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
in whom all happiness â—es whose very Presence makes Heaven should be made a curse that he who only hath Immortality should give himself unto death that the Incomprehensible should be comprehenâ—ed and Eternity have a beginning and the Ancient of days become a child who can â—ut admire that such things as these should be united and all to make a righteous and a holy God and a sinful creature to become one again So for the Distinctions to see God in Christ dividing between the guilt and stain of sin the guilt Christ will take upon himself by Imputation but he will not take the stain of sin to distinguish between the sin and the sinner that the sin shall be damned and the sinner saved God will take sin off the sinner that there should be a change of the person but not of the righteousness that the guilt of all sin should be taken away perfectly at once but the stain of it blotted out by degrees A mans Covenant is at once renewed and his image but in part so for God to distinguish between the Law as a rule and the Law as a Covenant and the Lord will utterly abolish it in the one respect but not in the other In all this is seen the Majesty and Wisdom of God therefore as our Divines use to say If there had been a Council called of Men and Angels after the Fall how a way might be found out to answer the different demands of the Attributes of God Mercy inclining to spare the Creature as miserable and Justice requiring vengeance upon the Creature as sinful how Mercy and Justice may be satisfied and God and Man be reconciled how God satisfied and the sinner saved how the sin may go to Hell and the sinner to Heaven how the Curse of the Law may be executed and yet the Grace of the Gospel exercised towards man all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth could not have found out a way so I may say in this particular the Creature must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own rule a rule it must have to walk by which must be the manifestation of Gods will or else what it does can never be accepted Tert. for Deo serviendum est non ex arbitrio sed ex imperio And this is the Eternal rule that God will have his Creatures to walk by as answering his holy nature and can be no other and therefore if we walk not after Gods rule Gods curse must follow us Now take away and abolish the Law as a Covenant and so the curse will be thereby removed and now for God to do this and yet to continue the Law as a rule to take that away that was against a man and yet to continue that which was for him it was that which all the wisdom of the Creatures could never have found out a way to accomplish that the Law as a Covenant might be abolished and yet as a rule continued for ever CHAP. VIII To all that are in Christ the first Covenant is made subservient to the second Gal. 3.17 18 19 And this I say that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disanull that it should make the promise of none effect for if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise Wherefore then serveth the Law it was added because of transgression till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator SECT I. The subservience of the first Covenant to the second in general § 1. HAving largely opened to you the Doctrine of the first Covenant we are come at last to conclude it in these three heads 1 A mans Translation out of this Covenant with the nature and necessity thereof 2 The abolition of this Covenant unto all that are in Christ that it is a writing cancelled 3 The subordination thereof unto the Gospel and Covenant of Grace Of the two first we have formerly treated and come now to speak of the last and so to conclude the Doctrine of the first Covenant There are in this Chapter two principal parts 1 Here is a Doctrine confirmed 2 Here are some Objections against it answered and cleared 1. Here is a Doctrine confirmed in which Satan had bewitched the Galatians and they had fallen off from it and that is Justification by the righteousness of Christ alone without the works of the Law and this the Apostle proves by several arguments 1 That which conveys the gifts and graces of the Spirit by that a man is justified in the sight of God but that is not by the works of the Law but by the Doctrine of the Gospel v. 2. 2 All men that are Abrahams seed must be justified the same way that Abraham was but Abraham was justified by faith for he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness Rom. 4.21 22. Therefore they that are justified by faith only are the children of Abraham 3 Justification and blessedness are upon the same persons and that either to them that are of faith or of the works of the Law but it is not by the works of the Law but by faith that they are blessed with faithful Abraham 4 They that are under the curse cannot receive Justification and Life from the Law but they that are under the Law are under the curse 5 God has said that the just shall live by faith but the Law is not of faith that is it does not require faith and propound that way of salvation and life but it requires obedience for it saith He that does them shall live in them 6 If a man do make a Covenant he does disinable himself by his subsequent acts to break it for by his own act he is bound how much more then is the wise God engaged to keep his Covenant who is not as man that he should repent therefore his acts are firm and unchangeable like himself So that the Covenant with Abraham being made 430 years before an after-act in giving the Law cannot make it void 2. Now the Objections follow It will be said that the way of Justification and Salvation by the Law and by the promise are directly contrary or contradictory one to the other the Law is not of saith if the inheritance be by the Law it is no more of promise so that Justification and Salvation cannot be by them both they cannot stand together and therefore it should seem that God did repent of his promise to Abraham and disanulled it or else why would he for four hundred and thirty years after reveal the Law as a quite contrary way to Heaven one by doing and the other by believing It should seem therefore that the Law doth make the promise of God of none effect or at least that God would have both stand together For if a
paid in no coyn but Love again 3 The love and free-grace of God can do man no good unless it doth work in you love to him again and as he loves you freely so do you love him thankfully as no benefit that comes from him is saving to you unless it proceed from love so there is no duty that comes from you is pleasing unto him unless it proceed from love and the proper fruit of this love is to work in you love to him again 4 If you despise his Love you shall surely feel his wrath and there is nothing in the world that doth inflame the wrath of God and make his fire burn so fiercely as Grace despised and Love turned into wantonness For if Love will not win you what will Vse 3 3. How should this comfort us when we do turn to God and specially how should it encourage a back-sliding sinner to return No man hath such misgiving thoughts as he hath Erubescit conscientia erubescit oratio c. Tert. Hos 14.4 but yet remember he will receive you graciously Return you back-sliding children he will heal your back-sliding and love you freely There is no sin so great that free-grace cannot pardon there is no mercy so good that free-grace cannot bestow and therefore above all things beg of the Lord that the apprehensions of this Love may be shed abroad in your hearts it is this only that can make the promise sure because it is of Grace this will assist us in all duties arm us against all temptations sustain us in all conditions answer all objections that can be made against the peace and comfort of the soul and truly when all works in a man cease and the guilt of sin doth wear out the testimony of blood and the filth of sin the testimony of water and the soul hath nothing to fly to he is then fain to cast anchor here rest upon the Grace of God in the Covenant who promises mercy freely loves for his own sake and because he will to shew the absoluteness of his will and the unchangeableness of his Counsel towards poor sinners for ever Cogitatio suffulta est as de Deiu upon the place Isa 26.3 and here the soul is staid in the greatest desertions and darkness that can be and there is a sweet peace that follows in his soul and there is nothing can stay sinking thoughts and spirits like this when apprehensions of free-grace are put under a soul to support it That there is nothing can separate from the love of God that being the first cause there can nothing arise de novo that can make it void and of no effect CHAP. II. The Covenant of Grace as made primarily with Christ the second Adam Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ SECT I. The Covenant made with Christ Personal in regard of his Office § 1. WE have formerly spoken of the Person that made this Covenant whose Covenant it is and who had a chief hand therein it is the Lords Covenant We do now come unto the second thing and that is the Persons that are taken into this Covenant with whom this Covenant was made The first Covenant was made with the first Adam and with all the posterity that came from him by natural generation and is therefore fitly called Foedus Naturae the Covenant of Nature The second Covenant is made with the second Adam and with all those that are in him and because it belongs not unto all therefore is stiled Foedus Gratiae the Covenant of Grace and this Scripture holds forth a threefold subordination of the persons received into this Covenant 1 Christ 2 those that are in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum in loc Rom. 2.4 3 their seed also The Apostle had proved in the former part of the Chapter that men are justified by faith only and not by the works of the Law and that the same way of Justification that there was unto Abraham God did intend to justifie all the Elect by for Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness and he was herein the common father of all that should believe For they that are of faith the same are the children of Abraham the father of the Circumcision and of the Uncircumcision also and therefore he received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised Now Abraham being herein a common root and father unto both Jews and Gentiles there was but one way of Justification for both and that for ever And whereas it is objected that Abraham was justified by faith before the Law was given but the Law being published and that in the form of a Covenant this do and live this seems to disannul and to make void the promise and the ancient way of Justification of Abraham and to set up another Now the Apostle comes to prove the stability and unchangeableness of this Covenant from the manner and custom amongst men and their transactions one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word in the Greek signifies both a Covenant and a Testament and therefore we render it for both one in the Text and the other in the Margent pactionem so Beza Testamentum so the Vulgar Now if a man make a bargain and confirm ingross and seal it and deliver it to the benefit of another it becomes unchangeable and irrevocable to the person that did it and he is bound to it and cannot revoke it or if a man make a Testament and then die it is amongst men counted sacred and no man can diminish or add thereunto If men whose Wills are mutable who may err and repent do by their own acts disenable themselves to revoke their Covenants much more the great God who is in his Wisdom infinite able to foresee all inconveniencies that nothing can arise de novo that he knew not of before and who is in his purposes unchangeable and cannot repent surely if he make a Covenant it is sure and stable that no after-acts of his shall make it void and of none effect but to Abraham and his seed was the Covenant thus made long before the Law was given therefore the Law given afterward cannot make it void and if the Covenant be the same then the way of Justification and Blessedness must be still the same Here are three things to be expounded 1 What is meant by the Promises 2 How Abraham is here to be considered in receiving of the Promises 3 What is meant by Christ here this one seed to whom the Promises were made 1. By Promises the whole Covenant of Grace is meant He doth call it the Covenant in the former verse and the Promise in the singular number in the verse following and the reason is because the main of the Covenant doth
populi nomine fidem obedientiam So that the righteousness of the Covenant being only to be found in him and to be made ours by imputation and a gracious acceptation as we are one with him thence it doth plainly appear that the Covenant is made with him in the first place and we come to have an interest in the everlasting righteousness of it at second hand as we are one with him and so we are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. last Quest But is not the righteousness of the Covenant required of us also Answ It is true that perfect obedience in nature and life is required of us as well as of Adam in the state of innocency and so far as we come short of it we sin but yet in the Covenant of Grace it is not required as the righteousness of the Covenant and as that righteousness by which I am to stand righteous before God as afflictions in the Covenant of Grace are not laid upon the Saints for satisfaction to God but for correction c. but it is required and that perfectly 2 Cor. 7.10 That we should cleanse our selves from all filthiness and perfect holiness in the fear of God to manifest the truth of our union with Christ The branch cannot bear fruit of it self Joh. 15.5 without me saith Christ you can do nothing and you do hereby manifest that you are one with me As James 2.24 Abraham was justified by works according to James a man is justified not by Faith only and yet Paul saith that a man is justified by Faith alone without the works of the Law Rom. 4. A mans faith doth justifie his person before God and a mans works do justifie his faith before men and it is that we may shew forth the vertues of him that hath called us 1 Pet. 2.9 and that it may appear that our union with Christ is not a notion and no more but that it is real and powerful and our Faith is lively because it is a working Faith and this righteousness now imputed unto us as we are in him he will never leave till he hath perfected in us Ephes 5.27 That he may present us unto himself without spot or wrinkle this is a work that he hath undertaken unto his Father but yet so as the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found in him alone and made to be imputed only as we are one with him in Gods account and acceptation so that still the Covenant is made with him primarily because in him only the righteousness of the Covenant is to be found and comes unto us at second hand 4. All the promises of the Covenant are made unto him primarily and unto us only at second hand and as we are one with him they are made first unto him and therefore they are called the sure mercies of David and Ephes 1.3 Isa 55.3 God has blessed us with all spiritual mercies in heavenly places in Christ 2 Cor. 1.20 they are made in him that is unto us as we are in him and so they are accomplished If the promises of God were by deed of gift only from the free grace of God they might be made unto us immediately for God may give to whom he will but they are all of them a jointure or an endowment upon a Marriage which can neither be either rationally or legally claimed without an interest in the person All the Promises are as the lines and circumference they all meet in union with Christ as the center for they are all made unto Christ and unto us only so far as we are members of Christ Gal. 3. last Being Christs we are become heirs of the Promise and no otherwise God deals with a people in this as a Father takes an inheritance of a Child in his infancy or it may be unborn and he keeps it in his own hands for him till he comes to years and then puts him into possession thereof So it is with the Saints they are maintained a long time in the womb of Gods election before they are brought forth in a work of calling and regeneration and being called they are not capable of receiving of many of the promises they are in their infancy but yet these promises are conveyed from God to Christ as an inheritance which he receives as a publick person a common Father in their behalf which in Gods time he will put them also in possession of 5. All the graces of the Covenant be first bestowed upon him The Spirit as the Oil is poured first upon the head and afterwards it runs down upon the skirts of his garments Psal 133.2 So Psal 45.7 He is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows and 1 John 2.20 We receive an unction from the holy one Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we receive grace for grace 1 Joh. 5.11 God has given us eternal life and that life is in his son It is laid up in him as in a common treasury even the whole Image of God that he doth intend to bestow upon us in grace and glory it is given unto us and laid up in him for us but yet it is in him and not in us he has received the spirit without measure he is the Son of righteousness Isa 6.57 and our healing is in his wings There are as you may see three steps or degrees of conveyance in this life 1 The living Father as the fountain 2 Christ saith I live by the Father And it is given him to have life in himself as the chanel or way of conveyance 3 You live by me All the graces of the Covenant do actually belong unto him and unto us as we are one with him and therefore it is commonly called the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as that which is originally in him as in the fountain or principle and conveyed unto us only by union as we are members of his body so we have an influence from him as the head and no otherwise 6. All the priviledges of the Covenant do primarily belong to him and unto us only as we are in him he is the Son and from him we receive power to become the Sons of God he is the heir Jo. 1.12 Psal 8.4 Heb. 2. and we co-heirs with him Rom. 8.17 He has put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen c. This is spoken primarily and principally of the man Christ Jesus he is called Gods servant and in him we are servants also he is a King and a Priest and we are made by him Kings and Priests unto God the Father Rev. 1.6 he is the first beloved and we in him he first accepted and we in him he first justified and we in him he first overcomes and we in him we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our Testimony we sit together in heavenly places He judges the world and we in him and when we come to
