and instruments which have a promise annexed and that by vertue of the promise and Gods ordination I will not here assert that either the word SACRAMENTUM Latine or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek doth properly signifie any such thing oâ— that the word is so used in Scripture Let it suffice that in this sense the words have bin used both by Latine and Greek writers and if any can find a better word I shall willingly accept it when I know it If any make question whether this definition doth agree to the Sacraments of the old testament as well as of the new as we use to speak it 's plain it doth For Circumcision was a sign and Seal of the righteousnesse of faith Rom. 4. 11. where we have Righteousnesse promised by God faith required from man which is the substance of the Covenant and Circumcision as a Ceremony was a sign to signify and represent the righteousnesse by faith and a Seal to confirme it Yet this faith then required was in Christ to come And Abraham had this faith before he was Circumcised which made the confirmation stronger yet it confirmed no righteousness but by faith The Celebration of the Sacraments is a profession of our Religion § VI a testimony of our union amongst our selves badges of our profession to distinguish us from others and a Solemn engagement to obedience yet these are generall accidents and are neither of the essence of them nor proper adjuncts to any one of them As the observation of them is a service to be performed unto God they are parts of his Worship As they are commanded by God they bind us as all other Laws do and the observation of them by that command becomes necessary so far as he intended them In this respect they agree with other Laws They are meanes of obtaining the benefits merited by Christ and promised by God as all other Laws obeyed are For God hath promised that upon obedience the benefit shall follow The observation of them is commanded joyntly with the observation of morall and other more excellent duties which more immediately and effectually conduce unto the main end as with repentance and faith without which they cannot be effectuall For the promise is not added to the Sacrament alone For he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved Mark 16. 16. It 's not said He that is baptized but he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved A man by faith without Baptism not by Baptism without faith may be saved Yet the contempt of these Sacraments may damn a man and deprive him of salvation because that contempt is inconsistent with faith For true faith and salvation have a necessary and inseperable connexion by the Divine ordination in so much as that He who believeth not shall be damned The efficacy of these Sacraments for the actuall enjoyment of grace requireth a right qualification in the party and depends upon the power of the holy Spirit For Baptism is the Laver of Regeneration by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. As all other Laws have their promises and threats so these sacramentall ceremonialls likewise have From hence it followes that not onely they who neglect and omit the celebration of them but also the unworthy receivers are guilty and make themselves liable to punishment And they who observe them and observe them aright in God's good time though not alwayes at or in the time of the observation receive the benefit promised For though the benefit and the actuall enjoyment be from Christ and the Spirit yet it 's sometimes attributed to the observation of the Sacraments because they in some sort concurr in an inferiour manner to the collation of the same Therefore we are said to be ingraffed into Christ and saved by Baptism yet not by Baptism alone After these generals § VII concerning all the ceremonials and special Sacraments I proceed to speak of Sacraments in particular and bâ—cause we are freed from the Sacraments of former times by the death of Christ I will passe by Circumcision and the Passeover and come to the Sacraments of the Gospel which continue in full force and power unto this day and shall so continue unto the end of the World The Sacraments of the Gospell are two 1. Baptism 2. The Lord's Supper The first is the Sacrament of Regeneration and Admission into Christ's Kingdome and our ingrafting into Christ The second is the Sacrament of our continuance in this Kingdome and growing up in Christ. Baptism may be briefly therefore defined to be a Sacrament of our Regeneration But more particularly It is a Sacrament of the Gospel wherein by washing with Water in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Regeneration is confirmed to the party baptized As it is a Ceremony so it agrees with all the ceremonies of God Redeemer as a Sacrament with all other Sacraments thereof as a Sacrament of the Gospel it differs from all Sacraments annexed to the Promise For though they were instituted by God yet this with the Eucharist was instituted by God Redeemer exhibited The former presupposed Christ to come these Christ already come And also though it agree with Circumcision as being a Sacrament of initiation yet it differs both in the sign and in the thing signified in some respects The name of it is Baptism which comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though it signifies to dip or dive yet often signifies to wash In the Gospel we read of John's Baptism which was from Heaven and Christ's Baptism as instituted by Christ after his Resurrection in a certain form different from that of John's In the speciall Nature § VIII we must consider 1. The Rite 2. The Effect In the Rite we have 1. The Element or the thing 2. The Action 3. The Words The Element or outward thing considered in it self is Water which hath many vertues or power to produce many Effects as to quench Thirst to cool to moisten to mollifie to heal to fructifie and also to cleanse In respect of this cleansing power which is most ordinary God singled it as common to be had and commonly used for that end in all Nations to whom the Apostles were sent to preach and baptize And in respect of this cleansing it was fit to signifie the cleansing and regenerating vertue of the Spirit This signification was not naturall but it was determined to it by divine institution For it was made a sign of this supernatural Grace by a supernatural power of Christ not onely exhibited but raised again and ready to ascend into Heaven For this was one difference between the Sacraments of the Law and the Gospel that these latter were instituted immediately by the Son of God inâ—arnate Besides there was another that the former were alterable these never shall be altered The Action is Washing § IX and this was part of the Rite This did imply that man by nature is unclean and polluted with sin and must
