Sion and her Adherents are those that shall make war with the Saints and they shall be joyned unto this Church whose names are not written in the Lambs book of life the Lord has thus cast out these Antichristian Churches and given them a bill of divorce for ever 2 That Church from which the Lord calls to his people for a separation that the Lord does not owne as a true Church but the Lord calls upon his people for a separation from the Church of Rome Come out of her my people And here I conceive with * Oper. Camer p. 520. Camero A dislike and an abhorrency of their idolatry and superstitions is not sufficient for that should be even in a true Church from which yet a man may not depart so as to hold no communion with them though Churches be very corrupt and 't is a mans duty to separate from the corruptions of them to touch no unclean thing with them as Christ did in the Church of the Jews yet he did hold church-Church-communion with them all in the Ordinances of God and did not separate from them because they remained a true Church to God and the Lord had not yet called them Loammi and put them away from him therefore the Lords calling out a people to separate from the Church of Rome doth plainly give unto them a bill of divorce and the Lord does thereby manifest that he does owne them for a Church unto himself no longer for if they were a true Church though ye were to separate from the corruptions of it yet not from communion with it 3 Where there is no salvation to be had that is not a Church unto God for extra Ecclesiam nulla salus but in the Church of Rome by the rules of their own Religion there can be no salvation because they make a man to forsake the Lord Jesus Christ the only foundation in point of Justification which whosoever misseth must build upon the sand and not upon the Rock as our own Mr. Perkins c. has long since manifested and where no salvation is to be had surely there is no Church in Gods account They therefore that embrace the Doctrine of Popery and do fully close with it they and their seed are cast out they are no more a Church to God neither to be looked upon as in Covenant with him and to have any right to the seals of the Covenant 2. There are another sort that are not actually cast out through the negligence of the Church being able to bear them that be evil and it 's true while such are owned as members the priviledges of members cannot be denied to them who ought to be as a Heathen man and a Publican and though men do neglect their duty therein yet there is a kind of spiritual Excommunication goes out from God all the while Vse 2 § 2. It serves for Exhortation and that unto three sorts 1. Unto parents it does necessarily inforce upon them to take hold of the Covenant not only for themselves but for their posterity also for 1 he that will embrace the Covenant of God let him accept of the whole Covenant not only that he will be thy God but the God of thy seed also There is no part of the Gospel that should be neglected or any of the grace of the second Covenant that should be received in vain 2 Else thy faith will be defective therein the Apostle speaks 1 Thess 3.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 3.10 of a defect of faith and that lies in two things 1 When it does not take in the object of faith in its extent but there is something held forth to be believed that faith is not exercised about 2 When it does not act in the highest degree there is a defect in reference to the object and in reference unto the act also 3 The people of God have exercised faith upon the Covenant for their children and Christ Jesus himself for his children Psal 102.28 Heb. 1.10 11 12. for he shall see his seed and in them he shall prolong his days upon earth and therefore we read of his children There was a Covenant made with Christ personal and a Covenant made with Christ mystical with him as Mediator in regard of what he was to perform and with him as head for us and Christ takes hold of the Covenant in both these respects and all promises made unto a posterity Christ has an eye to the accomplishing of them in the behalf of his posterity as well as himself as being part of the promise and covenant that the Lord made unto him for himself and his seed and so should all the Faithful do look upon all the promises that are made unto the seed of the Faithful in the Scripture and put them in suit before the Lord for thy seed also as being part of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you we might by this means leave and entail very great blessings upon our posterity and live to see the Covenant accomplished unto them unto the great consolation of our souls Psal 128.3 4. Thy children shall be like olive-plants round about thy table Behold thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord the Church is called the Olive-tree as we have seen Rom. 11.16 17. and they as Church-members are as Olive-plants those that are of use and excellency profiting Church and Common-wealth Esa 59.21 This is my covenant says the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words that I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed or seeds seed henceforth and for ever Whilst we straiten the Covenant and our Covenant-interest unto our selves we are enemies to our own consolation the great flourishing of the soul lies in the inlargement of the faculties and they are vast objects that do cause large faculties it 's of admirable use unto a mans own spirit to look unto the Covenant