up a full resolution or purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord to keep this Covenant Act 11.23 and to stick to the terms of it to perform all thy duties towards God by it and expect all from God according to it and this is properly to enter into Covenant with the Lord. 1. You are to hear the words of it and to know aright the terms of it for he that enters into Covenant with the Lord it must be by giving up himself unto God which must be a reasonable service Rom. 12.1 2. and therefore Christ when men enter upon Religion would have them sit down first and count the cost for if men enter not upon any duty with a right understanding their hearts will again draw back and they will forsake it so here if men understand not the terms of the Covenant aright they will depart from the living God the consent of the Covenant must be a consent without error or else it is supposed that if a man had known it before he would not have consented it 's said of a marriage Covenant Error circa ea quae sunt de essentia contractus vitiat contractum c. and a consent with error and when a man understands not what he doth is no consent Now what are the Terms of this Covenant They are these 1. That you take Christ and close with him in a work of faith believe in him and be unto him alone for Gal. 3. ult We that believe are Abrahams seed and it is by our following the steps of his faith that he becomes the Father of us all therefore the Gospel is said to be making a marriage for his Son Rom. 4.16 Mat 22. it 's Christ and the soul that are married in this Covenant or else now is the time of betrothing and the marriage is to come and therefore the Church of the Jews when they shall be converted and the glorious marriage of the Lamb is come she is said to be the Bride the Lambs Wife now that soul that takes Christ for his portion looks upon him as altogether lovely the chiefest of ten thousand and relies upon him alone for righteousness and life and accounts all things else as dross Phil. 3.9 with an exclusive resolution of looking to any thing else whatsoever I would win him saith Paul and be found in him alone not having mine own righteousness this is the first branch upon which God offers this Covenant 2. A man must deny himself Mat. 16.24 and forsake also thy own Kindred and thy Fathers house Psal 45. Now self is commonly considered by Divines three waies 1 As sinful 2 As natural 3 As moral self religious renewed self and all these must be denied 1 Sinful self that is the whole body of sin but specially that lust that thy heart is most addicted to thy peccatum in deliciis which the Scripture calls thine own iniquity and the stumbling block of thy iniquity there must be a reserve of no sin 2 Natural self all thy reason and natural parts wealth Father and Mother House and Lands yea and life for my name sake and that alwaies 1 Habitually in preparation of mind and resolution of heart to give them up all unto God when he shall call for them Act. 21.13 I am ready saies the Apostle not only to be bound but to dye c. 2 And actually whensoever the Lord calls for any thing thou hast if they be temptations to draw thee unto sin and a snare to thy soul or if the Lord call for them as oblations to himself if the Lord call thee forth to own him with them by resigning them up and we know not how soon the Lord may call to suffering if thou art a Moses thou must leave Pharaohs Court and suffer affliction with the people of God and if thou art a Daniel and canst not worship a false God nor the true God in a wrong manner thou must expect to be thrown into the Lyons den and if a Paul thou wilt resolve to preach a crucified Christ though Nero forbid it and the powers of the world threaten bonds and imprisonment to abide thee nay thou maiest expect to lay down thy life upon a block and if thou art a Mordecai and refusest to bow to unsanctified greatness or stoop to the lusts of men thou must expect to have a Gallows prepared for thee 3 Self renewed must be denied in the notion of duties we are to perform all but in relation to righteousness we are to deny all and account them all as dross and dung and menstruous rags Exod. 28.38 and if we would have acceptance we must look upon the forehead of the High-Priest wherein alone is written holiness to the Lord that we may find acceptance with him for our righteousness has such an ill savour that the Lord must abhor it there is iniquity in our holy things unless the Lord Christ does offer and present them mixed with his odours therefore we must deny our righteousness utterly there must be a perfect self-denial as the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. A man must bear his yoak Mat. 11.29 Take my yoak upon you the Lord does not set a man free in the Covenant of Grace that he should turn the grace of God into licentiousness he has a yoak of obedience for the neck of every Saint and what is that but all the duties of the Law aâ—â—en in the hand of the Mediator And this yoak is easie and profitable for a soul it brings in a revenue both of pleasure and profit in the keeping of the Commandments is great reward and there 's sincerity required which is everlasting evangelical perfection as the Lord saies to Abraham walk before me and be thou perfect the perfection in this life that is attainable under the second Covenant is sincerity of heart a suitableness of the will to the Law of God though a mans actions â—ome short of the Law yet he can delight in the Law in his inward man and has reâ—pect unto all the commandments when he is willing to put his neck under the yoak of Christ and neglect no known duty for it is dangerous to seek ease in the ways of God that the Lord would not have as we see Numb 7.7 8 9. the Sons of Gersham and Merari had Wagons to carry their burdens but the Sons of Coah were to carry the Ark upon their shoulders now they were not to take their ease and David brought the Ark upon a new Cart and the Lord was displeased and made a breach upon Vzzah for it c. 4. You must take heed you shrink not at the Cross but take it up for there is a Cross goes with the second Covenant and a man with all the blessings of it must expect affliction Mat. 19.29 Mark 10.30 He that takes up his Cross in losing any thing for Christs sake shall have a hundred fold more in this life but with
left to the judgment of God as a man is that is wholly cast off from all care of the Church 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be Anathema maranatha to shew that the Church had done their utmost used all means that were possible for them to do and they did avail nothing and therefore they did now cast him off as incurable and left him to the judgment of the Lord at his coming so they that are without are left to Gods judgment but they that are within are under the Churches care and judgment Now that Cain was cast out is plain Gen. 4.14 Gen. 4.14 Thou hast cast me out from the face of the earth and from thy face c. and so the meaning is a vagabond I shall be on the earth from thy face shall I be hid Of this there 's a double interpretation that 's commonly given answerable to a twofold acceptation of the face of God 1 By Gods face is meant Gods favour love protection and all the fruits of favour as all men seek the face of the Ruler and God says I 'le shew thee the back and not the face in the day of their calamity Mercer Gloss 2 Others by the face of God do understand locum patefactionis divinae c. the place of Gods manifestation and so it 's put for the visible Church where the Lord in a special manner doth reveal himself and therefore are the Jews called Jesuron or the seeing people and Jerusalem called the valley of Vision c. and so to be hid from the face of God est ab Ecclesia parentum ubi cultum Deo praestabant c. is to be cast out of the parents Church c. and this is the interpretation that most of our Divines give of it 3 It 's said That whoever did find him would slay him Cain was therefore a man taken into a Church-covenant together with his parents though he was but the seed according to the flesh and so he continued till for the just desert of his own sin he was cast out and had an immediate sentence of Excommunication past upon him by God himself the first example that we read of in Scripture of a Church-censure and the same is true also of Ismael Gen. 21.10 12. Gal. 4.30 Cast out the bond-woman and her son she did speak it may be sensu suo de haereditate facultatum but the Lord did carry it higher as Pareus hath observed and he expounds it de haereditate spirituali Abrahams family was a resemblance of the visible Church and the ejection was a casting out of the visible Church and is to be understood of a visible casting out therefore while Ismael and his mother were in Abrahams family they were members and came under Abrahams covenant but when they were cast out then they were to be looked upon as people in covenant with God no longer they could lay no claim to the covenant of Abraham The same may be said of the whole Nation of the Jews who were all taken into a Church-covenant they and their children Deut. 29.12 14. and yet but a remnant a very few of them were saved and taken into the spiritual benefit of the covenant and those that were not taken in they and their posterity were also ejected and the Lord called them Loammi and gave them a bill of divorce to be such as he would owne in way of Church-fellowship and Communion no longer and the same course the Lord takes with the Gentiles also when he removes the Candlestick Rev. 2.5 Rev. 2.5 By the Candlestick is meant not only the preaching of the Gospel and the Ordinances thereof but the Church it self for so Rev. 1.20 the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches and the Lord would take away his Ordinances and they and their posterity should be no more owned by God as his Church and people in covenant with him so that they were broken off as the Jews were Now they that are spiritually and savingly in the covenant can never be cast out of any part of the covenant it 's everlasting and they never can be broken off therefore it 's meant of the carnal seed those that are externally in covenant but not spiritually and savingly 3. As for that place Gen. 21.12 For in Isaac shall thy seed be called Gen. 21.12 which is made so much use of to overthrow this Doctrine and that none are taken into covenant with God but the◠that do truly believe and be the sons of Abrahams faith the meaning seems plainly to be this 1 It is to be understood that the Messiah the promised seed should not come from Ishmael but from Isaac It 's to be understood de semine benedicto 2 Of the spiritual Seed and that in a double sence 1 Of the peculiar and electing Love of God which should run in Isaac and his posterity 2 De privilegio foederis for all his Posterity were not elected and spiritually holy and in covenant with God but in his seed the visible Church of God should be continued and they should be those amongst whom the Lord would hold forth his Name and set up his Worship and this must be chiefly the meaning for it 's a comfort to Abraham against casting out of Ishmael out of his Family which had a resemblance of the visible Church and in the execution of this Church-censure to be done by Abraham the Priest of the Family he must excommunicate one Son as he was as a Priest to offer the other and now the Lord comforts him in this affliction that the seed that should be accounted his and should be continued as the blessed seed amongst the Nations should be the Posterity of Isaac and they should be reckoned for his Seed an expression answerable unto that of Eve Gen. 4.15 God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew that is in whom and in whose posterity the Church of God should be continued unto the end of the world though Cain were excommunicated and Abel slain yet the Covenant of God should be made good unto the Woman and her seed and so by thy seed shall be called in Isaac is meant the continuance of the visible Church in the Posterity of Isaac when Ishmael was cast out and therefore this makes nothing to prove that none of Abrahams seed were taken into the Covenant but those that were elected and did walk in the steps of the Faith of Abraham Quest 2 § 2. Into what of the Covenant are they taken and in what respect can they be said to be under the Covenant of Grace who are in a state of nature in the old Adam and therefore as you have shewed us under a Covenant of works and we have heard from Gal. 4. that it 's as impossible for a man to be under two Covenants at one and the same time as it is for a man to be born of two Mothers and when the son of
any necessity that all that are born in the Nation should therefore be members of the Churches of God in that Nation hence the Lord when he did cast them off did cast off the whole Nation and the ejection was not of particular persons Isa 66.8 and God will convert the Nation again and they shall have national Ordinances and a national Covenant and therein they are distinguished from all other Churches and shall be but seeing our taking in is personal and our ejection personal it 's not so with us but the father may be taken in with the children and the father cast out with the children and yet the Covenant be continued to the rest of the people and the Churches of Christ amongst them 3. The Jews continued in a Church-state though they were prophane till the Nation was cast off and cut off from being a Church unto God now the question is not Whether an ungodly man living in the Church while he keeps his visible standing there and is not cast out may not claim a visible right unto all the Ordinances for himself and his Posterity for certainly while he keeps his visible standing though he be a wicked-man yet it cannot be deny'd him and so it was amongst the Jews But if any amongst us through the negligence of the Church be continued in our Churches so profane and we do not bear them as burdens and cast them off as judging that a little leven will leven the whole lump it is the sin of the Church that such men should have a visible standing therefore they ought to be cast out and so de jure they have no right and if they be once cast out and excommunicated then they that are judged themselves to have no right unto Church-Ordinances cannot give this right unto others And it is that which we must look upon as the great sin of this Nation that we will intitle the whole Nation to a Church-state and every particular person a Church-member and yet no care is taken that either they walk as does become Members or else that they be excluded from such a pretended right and the Reformation of this Nation will never be thorough according to the Rules of the Gospel till this be done in all Priviledges Ordinances one as well as another There are two more questions have been propounded to me concerning this case 1 By this means what difference will be put between the Children of Christians and the Children of Pagans 2 If that they were baptized their Parents having no federal right whether is their Baptism null and must they then be rebaptized Quest 1. 1. To the first I answer that though it be a thing that may sound harsh and carry an Odium with it yet the Scripture does commonly call them Heathens even those that were wicked within the Church Rulers of Sodom and People of Gomorrha Saul is call'd Cush the Ethiopians and the Ziphims though they were Jews David calls Strangers or Aliens c. and the Papists though they profess Christ and take upon themselves the title of Churches Rev. 11.2 yet they are call'd Gentiles And we must know this that all men are either without or within if without though some are nearer and some are further off and therefore have greater opportunity of entrance than others yet they are still without and if they are within they must be visible Saints or else they ought not to be within and it will be judged by God the sin and profaneness of the Church and the Officers thereof if they are suffer'd to continue within as Members Now if we lay aside the hateful name of Turks and Pagans and if we say that the Parents either are not within or ought not to be within then I conceive he being unto me by Christs rule as a Heathen man and a Publican I cannot think his Children in a better condition in reference unto a Covenant-right than they can receive from their Father which I am well assured he has not to give Quest 2. And as for the Second Question it has been generally concluded by Divines ancient and modern that they are not to be rebaptized but that when they come to believe and repent they then reap the benefit of that Baptism which before they had no fruit of because they had no right to it yet when once they come by Faith to have a right to it then their Baptism availeth and so is not null to them nor need there a second Baptism but this would be entring into a new controversie which I shall have a fitter place in this discourse to handle where it will more directly fall in and therefore I must beg your patience in whose minds this does raise any scruple that you will spare me for a full answer unto it till then And so much shall serve to be spoken to the sixth Question Quest 7 § 7. If the Childs federal right be onely by the confederate Parents priviledge what is it in the Parent that gives the Child a right Is it converting and regenerating Grace or is it an external Profession onely When the Apostle sayes the Vnbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband else were your Children unclean doth he mean there justifying Faith which the Scripture calls the Faith of the Elect and is the holiness of the Child so from the faith of the Parent Lawrence c. 6. p. 191. or is it from an outward Profession of faith only It 's affirmed by some that it 's onely regenerating Grace saving Faith that does bring the father within the Covenant and therefore it 's this in the father and nothing else that can entitle the child to it which is proved from Rom. 4.16 Abraham is the Father of us all not only of the Jews but of the Gentiles also because the Covenant-right after a sort began in him he is the root upon which they all did grow that came after now that brings us under Abrahams Covenant which gives us a title to be call'd Abrahams seed And it 's plain Rom. 11. that there were two sorts of seed or children and so in Abraham a double Paternity there was Abraham begetting and there was Abraham believing and answerably to these two there are children according to the flesh and children of the faith of Abraham and though while the Jews continued they might claim Circumcision as belonging to them by generation because they did descend from the loyns of Abraham yet we can claim no title by carnal generation and therefore our title must be from our faith walking in the steps of the faith of Abraham andso the Apostle writing to the Galatians that were Gentiles tells them there is no way of being sons of Abraham and entering into his Covenant but by believing Know you therefore that they which are of faith c. Gal. 3.7.9 And if it be only the faith of the Parent that doth intitle unto the Covenant of Abraham
