ and them should be the means to convey all this to their souls all comes in by Union Now so long as the Union between Christ and a soul continues so long the Covenant cannot be broken but this Union is indissoluble sin cannot nay death cannot separate between God and a soul in Covenant with him and therefore as they live so they dye in the Lord and sleep in Jesus 4. The righteousness of this Covenant is an everlasting righteousness Dan. 9. The Lord hath finished transgression and made an end of sin in the great condemning power of it and brought in everlasting righteousness such as sin could never spend for he is the son of righteousness the Lord of righteousness and therefore his Covenant can never be broken seeing the righteousness of the Covenant can never be expended 5. Christ is the surety of this better Covenant and therefore though we pay not the debt that we owe he hath undertaken it and the Lord will expect all of him and thence he is said to lay help on one that is mighty Psal 89. he will take your words no more but Christ is able to pay it as he did the debt of the first Covenant so he is able to perform the duty of the second the Lord hath ingaged him in it and he expects all from him as from the surety of the Covenant which he hath undertaken 6. Lastly This Covenant can never be broken because there is an everlasting principle of Grace begun in the Soul that doth always lay hold of the Covenant and cleave to it and consent to it and work towards it for it is incorruptible and immortal seed and therefore Jer. 32.40 This is the Covenant I will make with you I will write my law in your heart c. that you shall never depart from me In a Married condition there may be many failings in a Wife or a Husband as neglect disobedience c. but the Marriage Covenant is never broken till she take another Husband and the Covenant of Grace is a Marriage Covenant Now though there be many errors and failings in a Wife yet unless thou chuse another Husband and subject thy self to another Lord the Covenant between God and thee is not broken It is a matter of wonderful consolation that the Covenant between us and the Lord is a Covenant of salt that the sins of the people of God though they be many yet they cannot break the Covenant How should the consideration of this rich Grace and Mercy make the Saints triumph over Death and Hell O death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory blessed be God we are more than Conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord. But yet you had need be exhorted not to break this Covenant 1. By reason of the falseness of our own hearts Jer. 2.24 for we are like a wild Asse in the wilderness that doth traverse her paths that no hedges or fetters can hold her in so much that the Lord speaks it with admiration How weak is thy heart Ezek. 16.30 That it 's not able to hold out against any temptation not able to bear any one affliction but immediately it 's ready to depart from God Gen. 49.4 unstable as water there is a treachery and a perfidiousness of spirit in the best of us and therefore we had need be often called upon Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall and let us take
be like him for we shall see him as he is answerable to our vision of him such will be our conformity to him Mercies unto wicked men are suitable to their services they give to God unsanctified services and God does give them unsanctified rewards and their services are seemingly services but really sins so are the mercies that God gives them seeming blessings but really curses they are indeed blessings in the thing but as they draw out their corruptions so they are curses unto the men So Iratus dat amanti quod malè amat as Austin saies God gives it in wrath as he did to them Quails c. and though they were fed to the full yet he sends â—anness into their souls he gave them their hearts desire in wrath 5 By this Covenant you do ingage your selves that whatever God bestows in mercy you will return again in duty that you may injoy nothing apart from God but as the Lord saith of his people in Covenant they are his portion so you also say of God he is your God and as all that is in him is made over unto you so you will be his people and all that is in you shall be made over unto him and should be laid out or laid down for him and you shall resign to him whatever he shall call for and this is for a man to hate Father and Mother and his own life and acknowledge as David did of thine own have we given thee God gave it unto them and they do return it willingly unto God again that which is a Samuel asked of God shall be also lent unto the Lord and the soul never desires or expects good from any mercy from which God hath no glory for a man is a servant to God and it is all the Master 's that the servant hath of gains as the Law saith Cant. 8.11 Servi sunt res Domini quicquid acquirunt acquirunt domino c. Solomon had a Vineyard and he let it out to keepers and he expected the fruits thereof even a thousand pieces of Silver and of the Husbandmen to whom the Vineyard was committed the Lord expected fruits c. a soul is never so well pleased as when it brings forth fruit for God and lays out his strength to the uttermost that he may bring in a revenue of glory to the Lord his God 6 When all the duties of the Covenant are performed by us in the fittest time and in the highest and the best manner 1 In the fittest time as the Lord takes the fittest time to show us mercy so should we also take the fittest time to perform our duty to him and it 's a great matter to know the season there is an accepted time there is a day of salvation 2 And also we must perform it in the highest manner as David said It is for the Lord and therefore the house must be magnificent this have I done out of my poverty though he offered the wealth of a kingdom And the Lord says to Israel Wouldest thou offer this to thy prince I am a great king God expects we should perform all our duties with that reverence and exactness as we do when we offer any gift or present to a Ruler over us 2. We are to improve the Covenant in reference unto God for the obtaining all the mercies of the Covenant because therein the Lord hath in faithfulness ingaged himself Debita reddit nulli debens c. God pays debts and yet is debtor to none but to his own faithfulness So do they Isa 63.18 19. The Lord was departed and had sold them into the hand of strangers and they possessed their Land they pray Return for thy servants sake the tribes of thy inheritance the people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while we are thine thou never barest rule over them and thy name was never called upon them they were never a people whom thou tookest into Covenant as thou hast done unto us And so Isa 63.9 Be not wroth very sore nor remember our iniquity for ever behold I beseech thee we are all thy people Jer. 14.8 9. O thou the hope of Israel the saviour thereof in the time of trouble why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land why shouldest thou be as a man astonished as a mighty man that cannot save if thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name Thy name is called upon us we are thy people in Covenant The Lords portion the lot of his inheritance for God is always mindful of his Covenant and in pursuance thereof he doth whatever he doth in the world if he give Christ it is with respect to the Covenant he hath raised up an horn of salvation Luk. 1.72 that is a strong and powerful Saviour for he has laid help upon one that is mighty And all is that he might perform his Covenant unto our fathers and to remember his holy Covenant Christ and all the mercies by him which are given to us are a fruit of the Covenant that was made with Christ before the world was Lev. 26.41 42. if their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they accept the punishment of their iniquity then will I remember my Covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham and I will remember the land Now How should a man improve his Covenant in reference unto God 1. Consider rightly the latitude of Covenant mercies and the greatness of them for it is in this Covenant that all your salvation lies that your hearts may be carried out answerable to the vastness of the loving-kindness of God and that no mercy of the Covenant may be left unconsidered and untasted of but that you may have a taste that the Lord is gracious in every one of them and that a man may see that it is the weakness of his heart and the lowness of his spirit that he doth not press towards them all for the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.9 He labours whether present or absent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ambitious c. habet sapientia sui generis superbiam and therefore a godly man is not willing to leave out any thing either of the graces or the priviledges of the Covenant for they are Covenant mercies that are the precious mercies of your lives the flower of all the mercies of a mans life it is therefore said to be a Covenant stablished upon better promises the first Covenant did promise life for ever in Heaven as it did threaten death for ever in Hell but yet there are better promises as he said Est aliud in Christo formosius salvatore There is something in Christ more beautiful than a Saviour so there is something in the Covenant that is better than Heaven 1 The Lord hath made over himself to us in this Covenant He is not ashamed to be called our God to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee
Creature or as a Son for now he is not the Creature that God made him your spot is not the spot of his children for you bear not his Image or Similitude Now in the second Covenant the Soul has his relation unto God and propriety in God that was his happiness in his Creation and if ever he be made happy again his propriety unto God must be restored Therefore that is the purpose and intendment in the Second Covenant to restore that which is lost by the breach of the first Covenant and our great loss by the Fall was the loss of God and a propriety in him though we also lost the Creatures and forfeited our lives and souls lost our selves yet our great loss was the loss of God and if the Lord should have restored unto Man the inheritance of the Creatures again yet all this would never have repaired his loss unless he had found out a way for to make over himself again 2. Without this the Creature could never be happy for wherein doth happiness consist but in these two things There must be Proportion and Propriety a good that must fill up all the desires of the Soul and a man must have an interest in it Now if the Lord should give a man all the Creatures they are not a proportionable good because they are finite and they are without Propriety in them they are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proper good it will be therefore another mans and may remain unto another And though it is true that God is a proportionable good as he is also unto all even the Devils and damned Spirits so as to make them happy for he is an infinite good yet they cannot be made happy by him because they have no propriety in him these two must concur to the happiness of the Creature Now if when Man had fallen God should have restored him unto his Inheritance in the Creatures again yet they could never have made him happy because they wanted these two ingredients his happiness therefore consists mainly radically and fundamentally in his personal interest and propriety and there was no way left to make him happy the former way being made void but by a free and a gracious promise God by Covenant and Gift made himself freely over to him that is all the persons in the Trinity unto the Creature for his happiness and therefore we may see that was the great intendment in the Gospel of Grace for that which is ultimum in executione last in execution is primum in intentione first in intention The highest happiness of Man in Glory is the injoyment of God when God is all in all to him and the full fruition of Christ and the Spirit for therein is the last and great accomplishment of all these personal promises as we shall see afterwards now in this consisting the happiness of man this was the great and first intendment of the Gospel to make over God to him in all the persons for his highest advancement and perfection 3. These Promises are the grounds of our Union with all the persons in the Trinity That there is such a Union between Christ and the Soul is plain and that it is not only unto Christ as Man but unto Christ as God-man and there is a Union that we have after a sort therefore with the Godhead of Christ and there is a Union with the Spirit which also is clear 1 Corinth 6.17 He that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit and by this means there is a Union also with the Father John 17.21 I would that they might be one as we are one not only one in themselves but one with us after a resemblance of that unspeakable Union that is between the Father and the Son and therefore God is said to dwell in us 2 Corinth 6.16 we are said to dwell in him 1 Joh. 4.16 the Church is said to be in God and the Faithful to be in Christ Jesus 1 Thess 1. and to work in God John 3.21 most of their works are wrought in God and this Union is begun in this Life and so far as it is wanting so far is the Creature imperfect it 's the perfection of this Union in Heaven that is the full happiness and perfection of the Creature and it 's by vertue of these promises that this Union between God and the Creature is begun and Heaven that is the perfection of this Union is nothing else but the accomplishment of these promises the Promise in the fulness of it makes Heaven 4. It is in this Union that the foundation is laid of all Communion Communion is properly of persons though it be in things Men can with things have no fellowship this must be properly between persons 1 Joh. 1.3 Our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ and there is a fellowship of the Spirit also now all fellowship is grounded in Union and the very Communion of Saints that they have with all the persons doth prove that they have a Union with them also Now it 's an interest you see in the person that 's the ground of fellowship as the Covenant of Grace is a Covenant of Friendship and it 's likened to a Marriage Covenant Now all matrimonial Communion is grounded upon the interest that they have in the person each of other so that the Husband is not his own and the Wife is not her own they have by their own consent freely made over the interest and propriety of themselves unto each other that now they are not at their own dispose wthout the mutual consent each of other and so it 's in this also it 's our Union with the person that is the ground of our Communion and all our personal interest in any of the persons is grounded upon these personal promises by which the persons are made over to the Saints and it is in these personal promises that the Glory of the second Covenant does consist it 's said to be established upon better promises Hebr. 8. The first Covenant did promise Life and Happiness which could not be without God and the injoyment of God for the Life promised must be answerable to the death threatned which is an eternal separation from God and from all Communion with him in Hell therefore the Life promised must be a fruition of God in all ways of Communion in Heaven But yet there is something more in these particular promises of the Gospel Covenant 1. It 's true that Adam had a personal interest in God but yet not such an interest as the Saints now have for the Lord was a God to Adam to reward him persevering in ways of obedience here and to be himself his reward in Heaven but it was but while he continued in ways of obedience God was not made over to him therefore he did not say I will make over to thee my Mercy to pardon thee if thou sinnest and my Grace
Esau who did despise the birth-bright Heb. 12. and partly that the soul understanding it may receive satisfaction and see an all-sufficiency in it Aristotle for godliness hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-sufficience going with it as it is 1 Tim. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect good seems to be self-sufficient and for this cause the Apostle prays for a spirit of illumination Eph. 1.18 That the eyes of their understanding being opened they might know what is the hope of their calling and the riches of this inheritance which God has prepared for the Saints that God whose are all things and of whom are all things yet his portion is his people they are of all people his peculiar treasure and what a glorious inheritance the Lord has chosen to himself in them making up one glorious body with the Lord Jesus Christ Now if it be necessary the eyes of our understanding should be enlightned to know the glory of Gods inheritance in us how much more the glory of our inheritance in Gods attributes that the soul may be able to rejoyce in the goodness of the Lord and say Thou art my portion says my soul that as Calvin observes upon that place Zac. 9.12 Satis praesidii in uno Deo There 's safeguard enough in one God so it may be said of all things else there is wisdom enough and holiness enough and all to be had in him and it is enough if it be in him alone There is a threefold inheritance that Christ hath stated upon his people for Christ is heir of all things 1 by Nature and Generation 2 by Donation as he was man now the first belongs unto him alone and he cannot communicate it and the other he doth impart unto us as we are one body with him and as we partake with him in the same Sonship so we do also in his inheritance Eph. 1.14 and this inheritance of Christ the Saints have a treble benefit by 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is the Heir of all things we have by him an inheritance of creatures as Christ is God he comes not under an act of Gods will and therefore it 's spoken of him as he was Mediator 2 He has an inheritance of promises for they are all made first unto him Gal. 3.16 2 Cor. 1.20 to him were the promises made not of seeds as of many but as of one who is Christ and therefore it 's in him that all the promises are Yea and Amen as we were chosen in him he was first elected and we in him so the promises were first Yea and then Amen in him and by virtue of our union with him unto us 3 There is a higher inheritance and that is Psal 16.5 that the Lord is the portion of Christ The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup Psal 45.7 c. Answerable unto this is the inheritance that Christ has made over unto the Saints who as they are fellows with him in his Unction so they are Coheirs with him in his Inheritance Rom. 8.17 as they have an inheritance in creatures for all all things are yours whether life or death and also in promises 1 Cor. 3.22 which is beyond what they have in any of the creatures so they have an inheritance that is far beyond both these and that is in God himself Rev. 21.7 He shall inherit all things I will be his God Heb. 6.12 Now if we consider it we shall see that there are great riches in this to have all the attributes of God theirs is greater than to have all the creatures and the promises of God made over to them 1. The Attributes of God are nothing else but the transcendent perfections that are in God the Divine Nature shadowed forth to us according to the capacity of the creatures in which the Lord as in his back parts that is pro nostro modulo according to our capacity makes known himself unto us and causes his goodness to pass before us and if the Lord would take any soul of us as he did Moses and in this manner discover himself there is nothing in the world would affect the soul like unto it for if these be the perfections of God how infinitely must they needs exceed all things that are in the creatures for they are all in him after the manner of a God and therefore all the attributes may be predicated of God in abstracto he is Wisdom and Holiness and Mercy c. because they are all of them the Divine Nature all the excellencies that are in the creature are received from him and therefore surely there is infinite more in himself Thence the Saints have been more taken with the Divine Excellencies that are in the Nature of God immediately than in all the blessings and benefits that come from him 1 Sam. 2.2 as Hanna after the blessing she had received from him she admires his goodness and the excellency that is in him there is none holy as the Lord and who is a Rock save our God and if the Saints did not do so their love were not of a right kind Austin plus diligere attractum quà m sponsum meretricius amor to love the token more than the bridegroom is adulterous love 2. This is the foundation of all our interest and all the comfort of it either in creatures or in promises How comes it to pass that all things are yours and promises yours c. but because the Lord is our God and therefore it 's brought in as the foundation of all blessedness having spoken of all creature-comforts in the highest he adds this Psal 144. Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. There is a blessedness therein without the creatures and the only foundation of blessedness in the creatures lyes in this 1 In creatures consider this is the difference between the portions of godly men and wicked men they may both possess the same thing but with a different temper and the one has only a title unto creatures as a gift of God but the other as he has a title unto God the one has them by a single and the other by a double title and so a little that the righteous has is better than great riches of many wicked because he has all that he has conveyed unto him from his interest in God as the Original thereof 2 In promises it 's true that their inheritance in them is very glorious far beyond that of Adam in Paradise but yet the foundation of all the promises is an attribute and they must all lead the soul unto God and his interest in him that did promise for Faithful is he that has promised and he will also do it There is a promise of pardon of sin but still it is to be resolved into an attribute 1 Joh. 2.1 He is faithful