in the extent of it to you and to your seed 2. It is matter of exhortation unto children that they would walk worthy of this mercy this inheritance that God has entailed upon them and not despise the grace of God in their parents Covenant but actually take hold of the Covenant also in their own persons 1 Consider grace hath prevented you and you are taken in by God into a familiar Covenant with himself meerly out of preventing mercy whereas thou mightest have been born among the uncircumcised it 's no small priviledge to be born of those that are themselves in Covenant with God 2 It will be a great aggravation to thy sin and judgment when thou shalt with Esau despise thy birth-right the contempt of a spiritual priviledge is a great sin and dishonour to God and it will surely add to thy judgment Mat. 8.11 The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness Mat. 8.11 and how will that
promise higher things the Lord to be your God and Christ to be your head your Husband his Spirit to be the guide of your way and also the earnest of your inheritance a higher Righteousness a higher Sonship a nearer Union a fuller Communion as the Spouse of Christ and as his Members and a more exceeding eternal weight of glory being rewarded not according unto the Covenant of man but according to the Covenant of Christ 3 Better promises because of their assurance and stability the promises of the first Covenant might come to an end and be swallowed up in the Curse as they were but the promises of the second are the sure mercies of David for the righteousness of it is an everlasting righteousness and therefore the promises are eternal promises 4 But there is one thing as great as any of these and that is they are all of them the promises made unto Christ and by vertue of the Covenant belong unto him 2 Cor. 1.20 In him are all the promises yea and Amen That is they are made unto him and they belong unto us and unto us are fulfilled only by vertue of our Union with him as we live in him and dye in him so we receive promises in him and this is the sweetness of all Gospel promises they do every one of them carry a man to the fountain of his interest and that brings into the Soul infinitely the more sweetness As if a Wife take a favour from her Husband and look no further there is not so much in it but yet in every favour she is carried back unto the Marriage Covenant which assures her not only of this but also of all others whatever is his she has a right to because of the Covenant past between them this is sweet to her And so here it brings into the Soul the sweetness of all the promises together with the present mercy As to a wicked man in Hell that hath the terrors of God upon him every evil doth carry him unto the fountain of it and that is to the anger and hatred of God and the curse of the Covenant that he hath broken and this imbitters his misery a Thousand times more for now the Soul saith this is but a pledge of infinitely more wrath So it is here every promise carries him to the fountain and that assuring him not only of this supply but whatever else he can stand in need of for in a mans interest in Christ is infinite more sweetness than in any blessing or benefit we receive by him Now when a man shall look upon this promise not only as sweet but as his inheritance as he is a Son of Abraham and an Heir of Promise it brings with it infinitely more sweetness than the promises of mercy it self abstractly and in it self injoyed 5. For all the duties and obedience to the Covenant And this is commonly the great affliction of the people of God the Gospel requires obedience as well as the Law and there is a Law of Christ to be kept and there is a yoak of Christ to be born and Christ that hath abolished the Law as a Covenant and a Curse has established the Law as a rule of Gospel obedience and hath therein made it a hand-maid to the Gospel and therefore the Law upon Mount Sinai was given in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3.19 And how shall we be able to perform this duty by the power of inherent grace It is impossible 1 from the remainders of sin Rom. 7. There is a law in the members rebelling against the law of the mind and the fulfilling of the Law requires a holy nature as well as a holy life 2 From the imperfections of Grace Says the Apostle Paul Not that I have already attained not that I am already perfect c. And how then shall a man appear before God Now comes in the Covenant of Christ and of this Covenant he is a surety Heb. 7.22 not only to pay the debt that we did owe under the old Covenant but also to perform the duty that is required of me under the new and therefore the Lord did lay help on one that is mighty we should have failed Psal 89. for we could neither pay the debt of the one nor do the duty of the other therefore the Lord hath laid all upon Christ and will expect all of him and he must present us unto his Father as a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and what imperfection soever there be in our duties he must offer them pure before God with his odours and all this is from the Covenant made with him In him is our fruit found Rev. 8.3 6. The stability of the Covenant can never fail it is an everlasting Covenant and sure mercy 1 Upon the faithfulness of God it 's confirmed with an Oath 2 From the obedience of Christ who hath performed all that is required in this Covenant 3 From the promise made unto him for the Oath is made first to Christ Heb. 7. Psal 110. and if the