nisi quod traditum yet conceiving it after my best examination to be a truth of God for I did desire to believe before I spake I could not but speak what I apprehended to be the mind of God therein I should not desire to obtrude any thing upon you without examination if it be upon tryal but hay and stubble I shall be content that it shall burn but if it be a truth of God it will abide the tryal and though such a truth as this is may receive some prejudice by the weakness of the instrument yet if it be a truth the Lord Jesus will certainly raise up such instruments as shall be able to carry it through against all opposition I come now to answer the former Objection I do acknowledge that there is no way for the Gentiles to come under Abrahams covenant but by faith they cannot claim a title from Abraham begetting that belongs to the Jews only who are therefore called by the Apostle the natural Branches Rom. 11.24 and the Gentiles are said to be ingrafted contrary unto nature and therefore the Gentiles can claim no interest in Abrahams covenant but from believing Abraham and yet I deny that the faith which shall give a man any kind of right or title must be true saving and justifying faith And to clear this I must give you a threefold distinction 1. Of Abraham as a father and it 's plain that the Scripture speaks of a threefold paternity of Abraham 1 Abraham is a natural father and so to the Jews only for they are his posterity according to the flesh the natural branches that grow out of this root and this is the paternity that the Jews did glory in We have Abraham to our father Mat. 3.9 Joh. 8.39 2 Abraham is a spiritual father unto all true Believers who walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham whether they be of the Jews or of the Gentiles and they shall be blessed with faithful Abraham Rom. 4.11 12. for which cause I suppose it is that Heaven is called Abrahams bosom Luk. 16.22 Luk. 16.22 Abraham being the father of all the Faithful they shall be received into the same happiness with himself and he will shew unto them special love and tenderness Infantes in parentum sinu gestati amorem benevolentiam intimam experiuntur and so to be gathered to the Saints our fathers is a special mercy because we shall have an experience of the highest love of the Saints even Abraham himself the father of us all will owne us for his sons and receive us into his bosom Others take it as a Metaphor from the custom of the Jews in conviviis in their feasts where they did alter in alterius sinu occumbere lye down one in the others bosom Joh. 13.23 answerable unto that Mat. 8.11 They shall sit down with Abraham Isaac Joh. 13.23 Mat. 8.11 and Jacob in the kingdom of God which doth very fitly suit unto the Parable in hand Lazarus stands at the door of the rich man and was not admitted to taste of his meat much less to sit down at his table but he shall sit down in Heaven at the supper of the Lamb with Abraham Isaac and Jacob he shall there lean upon Abrahams bosom 3 Abraham is also an Ecclesiastical or a Church-father Rom. 11.16 as it appears Rom 11.16 he is the root upon which the Churches of the Jews did grow and into which the Churches of the Gentiles are ingrafted many of the Jews were not spiritually his seed and yet they are said to be broken off not from being Abrahams natural seed that they could never be deprived of they were the posterity of Abraham according to the flesh and so they do remain even after their breaking off but they are only broken off from a Church-relation and so they are the seed of Abraham no more and the Gentiles are grafted not into Abraham as a natural father a natural root for they never can be the posterity of Abraham according to nature and many of them are not from him as a spiritual father for many of them believe not and therefore are in danger of being cut off as the Jews were broken off whence they grow upon Abraham and are ingrafted into him as an Ecclesiastical or Church-father So then the answer is there is not a sufficient enumeration of Abrahams paternities It 's confessed the Gentiles cannot become the posterity of Abraham as a natural father or as a spiritual father for so many of the Gentiles are not of the seed of Abraham as do not walk in the steps of his faith but yet Abraham is an Ecclesiastical father unto the Gentiles as well as he was to the Jews that believed not for the Gentiles are ingrafted into the same root out of which the natural branches were broken off which cannot be spoken of his faith and grace that 's never broken off therefore it is of his Ecclesiastical or Church respect it must be meant 2. In the Covenant of Abraham there are two parts the one spiritual consisting in the inward graces and priviledges the other external consisting in outward priviledges only and this doth plainly appear in Isaac who was the child of the free woman and unto whom the Covenant descended according to the spiritual graces and priviledges thereof and in Ismael who was the son of the bond-woman born after the flesh and taken into covenant only in reference to the external priviledges thereof Deut. 29.10 12 13 14. Rom. 9.4 and thus were all the Jews taken into covenant with God as it appears Ezech. 16.8 and yet with many of them God was not well pleased they never had an interest in the saving graces and the spiritual priviledges of the Covenant for Rom. 9.6 They are not all Israel that are of Israel they were all inchurch'd Israel but they were not all of elected Israel for as there is an external calling Mat. 22.14 and sanctification Mat. 22.14 Joh. 15.2 Heb. 10.29 and an external being in Christ so there is also an external being in Covenant with God or being taken into the Covenant of Abraham for Abraham is the root of the Covenant into which the Gentiles also are ingrafted Rom. 11.17 there is a fatness that is from the Olive-tree communicated to the branches even to such branches as were broken off in whose places the Gentiles were grafted in Now the saving graces of the Covenant are not communicated from any Company of men in the world no not from the invisible Church but from Christ only who is therefore said to be the Root of David Rev. 22.16 and the fountain of the Gardens Cant. 3.15 but Ordinances and outward Priviledges are properly the Churches and from the Church are communicated to others as members whether they be elect or reprobate the Gentiles therefore may have an interest in Abrahams Covenant in reference to the outward Priviledges and Ordinances thereof though
might cause his power to be acknowledged 2. God hath made over his attributes to his people that they may take from them all grounds of faith with an assurance that they shall be all exercised for them according unto their necessities Psal 13.5 so the Mercy of God I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation Here is mercy the object of faith and an assurance that this attribute shall shew forth it self in a work of salvation and deliverance for him I have trusted in the mercy of God for the bringing me out of this and another affliction and I have been delivered Psal 52.8 therefore I will always exalt the mercy of God So for the Power of God the soul can argue from thence Dan. 3. when men threaten and Devils rage and the fiery furnace may be heated seven times hotter to consume the soul that has no help amongst creatures yet says Daniel and the three Children the God whom we serve is able to deliver us And the Lord encourages the soul from the assurance of his power Is my arm shortned that I cannot save is any thing too hard for the Lord is there any restraint to omnipotence And so also Christ puts them upon it in this With man it 's impossible but with God all things are possible it 's spoken in reference to a work of Sanctification when the Disciples said Who then can be saved Esay 26.4 Esay 27.5 So for the Eternity of God Trust in the Lord for ever for the Lord Jehovah is a Rock of Ages and so men are said to take hold of the strength of God And so of the Holiness of God I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David and therefore Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life And so Abraham believed God was able to raise him up again from the dead if it might stand with his glory he did not question his will but that his power should be put forth for the accomplishment of his promise We know that the ultimate object of faith is God through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 our faith and hope is in God now the highest object of faith in God is the attributes of God that he has discovered for we can believe in him no otherwise than we know him and as he has revealed himself and the way of Gods revealing himself unto his people in this life is only by his back parts which are his attributes and therefore this is the way of the acting of faith in this life and all the promises of God and the precepts and the threatnings of God are all of them founded on his attributes and in these doth the strength and stability of them lye because the Lord Jehovah is a rock of ages As it is in ends all intermediate ends work in the strength and the power of the utmost end so it is in objects also Objectum mediatum fidei movet in virtute objecti ultimati ab eo perfectionem accipit The mediate object of faith moves in the virtue of the ultimate object and receives perfection from it Eph. 4.18.23.24 3. That from these the soul may receive all principles of grace grace is called the Life of God and the Divine Nature the Image of God created in the soul it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according unto God Now in an image there are two things required 1 Proportion or similitude and resemblance 2 There is a deduction or a derivation it must be taken from it As there is a resemblance of the nature of God so there is a derivation of it from God Now though the incommunicable attributes of God are so called because there are in the creatures no footsteps or resemblances yet there are of the attributes that are communicable from them the image of God is derived unto us and we are made partakers of his holiness holy as he is holy Heb. 12.10 Jam. 1.5 and merciful as he is merciful and wise as he is wise If any man want wisdom let him ask it of God as all of them shall be employed for man without him so all of them shall work in man an image or a resemblance of himself within him that a man beholding the glory of the Lord is transformed thereby into the same image And this is to be made the rule to judge the measure of our graces by for primum est mensura reliquorum c. The first is the measure of the rest in that kind So far as they do come short of bearing a resemblance with the communicable attributes of God I say of bearing a resemblance for they are in God by nature but in us by grace and by new creation they are nature in him they are not so in us so far we are to bewail the defects of our graces and so far grace is the image of God in us but in part a good work begun and no more and it is a discovery of his attributes which are the original pattern that doth perfect his image in us which is but the counterpane and therefore we shall be perfectly like him when we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 4. God hath in Covenant made over his Attributes that from these the soul may take all rules of duty and as the highest objects of faith are in God so from him are the highest rules of duty and therefore Eph. 5.1 the exhortation is Be ye imitators of God 1 Pet. 1.15 and be you holy in all manner of conversation because he is holy and so from the Soveraignty of God it 's the ordinary argument thou shalt do thus and thus for I am Jehovah thy God And David takes his rule from this in the preparation he made for the Temple the house must be exceeding magnificent and therefore all his preparation though the wealth of a Kingdom was but an act of his poverty for it is for the Lord who is a great God and dwells not in Temples made with hands c. And it 's the argument that he himself useth as the rule unto them in their performances Mal. 1.13 I am a great King and my name is dreadful amongst the Heathen As the soul is never rightly bottomed upon a promise till it is carried out into that attribute upon which the promise doth depend so the soul is never grounded in duty till it looks beyond the precept and sees the attributes in God which are the foundation of the duty and this is properly to walk worthy of God Col. 1.10 That ye may walk worthy c. It doth not note exactam proportionem Daven sed quandam decentiam convenientiam not an exact proportion but a certain decence and convenience when a mans duties are done by rules taken from so great a God and proportionable unto the nature holiness and excellency of that God God is a Spirit
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
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
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
consist of Promises they are many Promises of this life and of the life to come Promises absolute and conditional Promises of Grace and to Grace and they are therefore called better Promises and so because in respect of the Fathers their good things were even wholly contained in Promises as the Ceremonial Law was contained in Ordinances and they saw nothing in the one but in the Type and nothing in the other but in the Promises they did salute them afar off and imbracing them died in the faith of them but they never received the thing promised Heb. 11. Joh. 8.57 only as Abraham desired to see my days says Christ and he saw it and was glad And it is sometimes called the promise because they are all one in Christ being in him all yea and amen as lines in a Center are one follow any promise to its Original as rivers unto the head and rise of them and they will all lead you unto Christ and yet they are Promises in themselves many as the lines are in the Circumference though but one in the Center Ephes 2.12 the Apostle Paul useth a quite different expression Strangers unto the Covenants of promise he doth as it were make the promise but one for substance and the Covenants many the Covenants are many because of their manifold delivery being severally renewed and yet in all these in several ages the promises the same as if but one promise 2. How and in what order is Abraham to be considered in this Covenant and in receiving this promise In this Covenant Abraham stands as a publick person as a common root Rom. 11. or as a common Parent unto all the faithful unto the worlds end as one that did receive the Promise not only for himself but for all those that should after his example believe in Christ and become his Children and therefore he is said to be the father of the faithful Rom. 4.16 and they that do believe are Abrahams seed and also heirs of the Promise For as Austin hath observed there are three sorts of Fathers and of Sons some are according to nature and others are secundum Doctrinam according to Doctrine so Paul was father to Timothy having begotten him by the Gospel others secundum imitationem according to imitation as filii Abrahami nos sumus cujus fidem imitamur we are Abrahams children if we imitate his faith And this the Lord doth for a double end 1 To put an honour upon his servant as a great reward of his faith and therefore he changed his name calling him the Father of many Nations as one that was the root and first in the Covenant and they all coming in at second hand under Abrahams Covenant and therefore Mic. 7.20 it is mercy to Abraham Mic. 7.20 and truth to Jacob because in Abraham after a sort the Covenant did begin not that to him the Covenant of Grace was first revealed for it was made known unto Adam and Abel was justified by faith Heb. 11.3 but because unto Abraham was the clearest discovery of the Covenant and the Lord did in the most solemn manner enter into Covenant with him therefore it is mercy to Abraham that being the foundation of making the Covenant as his truth and faithfulness is of keeping the Covenant 2 The Lord does it thereby to make Abraham as it were a Type of Christ that it may be continued unto posterity that the way by which God intended to dispense the Grace of the Covenant was from one common head or root as the first Covenant to the first Aam and all his posterity so the second Covenant with the second Aam of whom first Abraham and afterwards David were the fullest Types and resemblances Thus that the Lord might honour Abraham his friend with the highest honour as the root of all the Faithful and that this manner of conveyance of the Grace of the Covenant from one common root might be made known and thereby mans heart led unto Christ the root and Prince of the Covenant therefore it was made with Abraham as a publick person and the father of us all 3. What is meant by Christ here the seed of Abraham not seeds as of many Here Interpreters are divided There is a twofold seed of Abraham to which they have an eye according unto these two promises In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Gen. 22.18 Christus in individuo Christus in aggregato and Gen. 17.7 I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee and answerably unto these they observe in Scripture a twofold Christ Christ Personal and Christ Mystical so 1 Cor. 12.12 the whole Church is called Christ and the sufferings of the Church are called the sufferings of Christ Ephes 1.23 and the fulness of the Church the fulness of Christ as Col. 1.18 Here some say is to be understood Christ personal for two reasons 1 The person to whom the promise is made is the same in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed but this is by Abraham in reference to this seed It 's true all the faithful as they are the seed of Abraham they are blessed with faithful Abraham but they are not that seed in whom all the Nations of the world shall be blessed Rutherf Triumph of Faith p. 51. Gen. 22.18 that is in Abraham as this seed should come out of his loins and it refers us only to the person of Christ which cannot be understood of Christ Mystical therefore Ambrose saith of this promise Impletum est in Christo ideoque non in multis sed in uno firmata est promissio 2 Because it is said verse the 17. the Covenant was made before of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erga Christum or ad Christum in or to Christ speaking of the same seed that he had spoken of in the verse before now this promise and Covenant was not confirmed in Christ Mystical but Christ Personal in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen And hence Pareus and divers others do conclude it to be understood Individuè de uno Christo ex quo omnis spiritualis benedictio in fidelem diffluit c. Individually of Christ from whom all spiritual benediction flows Others do conceive it is to be understood of Christ Mystical 1 From the order that is here mentioned the promise is made first unto Abraham and then unto his seed therefore the seed here spoken of must be such a seed as comes to have a right to the promise as second Bulkley of the Gospel-Covenant p. 37. in order unto Abraham but this cannot be Christ Personal for he has not a right unto the Promise from Abraham but Abraham from him and therefore it must be understood of Christ Mystical who are to look upon Abraham as the root and themselves as branches 2 They argue from the Apostles scope in this place which is to prove that