have Gods inheritance is in them Eph. 1.18 and theirs is chiefly in God therefore Heaven is called the Kingdom of the Father in this life it is the Kingdom of Christ There is a progress and a regress of this Kingdom it is from the Father and returns unto the Father again 8. Christs great comfort in departing this life was that he should go to the Father If you loved me you would rejoyce Joh. 20.17 Joh. 14.28 Luk. 23.46 because I go to the Father this would make the thoughts of death sweet and the thoughts of Eternity desirable Christ at his death resigns his soul into the Fathers hand the people of God in this world are as it were orphans but they have a Father in Heaven and who would not make haste to him for your happiness and your home is in your fathers house Joh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions and Christ is gone before to prepare a place for you 1 Joh. 3.1 2. Now we are the sons of God but it appears not what we shall be that is adoptionis fructus nondum apparet It 's in our Fathers house that our portion is laid up therefore long for the adoption even the redemption of your bodies and in the mean while keep the truths that you have heard that you may continue in the Son and in the Father 1 Joh. 2 2◠2 Joh. 9. that you may have both the Father and the Son abide in their favour and their fellowship having once attained it keep the commandments of the Father and abide in his love as Christ the Son did Joh. 15.10 and the day will come that thou shalt shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of thy Father Concerning the relations of the Father under the second Covenant we are to take this general rule that in the same relation that he stands unto Christ in the same according to our place and station he stands unto us yet so as Christ in all things is to have the preheminence for that in all things must be reserved unto him Col. 1.18 and the ground of this rule is from that Joh. 20.17 I ascend unto my Father and your Father my God and your God This benefit the Saints have by their union with the Lord Jesus Christ that they not only stand in many sweet and comfortable relations unto him but through him in their own sphere they stand in the same relation unto God the Father together with him § 2. The second relation of the Father unto Christ is that he is Christs King and his Lord 1 Cor. 11.3 The head of Christ is God the head of every man is Christ 1 Cor. 11.3 and the head of the woman is the man It 's not spoken of Christ ratione naturae in regard of his nature for he is God equal with the Father and he counts his equality no robbery he takes but what is his own but ratione oeconomiae in respect of his office that he has undertaken by the appointment of the Father Now how is the Father the head of Christ as Christ is the head of the Church and the man of the woman that is in respect of the guidance and government he has over us and so Christ is the Churches head is called the Churches King and it is usual in the Hebrew to call Princes heads of the people Num. 14.4 Let us make us a head and return into Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prince a ruler Judg. 11.8 They said unto Jephtath Be thou our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead be thou our King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hos 1.11 it 's spoken of the conversion of the Jews after they were called Loammi and therefore it 's not yet come they shall appoint unto themselves one head Ezech. 37.24 David my servant shall be King over them and David my servant shall be their Prince for ever it 's spoken of their chusing Christ to be their King and their glory in the day when the Lord shall raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen down So here by Head is meant that the Father is Christs King and he doth rule him as a King in the whole work of his Mediatorship and he is Christs Lord so he himself doth call him Psal 16.2 It 's the speech of Christ as appears by the whole Psalm and he saith unto Jehovah Thou art my Lord Adonai Now in this relation the Father also stands to all those that are Saints and members of Christ he is their Lord and their King also Mat. 22.1 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king that made a marriage for his son God the Father is the King Mat. 22.1 Christ the Son is the Bridegroom the Elect of God is the Spouse the Lambs wife their marriage is their union with Christ and the marriage-feast are the Ordinances unto which the guests were by his servants invited and of how great consequence this is we shall see in the person of Christ himself as God the Father is his Lord and King 1 He doth give unto Christ a Law as he is his Lord and King for God the Father is the great Law-giver Christ doth nothing but as the Fathers subject and in obedience unto him so Esay 42.1 he is called but the Fathers servant and he does only the Fathers business Luk. 2.49 and he receives a Law from him Joh. 10.18 This commandment have I received of my Father this law is in the middle of my bowels and it was a law commanding him to lay down his life for his people and so do the Saints for Christ is God the Fathers King Psal 2.1 1 Because he receives his government from him he it was that did anoint him and set him up he did receive his Kingdom from the Ancient of days Dan. 7.14 2 He hath from him the laws and rules of his government for he says I came not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me therefore all the laws that he gives they are no other than those he has received from the Father 3 For the ends of his government they are also prescribed him For I seek not mine own glory but the glory of him that sent me Now it 's a happiness for any people to have a wise and a righteous Law-giver and this is a comfort and an honour to the Saints that they have Christ their King and the law that he has given them is a royal Law Jam. 2.8 much more should the Saints rejoyce in this that he that is Christs King and Lord is their Lord also and he that is Christs Law-giver is also theirs the subjection of the Angels should be enough unto a man that he should be brought into subjection but much more we should be content to receive the law at his mouth and rejoyce in it when he is unto Christ himself a Lord and a Law-giver 2 As he is King and Lord
quicken those that are dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.5 they are made alive unto God 3 There is a death in sorrow and under misery as the Jews were in their Captivity they were dry bones dead and their restoring of peace and comfort was a resurrection from the dead Ezech. 37.12 and so Heman is free amongst the dead as they that are wounded and lye in the grave c. and in opposition thereunto there is a life of consolation 1 Thess 3.8 1 Thess 3.8 Now we live if you stand fast in the Lord that is this will be one of the greatest comforts of our lives our happiness our glory and crown of rejoycing c. Rom. 7.9 Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the law once alive in performances and alive in presumption alive in comforts alive in confidences and that is the meaning of Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his faith Hab. 2.4 and in the same sense it is used Heb. 10.38 He that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.38 now the just shall live by his faith There is a double sense of these words 1 In matter of Justification Gal. 3.11 No man is justified by the law it is evident for the just shall live by faith 2 In matter of consolation in any affliction and so faith doth not only make a man live keep body and soul together but it makes a man live a comfortable and a chearful life also non est vivere sed valere vita c. 4 There is a death eternal which is an everlasting separation from the vision and fruition of God who is the fountain of life and so we read of the second death and so there is a life of glory Joh 3.36 He that believes not in the Son of God shall not see life but the wrath of God abides upon him and Heaven is commonly in the Scripture called everlasting life c. Now in all these respects the Son lives by the living Father and they that are one with him do live by him 1. Christ as Mediator receives from the living Father a life of justification he was made under the Law and under the curse 2 Cor. 5.21 it pleased the Father to make all our sins meet upon him he did bear the sins of many he did appear the first time of his coming into the world loaden with transgression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he shall appear the second time without sin Heb. 9.28 and this was by the Fathers imputation Hostilem incursum designat c. and his voluntary susception but when he arose from the dead he is acquitted by God the Father and therefore is said to be justified in the Spirit i. e. by his own Godhead and 1 Pet. 3.18 he is said to be quickned by the Spirit that is he raised up himself by the power of his own Godhead so being raised he is justified that is he is acquitted from the guilt of all the sins that he did before lye under and so he is taken from prison he did not break prison but he was released and had a fair discharge and the judgment that was past upon him he was absolved from Isa 53.8 Now as the sentence of his condemnation came forth from the Father so must also his justification and as he says Joh. 16.10 Ye see me no more to note that his death should fully satisfie and his sacrifice be perfectly offered as for other Priests they came often to present their Sacrifices which were imperfect and the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin off the sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. He received from the living Father a life of holiness and sanctification Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell What fulness is here meant Plenitudo gratiae habitualis an habitual fulness of grace Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we have all received grace for grace as he was anointed by the Father he received not the Spirit by measure Joh. 3.34 for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him It 's true that grace in the humane nature of Christ which is the subject of habitual grace is not infinite for that only belongs to the Holiness of God but yet there is all fulness in it because it 's laid up in him that he might dispence it and there is a sufficiency and there are supplies of the Spirit for all the Saints and therefore he is called Dan. 9.24 The most holy Dan. 9.24 or holiness of holinesses the humane nature is capable of more grace and therefore of greater glory by reason of its personal union than all the creatures in Heaven and Earth either men or Angels for he is the Son of Righteousness 3. He received from the living Father a life of consolation It 's true if we look to his condition amongst the creatures so he was a man of sorrows but if we respect his communion with the Father and the fulness of the consolation of the Spirit for where the Spirit is truly a Spirit of Sanctification there also he is in perfection a Spirit of Consolation so he is said Psal 45.7 To be anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows his blessed Soul had experience as of greater and higher priviledges so of far greater comforts than of the creature men or Angels and though it 's true that when he bore the sins of men and the wrath of God there was substractio visionis and therefore he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as extra confortium vivere Mar. 14.33 to live without society he was to be sequestred as in a wilderness and set apart unto grief and to nothing else yet it was but for a short time for as the Sun did recover its light again so did his Spirit also and his Soul was filled with unspeakable joys as he before under-went unutterable sorrows therefore he says Joh. 15.10 I kept my Fathers commandment and abide in his love my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth c. Psal 16.11 4. He received from the living Father a life of glory Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore and therefore Rev. 3.21 Rev. 3.21 He that overcomes I will grant to sit with me upon my Throne even as I overcame and am sate down with my Father in his Throne c. Jesus Christ has a Throne on which he now sits ruling the Nations having received a Kingdom from the Ancient of days and he has a Throne in the Church a Throne is set in Heaven Rev. 4.2 and there is a more glorious Throne to be erected at the last and great day when he shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory c. but all this while Heaven is the Fathers Throne and when the works of God are
because all the fulness of Christ he doth receive it from the Father Therefore whensoever we have recourse unto Christ for righteousness holiness and comforts and see him to live by the Father in all these and when we look up unto him who is our Head and see him exalted above all Principalities and Powers and that he lives by the power of God now say Christ lives by the power and the glory of the Father and the life that I live is by the faith of the Son of God 2 As by the Father he is made the fountain of life unto us for the Father did give eternal life unto us when he laid it up in the Son therefore it is said That they killed the Prince of life Joh. 5.11 Acts 3.25 as he is the King of Righteousness and the Prince of Peace it is said Moses was a man of peace but he could not command peace in the mutinous and murmuring people but if he had been a Prince of peace he could and so Christ as a Prince of life can convey life and dispense it Rev. 22.14 We having fallen and forfeited Paradise and the Tree of Life we were secluded from it Now God the Father hath appointed another Tree of Life which is the Lord Jesus Christ and he will give unto men a right or a priviledge to eat thereof also which they were formerly shut out of So that you see it is the Father that hath given him power to quicken whom he will to have life in himself and to give eternal life to as many as believe in him SECT IV. Our Covenant-Interest in Offices Acts and Relations of the Trinity applied Vse 1 § 1. HAving finished the doctrinal part and seen how God the Father makes over himself in the Covenant of Grace to the Saints for their portion lyes in God not only in the Attributes of the nature but in an interest in the persons also and we have an interest in all the actions that the Father appropriated whether they be eternal or in time and those whether terminated in Christ immediately or in us and we have seen how we have an interest in all the personal relations of the Father that in the same relations he stands to Christ in the same he stands to us also he is his Father and our Father his God and our God he is our Father our King our Friend our Husbandman and the Fountain of our life for he hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son Now we come to apply all this to our selves and it shall be 1. for Information that so in so great a truth as this we may not be mistaken And here we are to consider 1 that a man hath interest in all the persons at once they all be given together a man hath not first an interest in the Father and then in the Son and then in the Spirit but having an interest in one he hath an interest in them all he that hath the Son hath the Father also he hath the Father and the Son Joh. 2.23 Joh. 2.9 And by this we may see what a glorious change there is in a man when he is converted and made one with Christ he hath an interest in all the Attributes of God It 's true that they do all act for him afterwards successively and according to a mans necessity at several times they work for his good sometimes an act of mercy is put forth for him sometimes an act of power sometimes wisdom sometimes patience but yet the soul comes to have an interest in them all at once and at the same time and when he is intitled to the one he is intitled to the other even to them all and so it is with the Persons also the title Believers have to them begins at once As a man hath interest in Christ the Mediator it 's true that Christ doth exercise all his Offices for his spiritual good successively and he is now to him a Priest to offer his Sacrifice and to bear his iniquity now he is a Prophet to teach him now he is a King to govern him and there are distinct acts of all these offices but yet the soul hath an interest in them all at once As it is in all grace it 's true that the graces of Gods Spirit do all of them act in their places 2 Pet. 1.5 for we are to add to our faith vertue and to our vertue knowledge c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is taken ab iis qui choros ducunt from such as lead the dance in which every one keeps his own place and acts his own part for grace brings the most glorious order into the soul that can be but yet all grace is wrought together even the whole new man is begotten at once And so for all the creatures of God it is true that they do all in their places act for the Saints the Stars in their courses do fight against Sisera but yet a man comes to have jus haereditarium an hereditary right to them all at once And this is the glory of the change at a mans first conversion which a man may admire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man that had before no interest in any Attribute of God in any person in the Godhead or any of the Offices of Christ or any grace of the Spirit or any promise of the Gospel or in any creature of God yet at once in the very same instant he comes to have a title unto all these that though all the promises be fulfilled by degrees and in their time yet the soul hath a title unto them all and that as true and as great as he shall have when he comes to Heaven 1 Cor. 13.10 11. for it is by the same title that he shall injoy Heaven for this is but our nonage and childhood yet a child hath the same title to the land his father left him as when he comes to be a man only he hath not the possession of it and so the title by which you shall injoy God for ever is begun in this life only there are two great changes you must pass through the first is conversion the second is death by the one the soul is intitled to his heavenly inheritance and by the other he is fully put into possession 2. Though the interest of Gods people begin at once in all the persons yet the Lord would have us take notice that there is a distinct interest in them all to be attained unto for the more distinct our apprehensions are the more glory we give unto God and the greater will our own comfort be God delights not in generalities neither in general confessions nor in general apprehensions or thanksgivings As it is in the Attributes of the Nature of God though a soul that hath an interest in God in Covenant hath a title to them all at once yet they are all of them as so many
but this and 't is as well as I could wish for my self though I have nothing of the things below 2 In the Saints and because their condition in this life is commonly set forth by the state of the people of Israel in Egypt let that be the instance to express it unto us when they were come out of Egypt they were in a barren and howling wilderness death did a thousand ways present it self to them and under as many shapes they had neither bread nor water nor provision nor protection but what they had from God immediately and yet having God in Covenant they had enough because they were interessed in the alsufficiency of God and therefore if they want bread he gives them Manna and if water he doth cause the Rock to yield it if protection if direction he is a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night in allusion to which the Prophet speaks Esa 4.4 5. Now we shall see this set forth by Moses who was an eye-witness of it and a Leader of the people through the wilderness Deut. 33.27 for their provision it 's true that he has a land of corn and wine and the Heavens drop down dew but it is from the fountain of Jacob it 's commonly expounded the posterity of Jacob and so haply it may be understood Qui à Jacobo instar fontis perennis ortum ducunt but there is yet a spiritual meaning in it and so Cocceius observes Fons Jacobi dicitur quòd est fons salutis Psal 68.27 The fountain of Jacob is the fountain of salvation So that all these mercies they had from him that was the Father and the Fountain of mercy he was the Fountain of Israel and for protection the eternal God is thy refuge in danger you need flye to no other Asylum but to him alone Esa 26.20 Come my people enter into your chambers and shut the door about you it is the Attributes of God and his alsufficiency that are the chambers into which the Saints are called to hide themselves and therefore it is to preserve them from dangers that if they fall at any time they may never fall to the ground for under them are the everlasting arms which notes two things 1 Potentiae sustentationem sustentation by his power 2 Gratiae amplexum the embracement of his grace he doth carry them in his arms and though they fall yet still his arms are under them and who is this that is in this manner all unto them it is he that is alsufficient he that is thy God in Covenant the God of Jeshuron for a habitation they and thy fathers wandred up and down having no setled dwelling place incertis sedibus but thou Lord Psal 90.1 hast been our habitation in all generations and when they wanted Ordinances in the Captivity they had neither Tabernacle nor Temple but he was a Sanctuary to them Ezech. 