Lord could fail with you he could not fail with him There are Three things that amongst men are in a special manner noted as the acts of the highest injustice and wickedness 1 To keep back the hirelings wages 2 Not to fulfill the will of the dead 3 The cry of innocent blood going unrevenged and all these the Lord abhors in men and they shall not be found in him Now Christ is Gods hired servant and his reward is Heb. 9.15 16. to see the travail of his soul it is his last Will and Testament when he died that by means of his death they that are called might receive the promise and it 's a blood that speaks better things than the blood of Abel Adams Covenant did change because it was established with a mutable head And hence as the Lord doth make suppositions Isa 54.10 The Mountains may depart and the Hills remove if you can change the Covenant of the day and of the night then may the Covenant of my peace be broken And in assurance thereof the Saints do make supplications The Lord is our God we will not fear though the earth be removed and the mountains cast into the sea Psal 46.1 2. And the root of all the stability of the Covenant lyes in Christ the foundation of the Covenant 7. The acceptation that you find with God is grounded hereupon 2 Cor 5.9 We labour whether present or absent to be accepted of him and there is a double acceptation one of persons and the other of services 1 Of persons as we find Gen. 4.4 If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted says God offer it to thy Prince will he accept thy person 2 Of services Mal. 1. Heb. 12.28 They are acceptable services As God delights in the plagues of wicked men Psal 120. Coals of Juniper which burn sweetly and fiercely so in the services of the
his wisdom and industry could not find out And what is that secret of the Covenant The Covenant is the secret and it is with them that he may make it known unto them therefore there is a mysterie in the dutys of the Covenant that is not revealed unto all but it is unto them that fear him and the Lord will do it suitably unto our frame as our grace comes in by constant supplies of the Spirit of God so doth our knowledge also and all by a daily increase of light from the Spirit and this is by a frequent repetition of the same act of faith and therefore the people of God love to repeat it and thereby they see farther into these mysteries from day to day and they do the more exceedingly prize the mercy of the Covenant as the greatest mercy they can injoy 3. How is this work to be done and what is it for a man to renew his Covenant 1. He that will renew his Covenant with God must be deeply sensible of the breach of Covenant and of the unfaithfulness of his heart therein It should deeply humble us to consider that no bonds should hold us If there were no other tye upon us but that of our creation that we had our being from him and that out of nothing but when unto this natural and necessary bond we have added a voluntary and have consented unto the Lord yet now for us to forget the Covenant of our God and prove perfidious to him and draw back is this your return unto God for his Grace in taking you into Covenant and who doth always remember Covenant mercies for you even then when you forget duty to him Is this your requital of the Lord who in the performance of the Covenant did not spare his Son when he cryed that he might be saved God was so resolved upon his Covenant with you that the death of his Son was a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and he was delighted in it in performance of the grace of the Covenant made with you And also the Lord Christ met with variety of discouragements not only the weight of sin in the guilt of it which he complained of as his own though he knew no sin Psal 40.12 but the wrath of the Father the rage of his enemies the hour and the power of darkness the falshood of his Disciples and yet when he was tempted to come down from the Cross he doth hold it out that he might thereby shew that he loved you to the uttermost and would save you to the utmost And now for you Prov. 20.25 after vows to make inquiry whenas no man doth receed or go back from the Covenant in which he hath ingaged himself without infamy and it 's as odious as for a man to prove false to his friend and betray him and as unfair dealing it is as for a Servant to run away from his Master or a Soldier from his Commander and as David says by way of reproach he hath broken his Covenant and laid his hand upon him that was at peace with him yea for the Wife of a mans bosom to betray a man and to forget the Covenant of her God for a man to forget his Oath that he took at his Baptism and as the Jews did labour to make their circumcision uncircumcision and to do this unto a God that was never a Wilderness to you nor ever gives you cause to repent of your ingagement surely hereby you see not only your perfidiousness and unthankfulness but also fully to make forfeiture of all Covenant mercies to bring upon your selves all the curses of the Covenant Gen. 2.28 Num. 14.34 and to put God upon breach of Covenant with you who have behaved your selves so unfaithfully towards him and thereby you acknowledge though you have subscribed your names in the register of Zion yet you deserve unto your perpetual ignominy to have them expunged thence and to be written in the earth and given up to an everlasting forgetfulness So it was with Josiah when he made his Covenant his heart was tender and he did humble himself before the Lord for their Covenant-breaking 2 Chron. 