all the Faithful are justified by faith in the same way that Abraham was for the Covenant was not only made with Abraham but with his seed also and that seed is not many for then the Covenants must be many but whether they be Jews or Gentiles if they do believe they are all of them the seed of Abraham one seed and therefore come under the same Covenant and must expect justification and life the same way by vertue of the same Covenant The reason seems very plain on both sides and I do conceive that they have the truth between them and that it is to be understood both of Christ Personal primarily and principally and afterward Christ Mystical Gomar and Mr. Perkins and so many Divines do expound it and that the Covenant made with Abraham was confirmed unto Christ and that herein the strength and stability of the Covenant stands this is plain in the next verse and that it is in this seed that Abraham is blessed as well as all the Nations of the Earth for he is the root of all the Patriarchs Rev. 5.5 called therefore the root of David he did come out of Jesse but yet he is the root also upon which David did grow and we see that Abraham was justified by faith and that was in this promised seed Gal. 3.15 called the seed of the woman before he was called the seed of Abraham and therefore it was in him that the Covenant vouchsafed to Abraham was confirmed and established And for the order here no man will wonder if he look upon Christ as the Son of Abraham that he is set first with him and his seed it is no more derogatory from Christ than that the mercies of the second Covenant should be called Isa 55.3 Psal 89.4 Luk. 1.32 Hos 3.5 The sure mercies of David or that the Covenant should be made with David and that he should sit upon the Throne of David and succeed David in his Kingdom and that he should plead the Promises made unto the Fathers as if he did come under their Covenant in the actual ministration of it they being types of him though he himself was the root and foundation of the Covenant as the Psalmist speaks of Christ Psal 22.4 Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou deliveredst them As the Son of David he is said after a sort to enter upon Davids Kingdom as the Son of Abraham upon his Covenant and yet he is the root and foundation of the one as well as of the other From all this it is plain here are three sorts of Persons with whom the Covenant is made 1 Here is Christ Personally with whom Abrahams Covenant is confirmed the seed in which Abraham and all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed 2 Here is Abraham the Father of the Faithful 3 Here is another sort of seed the faithful and they are taken into the Covenant at second hand and from hence we do learn that the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ Personal the Mediator Gal. 3.3 and then there being none in this Covenant but they that are one with him they that are Christs are Abrahams seed therefore the Covenant is made with all the Faithful in the second place as they are one with him and with their seed § 2. Thus the first person with whom the Covenant of Grace is made is the Lord Jesus Christ as God and man and so the observation is this Doct. The Lord Jesus Christ as the second Adam is that person with whom primarily and principally the Covenant of Grace was made and to whom primarily and principally all the promises of that Covenant belong This Covenant made with Christ we see Isa 49.8 As the first Adam was the head of the first Covenant so whatever is done in the second Covenant it is by Christ Ephes 1.9 and therefore he is said to be our Covenant as he is our peace for he is Caput Confoederatorum the Head of the Confederates not only by purpose in himself Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 Rev. 13.8 but by promise there was Grace given us before the world began it could not be unto us in our own Persons before we were and therefore it must be unto another as one that undertook for us and therefore we read Rev. 13.8 there was the Lambs book from the foundation of the world the Lord gave the souls unto Christ that he should save and Christ did write them down in his book as the persons that God the Father had given him and he had engaged to save and this Covenant of Christ took place immediately after the Fall and by vertue thereof God pardoned all the sins of the ancient Saints Rom. 3.25 Christ did keep the thing that he did Covenant to pay the debt that we owed to God and all was viz. transacted by God the Father and Christ in a Covenant way so that as now Christ trusts God for the performance of his Promise so God did trust Christ for the payment of his Debt and therefore as the first Covenant was made with Adam Gods friend so the second Covenant was made with Adam Gods fellow and I know not what else can be the meaning of Prov. 8.22 To be set up or anointed as a King before the foundations of the Earth were laid The same word is in Psal 2.6 in reference to the Covenant and the transactions that were between the Father and the Son before the World was And this Covenant made between God and Christ hath two parts 1 There is a Covenant with Christ as Mediator ratione muneris in regard of his Office 2 There is a Covenant made with Christ as the Churches Head ratione Corporis as his body there is a Covenant made with him alone though it was made for us yet not with us and there is a Covenant made with him and with us in him but with him primarily as the Head and with us as the Members as we come under his Covenant 1. There is a Covenant made with Christ Personal Ratione muneris in respect of his Office as Mediator that he hath undertaken and this we shall see is plain Here is God the Father entring into Covenant with Christ he did lay upon him an Office and he made him a promise thereupon an Office he did ordain him 1 Pet. 1.18 Isa 42.1 Joh. 6.27 Joh. 10.18 he chose him and sealed him add sanctified him set him apart for this work and laid a commandment upon him to execute it Joh. 10.18 This Commandment I received of my Father and to this the Lord added a promise 1 Of assistance Isa 42.4 6. He shall not fail nor be discouraged I am by thee and I will hold thee by the hand and I will keep thee 2 A promise of acceptance I go to the Father says Christ Mat. 3.17 Jer. 34 2◠Gen. 8. Psal 53.8 Isa 50.8 3 Of deliverance Isa 53.8 Taken from prison and from
Saints their smell is as Lebanon and therefore is resembled to the Roses and Lillies Hos 14.7 which is the most fragrant smell else they are of no worth for they are done not for the worth of the thing but for the acceptance that they should find with the Lord and let him come and eat the fruit of his pleasant things It is the Lord before whom we must appear i. e. before the judgment seat of Christ and therefore to find acceptance with our Judge is our great concern Now how comes Christ to be accepted of God It is by the Covenant made with him and by vertue of the same Covenant we are accepted Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in his beloved our services in him are accepted and our persons also It 's your Covenant only that 's the ground of your acceptation as Luther says well it is not from the dignity and worth of the duties but from the nature of the Covenant by which they are offered and under which they stand 1 The Father loves you 2 The services are holy and from a holy heart But 3 it is from a Covenant in which the Lord hath promised to accept all his peoples services as fruits in Christ 8. And Lastly The glory of the Saints is the glory of Christ and it is the enjoyment of Christ in Heaven that makes Heaven the place of Glory it is to enter into your Masters joy and to be dissolved and be with Christ is a Saints hope were it only the reward of your own graces it were much but to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God is a great priviledg but O! what is it for a Soul to sit with Christ upon his Throne As he overcame and sat down with the Father upon his Throne so also shall we be exalted by him to sit upon his Throne in Heaven CHAP. III. The Covenant of Grace made with Believers opened and applied Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee SECT I. The Covenant as made with Believers explicated and demonstrated § 1. THat the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ primarily as the second Adam has been formerly cleared unto you but when we look farther into the Scripture we find also that God did establish that Covenant with the Faithful and with their seed and this the Text holds forth clearly to you when I have but premised this position That the Covenant that God made with Abraham is the same for substance with the Covenant under which the Saints under the New-Testament do and shall stand to the end of the world Luk. 1.72 which I conceive is to perform the mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the oath which he sware to our Father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of all our enemies might serve him without fear c. and Rom. 4.11 He received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the rigteousness of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised that he might be the Father of them that believe though they be not circumcised and the Father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only but do walk in the steps of the faith of our Father Abraham and therefore vers 16. he is said to be the Father of us all If you are Christs then are you Abrahams seed and heirs of the Promise and Galat. 4.28 now we brethren as Isaac was are children of the promise c. so that both Jews and Gentiles are Abrahams seed because they come under Abrahams Covenant therefore there is the same Covenant now for substance Act. 3.25 that was made with Abraham and hence Acts 3.25 't is said ye are the children of the Covenant which God made with your Fathers Therefore as Abrahams Covenant so the Covenant made with the Saints is made with them and with their seed Hence we do learn in the next place Doctrine Doctrine That the Covenant of grace that was principally made with Christ is also made with the faithful the members of Christ In the opening of this Doctrine there are three things to be spoken to 1 To prove that the Covenant is made with the Saints 2 To shew why it must be so 3 To shew the different manner how it 's made with Christ and with them 1. That the Covenant of grace is made with the Saints and they are all federates therein Rom. 5. 1 Cor. 15.47 will appear by these arguments 1. From the type of the first Adam for he is made the type of him that was to come Now the Covenant that God did make with Adam was not made with him only but with all his posterity as appears plainly because the curse of the Covenant being broken comes upon them all in Adam all dyed because in him all sinned now the Covenant must be as large as the Curse and the Curse coming upon them must argue the Covenant to be made with them and so it is in the second Covenant also God has not only taken Christ into Covenant but he being an everlasting Father has taken in all his seed for he is the Father of all the faithful and the Lord enters into Covenant with them also So that all his posterity were bound unto the same Covenant and to perform the same obedience or to endure the same Curse that he did if they did transgress And whereas it may be said then as all that was required of the first Adam lay upon his posterity so all that is required of the second lies upon his posterity also and as what Adam was to perform they were in their own persons to perform so what Christ did perform that also lies upon all his posterity to perform in this there is a great deal of difference between Adam and Christ the first Adam stood before God as a publick person as a representative head that is such a one as personates and acts the part of another by the allowance of the Law so that what he doth is by the Law accounted to be done by him whom he represents and what is done unto him is accounted by the Law to be done unto the other so in the Law an Attorney appears for another receives money or takes possession for another and that stands good in Law as if a man had done it in his own person and so Embassadors do represent the Princes or States from whence they come and from whom they are sent what they do the Prince that sends them is accounted by the Law of Nations to do if they act according to their commission and what is done unto them the Prince doth take as done unto himself c. And so indeed Adam was a Common or a Publick person standing in our
our names to God in this Covenant given the hand to the Lord it is a duty often to renew it and to repeat unto a mans soul the same obligation and here I will show 1 That it is not enough that a man do enter into Covenant with the Lord but that he renew it often 2 I will give you the grounds why a man should renew his Covenant 3 Shew the times when in a special manner the Lord expects it and when it is a way to find mercy with the Lord. 4 Show you the manner how it is to be done 5 I 'le press it by setting before you the great benefits and fruits that do flow from a renewed Covenant with the Lord. 1. A man being once entred into Covenant with God is held and obliged by that Covenant for ever as we see the Devils entred into Covenant and this Covenant they have broken in respect of the precept yet they are all still under the curse of it and shall be for ever and that curse the chains of darkness in which they are held so man being once ingaged is for ever engaged therefore it 's his duty often to renew his Covenant and that will appear in these particulars 1. The Lord hath often renewed his Covenant with his people he made a Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15.18 and yet he renews his Covenant again Gen. 17.2 4 7. So the Lord did take Israel into Covenant with himself and his name was called upon them he doth take them into their Fathers Covenant he remembred his Covenant with Abraham and Isaac Exod. 6.4 5 7. and he saith I will take you unto me for a people and I will be to you a God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God c. and yet this Covenant he renews in a publick and solemn manner upon Mount Sinai when out of his mouth went a fiery law Deut. 5.2 3. Deut. 5.2 3. He made a Covenant with us in Horeb he made not this Covenant with our Fathers some refer it unto all the Patriachs from Adam and so the Covenant was the same for they entred into Abrahams Covenant but it is spoken in regard of the publick and glorious way of revealing it to them beyond what it was to their Fathers which was not revealed with that solemnity and speaking with and seeing God face to face or else by the Fathers some do understand those that died in Egypt and in the Wilderness who had forgotten the Covenant of their Fathers and the Lord did not renew it with them and yet afterwards Exod. 24.7 8 10. Moses takes the book of the Covenant and reads it in the audience of the people and they ingaged themselves to do all that the Lord had said and be obedient to his requirings and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the people and said This is the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you and v. 11. They did eat and drink before the Lord and see the glory of the God of Israel and upon the people he laid not his hand c. and yet this is not enough but the Lord renews his Covenant again Deut. 29.1 The words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab besides the Covenant that he made with them in Horeb and v. 10. 12. You stand before the Lord this day that you should enter into Covenant with the Lord and into the oath which the Lord made with thee to establish thee this day for a people to himself that he might be unto thee a God as he hath sworn unto thy Fathers c. thus you see the Lord has often renewed his Covenant with his people 2. The people of God have often renewed their Covenant also with him it was not enough that they had in Moses time been taken into Covenant so often but before he died he renewed the Covenant with them and they did solemnly ingage themselves The Lord will we serve Josh 24.25 and his voice will we obey and he set up a Stone under an Oak for a witness against them 2 Chron. 15.12 2 Chron. 29.10 2 Chron. 34.31 if they should hereafter deny the Lord their God And this Covenant was renewed in the days of King Asa and Hezekiah and Josiah and Ezra 10.3 and Nehemiah 9.38 therefore renewing of the Covenant is a duty that we owe unto the Lord and that ingagement must be reiterated c. 2. But seeing that a Covenant once made doth alwayes bind a man and the force of it continues distance of time doth not wear it out why should it be needful for men to renew their Covenant so often The grounds of it are these 1. Because of the unbelief of our spirits and from the infirmity of our faith for the confirmation of our faith in the mercy and grace of the Covenant Therefore David made it the matter and ground of all his delight and his thoughts were wholly upon it Why did God renew the Covenant so often with Abraham but to strengthen and confirm his faith therein that it was a sure Covenant and should never be forgotten The mercies of the Covenant are great and the heart of man would fail and his spirit sink in the expectation of them but then he calls to mind his Covenant and renews his Covenant-ingagements with them and for this cause we receive the seals of the Covenant often and every time we do so we renew the Covenant between God and us Gods seals are set to our seals that this may be like unto Joshua's stones a testimony that we have entred into Covenant with the Lord. 2. To manifest the sincerity of our hearts that though we fail in the duty of it yet our hearts still stand to it we delight in the Law according to our inward man though we fall every day yet saies a soul in Covenant with God I love to think of renewing the ingagement that is between God and me as a loving and tender Wife loves often to renew her ingagement to her Husband and to have it much in her mind that she may not forget the Covenant of her God so to shew that a man doth not repent but his ingagement â—s still pleasing to him he renews it often and if it were to do again and again a man would do the same thing if it were every hour to let the world see he is not turned back from the Covenant of his God Phil. 3.9 saies the Apostle I suffered the loss of all things and do count them dung c. I have not repented of it I am of the same mind still there is not in me a principle to draw back and to depart from the living God I am willing to renew this â—ngagement still When there is an error in the contract that a man makes with another then â—f it were to do again the soul would not do it so