11.16 he did supply the want of publick Ordinances in himself and for their guidance and Deut. 32.10 12. The Lord alone led them and there was no strange God with him he did all by himself alone he led them and he fed them and there was none other joyned with him in the work he was alsufficient to them But to come to the reasons and grounds of all this Reas 1 1. The first and great ground of all this is his own love it was only his love that brought him into Covenant with them because the Lord loved thee and made thee to be his people it was looking upon them in the time of love and this love is the womb in which the Covenant and all the mercies of the Covenant were bred now the nature of love is bountiful nescit nimium it knows no excess The Father loved the Son Joh. 3.3 5. 2 Thess 2.16 and has given all things into his hand the Father hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace The great thing that God aims at in the second Covenant is his own glory manifestative glory now he cannot receive manifestative glory but according to the measure of love manifested unto the creature and his love therefore being the highest he must find out an expression that is suitable to the manifestation of such a love the gift must be such as may express the height and depth and breadth of his love and therefore it must be in giving the greatest blessing or else it could not have been an expression of the greatest love if there had been any thing greater or better to have been bestowed that is in point of consolation he would have given it Heb. 6.13 If there had been a greater he would have sworn by it so he doth in point of affection also if there had been a greater he would have given that gift but a greater than himself in his alsufficiency God had not to bestow 2. It was necessary from the insufficiency of all things else to supply our wants there is an insufficiency in all the creatures and therefore a continual restlesness in the soul while it is bottomed upon the creatures they are but broken cisterns Jer. 2.13 that can hold no water when once man departed from God and forsook him the Fountain of living water he sought a sufficiency in the creatures alone they immediately became vanity they have not a vanity in themselves but it is the sin of man that fills the creature with vanity if the Lord should give a man as he has done the Devil the dominion of the world for he is not only the Prince of the air but he is the god of this world yet all this would but leave a man in the Devils condition and his soul would never be satisfied with it there is still something wanting that all the creatures cannot supply so that the soul saith as Austin Quicquid nobis adest praeter Deum nostrum dulce non est nolumus omnia quae dedit si non dat seipsum qui dedit omnia 3. Because the Lord would have the happiness of the creatures to concenter in him alone which could never be if he were not an alsufficient God Esa 26.3 Trust in the Lord for ever 1 Pet. 1.13 trust perfectly in the grace that is revealed unto us by Jesus Christ if there were any thing wanting in him to be supplied and fetched in elsewhere the soul could never trust in him alone but he will have them have no other god therefore surely there is no need of any other he hath all good things in him the happiness of the soul lies in the rest of it Psal 116.7 and therefore when a man comes to Heaven he is said to enter into his rest Now God is the resting place of the soul return unto thy rest O my soul wherefore if there were not an alsufficiency but something wanting in God the soul must needs be restless till it know whither to go for a supply but he being
their necessity will put themselves upon God and will lay claim to him in a presumptuous way and they will cry to him My Father thou art the guide of my youth Jer. 34.5 though they have spoken and done evil things against him as they could but it is but a false pretence and they lay claim to him upon a wrong title only there are some that are in Covenant with him and unto them he has made over himself and it is the Covenant that gives them a title to him and he will be called their God and as for other men he will reject their claim and say unto them Depart from me I know you not when men at the last day shall say Lord Lord Heb. 11.16 then will the false claims to him be discovered and all pretended titles rejected and it will be made manifest in the great day of trial to whom he is a God alsufficient it is called Rom. 2.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a day of revelation and the great thing that then will be manifested will be this the false title upon which men have laid claim to God and thereby have deceived their own souls 2 To them only that are in Covenant with God does his alsufficiency belong for they only have chosen God for their portion and placed their happiness in him as Joshuah speaks Josh 24.22 You have chosen the Lord for your God as for other men their portion is in this life in the sufficiency of the creatures and no men have an interest in this sufficiency of God but they that have rejected all other sufficiency that can say I have none in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I can desire in comparison of thee other men follow lying vanities and forsake their own mercies the Saints only chuse him and chuse the things that please him Jonas 2.8 and do trust perfectly in him whereas other men stand partly upon the Sea and partly upon the Earth and therefore the Lord doth chuse their delusions Esa 1.29 You shall be ashamed of the gardens that you have chosen The folly of men is seen in nothing more than in their choice and in that shall their greatest shame be 3 The alsufficiency of God would not satisfie the desires of men that are out of Covenant because they place their happiness in ways of sin and in the pleasures of sin do the comforts of their lives come in they eat the bread of wickedness and they drink the wine of violence there are two sorts of desires some are natural desires and these may be supplied in God but there are some unnatural desires as those that are lustings after the sensual life and therefore Heaven would not be a satisfaction to an ungracious heart that hath not a spirit suited to the things that are spiritual and of a heavenly nature it would be a wilderness to them and a land of darkness to be taken up to the heavenly Canaan and hence it comes to pass that in the midst of their sufficiency they are in straits and yet in the middle of straits the Saints have a sufficiency they walk upon the high places of the Earth that are fed with the inheritance of Jacob his chosen and they walk at liberty upon the high places of the Earth because when they are weak they are strong and when they have nothing they possess all things because the alsufficiency of God is only theirs Object But we see godly men that claim an interest in the Covenant to be in as great wants as other men and are brought under as great straits and continual dangers and if so then how is God a Sun to them and how is he a shield and all this that you now speak of We find Job upon a dunghil and poor even to a Proverb and Paul that great Convert and Apostle is said to have nothing 1 Cor. 4.11 Even to this present hour says he we are hungry and thirsty and naked and buffetted and have no certain dwelling-place c. God hath set us forth last and the last sufferings of the Church are always the worst and the sharpest We are made a spectacle even to men and Angels that is we are brought upon the stage as offenders did use to be men condemned to death to fight with wild beasts to make the people sport and therefore the Proverb was then Chrysostome Christiani ad Leones and he saith it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in one corner of the world but their sufferings were spread and were famous even through the world and all the wicked of the world did rejoyce at them and not only wicked men but Devils also for Satan being the god of this world and ruling in the Rulers thereof Rev. 12. therefore he is described having seven horns as he ruled the Roman Emperour and therefore Rev. 2.10 The devil will cast some of you into prison therefore it 's great joy unto the Devil to behold the blood of the Saints in this manner spilt for it 's true that in the time of this dominion of Satan as he is the Prince of this world ludit in humanis thereby to drown the noise of the chaiâ—s of darkness in which he is held and it 's true also of the good Angels Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is such a combate as it draws the eyes and the observation even of the Angels themselves who with joy behold our patience and the constancy of our spirits therein and we are counted the scum of the world as if all the filth of the world had been emptied into them and if we could barely look at the hand and malice of men in it we could expect no other for in the world we shall have tribulation but God hath set us forth so to be and hath made such a demonstration of us unto the world and men are but instruments in the hand of God in what they do the wicked is but a sword in the Lords hand yea we see it mainly in him that was the Prince of the Covenant who yet was made a man of sorrows whose life was a continual death for he had nothing of this worlds goods and I do the rather insist upon this because the people of God in this day and time may consider what their portion is like to be in this Nation notwithstanding this fair Sun-shine of liberty and prosperity that we now enjoy and how soon a cloud of suffering may come upon all our glory and the children of God may be exposed to primitive sufferings by walking in the steps of the primitive Saints and following their Lamb-like Prince who was led as a sheep to the slaughter and endured the contradiction of sinners and was put to death by them If this be so that all that will follow the Lord fully meet with such hard usage from the world How then is the alsufficiency of God made