34.27 31. Neh. 10. And Ezra 10. it doth follow upon a great humiliation a man that is not sensible of and his heart not affected with the breach of Covenant that man is not fit to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 2. It must be with a resolution of heart to break all other Covenants men are said Isa 28.15 To make a Covenant with death and hell that is they were as secure Isa 28.15 and as fearless of it as a man that hath a person in Covenant with him whom he looks upon as his friend and fears him not and thus they make a Covenant with sin and ingage themselves to serve other gods and so when the people renewed the Covenant in Joshuah's time you see the Command you have chosen the Lord to serve him Josh 24.22 put away therefore your strange gods and so the command was to put away their strange wives Ezra There are cords of vanity and there are bonds of iniquity by which men do bind themselves Now all these Covenants must be broken if a man come to renew his Covenant with the Lord for the answer you must give to the Covenant must be the answer of a good conscience and that Conscience that reserves to it self any league with sin unbroken 1 Pet 3.21 is not a good conscience before God a Covenant that is sinful is in it self void and a nullity because in every such ingagement there is dolus deceit and error which are destroying to the nature of a Covenant which should be free and deliberate and therefore it is in all such Covenants as with Herods Oath they bind to nothing but repentance for Juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis and therefore a man must resolve to break Covenant with all sinful ingagements if he do intend to renew his Covenant with the Lord. 3. A man must know the terms and read over the Articles of the Covenant anew for no wise man will set his hand to an obligation of which he is not well acquainted with the condition and if there were no other cause nor ingagement upon man to know the will of God and their own duty this were enough they have bound themselves to serve him and therefore by the same Covenant they are bound to know the rules by which he will be served for Deo serviendum non est ex arbitrio sed ex imperio so doth Josiah 2 Chron. 34.30 he caused to be read in the ears of the people all the words of the book of the Covenant and then he stood up and made a Covenant before the Lord to perform all the words of the Covenant written in the Book 4. It must be with a free and full consent of heart for the Covenant in the renewing of it must
administer it unto one that hath spiritually no right to it as we see in the Scripture the Apostles themselves were deceived but Gods promise in giving the children an interest in the fathers priviledge is a sure ground to go by more than any mans believing or profession in the world can be for himself and therefore a man is bound to believe that his seed is taken into covenant and that they do belong to the Election of grace and are truly justified sanctified adopted and accepted in Christ till they manifest the contrary and we have more than a negative ground for it that we know nothing to the contrary for we have a positive ground and that is the indefinite promise which we have cause to interpret in the most favourable sense and I am sure is a more certain ground for me to pass a judgment upon than any mans profession can be seeing that I know my judgment is not infallible in either but I may be deceived in reference to the person to whom it 's applied therefore consider that 1 Children while in their infancy are members of the visible Church of God 2 They have always been taken into membership in the same Church with their parents and accounted as of the same Church with them 1. Children while they are infants may be members of the visible Church of God before they come to years to be able to understand the nature of a Church or to consent unto the Duties unto which they are obliged in that relation and that will appear Luk. 18.16 Mar. 10.13 1 What children were those spoken of they were not children in meekness and harmlesness as some would have it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infants young children teneri adhuc ab uberibus pendentes pueruli Beza the same word is used of new-born babes 1 Pet. 2.2 and so much do the words also import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he took them in his arms which notes that they were children in their infancy 2 What doth he say to these children he saith That the kingdom of heaven did belong to such what doth he mean by the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Heaven is put for the Kingdom of Grace here in a visible Church or else for the Kingdom of Glory Mat. 8.11 12. Many shall come from the East and shall sit down with Abraham in the kingdom of heaven i. e. shall be added unto the Church upon Earth and shall enter into the Kingdom of glory when the children of the Kingdom of the Jews the natural branches born children by an external right shall be cast out And Mat. 16.19 I give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven it 's meant of the Kingdom of Grace here the Church and the Kingdom of Glory in Heaven for he gives him power to bind on earth and loose on earth and promises that it shall be ratified in Heaven but yet all Officers are for the visible Church and all their power is to be exercised in the visible Church and though it be for the good of the Elect