and therefore it would be hard to perswade them to put them away having convinced them of the sin and obtained of them a promise that they would put them away he doth bind them by a Covenant which they subscribe seal and confirm by an Oath and a curse for he that will keep Covenant with God may sometimes be smitten in the place of Dragons and sometimes his Father and his Mother may stand in the way of his duty to God when he should keep the Covenant they may perswade him to break it now this is praise-worthy for a man with Levi to say to his Father and Mother I have not seen him not to know his own Brethren nor his own Children Deut. 33.9 A man had need have his heart strengthned by all manner of Covenant ingagements or else he will do as the children of Israel did about putting away their servants Jer. 34.9 go back again and behave himself falsly and unsteadily therein 6. When a man doth receive the Sacraments any of the seals of the Covenant it is his duty to renew the Covenant as often as we set to the seal anew we should read over the obligation anew Gen. 15.18 The Lord made a Covenant with Abraham but yet Gen. 17.1 2 c. the Lord renews the Covenant and the occasion of it was v. 10. because the Lord did then institute the Sacrament of Circumcision the seal of the righteousness of faith Rom. 4. when the Lord institutes the seal he renews his Covenant and so should we as often as we set to the seal Psal 50.5 So Psal 50.5 Gather my Saints together to me that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice there is a double sense given of it some say it is a description of the people of Israel whom the Lord owned to be his people because in Covenant with him by sacrifice Exod. 24. Calvin Sigilla Syngraphae sc adminicula ad saciendum Dei foedus others think it to be spoken by way of opposition to them that did rest only in the outward rites the Sacrifices that they did offer and did never look upon them as signs and seals or administring helps to the establishment of Gods Covenant they did only use the sacrifices unto the end for which the Lord appointed or did look upon them as a renewing of their Covenant with God and their ingagement unto him for their obedience And so it should be in every ordinance of God these acts of obedience should lead us unto the Covenant which is the ground of our obligation unto the same obedience this is true of Baptism also 1 Pet. 3.21 1 Pet. 3.21 which I conceive to be an allusion unto John's Baptism wherein the people first confessed their sins and renounced them and afterwards inquired into the work that they were to do in promising and ingaging themselves unto obedience and so there was a restipulation on their part unto God again And so it is true of the Lords Supper it is the New-Covenant or Testament in his blood Now the fruit and benefits that the people of God have found by the renewing of their Covenant are many 1. It hath been a testimony to them of the truth of their repentance Math. 3.8 John calls for fruits meet for repentance and what is a right fruit of repentance but to abhor the former evils we have been guilty of and say Ashur shall not save us c. and to engage to perform the contrary duty for it is not testimony enough of the truth of a mans repentance that he doth abstain from the acts of former sins unless also he has a testimony unto his own soul that he doth endeavour to grow in the contrary graces 2. It is the foundation of consolation 2 Chron. 15.14 15. in the time of Asa the King of Judah they swore with a loud voice with Trumpets and Cornets and all Judah rejoyced at the oath for they had sworn with all their hearts A day of renewing Covenant with the Lord will be a day of great rejoycing and great consolation unto the ssoul for it 's like unto a new Wedding-day the Covenant with God being a Matrimonial Covenant and it brings the soul from its wandrings unto God again and the soul says I will return to my former Husband for it was better with me then than now 3. It is a means to establish and stay the heart which is in it self exceeding fickle and uncertain it 's unstable as water Josh 24.31 they bound themselves by Covenant to serve the Lord and they did it all the days of Joshua and the Elders that had out-lived him that had seen the great mercies of God unto them and their bonds and ingagements to God So Josiah made them all stand to the Covenant and all his days they departed not from following the Lord the God of their Fathers for Jer. 13.11 2 Chron. 34.33 As a girdle cleaves to the loyns of a man so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel that they might be to me for a name and a praise and a glory there is a principle of fixing and establishing in the Covenant that a man is thereby bound to cleave to God with full purpose of heart there is no going back therefore it is called the bond of the Covenant 4. It 's a special means joyned with fasting and prayer to prevail with God for mercy when a man is willing as well to ingage himself to duty as he is to expect mercy from the Lord they sought the Lord with their whole desire and he was found of them 2 Chron. 15. and the Lord gave them rest round about and there is no more effectual way to obtain any blessing or mercy from God than a renewing of Covenant and ingagement of obedience to God And the reason hereof is this because the more the will renews its Covenant with God the more subordinated it is to the Will of God now God doth in a manner to speak â—ith reverence submit the liberality of his mercies to a will subordinated to his will Again the more we renew our Covenant with God the more harmonie there is between our will and the will of God and O! what peace ariseth hence what contentment in â—very condition According to the tenure of the New Covenant a solid full will is acceptâ—â— by God for the effect and therefore the more the will renews its consent to the Coveâ—â—nt the more it is accepted by God 5. It doth not only establish the heart but make it better as the will becomes good â—t first by willing what is good so it is then best when it most strongly wills what is best â—ow when doth the will more strongly will what is best than when it doth most firmly reâ—ew its Covenant with God its best good So many grains as there are of a deterâ—ined will in adhering to God according to the terms of the
thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generation for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and thy Seed after thee SECT I. That Children are taken into their Parents Covenant § 1. THE subject we have in hand is the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace the new and better Covenant and therein having shewed the Person that made the Covenant with man and spoken of the free Grace of God which was the Fountain from whence this Covenant of Grace did flow we came in the next place to consider the Persons with whom this Covenant was made and they are set down in a threefold subordination 1 First and immediately with Christ the second Adam 2 In him with all the Faithfull 3 In them with their Seed And this last is the head we are now to enter upon having laid these two grounds 1 That the Covenant that God made with Abraham is the same Covenant that all the Faithfull whether Jews or Gentiles stand under to the worlds end Rom. 4.16 therefore is Abraham called the Father of us all though of the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is cognatio specialis quae coram Deo locum habet Deo nos gratos reddit Beza All Believers have a special Cognation to God by virtue of Abrahams Covenant and this is not barely by imitation of his Faith which the Apostle Paul asserts vers 12. of those that walk in the steps of the Faith of Abraham but there is â— blessed resultance from this that a man is thereby translated into the Covenant of Abraâ—am and there is no distinction of persons for there is neither Jew nor Greek Gal. 3.29 neither bond â—or free neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Ad jus adoptionis acquirendum vel minuendum nullum discrimen sancta est in Christo aequalitas quae unitas Par. Par. As to the right of Adoption there is no inequality all are in Christ equal All therefore that are Christs are Abrahams seed and heirs according to the Promise Gal. 4.28.31 we as Isaac are the children of Promise we are not the children of the bond-woman but of the free 2 Though in the manner of the Administration of this Covenant there be a great deal of difference from what it was in ancient times yet as to the substance of the Covenant the persons that are foederati in it are the same and taken in upon the same grounds and shall be so to the end of the world and therefore as the seed were taken into Covenant with their father the same way will the Lord dispense the Covenant to the end of the world that if he take the Parent into Covenant he will take the seed with him and therefore their children are called the Sons of the Covenant Act. 3.25 because it 's as a Birth-Priviledge and belongs unto them as they are taken into their Fathers Covenant And this the Lord says shall be the way in which he will dispense his Covenant for ever Act. 2.39 that no man may say this was a peculiar priviledge unto Abraham and his seed onely for Abraham is made the Father of many Nations Rom. 4.12 the Father of the Circumcision and of the Uncircumcision and the Promise is to you and your seed and unto them that are afar off as Gentiles unconverted are said to be that are yet strangers unto the Church of God Ephes 2.17 and the Priviledges thereof even to as many as in all ages the Lord shall call And these two grounds being laid this Covenant made with Abraham will give us ground to observe this point Doctrine That the Children of believing Parents in the Covenant of Grace are taken into the same Covenant with their Parents the Covenant is to them and to their seed and therefore their Posterity may well be stiled the Children or Sons of the Covenant A point it is of great concernment and therefore to be contended earnestly for 1. As that which doth exceedingly advance the Grace of God unto Parents and makes much for their Consolation that are Believers that not only the Lord doth extend mercy to them but to their seed as he did here extend it to Abrahams seed by which God exceedingly exalts his free Grace and so it 's made an argument of special Love unto Parents Deut. 4.37 Because he loved thy Parents therefore he chose their seed after them Mercy unto their Posterity is from the Love of God unto Parents Now as it is a special Grace of the second Covenant that wherever Believers come unto all people where they live they shall be a blessing Gen. 12.2 the word in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esto benedictio so Montanus we render it according to the Septuagint Thou shalt be a blessing but as Aynsworth has well observed this manner of speaking in the Hebrew is very vehement and emphatical noting Gods commanding the blessing according to the Expression Psal 133.3 For there the Lord commanded the Blessing even life for evermore c. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as dew from the Lord c. They shall be as dew the cause of a Nations flourishing and to a decaying Nation they shall be the root and support the holy seed shall be the substance thereof Isa 16.13 how much more shall the Grace of the Covenant be exalted in reference to their Posterity for their consolation in that they are nearer and dearer to them than any other can be and therefore they shall be a blessing to them and this will be much heightned unto them by this that while they were under the Covenant of Works while unstranslated they did convey unto them the Curse of the first Covenant and the Lord doth threaten that he will visit the iniquity of the Parents upon the Children Now it were a great terrour to a man that while he is under the first Covenant his iniquity shall be visited upon his Children if when he is translated into the second Covenant the grace of the Covenant should no way extend unto them and â—â—range it were that all the creatures coming under the Covenant of the Saints are by tâ—â—s means preserved in their being and attain many benefits that by reason of the curse of the first Covenant they should never have attained if amongst all the rest their children should have no benefit by their fathers Covenant and they which are nearest to them should only be excluded 2. This is one of the great Arguments that the Scripture useth to draw men in to Believe because not only they shall have benefit by it but their Posterity there is a double use that I find the Apostle makes of that argument 1 To the Children as a means to bring them in repent ye therefore and be converted for you are the children of the Covenant which God made with your fathers there is mercy in
a special manner offered to you and unto you first because you are the children of the Covenant and therefore have in a special manner a right to it 2 To the Parents Act. 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins for the promise is to you and your children not only you shall have benefit by it but your children upon whom you have brought a curse and therefore were not parentes sed peremptores as Bernard speaks of all men in reference to their children in a state of nature they also shall have benefit by it and by your laying hold of the Covenant be brought in under the same Covenant with you your children that are now children of the curse they shall become children of the Covenant Now as it should be a great argument to keep men from sin that therein they wrong their Posterity it 's a Treason that taints the blood so it should be a great engagement unto all Parents to come within the Covenant that the Grace of the Covenant might also be extended in them unto all their seed 3. This is the great and only difference that God hath put in his Word between the children of Believers within the Covenant of Grace and the seed of Strangers who are strangers to the Covenant that their children belong unto the Family of God and are own'd by God as such in a visible way whereas all the rest of the Families of the world that are Unbelievers belong to the Kingdom of Satan and are to be looked upon as without Deut. 4.37 and therefore Deut. 4.37 the Lord chose their seed after them it 's not spoken of an Election to salvation but there is an Election to Priviledges as well as to Life and yet both flow from a special Love for there is but a two-fold Kingdom of God and of the World and of these there is a two-fold God there is Satan the God of this world and all they that are in this Kingdom have for their God the God of this world but there is a Kingdom of God and all that are in that Kingdom the Lord has taken to be his people and they have in a peculiar manner the Lord for their God as Israel had the Name of God call'd upon them and they only had the means of salvation for salvation is of the Jews and the Lord did take them as his peculiar Treasure and did avouch them to be his people above all people of the earth they were under more glorious Administrations under a peculiar Providence and care above all people of the earth and yet many of them nay the greatest part of them wicked and but a remnant amongst them according to the Election of grace and it were apparently to put the seed of Abrahams faith into a far worse condition in respect of their posterity than the seed of Abraham according to the flesh were when the Apostle in respect of the adoption made no difference between Jew and Greek bond and free And this also is the only ground as I may call it for though there be other arguments given yet they all have their stress from this and depend upon it for applying of Ordinances unto the children of Believers and therein to put a difference between them and the children of Heathen and this is not a ground of our making but of the Lords the Lord takes Abraham into Covenant and his seed also Gen. 17.7 and having taken them into Covenant he doth command him to apply the seal of the same Covenant unto them the command of God was the bond of applying the seal but the ground of the command lay in their interest in the Covenant being taken in together with their parents and so whereas it 's true as Tertullian saith fiunt non nascuntur Christiani men are made Rom. 1.2 3. not born Christians it is not a birth-priviledge such as comes upon them by nature for by nature one man has no more right to an Ordinance than another for there is no difference all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God but what they have not by nature Chrysostome in Rom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they may yet receive by grace as a birth-priviledge to which by their fathers Covenant they were after a sort born as the posterity of Abraham according to the flesh were 4. It 's the only ground that I know that Believers can have of the salvation of their children if they dye in their infancy I do not now speak of Gods secret counsel for the foundation of God stands sure having this seal The Lord knows who are his and what number he has belonging unto the Election of Grace amongst them that are afar off we know not secret things belong to God but we find no promise of salvation made unto any out of the visible Church of God salvation is of the Jews and 't is Gods promise that is to be the rule of our faith and the ground of our hope and not our counsel Joh. 4. Now if the children of believing parents be not taken into Covenant with their parents they have no more a promise of salvation than the children of a Pagan For as I told you this world is divided into two Kingdoms either the Kingdom of Christ or the Kingdom of Satan Col. 1.13 He has translated us out of the power of darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son Now as long as a person is a visible Member of the Kingdom of Christ and under a promise of salvation that the Lord will be his God I have no reason or ground out of the Word to question their election or salvation but rather in the judgment of charity grounded upon the Covenant to hope and believe or be perswaded of the same till they visibly manifest the contrary though there may be some Reprobates amongst them on the contrary though we know Christ gathers his Elect out of the Kingdom of Satan and therefore many of the Elect remain yet under his power yet I have no ground to hope of any particular person that he is elected of God being still under Satans Kingdom till he give some testimony of the contrary for either all infants dying in infancy must be saved or they must all be damned or else there must be a difference by grace put between them that are saved and them that are damned for in nature there is no difference Now what difference the Lord may put in his secret counsel we know not but there is no difference put in his word but that which is grounded on the Covenant under which they stand being taken into it together with their parents What ground had a Jew if his child died to hope its salvation but that God promised to be his God and the God of his seed also and the same ground has a Christian to hope the salvation