a Saint looks upon himself and the greatness of the service that he is called to he says Who is sufficient who can do any thing of this great work but when he looks upon the alsufficiency of God for his supply then he saith Who is insufficient I can do all things and the greater the service is that any man is called unto and the greater difficulties he encounters with the more he is to take hold of the alsufficiency of God 3. It doth disburden the soul of all its troublesom afflictions of all a mans cares and fears and sorrows it 's this that doth discharge the soul of them Psal 27.1 2. The Lord is my light and my salvation Psal 118.6 whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my glory The Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do to me It is an interrogation of knowledge and of contempt c. it doth silence all a mans doubts answers all his objections when the soul saith I am a child I cannot speak God saith I will give thee a mouth the people are hard-hearted and insufficient but I will give thee strength of spirit answerable to thy opposition We know not what to do but our eyes are unto thee I fear death but God is in life and death alsufficient he is the God of the dead as well as of the living the creatures are but vials in the hand of God I will not pour out my wrath upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak 2 Chron. 12.7 he is but the vial and they are no other who are imployed by Christ as instruments of vengeance against Rome the vials are put into their hands it is but so much wrath in such a measure and executed by one hand and by another hand so they are for good also it is but such a measure of good done by them and of service but the alsufficiency is of God still and this brings a sweet rest unto the soul fies Sabbatum Christi there is a gracious and a holy rest of Christ in such a soul as this is 4. It 's this that doth fulfil all a mans desires Open thy mouth wide saith the Lord and I will fill it Austin pateres in te angustias thy straits are not in me but in thy own heart in thy own bowels open thy mouth wide and I will fill it for I am the fountain of thy life there is no man can open his mouth so wide that the alsufficiency of God will not fill it so that as the Lord is called the fear of Israel that is he was the sole object of his fear the adequate object of it he did fear him and he did fear nothing else so he is the desire of his people also as Christ is called the desire of all nations they desire him and they desire nothing else it is all terminated in him so that a man hath not any thing else to desire and the greater difference the Lord puts between men the higher he doth advance them the more he doth make over this as their portion and they are satisfied with it Levi was separated unto the Lord of all the Tribes of Israel but he must have no portion in the Land of Canaan but the Lord is his portion and who would not prefer the lot of Levi before that of all the Tribes though he had no inheritance with them And this makes the soul in all dangers bold as a Lyon quiet in the greatest commotions De me comburendo consultatur Luther at coelum non ruet credo certus sum habeo qui causam defendat etiamsi totus mundus in me solum insaniat Luth. ad Stampic If there want means he can work without them if the means be weak he can act above them and so the soul is in his sufficiency at rest Now study and try your interest in this alsufficience if we delighted as much in spiritual things as we do in the things of the earth it would be unto us the sweetest study for what can be more delightful than for a man to read over his own evidences that having tasted the sweetness of all his comforts he may also take a view of the tenure and title by which he holds them 1 Pet. 1.7 the Apostle saith that there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.7 the tryal of a mans faith that is more precious or more honourable for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both the tryal of faith is better than the tryal of gold 1 By tryal a man attains a certainty and that is precious for according unto the excellency of the thing so we do prize a certainty in it gold being of all metals the most in price therefore we are the most exact in our tryals of it we have the test the touch-stones and the scales c. and all because we would not be deceived but faith is more precious therefore a certainty therein is more precious that a man may know that he doth not embrace a fancy his faith is not adulterate but is the faith of Gods Elect. 2 There is a purity that doth arise from the tryal for by the tryal of gold its dross is purged ab adulterino distinguitur à scoriis purgatur c. so it is with faith also when it 's tryed by affliction from God or by examination from our selves it appears the better when the infirmities that cleave to faith are as dross to the gold for there is something wanting in faith still 3 The tryal of gold is but for this life ad exiguum tempus est utilis for it is gold that perisheth but the tryal of faith refers to the life to come for by faith a man lays hold of eternal life and the purer the faith is the surer the hold is 4 The tryal of gold makes it the more precious unto men we esteem tryed gold above other and therefore the most precious gold is set forth by it Rev. 3.18 so it is with tryed faith it makes it the more precious unto God and therefore he doth try it ut coram ipso gratior fiat tryed faith is more precious in Gods eyes as tryed gold is to ours as the word of the Lord is a tryed word though the people of God do prize the whole word of God that it is dearer to them than thousands of gold and silver yet there is no part of the word that hath so high a price with them as a tryed word as the word of faith the more it 's tryed is the more precious with us so the grace of faith the more it 's tryed it is the more precious with God and if the tryal of faith be so precious what is the tryal of a mans interest which is that unto which the tryal of all graces tends for the witness of water as well as of blood is that we may know whether we have eternal life abiding in us
of persons they may as Eli did misreprove a Hannah in the Church of God and as David believe a Zibi against the son of his friend for commonly the best deserving Christians are clouded by the glaring light of the lamps of Hypocrites who make it their business to raise false reports against such as outshine them in true grace and holiness but at last God will discover them and cast them out of the Churches prayers and affection they shall not always abide with them 1 Joh. 2.18 that they may be made manifest not to be of them and they that are approved shall be made manifest and so shall they that are corrupted also they shall be found lyars and they shall be cast out the Lord will cut them off that they may deceive the expectations of the Saints no more the Lord doth delight to do it and we should wait his leisure in it who will certainly shew himself a God that judges in the earth 3 That thereby the Saints may be awakened and admonished when Hymeneus fell then 2 Tim. 2.7 is that exhortation most seasonable Let him that names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity and let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall when a man observes horrendas tempestates flenda naufragia horrid tempests it is a hint to the Saints look to your standing see that you be built upon a Rock that storms and tempests may not overthrow you 5. In their judgments for they are terrible judgments that the Lord doth execute upon unregenerate men in the Church there are no mercies like those out of Sion and there are no judgments like them no men are so eminently under the curse as they are Out of the Throne came thundering and lightning and voices Rev. 4.5 for the Churches sake and by their prayers And this is 1 that the Saints may be thankful how great a mercy is it that I had not fallen away as well as he Joh. 14.22 2 That they may take heed of the same sins lest they be overtaken by the same plagues Remember Lots wife the natural branches are broken off thou standest by faith be not high-minded but fear they entred not through unbelief let us fear lest we also come short c. Heb. 4.1 § 3. There belongs also unto the spiritual Kingdom reductivè all the works and the dispensations of God amongst the creatures for though only men that live in the Church be the proper subjects of the spiritual Kingdom and in respect of the spiritual part of it only the Saints yet as the Mediator undertook the government of all other things for the Churches sake so in the government of all things he has a special respect unto their good Eph. 1. ult Joh. 17.2 so that all the creatures and the government of them all comes under the spiritual Kingdom two ways 1 As they tend to perfect the graces of the Saints 2 As they belong unto the priviledges of the Saints so reductivè they belong to the spiritual Kingdom 1. Christ in the spiritual Kingdom doth so order and dispose of all the creatures that they do all tend to perfect and increase the graces of the Saints Rom. 8.28 Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God the Apostle speaks it in reference unto affliction but yet because there was a general doctrine in it he would not restrain it and therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is all creatures and all events 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 1 they shall not work so of themselves but by a blessed and gracious concurrence of God with them all as it is said That Ministers are workers togethers with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6.1 Alas it is not any thing we can do or by any power that is in us but only there is a concurrence of the principal with the instrumental cause for instrumentum agit dispositivè in virtute principalis agentis 2 Some refer it unto the creatures themselves that they do not do this apart as if any one action or any one dispensation meerly did it but they do it as it were in a conspiracy or concatenation they all joyn together in the work that if we take any one particular we may seem to go backward and it may tend to the disadvantage of the spiritual Kingdom but we must take them all together as we are not to judge of the works of God ante