the Church of the first-born the Church invisible yet that is not the proper place thereof but Officers are for the visible Church So then theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven that is not only they shall be saved and so fill up the Kingdom of glory but also they belong to the Kingdom of grace and the Subjects of this Kingdom here are members of the visible Church they are actually Subjects of this Kingdom 3 Neither doth he speak of these very individual children as a priviledge which belonged unto them alone he by his omniscience knowing them to be elected of God but he saith Of such as these are delivering it therefore as an ordinary rule of our judgment in the like case of all other children of parents in covenant unto the end of the world therefore children that are infants are members of the visible Church and therefore taken into a Church-covenant with their parents for by nature no man is a Church-member Eph. 2.12 but all strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel and men afar off for if any man were so by nature then all men by nature must be so therefore it 's a priviledge by grace that they are taken into their parents covenant and are members of the same Church with them 2. Children have been always taken into the same covenant with their parents and have been members of the same Church with them When the Lord made a covenant with Abraham he took in his family to be a Church when he took in the Jews he took in their children also to be unto him a holy and a peculiar people and when he did cast out the children of the Kingdom and did give them a bill of divorce removing the candlestick he did excommunicate and disinherit their children and when he takes the Gentiles into covenant also it is with them and with their seed in their generations and therefore the master of the family being converted salvation is come to his house and there is a Church in his house his family becomes of those of whom the visible Church is constituted for the Gentiles were grafted in as the Jews were broken off and that was in reference to a Church-state for themselves and their posterity and so were the Gentiles grafted into a Church-state for themselves and their posterity and the Lord has given us a rule for it Deut. 29.14 Deut. 29.14 15. when he enters into a Church-covenant with that people and with their little ones that they should be a people unto himself that is a Church unto God vers 15. Neither with you only do I make this covenant but also with him that is not here with us this day If you understand it of the Jews only this leaves to us these two things 1 That children are included in their fathers covenant though they be not of themselves able to restipulate 2 That it is the will of God it should not only be so at that time but in after-ages with them and their seed in their generations But if we understand by them that are not here this day all that shall be taken into the same covenant in time to come as it may be then it will leave a door open to bring in all the believing Gentiles and their seed to the end of the world Thus the Lord out of love unto the parents doth take not only them but their seed also into a visible Church that they may be a holy and a peculiar people unto himself 5. They that have a right of membership are to be admitted into the visible Church and to be looked upon as having a right Mat. 16.19 for the Lord has appointed the power of the Keys in his Church unto this end Church-power and authority is commonly expressed in Scripture by the name of Keys the sign being put for the thing signified and the ensign of authority for the
with thee and thou becamest mine Ezech. 16.8 then I cloathed thee with broidered work and shod thee with badgers skins and girded thee with fine linen and covered thee with silk I deckt thee with ornaments of gold and put bracelets upon thy hands c. Upon the removal of the Candlestick if the Lord unchurch a people all other blessings go away with it They shall take away thy eminent place Ezech. 16.39 and they shall strip thee of all thy cloaths and 2 Chron. 7.20 this house will I cast out of my sight and I will pluck them up by the root out of the land which I have given them 5. They have a special patience and long-suffering attending them and the Lord doth bear with them far for his peoples sake Mat. 13. he lets the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers Gather the tares in bundles to burn we know that the patience and long-suffering of God is salvation 2 Pet. 3. 6. They are delivered from many temporal judgments that others fall into there is a special preservation and protection over them in the time of common danger there is a sealing for the Church the Lord sets a special mark upon them Rev. 7.4 and wicked men receive much by this and so even a Cham may be saved in a common deluge where many a better man may be drowned There are priviledges belonging to the society that a man joyns himself unto that a man injoys for their sakes but not for his own as many a man saith Austin in the Invasion of the Goths did scape by joyning themselves unto the Christians August de Civit And Rehoboam shall be a Prince all the days of his life for David my servants sake that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem Jehoram the son of Jehosaphat 1 King 11.34 36. a wicked man walking in the ways of Ahab and the Kings of Israel and one who at the entrance of his Raign had practised that ordinary devillish policy