the will of man but of God why will the Lord have the same conveyance still continue for the externals and the priviledges of it when for the graces of it the intail is cut off for ever 9 How far the administration of the old Covenant should as a rule determine the administration of God under the new that we may be able to reason from one to the other he did so with Abraham and his posterity therefore he will do so with the Saints now and whether in Abraham there were not something personal and peculiar to him and his seed according to the flesh that they only that come in by a claim to the faith of Abraham cannot take unto themselves For Abraham in reference to the covenant is set forth two ways either as a begetting Abraham Rom. 4. or as a believing Abraham and whether the priviledges of both the children of Abraham according to the flesh or by promise be the same 10 How far the Jews by virtue of Abrahams Covenant as being his seed and as being taken into a Church-covenant in their parents being the only visible Church unto God on Earth could pretend to a right unto the ordinances and priviledges of the Church of God under the New Testament For if the parents were in covenant so were their children taken in at least into the externals of the covenant 11 How children can be said to be taken into Covenant when they cannot restipulate nor be said to be obliged by their Covenant 12 Seeing there is so much dispute about it were it not much better to leave children out of this claim For if they be elected we may rest quietly in that state and leave them in the arms of Gods electing love and resting upon that foundation for their eternal salvation the Lord knows who are his and to defer their claim to the covenant till they themselves are able to take hold of the covenant and to give their consent thereunto to give the hand unto the Lord and then they may claim it with comfort children from their parents right and parents for their children and then we may with comfort seal up that which we have good ground upon judgment to conclude to be a mans title and interest and then the parents covenant-interest will come in at second hand and a man having himself first taken hold and consented to the covenant in his own person it will be a good argument for a man to plead with God for the mercies and blessings of the covenant Lord thou art my God and my fathers God as Moses did Lord I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid and so the Church For thy servant Davids sake turn not away c. Remember the covenant that thou hast made with Abraham and Isaac c. And so did Austin after his conversion take a great deal of comfort in his mothers covenant-interest and in all the prayers that she did put up to God for him Confess l. 3.11 Salutem meam sempiternam chariùs parturibat corde casto c. till the Lord in a dream gave her great hopes concerning his salvation but till then a man can have little comfort in it Quest 1 Are all the children of parents in covenant taken into covenant with their parents or only some selected by God himself as he did in the children of Abraham when he said in Isaac shall thy seed be called Answ The parents covenant takes in all their seed and they are all in covenant with God till they be ejected Cain was in covenant as well as Abel till cast out of the presence of the Lord and Ismael as well as Isaac till the sentence upon his mocking cast out the bond-woman and her son and the Jews not only for their children immediately but those for many ages to come Deut. 29.13 14. Joh. 8. 1. If we look into Abrahams posterity we read that they were of two sorts a seed according to the flesh a carnal generation which the Jews stood so much upon and gloried in Mat. 3.9 We have Abraham to our father and there is a seed of Abraham that walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham and in this respect Abraham is called the father of us all here is a double paternity from begetting Abraham and believing Abraham and here is a double sonship children according to the flesh and the heirs of promise Rom. 9.6 7 8. They are not all Israel who are of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is they that are the children of the flesh are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for his seed and because they are the seed of Abraham they are not therefore all children and this is more fully set forth in that Allegory of the Apostle Gal. 4.22 23. where we have Abrahams family set forth as a pattern and a resemblance of the visible Church of God in which there are two sorts of sons and two sorts of mothers there is the bond and the free woman and so the Apostle says it was then and so it should continue in the Church of God while its militant state did last and yet both these seeds are taken into their parents covenant and therefore all the posterity of Seth are called the sons of God Gen. 6.1 and all without the Church the daughters of men all the Israelites were Jews outwardly Ye are the children of the Lord your God says Moses Deut. 14.1 his peculiar people and treasure called also the children of the Kingdom and the children of the Covenant Act. 3.25 Mat. 8.12 And this is not only so of the Jews but the Gentiles also Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and yet I suppose no man will say that all in the Church of the Galatians were truly really and savingly so therefore all their children were taken into the same covenant with their parents faith and holiness 2. The sentence of Excommunication hath passed upon such and they have been ejected and cast out of the Church and from all the visible Communion and Priviledges of it Now Church-censures are to extend to none but Church-members 1 Cor. 5.12 13. 1 Cor. 5.12 13. We judge them that be within what have we to do to judge those that are without We see 1 That Church-government is an authoritative thing a power of judgment and so the Authority of Christ is called Joh. 5.25 2 There is a distinction of men some are without and some within and this is a rule Differentia divisiva est etiam constitutiva there is something therefore that makes them to be without and something that makes them to be within and this can be nothing but their own personal consent or their coming in by their fathers covenant 3 This authority is not exercised upon them without they are
not as simply necessary unto the Sacrament of Baptism yet they conceive them lawful and not to be rejected so as they be qualified for so great a trust and do faithfully discharge it in the fear of God By this it will appear our Divines generally judge that there is a kind of spiritual Adoption that a godly man may convey a right by and give an interest in the Covenant and the priviledges of the Covenant unto those that are not his seed and â—hose that from their natural parents have no right at all Now to cross the judgment of so many reverent and holy men both ancient and modern hath been a very great trouble to me and upon the most serious debate I did desire â—hat the balance might have been cast the contrary way but at last considering that the â—cripture is unto them and us the Rule of Doctrines and the Judge of Controversies unto which they bind themselves and that if an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven do speak the contrary it 's because there is no light in them and because we have learnt from themselves Esa 8.20 â—â—at they were not satisfied with their own light in many things but writ according to their â—resent apprehensions with a desire still to a further and clearer discovery De catechis rudib c. 1. Mihi prope semper â—rmo meus displicet melioris avidus sum and therefore our Divines generally forsake them â—n many things as not walking with a right foot towards the truths of the Gospel and Luther professes of his works If the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to give an account of his doâ—trine when he asked Quantò magìs ego faex non nisi errare potens c. Et primus ero qui libellos meos in ignem projiciam and therefore he doth â—eseech men by the mercy of God That if any man could convince him of his errours he would for he was ready to retract them This hath incouraged me with all submission to speak my â—pprehensions out of the word though they are contrary unto that doctrine that hath been â—o anciently taught and so commonly received Herein I would speak unto three things 1 I would lay this for a ground That only â—â—rents can give the child a federal right 2 I would answer the instance given of the circumcising of servants born in Abrahams house or bought with his money though they were not of his seed and how far they had their right from Abraham 3 I would speak something to the ancient custom of Sureties or Godfathers in the primitive times 1. Only parents can give their children a federal right and none else and that I shall endeavor to make manifest to you by these arguments 1. From the nature of the Covenant which doth only take in his seed Abraham and his seed Noah and his seed the woman and her seed Gen. 3.35 9.9 17.7 Psal 89.29 David and his seed the holiness of branches it 's spoken of a federal holiness because it is applied to branches that were broken off therefore it is meant of a childs holiness and it doth proceed from the holiness of the root upon which they grew Rom. 11.16 and such a holiness as the converted Gentiles had for their seed by virtue of the same Covenant and therefore the children of believing parents are called the children of the Covenant Acts 3.25 as being a birth-right that belongs to them and as we may not with some deny them that which is their right so we are not of our own authority to appoint them coheirs some that shall share with them therein Mr. Calvin indeed saith Hîc certè locum habet regula vulgaris favores sunt ampliandi yet we should not limit the grace of the Covenant and stretch it beyond the rule of the Word and our grace in receiving men must not be larger than Gods grace manifested in the Covenant that he hath established wherein we do learn that the childs federal right is the confederate parents priviledge but never that a person in covenant hath a power having no seed to adopt any unto himself for spiritual priviledges or that he may extend them to any but those that God hath taken into covenant with him which is his seed an adoption in things temporal is allowed by the Law of God and man but that there should be in men adoption in things that are spiritual in reference to a covenant-right that is to extend the terms of the covenant beyond the line that God hath in his Word stretched forth It 's true Divinus sese obstrinixit Christo homini in persona Abrahami Zanch. Abraham was a publick person in the covenant of grace with whom as it were the covenant eminently began and he was as one hath well observed therein a type of Christ as David Psal 89.34 and therefore Abraham is said to be the father of us all Rom. 4.16 the father of many Nations but this is only in respect of the spiritual grace of the covenant and not the external spiritual priviledges of the covenant for the children of the promise are accounted for his seed though they were not of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh Rom. 4.12 yet they did walk in the steps of Abraham and were the children of his faith though not of his flesh but other Christians are not made publick persons in this respect as Adam Abraham and David were and therefore in reference to these outward spiritual priviledges they can convey them unto none but unto their seed whom the Lord takes into covenant with himself as appears in the Text and our grace must not be larger than Gods 1 Cor. 7.14 2. The Apostle 1 Cor. 7.14 lays down the rule plainly That the holiness of the child comes from the holiness of the immediate parent one or both and on the contrary the uncleanness of the child comes from the uncleanness of the parent else were they unclean but now are they holy it 's spoken here of a federal holiness as we have before proved and the Divines before quoted do grant if one of the parents be not in this respect holy the Apostle pronounceth their children unclean that is they have no federal holiness and if the Lord say that they are unclean who is it that can by his undertaking for their education make them holy till God by a work of conversion make them so It would make federal holiness which is one of the great priviledges of the second Covenant and an expression of the free grace of the Gospel to be a thing of small account if any man might say of the children of a Heathen It 's true neither of their parents was a Believer and the children are unclean by their birth but I will make them holy for I will undertake for their education this seems to be a way of holiness that was never appointed by the Spirit of
case Nobis minimè dubium est quin soboles ex sanctis piis atavis progenita quamvis apostatae fuerint avi parentes ad Ecclesiae tamen corpus pertineant Calv. Epist pag. 442. Calv. epist pag. 174 175. There was one of the Church had married her daughter to a Papist and the Grandmother desired that their child might be baptized which Mr. Farell refused Ego respondi non admittendum quòd in foedere non sit cùm neuter parens sit fidelis and this caused some difference between him and his Collegue or Fellow-labourer in the work of the Ministry And to decide this controversie he writes to Mr. Calvin and in answer to it he laid down two positions 1 That it 's unlawful for us to baptize the children of Papists Absurdum est ut eos baptizemus qui corporis nostri membra censeri nequeunt cùm in hoc ordine sint Papistarum liberi quomodo baptismum illis administrare liceat non videmus c. 2 The Grandmother desires it and there 's the difficulty upon that he answers Cùm Dominus gratiam suam in multas aetates extendat eam astringere non est nostrum c. Calv. Epist pag. 174 175. And it 's the ordinary answer of our Divines That the infant is not to be debarred from the priviledges of the Covenant for the sins of the immediate parents for those that descended from Abraham and David had a right to Circumcision and were within the Covenant though the immediate parents for some foregoing generations were wicked as Psal 106.35 they were mixed among the Heathen and had learned their works and served their Idols yet he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry and remembred for them his Covenant vers 44. even the Covenant that he made with Abraham c. The promise is to you and your children and yet it 's clear Acts 2.39 that their immediate parents were a wicked generation that had killed the Prophets as they themselves had a hand in crucifying the Lord of glory concerning the Gospel it 's said of the Jews That they are enemies for your sakes Rom. 11.28 but as touching the election they are beloved for their fathers sake their immediate fathers were wicked and enemies to the Gospel and yet is there a holiness that comes from Abraham the root unto the Jews when they shall be converted for God shews mercy unto them that love him to a thousand generations and Joshua had little reason to have circumcised the people at Gilgal for the holiness of their immediate parents whose carkasses fell in the Wilderness and yet he did circumcise them there as being within the Covenant and did thereby roll away from them the reproach of Egypt and hence they do say Mortons Appeal l. 4. c. 6. §. 1. Rutherford the due right of Presbyt pag. 2. c. 4. §. 6. p. 259. that the children of Papists and excommunicated Protestants born within the visible Church are to be baptized if any of their forefathers have been found in the faith And I could gladly have rested in this so received a judgment of godly and learned men but that some considerations have put me upon a further inquiry for I find in the administration of the seals of the Covenant as well as in the application of the promises of the Covenant that they are to be administred with judgment in the parties that do administer them and that there is a great trust and a special charge committed to them therein Mat. 7. Give not that which is holy unto dogs It 's a dangerous evil for a man either wittingly or negligently to dispense the Ordinances of God and the priviledges of the Covenant to those unto whom God did never intend them as it is to deny them unto those whose right they are As to apply the promises unto wicked men and make glad the souls of the unrighteous and to sew a pillow under every arm-hole and provide a kerchief for every head is as bad as it is to deny the promises unto men whose right they are so to make glad the souls of the wicked by applying the seals to their seed is as bad as to make sad the souls of the righteous by denying them It was that Chrysostom stood much upon in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper he would rather suffer his own blood to be poured out than to give the blood of Christ to be profaned by an unworthy receiver and surely if so much care and diligence be to be used in Church-Officers in dispensing of one Sacrament the other is not to be so carelesly and promiscuously administred as it is and therefore it was the great offence that Mr. Farell took at the Collegue joyned with him in the Ministry Quòd omnia profanare improbissimos velle admittere non-vereretur That he feared not to profane all things and admit the most wicked These thoughts have put me upon farther inquiry concerning the persons unto whom the Sacrament of Baptism is to be administred and to whom the priviledges of the Covenant do belong and the apprehensions that I have of it out of the word I shall desire with all submission to propose to you 1 I 'le lay down in several propositions what I conceive to be the truth 2 I shall answer the objections that are commonly made against them and so I hope the truth may be cleared or at least hereby an occasion given to them that are better able to judge of further inquiry Reasons why federal right comes to children from their immediate parents only 1. I conceive that federal right comes to the children only from the immediate parents and the Reasons that induce me to conceive so are these 1. In Scripture I find that when God took parents into Covenant he also took in their children with them and whensoever God cast parents out the immediate parents he did cast out their children also When he took the Jews into Covenant he made this Covenant also with their seed and because the root was holy from thence came also an holiness upon the branches and when he did cast off the immediate parents and called them Lo-ammi he did also cast off their seed and it would have been in vain to the Jews to have said We have Abraham for our father and therefore have still a federal right when God had given unto their immediate parents a bill of divorce and looked upon them as a people in Covenant with him no more as therefore though none of their predecessors were holy and in Covenant yet the faith of the immediate parents and their interest in the Covenant does make the children holy and brings them under the priviledges of the Covenant so though many of their predecessors were holy yet if the immediate parents reject and cast off the Covenant and be rejected of God the children also are cast out with them there is the same reason of