quintum actum so neither are we to judge of the fruits of his works but by laying of them all together and see how they work in a due order and subordination one to another c. and unto what is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is ad aeternam piorum salutem for sine summo bono nil bonum As there is nothing good without the chiefest good so there is nothing good that doth not lead a man unto the chief good and therefore when it 's said That all things work together for good the meaning is they shall all make for the increase of their grace here and their glory hereafter all of them shall work for the eternal good of their souls whereas unto all wicked men all the creatures and all the dispensations of God in the ordering of the creatures cedunt in perniciem tend to their perdition they are unto the one in praemium for a reward unto the other in supplicium for punishment as Prosper has it Or as Cyprian saith of the Sacrament it was Petro in remedium Judae in venenum a remedy to Peter but poyson to Judas so it is here all the creatures that the wicked do enjoy they are indeed seemingly blessings but really curses outwardly bread but in verity a stone a fish in shew but in truth a scorpion for they do all of them tend to the ripening of their sins and the hastning of their ruine but to the Saints 1 Cor. 3.21 22. All things are yours he was speaking of glorying in men they should not boast of their Teachers though it is true indeed that the Primitive Church had their Crown of twelve Stars yet they were all the servants of the Churches debent tam corpori quà m capiti servire they ought to serve the body as well as the head and therefore some will have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Apostle doth speak here as in the fore-quoted places as I conceive where though speaking of one particular yet there being a general truth in it he doth propound it generally for it is not to be restrained to persons as the after-enumeration shews for he speaks of life and death things present and things to come now how doth he mean that all is ours that is aedificationi saluti destinata as ordained for our edification and salvation there is a special design of grace in ordering and disposing of them all so as
they shall be truly our servants that is they shall tend unto the advancement of our spiritual and eternal good Rom. 8.38 what he had before spoken positively that they shall all do us good here he speaks negatively that they shall never be able to do us hurt I am perswaded that neither life nor death via extrema secunda adversa the highest pitch of prosperity and the lowest ebb of adversity or affliction shall not be able to hurt us nor Angels good or bad nor principalities and powers that is all the powers of Empires and Monarchs of the world nor things present nor things to come not any intermediate events that now do or hereafter may befal us nor heights nor depths nor any creature i. e. if there be any creature that comes not under the former enumeration whether it be in heaven above or in the deeps beneath it shall never be able to hurt us in respect of our eternal state because it shall never be able to separate us from the love of God which has so sure a ground for it is love born to us in Christ in whom he has elected us c. therefore you see there comes no disadvantage but a continual advantage unto the spiritual Kingdom by all the creatures and by the dispensations of Christ in the ordering and the government of them all Let us see this by an enumeration of some particulars 1. If the Lord give unto his people prosperity it shall be to the advantage of the inward man and in their outward prosperity their souls shall prosper 2 Chron. 17.6 Jehosaphat had silver and gold and riches in abundance and his heart was lifted up and encouraged in the ways of Gods commandments and thereby the people of God make them friends of the unrighteous Mammon and they lay up a good foundation that they may lay hold of eternal life Eccles 7.11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance it is good in it self without an inheritance but there is a special advantage by wisdom with an inheritance and so it 's better to the man or it is good to a mans self but it is not so good unto another and so Prov. 14.24 The crown of the wise is their riches but there are to other men riches reserved for the hurt of the owner and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 1.32 wisdom is the better with an inheritance but folly is the worse with an inheritance for the folly of fools is foolishness he speaks it of rich fools there are no men discover their folly more and whose foolishness is more eminent and notorious than these mens as riches draw forth the graces of the one so do they also the sins of the other 2. If the Lord give unto his people afflictions it shall be to the advantage of their inward man Rom. 5.3 Tribulation works patience surely patience is a fruit of the Spirit as all other graces are and cannot be wrought in any man by affliction unless it be given him by the Spirit A man must have patience 1 if ever he will bear affliction fruitfully but 2 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie to work a thing out and bringing of it to perfection Phil. 2.12 It is this therefore that when patience is wrought in the soul by the Spirit it is improved and exceedingly drawn out by affliction it doth improve the graces of the Saints and upon this ground it is said Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations Jam. 1.2 Esa 27.8 9. in measure God shoots forth the affliction and the mercy of God is greatly seen in the moderation of the affliction By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is the fruit to take away the sin of his people when he makes all the stones of their Altars to be as chalk stones and therefore Esa 24.15 Glorifie the Lord in the fires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.10 he doth chastise them that they may be made partakers of his holiness 3. Temptations for the Lord Jesus doth order all the temptations of Satan and directs them unto spiritual ends for even the very enemies of the spiritual Kingdom he doth over-rule so as he makes them servants to it even the vessels of dishonour have their use in the great house as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2.21 Satan is an enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that enemy in two things to the Saints 1 In his accusations unto God he is therefore called the Accuser of the Brethren and so he did move God against Job to destroy him without a cause Job 2.3 there was cause enough in Job if the Lord had been extreme to mark what he had done amiss but there was not that cause that Satan did alledge and it is a mercy to the people of God that though there be cause enough yet he doth hide the true cause from their malicious accusers that that which they fasten upon them is no cause to set God or man against them but the more the Lord doth appear for his servants to justifie them had not Satan accused Job so impetuously God had never so eminently appeared for his justification This should quiet and comfort the Saints in all the hard measure and reproaches that they meet withal in the world that yet the Lord will arise for their justification and their enemies confusion that though a child of God may lye under the blast of the wicked for a season yet God will vindicate him at last so that false friends as well as true enemies shall be made to say Surely there is no inchantment against any of the seed of Jacob Jude 15. c. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him and his children c. 2 Satan is an enemy by his temptations unto the Saints and so the strength of God is made perfect in their weakness that is manifestly declared so to be 2 Cor. 12. for thereby their strength is tryed there is nothing tries grace so much as temptation unto sin because nothing is more opposite unto grace and gratia vexata seipsam prodit grace vexed discovers it self thereby also their corruption is purged for the Lord doth commonly temper that poyson into a medicine and Satan that seeks to kill shall be instrumental to cure he that doth intend to stab the man shall but give vent to his imposthume and therefore Luther says of temptation when the Papists did object unto Luther that he himself granted Purgatory I do indeed saith he but it is but that Purgatory of temptation and he adds Hoc Purgatorium non est fictum and hereby the enemy is conquered for we are more than conquerors Rom. 8. It was said that the Carthaginians did prevail against
their life to the destroyers the Lord hath caused light to shine out of darkness and hath made their light to break forth out of obscurity and when they have walked in the shadow of death a light hath risen upon them as the Martyr that was in prison in his own spirit till he came into prison and the prison was that which the Lord made use of for his enlargement Schola crucis lucis fenestra and so we read of another Martyr who upon this ground did wonderfully bless God that he came into prison that thereby he became acquainted with that Angel of God John Bradford The providence of God is as wonderful in the consolations as in the conversion of his people for it is a creating of the fruit of the lips peace Esa 57.19 and that is ex nihilo 6. In temptations when the lust hath been high and the temptation impetuous and the man about to yield the Lord hath sometimes appeared and struck the lust as it were from Heaven immediately and said Stay thy hand and the lust hath vanished for the fashion of the world passeth away and the lust thereof that a mans heart hath been dead unto that which before it was with the greatest violence set upon the Lord hath hedged up a mans way with thorns so that he could not sin with security as other men do Hos 2.6 7. but still when he would have sinned there were stumbling-blocks in his way and some providences that did concur to cross him in a way of sinning and some to pull him out of the fire when he was falling in as the instance of Vzthazares the Persian and the story of Ambrose of a young man that met with his mistress with whom he had formerly had dalliances and when she met him again the Lord struck his lust so that when she said Ego sum I am she he answered Ego non sum I am not he 2. There is a special Providence over godly men for the good of others that are good in their present and in after-generations 1. There is a strange Providence in improving their parts Moses being to be a man of great imployment for the good of the people of God he must be learned in all the learning of the Egyptians and so