in use amongst Princes to slay all his brethren with the sword and divers also of the Princes of Israel thereby to strengthen himself and yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David because of the Covenant that he had made with him to give him a light for ever and when Jerusalem was besieged in the days of Hezekiah by a mighty Army the Lord says Esa 37.35 They shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there but I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant Davids sake 7. There is a holiness that comes to them thereby 1 Cor. 7.14 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your children unclean but now are they holy 1 An inward holiness and sanctification it cannot be for it 's a holiness that is conveyed from the parents but so the graces of the Spirit cannot be which are not of blood nor of the will of the flesh 2 Neither can it be meant of legitimation Joh. 1.13 that they are legitimate for there is a lawful marriage between one man and one woman out of the Church as well as in the Church so that they are lawfully man and wife and their children lawfully begotten for the truth of those relations are not founded in grace a father is as truly a father a Magistrate a Magistrate a husband a husband in wicked men and grace adds nothing to the truth of them though it doth to the comfort and right use of them 3 It 's such a holiness as is derived from the faith of the parent for it doth not come unto the child through the unbelieving parent for if they were both unbelievers the children were unclean but it 's a holiness that comes upon the child from the faith of the parent which can be nothing else but a federal holiness being taken into the parents covenant which is either from father or mother derived unto the posterity Now all these are great blessings in themselves though they do ripen a mans sins and bring a greater curse upon him in the end for the marish places shall be given to salt there be no men in the world delivered over to such fearful spiritual plagues as they are Amos 8.1 Heb. 6.1 Quest 4. Answ and if any men prove Devils they doe the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out and the Lord will say unto them I know you not c. § 4. But what is this foederal holiness and wherein doth it consist This I shall speak to 1 Negatively and shew you what it is not 2 Positively and shew you what it is and both are very necessary in the present business both that the false glosses fastened upon this place may be removed and also the true nature of this Holiness cleared and established 1. Negatively what it is not and here I find three interpretations as false and corrupt glosses given of it 1. Of a Holiness of Regeneration but that cannot be the meaning of it for the gracious qualifications of the Soul are no more ex traduce than the Soul it self Joh. 1.13 no man is regenerated from his Parents that he proceeds from though they be themselves regenerate yet the New-birth is not by Propagation In this sence it is true and to be understood what Tertullian saith None were born Christians Here is a case propounded to the Apostle by some of the converted Corinthians 1 Cor. 7.12 1 Cor. 7.12 whether from the example of the Jews and the Law in force amongst them and their practice in Ezra to put away their strange Wives or whether it were really the fear and jealousie of their own spirits lest they might be corrupted by them and lest their converse with them should be displeasing to God and bring a Curse of God upon them for it 's spoken non de matrimoniis contrahendis sed retinendis Calv. not of contracting but continuing marriage Calvin for else the command holds be not unequally yoaked together with Vnbelievers and marry onely in the Lord but being married when they both continued in infidelity whether now one party being converted and the other continuing in Idolatry it be not the duty of the party converted to depart from such a yoak-fellow because of the danger of being defiled by such constant and intimate society In answer to this case the Apostle says if the unbelieving will continue let not the believing husband put away his unbelieving wife c. and the Apostle gives the reason drawn from the powerful influence that a state of Grace hath upon those that are brought into it for the priviledges of the Covenant of Grace are not like unto Conclusions in Logick which do follow in deteriorem partem the same grace that doth sanctifie the man hath a powerful and a gracious influence to sanctifie all things unto
never dying worm gnaw upon thy conscience when it shall tell thee I had a godly parent one within the Covenant of God by whom I had a right unto all outward priviledges of membership but I have walked unworthy of them all and abused them all and therefore now some come from the East and from the West others are grafted in by their own faith that were born of wicked parents and I that was as it were a natural branch grew upon a holy stock and in Covenant am now rejected and cast out as an abominable branch 3 The people of God have exercised faith upon their parents Covenant and have been able sometimes in distress to plead that when they have had little to say for themselves Exod. 15.1 when Moses prays he says Thou art my God and my fathers God and the children of Israel though they could say little for themselves for they were a wicked and disobedient people and their righteousness as a filthy rag yet they say Remember the covenant that thou madest