they have no interest in it in respect of the spiritual priviledges and saving Graces of the same Covenant 3. There 's a two-fold Faith that the Scripture speaks of there is true and saving justifying faith which is call'd the Faith of Gods Elect and there is a temporary faith or a faith which is in profession only Math. 13. Heb. 6.4 Act. 8. and not in truth as we see in the stony ground and the temporary Believers and in Simon Magus and as it 's true saving faith that doth give a man an interest in the graces of the Covenant and makes a man Abrahams seed in reference unto grace so there is a visible faith a profession only that which only men are able to judge of to whom the power of the Keys for the dispensing of Ordinances are committed and this gives a man a title to the visible and external Priviledges of the Covenant in for◠Ecclesiae as we see Simon Magus profession of Faith was ground enough for the Apostles to administer Baptism unto him the Seal of the Covenant though afterwards he did quickly manifest that he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Though therefore the Gentiles can never claim Abrahams Covenant as his seed according to the flesh nor many of them a spiritual right as not having the saving faith of Abraham yet they may claim relation to Abraham as an Ecclesiastical father and from a profession of the faith of Abraham may claim a true and a real interest in the external priviledges of Abrahams Covenant though they cannot pretend to his saving Graces and spiritual priviledges having never had any experience of a work of Conversion and Regeneration Quest 8 § 8. Why will the Lord have the Covenant run by way of entail in reference to the outward Priviledges of it and not in reference to the inward Graces of it The Covenant that was made with Adam was to convey the one as well as the other and the image that he had received he was to convey to his Posterity and the promise of Life spiritual and Life eternal was made unto his Posterity in case of their Obedience as well as unto himself and therefore as all dyed in him so all should have lived in him Nos omnes in Adam◠peccavimus in eo sententiam damnationis accepimus omnes Bern. S. 1. de Advent So that by the first Covenant Adam might have conveyed not only outward Priviledges but inward Graces also and whereas now by reason of the fall all Mankind do convey death to their Children Tertul. but not life and so they are become non tà m parentes quà m peremptores not so much parents as destroyers therefore seeing that the first Covenant is broken why doth not the Lord only take the Elect into Covenant and extend the Covenant of Grace unto none else and so make it with particular persons as the Covenant of the Angels did run or if he will make it to descend from Father to Son why doth he not convey the Graces of the Covenant from Parents to Posterity as well as the outward priviledges of the Covenant Why does not the Covenant run for all the Benefits of it as well as for some only the internals of the Covenant as well as the externals Answ 1. The Lord will not have the Graces of the Covenant entail'd from Parents unto Posterity 1 Because the Curse of the first Covenant is now become ex traduce by propagation and all the Posterity of Adam do now as naturally convey the Curse by reason of their broken Covenant as Adam should have conveyed life and blessing if he had stood in his integrity and therefore whatever the immediate Parents be Adams sin comes alike upon all whether they be godly or wicked and the child of a godly Parent is as truly and as deeply guilty of the sin of Adam in his birth as the child of the most wicked man that is that is an entail left upon all mankind that can never be cut off while there is a man born upon earth Rom. 5.12 for in Adam all dye because in him all sinn'd and therefore the children of godly Parents as well as others are born the children of wrath Gregor so that Timothy though there was faith unfeigned that dwelt in his Grandmother and his Mother yet he himself must be converted by the ministry of Paul or else he had no benefit by the faith of his Ancestors Rom. 3.29 and thence the Apostle saith We look upon the Jews as a people holy unto the Lord and the only visible Church upon earth and the Gentiles as strangers unto God who follow'd dumb Idols as they were led and yet in reference to their natural condition the Apostle says there is no difference for all men have sinn'd and come short of the glory of God and therefore all in their births are alike corrupted with the sin of Adam that being imputed but the personal sins of their Parents are not imputed unto them and therefore they are said Joh. 1.13 to be born not of blood that is Joh. 1.13 not by a fleshly generation so some or else as Calvin it is bloods ut longam generis successionem melius exprimeret though Grace has continued long in that line and has as it were run in a blood and comes upon a man by succession as it were for many generations as it was with Timothy c. nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man Idem significat c. If the parents be godly and they never so earnestly desire that their children might be godly also as it was Abrahams desire for Ismael that he might live in Gods sight it was spoken of living before God as in Covenant with him as it appears by the answer that the Lord returns unto him but yet for all that his desire is not granted as concerning him though he saith I will make of Ismael a great nation and many nations shall come from him yet in Isaac shall thy covenant-seed be called and with him will I establish my Covenant c. therefore the Covenant in respect of the grace of it can never be entailed upon posterity because every man begets a son in the likeness of the first Adam as he himself did immediately after his fall Gen. 5.3 and thereby conveyed the image that by sin he had brought upon himself and his posterity 2 Because under the second Covenant it 's the Election of God that takes place and puts all the difference between men and men between whom in themselves there is no difference It 's true that it 's a great dispute Whether the Lord in Election did consider man in massa pura or corrupta and I conceive it was an act of Soveraignty and therefore God respected ma◠in massa pura as a creature and not in massa corrupta as a sinner as the potter hath power over the clay of
but it 's said That from that time they came no more upon the Sabbath and surely this duty lies upon the Christian Magistrate also and it 's his sin if he do it not and so for private persons in reference to their families Thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man servant c. 4 The Jews did meet to worship God publickly upon the Sabbath day and there they had the Law and the Prophets read and preached to them every Sabbath day and from hence it 's a good argument to infer the publick meeting of Christians to worship God publickly upon their Sabbath Act. 13.27 15.21 and that part of this worship should be a constant reading and publishing the will of God in the Law and in the Prophets and in the Gospel It will be a hard matter to find rules for this under the New Testament but we must be regulated by the practice of the institutions under the former administrations I conceive it will be in this counted but a slender answer to say The institutions of the Old Testament must in nothing regulate those of the New and that argument drawn from them by way of Analogy or à pari ratione is but the presumption of man and can no way reach the mind of God The like instance I may give for the publick worship of God his commands or institutions given to the Jews and their practice will be good arguments to regulate us Christians 1 They did with a great deal of diligence and conscience frequent the place of publick worship three times a year at Jerusalem and in their Synagogue every Sabbath day They went from strength to strength every year appearing before God in Sion 2 Their coming at the beginning and staying during the whole time of the service as Ezech. 46.10 when the people shall go in he shall go in and when the people go forth he shall also go forth c. 3 We are to behave our selves with a great deal of reverence during all the time of the Ordinances Lev. 19.30 Ye shall reverence my Sanctuary 4 That you are not to depart without a blessing which is to be done by way of Office in the Name of Christ as an Ordinance Num. 6.27 Aaron and his sons did bless the people It will be hard for a man to find rules for these in the New Testament and yet it will be as hard to say that these institutions and commands of the Old Testament should not regulate us under the New We have another instance of Tithes which was a legal institution under the Old Testament I would not enter upon any unwelcome Disputes about it the Apostle lays down this as a rule That he that serves at the Altar should live of the Altar he should receive by the Law of God from his people as a reward of his labour and as a testification of the honour that is due unto him such a maintenance as may be a support and supply for necessaries to him and his that he should not go to warfare at his own charge I do not speak these things out of partiality and affection unto my own cause and calling but the Law says the same Thou shalt not muzle the mouth of the ox doth God take care for oxen It is spoken there for our sakes that the incouragement of the Ministers in their service might depend upon the Law of God and not on the will humours and allowances of covetous cruel men And our Divines reason commonly from the manner of Gods dealing with the Priests and Levites under the Law and from thence argue the care that God takes of his Ministers Lev. 27.30 Num. 35.2 and that it must be a free and a liberal maintenance for they had the tenth of all the increase of seed or fruit of all their great and small cattel they had forty eight Cities with their Suburbs they had all the first-fruits also besides the sin-offering the meat-offering all their vows and voluntary oblations and from a parity of reason they do infer that the like care ought to be taken and the like maintenance in the days of the Gospel And whereas the people though in a poor condition failing in this are said to rob God and therefore are cursed with a curse that they did sow much and bring in little they do from thence conclude and infer that where the like sin remains it will be looked upon by God with the same eye Mal. 3.7 and will surely be followed by him with the same curse and many such instances may be given of rules to be drawn from Old Testament-institutions to regulate men in many things of the New or else we shall in many things be left without direction 5. Let 's examine how far our Divines do argue from the seals of the O. T. unto those of the New and it will appear that every position hath enough in Scripture to warrant it 1 Our Baptism is the seal of the same Covenant that Circumcision was then the Covenant of Grace was the same for substance with that under the New Testament for it 's Abrahams Covenant that was sealed in Circumcision and so it is in Baptism also for Rom. 4. Abraham is the father of all that are circumcised and of all that are uncircumcised also to that Covenant the righteousness whereof is the righteousness of faith that of Circumcision was a seal and we are also baptized into Christ into his Death and Resurrection c. 2 The persons taken into Covenant of old were the children and their parents I will be thy God and the God of thy seed their children are the sons of the Covenant and of the promise that God made with their fathers c. This has been manifested not only under the Law but before the Law from the beginning and also under the Gospel the Lord as he did cast off the Jews and their children so he took in the Gentiles and their children into Covenant with himself and though they were by nature the wild Olive-tree Rom. 11. yet they were ingrafted into the good Olive-tree and do partake of the root and fatness thereof and when he will take in the Jews again they shall be taken in they and their seed as they and their seed were disinherited and cast out 3 That Baptism succeeds in the room and place of Circumcision as the seal of the same Covenant and as the Ordinance of Initiation which will appear 1 Because the end was the same in both viz. to be the Sacrament of admission of visible members 2 Because the grace of the thing signified is the same Circumcision is cutting off of the body of sins in the flesh and Baptism a being buried with Christ in his death by a work of mortification c. and so much the Apostle doth intimate Col. 2.9 10 11 12. he had said we need joyn nothing of the Law for we are compleat in Christ and therefore
the Name of God call'd upon them and by Covenant are the children of God and members of the visible Church of the number of those out of whom the Lord will take ordinarily the number of the Elect for he hath so ordain'd his eternal Decrees that the greatest part of those that shall be saved come out of the loyns of his own people and those he takes into a Church-covenant because the children of the Elect are mixed with and taken out of the Church visible and to be without such a title of Honour as God has put upon the Infants of his people is it better than to enjoy it seeing free grace bestows it 3. The one half of the Church of God as well as the one half of Man-kind dye in their Infancy and do never live to partake of the Dews and Influences of any other Ordinance but this only and if they might not be owned by God in having the Seal of the Covenant set to them as the children of the Covenant they should go out of the world without any visible owning from God at all or any visible way of blessing from him whereas the same Lord that will glorifie them with his Son in the world to come will own them for his in a visible way before they go out of this life and he has appointed this Ordinance of Sealing to this very end 4. If they live it 's an Obligation that lyes upon them that they are not their own for they were dedicated to God by their Parents in their Infancy There was under the Law a Dedication of the Males and that was an Obligation upon the child as we see in Sampson and Samuel though they did not actually consent unto the Vows which were made by their Parents yet their Dedication was a bond upon them and so must this needs be upon the children of Christians also 5. The fruits of Baptism have an influence upon a mans whole life and the benefits of it carry a man on from his Cradle to his Grave and it 's all the nourishment that children do enjoy or in Infancy can receive from Ordinances therefore Cant. 7.2 it 's said by some to be called the Navel by which the Child in the womb is nourished a mans Baptism and the Grace of it is never accomplished till he come to Heaven for Baptism saves and therefore having an influence upon a mans whole life it 's not best to leave it out in any part of a man's life 6. It lays a great engagement upon the Parents to bring them up in the knowledge of that God to whom they have dedicated them and whose Seal is upon them and that they pray for them and in their behalf take hold of the Covenant and it layes also a very great Obligation upon the Church to which the Parents belong for they looking upon those children as Church-members together with themselves they fall under their constant care and prayers in all these respects it is not better that it be deferred but it 's every way best that it be according to Gods Rule and that our will be wholly moulded into the discoveries of his will 7. As for the Example of Christ it 's true that he was not baptized till he was Thirty years of age but he was circumcised the Eighth day and so admitted into the Church of the Jews and so long as that building was to continue so long he continued a Church-member and walked in Church-communion with them but the time of Reformation being come that the Lord would by him set up another Church now he receives a new Sacrament of Initiation which was proper to the new Administration of the Covenant that he might fulfill all Righteousness but for us there is not the same reason neither have we now any other way to be received into the Church in our Infancy beside Baptism and children are as capable of the grace of Baptism in their infancy as they will be when they are grown men for it 's a good rule of some Divines Nulla actio requiritur Ames med p. 314. sed tantùm receptio passiva infantes igitur sunt aequè capaces hujus Sacramenti respectu principalis ejus usùs atq adulti In Baptism there is required no action but only passive reception therefore Infants are equally capable of the principal use of this Sacrament as adult persons SECT III. the Covenant-right of Children applied § 1. HEre is a threefold Use of this Point 1. Of information and that in two things Vse 1 1. To shew the evil and danger of the Doctrine of the Antipedobaptists who deny unto children an interest in their parents Covenant take parents into covenant without their children they must be left out until they come to be of years actually to take hold of the covenant for themselves but as for a parental right they acknowledge no such thing such an entail of the covenant upon Abrahams natural seed they cannot deny but unto the spiritual seed of Abraham they deny it because say they it 's every mans own faith makes him a son of Abraham And by this means 1 they make another covenant than God ever made a covenant with parents not respecting their children which is such a covenant as God never made either in the Old or New Testament Before the Floud as soon as the covenant was revealed we have heard that it was unto parents and to their seed Gen. 3.15 and therefore Eve was called the mother of all living it 's spoken in respect of the covenant Eve was a covenant-mother as Abraham is the father of us all Rom. 4.16 and it was continued in Seth a seed that God gave her not instead of Cain who was cast out of Gods presence that is out of the Church but instead of Abel whom Cain slew that is the covenant-seed Gen. 6.18 9.9 so to Noah before and after the Floud afterwards the Lord hews these spiritual stones out of another pit as the expression is Esa 51.1 2. and then with David and his seed And the Jews being rejected Psal 89.28 Rom. 4.16 Act. 2.39 the same covenant was continued for the Gentiles were grafted into the same Root and that root was Abraham and his covenant Rom. 11.16 17. and for this cause Abraham is called the Father of the Gentiles and therefore 't is said The promise is unto them that are afar off and to their children as many as the Lord our God shall call and when the Jews shall be grafted in again they shall be brought they and their children into the same covenant Rom. 11.24 out of which they were cast off they and their seed The Scripture speaks of no covenant that doth not comprehend parents and their seed therefore that which leaves out the seed of confederate parents is a covenant of mans making and not of Gods and it will be good for men to consider what a dangerous evil it is to pervert any