the parts of Austin and his learning and so of Luther how strangely did God make use of for the good of his people and Luk. 11.22 't is said he takes from him all the armour wherein he trusted c. that learning and those abilities and improvements the Lord doth imploy for the good of his people and he hath strange ways of improving of those that he doth intend to imploy and men see not the reason of it till afterward 2. In drawing out of their graces as in Joseph by the temptation of his mistress and the persecution that he met with his bow abode in strength and his arm was made strong and so it was with Job that we might hear of his patience and what end the Lord made with him and we know how strangely the Lord did order things that the height of Luthers spirit did rise by the opposition that was against him that he that at first would have accepted of easie terms afterwards resolved that nothing but the utter overthrow of Popery should satisfie him Efficiam ut Anathema sit esse papista◠3. Thereby there is a Providence that doth turn them to the good of his people that are to succeed partly for admonition that they may be warnings unto them Remember Lots wife remember Peter and David and Solomon that you may take heed to avoid the same snares in which they were taken and partly for their consolation that God might shew in them a pattern of all long-suffering unto them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting as Beza said when one derided him for his wanton Poems in his youth Hic homo invidet mihi gratiam Christi c. 4. Their sufferings so it was with Joseph Gen. 50.20 Ye intended evil but the Lord turned it unto good to save much people alive it was your good that God intended in my affliction and so Johns banishment into Patmos it was that he might receive the Book of the Revelations which hath been the great stay of the hearts and faith of the people of God ever since and though it may be obscure yet Conrad Graserus speaks of it by his own experience Me non ex ullius libri canonici lectione ad instructionem consolationem plùs proficere pag. 2. I have not profited more by any book c. 5. Their labours As 't is said that Moses wrote the Book of Job for the consolation of the people of God when they were in Egypt and of what use hath that been in general to the Church of God ever since so many of the pains of the people of God in writing the lives of the godly and the Sermons and sayings of the Ministers of God and their own observations of the signs of the times and whatever they have of that kind been put upon in particular cases providence hath so over-ruled things that they have been as a standing benefit unto the Church of God in after-ages and they have lived when the men have died There are many defences of the people of God and Apologies that they have been put upon in all ages when men of corrupt minds have aspersed the writings and persons of those that have been eminent in their places for asserting the Truths of God and witnessing against the corruptions of the times c. 6. Not only their labours have been very useful in all ages but also their Examples of well-doing Povidence doth put the Saints upon many things and conditions that they may leave their example as monuments in the ages to come as the Apostle saies Phil. 1.14 By my bonds many of the brethren wax confident are much more bold to speak the truth without fear 1 Tim. 4.12 Be thou an example of the believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith and in purity they must be exemplary in every generation that they may leave their footsteps behind them that the people of God may walk after them and go forth by the footsteps of the stock in after-ages and that they may be so the Lord doth in his providence so order things that they shall have occasion to shew themselves examples in all things so that there is an over-ruling providence by virtue of the interest of the Saints in the Soveraignty of God that orders all things towards good men for their own good and all providences over them for the good of his people in the present and in after-ages that so a good man may be every way a common good 7. They have great advantages by the prayers of the Saints for even the wicked of the age yea and of after-ages do attain benefits by their prayers much more
enemies of Israel he doth therefore rule the raging of the Sâ—â— when the waves arise Psal 89.9 2 Pet. 3.4 he saith unto them Peace be still and by this wicked men are confuted that say All things continue alike from the creation of the world but that they do not for first the earth was covered with water now it is separated and the dry land appears it was afterwards in judgment covered with waters in the Floud and then the waters entred into their own chanel again 6. The winds also they have a natural and necessary cause The Lord brings the winds out of his treasuries there are treasures of winds Job 38.22 and the stormy winds fulfil his word Psal 148.8 but there is not a wind that ariseth upon the Earth or Sea but he doth in this dispose of it for the good of his people Maâ— 24.7 the winds and the Sea obey him and if there be a wind in the earth an Earth-quake as there was at the Resurrection of Christ for the confirmation of their faith all these obey him Acts 16.26 Rev. 11.13 when Rome shall fall seven hundred men shall be slain by an Earth-quake and there shall be great discoveries of God in those things which he over-rules for the good of his people which when they consider should bear up their hearts in the greatest storms and tempests that any of the creatures can raise against them 2. There are also some things which are contingent or fortuitous that is though all things be governed by a determinate counsel in God and there be nothing casual unto him but foreknown unto him were all his works from the foundation of the world yet in respect of us there are some things which are contingent and meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without humane election and wonderful and those casual providences are for the good of the Saints in dreams in lots in ordering the wills and affections of men in the slip of a horse the fall of an house the meeting of a friend a man is casually cast upon such places persons occasions as Saul when he went forth to seek Asses and found a Kingdom we may instance in a more special manner in the business of war wherein though there be a Council yet in the execution or the executive part every thing seems meerly contingent and yet we see all to be for Alimoth Psal 46.1 for the hidden ones he doth chuse the Officers appoint the Souldiers appoint the weapons direct the execution order the strategems give the advantages act or take away mens courage and their skill the Captains shall be as Grashoppers and he it is that either teaches their hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken by their arms or the heart of a Lyon doth melt and the men of might cannot find their hands and he casts it for the victory it is he that doth put the Crown upon the head of the Conqueror for the victory is of God SECT V. The Saints Interest in Gods Providential Kingdom as it regards goods and evils § 1. NOw follows the fourth distinction and that is circa bona vel mala about good and evil things and in both these also Providence doth order all things for the spiritual good of his people 1. There is a Providence circa bona for all the good things which do befal the Saints for every good doth come down from him who is the Father of lights Jam. 1.17 they are all from him who is the Fountain of living waters they are streams from the upper Springs as in Election there is a special love so there doth flow from it a peculiar Providence If God cloath the grass of the field much more you O ye of little faith He is the Saviour of all men but specially of them that believe so that if we look upon all the good things which in this life befal them they have it by a special providence over them for their good for the present I shall instance in these particulars 1. In appointing of their calling for there is as truly an election unto calling and a separation by God as there is unto life and salvation Rom. 1.1 Separated unto the Gospel that is set apart by God to preach the Gospel and so Gal. 1.15 says the Apostle But when it pleased God who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace c. There is not a man that comes into the world but the Lord doth appoint him in what condition of life he shall serve and he doth set him apart unto an imployment for he is the Lord of Host and he doth set every man his station As it is said of Peter The Lord did appoint him by what death he should glorifie God so it 's true of all the people of God he doth appoint them by what condition of â—ife they should glorifie him and though Paul went on in another way a long time and little intended any such thing yet God ordered it so that he would reveal his Son in him both per modum objecti obâ—ectively that others should see Christ in him and subjecti subjectively that he himself should see the discoveries of Christ by a Spirit of Revelation and he should be a glorious instrument in the hand of the Lord to reveal Christ unto others and in this there is a wonderful and a gracious hand of Providence unto his people that unto other men their callings are for their hurt and their callings as well as their tables become their shares that they are intangled by them yet they are for the good of his people Thus Luther doth observe of himself in Gen. 17. Deus voluit me esse concionatorem sustinere prâ—pter verbum odium invidiam mundi Aliis imponit laborem manuum videntur mihi beati c. exerceor periculis tentationibus tamen mechanicus ille aequè atque ego salvatur But he saith this was the calling in which God had set him and in this he must walk with him and the works of this calling were unto him the works of God c. Of this we have a famous instance in Junius his father was exceedingly against his being a Preacher of the Gospel was desirous that he might have godliness in himself but that he should never be a Teacher of it vivus non fuisset passus c. but in sententia planè eram diversa à sententia patris in Vita Junii To ingage the spirits of men and to order occasions and opportunities that men might glorifie God in such a way of service as he hath appointed for them and that it should be suitable to their spirits their parts their graces and they shall be par negotio fitted for the work unto which the Lord hath called them that they may honour God in it with pleasure sweetness and delight there is a special hand of a merciful and a graâ—â—ous Providence therein 2. In