to Abraham and the land that thou gavest unto Abraham thy friend for ever and so David Thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid And Austin pleaded his happiness in his good mother he was the son of her tears and of her Covenant-interest and he glories that in her prayers she did bring forth unto God his own bond and did plead her Covenant in his behalf do not walk unworthy of such Ancestors and be you not degenerate plants when you grow upon such glorious roots and thereby become a shame unto your father that begat you and your mother that bare you 3. It is also an Exhortation unto the Church and the Officers thereof that they have a special care and respect unto the children of the Church they being children of such glorious and great hopes being such as are in covenant with the Lord and the children of the kingdom those that the Lord owns for his children Ephes 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore would have them brought up in the nurture and the fear of the Lord they should be brought up as becomes the children of God 1 They are Church-members and therefore ought to be the care of Church-Officers for the power of the Keyes being committed to them they are by them taken into the Church and if so they come under their care also 2 Out of these the Lord does ordinarily gather the number of them that shall be saved as you have heard the greatest part of the Church comes out of the loyns of his own people and therefore it is of their seed that he will have the visible Church out of which he will have the Church invisible made up 3 It 's the greatest glory of a Church to be fruitfull and to bring forth many young ones to God and the greatest misery of a Church and an argument that the Lord will depart from it lyes in this that it is barren and barren Ordinances and a barren Church is the greatest plague in the world it 's that for which the Lord does threaten to give a people unto salt Ezek. 47.12 the barren has born seven and she that has a husband is waxed feeble it 's happy with the Church when she can say My bed is green Cant. 1.16 for the Church of God has a Posterity Jerusalem has her daughters and the glory of the last Church shall be that there shall be abundance of fish as those of the great Sea exceeding many Ezek. 47.10 11. that is abundance of Souls shall be begotten to the Lord. And children should come under the special care of Church-Officers in two things 1 For matter of Instruction and that in the Ordinances that they are capable of They had two sorts of Catechumeni in the Primitive times some Adulti who were ignorant some Parvuli who were such as were born in the Church and they did undertake the Instruction of them all the Scripture hath Milk for such Babes and the neglect of this makes Ministers to build without a foundation and in a great measure lose their labour all their dayes in preaching things that they never did teach the people when they were young to understand 2 To lay up constant Prayers for those that they receive and it 's not a small mercy for a man to have a stock going in the Churches Ship and to have a daily and a continual interest in their Prayers Christ gives an example of it Math. 19.14 15. He laid his hands upon them and blessed them Non erat inane symbolum nec frustra preces Calvin surely this was not done in vain they being Members of the Church Christ shews that the duty of the Officers of the Church is in this manner to pour out the Prayers of the Church for them being such as are to grow up and to hold forth the Name of the Lord in the succeeding generations the people of God their care should extend beyond their Lives 2 Pet. 1.15 and so did Peters and so should ours for a Posterity also to the Lord in this world of ungodly men that he may still have an increase of children Vse 3 § 3. It 's for consolation unto Parents and that in two things 1. Surely that God that has out of his free grace to thee taken thy seed into Covenant also out of the overflowing of his goodness will deny thee nothing that is a blessing of the covenant if the Lord shew so much grace unto another for thy sake and he be so much beloved how much more to thee Nay it 's said of the Jews when they shall be converted though now they be strangers and enemies for the Gospels sake yet are they beloved for their fathers sake there was little loveliness in them for their own sake but yet there is love for their fathers sake and it 's this free grace that will at last bring them in that God may accomplish unto them their fathers Covenant and if the Lord will do such great things to others for their sakes and in love to them O how may they judge of his love unto themselves thereby This may be a great stay to the hearts of many sinking Christians who doubt of the Love of God toward themselves 2. When you are to dye and be solicitous for the little ones you leave behind you now remember they have a Covenant-Father with whom thou maist leave them and they shall not be found to be Orphans who have God for their father now remember he saith leave thy fatherless Children with me and so could Jacob when he came to dye The Angel that redeemed me from all evil Gen. 38.16 bless the lads and let my name be named upon them and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and this was the great comfort of David when he saw that there was a decay coming upon his family the Sword should not depart from his House yet God had
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