of his love and yet with all this he is never satisfied There is a further promise and that is an inheritance with the Saints in light and therefore he can never rest satisfied till he come there he forgets that which is behind and does reach forward to that which is before Phil. 3.12 Quest But how should we do to attain promises 1. Be sensible of your want of them we should look over all the Paradise of the promises and know that there is not a tree nor a fruit in it but it 's good for food the fruit is for meat and the leaves for medicine See how far thou dost come short look upon duty in the latitude and extent of it for obedience must be universal so you must do upon the promises that your faith may be universal also There should be always in our eyes a sight of something before unto which we should reach out our selves Phil. 3.12 God doth never accomplish promises but he doth use to make men see their need of them before-hand they say Lord increase our faith and Christ shews them the excellency of faith Luk. 17.5 and their necessity thereof that by this means raising their apprehensions of it and shewing to them their necessity of it they might be prepared to receive it as the Lord was ready to bestow it we go without many promises because we see no necessity of them and therefore our souls sit down quietly without them 2. Get a strong faith for it was by faith that they did attain the promises Heb. 11.33 and it must be such a faith as must stay the heart and fix the eye upon the promise and thereby support it under all the seeming oppositions and improbabilities or impossibilities unto an eye of reason or an arm of flesh it must cause a man to close his eyes against them all in the matter of justification there is in faith an exclusive resolution against all other ways and means of righteousness whatsoever so there is in this also against all things that from sense and reason may be offered or pretended to the soul to weaken the power of the promise of God therein Rom. 4.19 20. In Abraham there was enough that he might have taken in to have discouraged him but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not admit a dispute he did not take in a consultation of flesh and blood when men have so consulted flesh and blood their faith has failed them God had promised his people a deliverance but they say our bones are dry and our hope is past Ezech. 37.11.12 we have no more reason to expect the accomplishment of such a promise than that we should see dry bones revive and arise out of their graves And the people of God have had their hearts always to fail them when they have looked off from the promise as Peter when the wind arose and he begins to sink he crys out Lord save me and Martha saith By this time he stinketh and the Israelites say The sons of Anak are there c. As whensoever the people of God begin to turn away their eyes from the holy commandment then their hearts fail them in point of duty so it is when they look off from the holy promise then their heart fails them in matter of faith and they cast away their confidence for every promise carries with it an obligation laid upon the power of God to accomplish it our faith gives us a title to the promise and the promise binds the omnipotence of God for its accomplishment and therefore it 's said They stopped the mouths of lyons and quencht the violence of the fire Heb. 11.13 and raised the dead to life By acts of Gods omnipotence all this was done yet they are attributed unto their faith as the fruit of it by which the omnipotence of God is ingaged in the work Therefore it was a brave spirit in Luther fit for him that shall attain the promises that when they sought his life by all means that might be at home and abroad and at last raised a war against him that small Chaldean war yet he wrote upon the walls of his Study that speech of David I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord. Psal 118. 3. Be much in prayer for the promise is a kind of a debt and therefore it 's said when God doth perform any promise reddit debita nulli debens c. and it 's prayer that puts this bond in suit before the Throne of Grace Jer. 29.10 12. After seventy years are accomplished in Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return unto this place then shall you call upon me and pray to me and I will hear you and this was the very course that Daniel took Dan. 9.1 2. for we can expect nothing from God in mercy that we do not obtain by prayer he leads his people into their own land by supplications In the consolations that we receive from God he speaks to our hearts and in the supplications that we put up unto God we speak unto his heart and the grounds are these why God will have all promises to be nothing else but the returns of prayer 1. That hereby we may testifie that it 's the will of God that we eye in the mercy and not our own will for it's whatsoever we ask according to his will he hears us There is a natural and a carnal desire of mercies when it 's a mans own will that puts him upon it and there is a spiritual and holy desire of mercies and that is when a man has an eye unto Gods will in the promise to bestow them as well as to his own necessity that requires them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence there is a double importunity in prayer as Luk 11.8 a holy kind of impudency that they will in no wise be put off there 's a being stirred up by the apprehension of necessity Hos 7.14 and a desire of the flesh to attain the thing and so men howl for corn wine and oyl but they are but the crys of beasts and not of Saints and so men ask amiss and attain not as it is in Jam. 1.5 But there is an importunity that is grounded upon the will of God and upon the promise and the soul earnestly desires it because he sees it's agreeable unto the will of God that has promised it it 's not the love of the thing that is so much the ground of his importunity as seeing the will of God in the promise and for this cause the Lord will make the accomplishment of all promises to be the only returns of prayers 2. That hereby we may know that his mercy is free in bestowing of it and that though God has promised it in a way of mercy yet there is no way for us to attain it but in a way of duty
over to his people that are in Covenant with him and if it be made over to them as you have demonstrated what use have they of it when it doth neither bestow upon them good things nor protect them from evil Answ 1. The Lord doth it that their sufficiency may be in him alone and that they may trust perfectly in him Zeph. 1.12 we read of men setled on their lees therefore God empties his people from vessel to vessel that so he may take them off from the lees of the creatures or sins upon which they are apt to settle men do think there is some sufficiency in God or else they would not seek him at all Now if they would look upon him as alsufficient then they would be content with him alone and could say to God Take all things else from me so thou give me thy self and it 's enough here therefore is the trial when the Lord shall deal with a man as he did with Abraham he promised to give him the land of Canaan for a portion but he gave him not a hand-breadth in it but only a burying place God will have him to trust him without a pawn so he will have thee to live by pure faith and that is when a man hath nothing of sight but his dependence is upon God alone and he hath nothing of the creature to look upon It 's a disposition that is apt to creep upon the best men to serve God in the abundance of all things but not in want It 's an ordinary accusation that the Accuser of the brethren hath Rev. 12. and he doth accuse them before God day and night and there is as much danger of Satan as to his accusations as there is in his temptations he doth commonly object Doth he serve God for nought Therefore to clear the sincerity of his servants the Lord doth as he did to Job take all away from them whatever riches they have here of this worlds goods and give them himself and they live upon him and thereby he doth silence the wicked one and by this means they have in their consciences a trial of their own sincerity with the Lord. 2. The Lord doth it that they may be made partakers of the sufferings of Christ the Lord did from Eternity ordain us to a conformity unto Christ Rom. 8.29 that as he was so should we be in this world There is a double image we are to conform to 1 Of God and that is laid up in the Mediator 2 Of Christ the Son of God and our happiness is in being conformed unto both these images Rom. 8.29 1 Joh. 1.3 and by this means having communion with both when we come to Heaven we shall have the fruition of both Now in this he did leave us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an exemplar 1 Pet. 2.21 there is a fellowship of his Suffering as well as of his Resurrection and we must have a share in the one as well as in the other in his sufferings as well as in his graces and his victories Phil. 3.10 Now we know Christ was a man of sorrows and one that had trial of all sorts of afflictions the Lord took all from him that are the comforts of mankind in this life though he were Lord of all yet he did lay down all Joh. 17.5 for he that laid down his glory that he had with the Father before the world was it was not much unto him to lay down all things else that though the Earth were the Lords to dispose of yet his blessed Son had not so much of it as to set the soal of his foot upon in the earth and by this was the Prince of your Salvation made perfect Heb. 2.10 for there is not only active but passive obedience required of us and we must come to perfection the same way that Christ himself did and if it lead us to perfection it 's no great matter though we be deprived here of what the world counts our perfection and we may glory in the Cross being it is the direct way to the Crown 3. God is alsufficient to them in the loss of all things and in the want of all things and it is better for any soul that their sufficiency be in him than in themselves and they would chuse it rather and therefore 2 Cor. 6.10 it is said As having nothing and yet possessing all things He was alsufficient to the three Children in the fiery Furnace and to Daniel in the Den of Lions therefore the people of God are compared unto fatherless children With thee the fatherless find mercy Hos 14.3 It hath been the manner of men to provide Hospitals for children that are cast forth and forsaken by their parents and so it was with David When my father and mother forsook me then the Lord took me up In what a sad condition is a child an infant cast forth and forsaken by the parents that hath â—â—ne to take care of him and to provide for him c. but the more perfectly they are fatherless the greater assurance they have of provision from him he is a most merciful Father and therefore he must be compassionate to his children in misery and the mercies we need are better in his hand than ours he knows how to do it when our wisdoms are non-plust and we cry out We know not what to do but our eyes are unto thee he knows how to deliver the just out of temptation though they are often in such straits that they know not how they should be delivered but grope as blind men they are utterly devoid of counsel to direct themselves and he knows not only how but when to do it the season of mercy is much to be considered as well as the season of duty the one makes it acceptable to God and the other sweet to us the Lord is a God of judgment Isa 30.18 Joel 2.23 and therefore blessed are those that wait for him as Gods way is best so is Gods time best Joel 2.23 He will give you the former and the latter rain pluviam justitiae the rain of righteousness that is largam copiosam a large and copiose rain and so Drusius expounds it as Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness but others understand justitiam justice to be as much as in a just proportion so much as shall be needful and for your good and no more there shall not be excessive rain and he will give you this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in primo that is as some render it in the first month but the word signifies not only primus ordine sed dignitate that which shall be the choicest and the fittest for them pluviam tempestivam a seasonable rain in the fittest season it 's a great mercy to be in the hand of God for the timing of mercy for our hearts are hasty and we would have them too soon and so they would be unseasonable
surely then if the Childrens right come from the Parent it must be from the faith of the Parent which only gives himself a right thereunto Here are four things to be spoken of Answ 1 That it 's not the Grace and saving faith of the Parents that gives either them or their children right unto external Church-Priviledges 2 That it 's a visible Profession of faith that does it 3 Yet it is not a bare Profession and a bare living in a Christian Church that is sufficient either for the Person to claim a title or for the Church to admit of it 4 I will give an answer to the Objections that are before mention'd of the entrance into Abrahams Covenant and having a title to be call'd Abrahams Children 1. I say it is not Grace regenerating and sanctifying that gives a title either to the Parent or to his seed and that I shall prove by these particulars 1. If men that have no Grace that were never regenerated never new-born to God may have a Covenant-title then that which gives a man a title is not Grace but a man that has no Grace that was never born from above may have a true title therefore it 's not their Grace that gives them this title Here consider 1 That the Church of God is either Invisible or Visible the Invisible Church is the Church of the first-born Heb. 12.23 whose names are written in Heaven and consists only of regenerate and Believers in truth this is the body of Christ the Spouse of Christ and the fulness of him that filleth all in all But as for the Visible Church it is made up of visible Saints and it does enjoy visible Ordinances as we see in the Church of the Jews and in all the converted Churches of the Gentiles they did all imbody for the publick Worship of God 2 This visible Church has visible Members and visible Priviledges as the Church invisible has invisible members and invisible Priviledges Indeed it is unto these that all the spiritual Promises of the Covenant do belong and all the saving Graces of the Covenant are conferr'd but yet there are many visible Priviledges of the visible Church which none but the visible members according to the Rules of the Word are to partake of we have these summed up in eight particulars Rom. 9.4 5 6. These are the visible Priviledges of the visible Church 3 Unto these a man that has no saving Grace may have a right according to the Rules of the Word and being looked upon by the Word as a visible member of a Church he has by the same Rule a right to the visible Priviledges which belong unto a Church-member A man may be a true member of the visible Church without Grace for the Net gathers of every kind some good and some bad Matth. 13.47 and into this Society many are called that are not chosen there be foolish as well as wise Builders and Virgins unclean as well as clean Beasts branches in Christ as he spreads himself upon Earth into a visible Church that bear no fruit and yet are truly said to be members and grow as members of the Church and therefore the Jews are said to be broken off Rom. 11.19 that the Gentiles might be grafted in now what were the Gentiles grafted into not into the Church invisible for many of them have no saving Grace never were regenerated therefore they were grafted into Christ spreading himself into a visible Church upon Earth and what were the Jews cast off from not from being members of the Church Invisible for there the calling and election of God is without repentance he knows who are his and he never casts out whom he knows to be his All the Jews were call'd Loammi they are not my people Rom. 9.26 they were once owned by God as a peculiar people and as a holy Nation unto him but now he will be no more styled their God and as men may have a visible standing in the Church and a visible right of membership without Grace so a man may partake in and have a right to the visible priviledges of a member though he have no Grace Rom. 11.17 Thou being a wild Olive Tree wast grafted in amongst them and to what end were they ingrafted it was that they might with them partake of the root and fatness of the Olive-tree this root and fatness cannot be meant of saving grace for if they had partaken of them Pareus they had never been broken off therefore it 's meant of outward priviledges only therefore the Gentiles have their priviledges into which they are ingrafted that is installed as well as the Jews had and yet it 's not saving grace in them that entitles them unto this priviledge because he says Let them also take heed for all this lest they also be broken off as the Jews the natural branches were 2. These external priviledges are such as belong to the visible Church into which men must admit and they cannot judge of the truth of grace and regeneration by an infallible judgment and therefore there must be some visible signs which as rules they are to act by in things of so high a nature As the Church is distinguished into visible and invisible so there is a double power of the Keys answerable 1 The Lord Christ has a Key of Royalty Rev. 3.7 as you have heard the Key of David which I conceive to have respect to the Church only and he admits into the Church invisible and it 's by vocation and union with Christ which is the end or terminus of vocation 2 There is a Key of charity as some call it though improperly yet true in this respect because it 's only the judgment of charity that they can proceed by and not of infallibility and this is an act belonging properly to Church-officers Mat. 6.19 by virtue of an institution of Christ unto that end and they that are imployed in this work cannot judge infallibly of the truth of grace in any they admit Though it 's true that the tree is much known by the fruit yet we find that Peter did baptize Simon Magus and the Church admitted Ananias and Saphira and those mentioned in 1 Joh. 2.19 they were admitted amongst them though afterwards they appeared not to be of them and that which was said of Israel is true still of the visible Church They are not all Israel that are of Israel The Church invisible has no Officer but Christ alone and he admits by a judgment of infallibility but the visible Church has visible Officers who are to proceed by a known rule and Baptism being the ordinance of admission is by them to be administred to persons as visible and not as invisible members of the Church all these therefore that are to be admitted by them must be admitted by a known rule which they can judge of which is not truth of grace for that they cannot know it