second thing that follows is the confirmation of the continuance of this Covenant and that is in these words This is my Body c. This is the New Covenant or Testament in my Blood c. The thing confirmed is the continuance of the Covenant of Grace in the Bloud of Christ. The Confirmation and so the Solemn Engagement is two-fold 1. On God's part 2. On Man's part 1. On God's part by giving the Blessed Bread and Cup to be eaten and drunken 2. On Man's part by taking and eating the Blessed Bread and drinking the Blessed Cup. By Giving God doth testifie and assure man that He continues the same firm in the Covenant and is ready to give a further increase of Graces and a greater measure of Mercy for the merit of Christ dying and upon the same tearms the Covenant was made and confirmed at first For the Condition then was not onely to begin but continue Faith and Obedience and God by this Sacrament doth renew His Promise that man may renew his Faith Man presupposed to continue in this Covenant doth solemnly by receiving and eating this Bread in remembrance of the Body of Christ broken and offered and by receiving and drinking the Cup in remembrance of the bloud of Christ testifie and engage himself to continue in thta Covenant expecting Remission and Eternal Life upon no other tearms but Faith in Christ dying for him Yet because a Mist is cast upon these words This is my Body This is my Blood I must clear them that this Confirmation may be the more evident To this end I must shew 1. What is meant by THIS 2. How THIS Whatsoever it be may be said to be the Body of Christ And how the second THIS may be affirmed to be the Bloud of Christ. By THIS in the former place is meant Bread the blessed and consecrated Bread For 1. It was Bread that Christ took 2. It was Bread Christ blessed 3. It was Bread Christ broke 4. It was Bread Christ gave 5. It was Bread which Christ cmomanded them to take and eat 6. The Apostle calls this Bread three several times 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. But How is this Bread Christ's Body It 's not the Body of Christ by Transsubâ—antiation nor Consubstantiation For both these are contrary to Reason to Sense to the Nature of all Religious Rites and Sacraments to all Miracles For there never was Miracle that did delude the Senses For the Water turned miraculously into Wine appeared to be Wine and tasted as Wine and was Wine indeed as it appeared That many of the Fathers seem to affirm it to be the Body of Christ is nothing for as many call it Bread and a Sign and Figure of Christ's Body To this purpose you may read the Learned Dr. Crakenthorpe against Spalatensis in the Controversie of Transubstantiation where ye shall find a multitude of Councels and Fathers exactly quoted to this purpose The word Transubstantiation was not known till latter times The thing signified by it cannot be certainly defined For the greatest School-men and subtilest Wits differ amongst themselves both in the Definitions and the Explication of their Definitions Besides there is some reason to think many of them do not believe it For some of them amongst us have refused to take it upon their Salvation that after a due Consecration according to their Rules any such change of the Elements is made But suppose the change and that it 's certain to what end doth it serve For it 's confessed that wicked men may receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist and yet be damned neither doth it profit any man who receives it without Faith THIS therefore that is said to be Christ's Body is Bread and at the first Institution it must needs be so for then Christ's Body was not broken neither did Christ then give it The second Question therefore is How Bread may be said to be Christ's Body if not really and by Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation or some such way The Answer is That it 's His Body 1. By Representation because it 's a Sign and Figure of his Body as many of the Ancients expresly affirm and if any of these say it 's Christ's Body in proper sense as they of the Church of Rome would make us believe they do then they must needs contradict themselves And this is proper to all Religious Rites to signifie something invisible and many times the name of the thing signifyed is given to the Sign it self As Circumcision is said to be a token of the Covenant Gen. 17. 2. and afterwards it is called the Covenant My Covenant shall be in your flesh ver 13. whereas it was the token of the Covenant that was in their flesh The reason of this expression is the similitude and agreement between the sign and the thing signifyed In this respect Christ calleth His Flesh Bread not that it was Bread but because it was like to Bread And that place of John the 6th where He calls Himself and His Flesh Bread is alleadged to proveâ—t is change yet if the Expression and Predication were proper that place might prove that Christ's Body was changed into Bread and not Bread into His Body as will easily appear to any Intelligent and impartial Reader Yet to be a bare Sign is not all but to be a Sign so by Divine Institution as to confirm the Promise of the Covenant and assure the worthy Receiver that as certainly as He gives him that Bread so certainly will God give him the benefits merited by the Death of Christ. By this time we may understand what is signifyed by these words This is my Body But what is meant by the latter words This is the Covenant in my Blood and This is my Blood of the Covenant For the sense of these there can be no doubt but by THIS is meant 1. The Cup For 1. Christ took the Cup. 2. Said This Cup is the New Testament or Covenant 3. It 's called three times by St. Paul the Cup. 2. By cup is meant the Wine in the Cup. 3. This Wine blessed and consecrated according to Christs institution This Cup is said to be the new testament that is the sign whereby it 's confirmed in this Sacrament and as it were a pledge given by God and received by man of remission of sin merited by the blood of Christ and for his sake promised to us Whereas Mathew and Mark relate that Christ said This is my blood it 's meant that the Wine in the Cup was a token and sign of his blood given and received to confirm the new Testament or Covenant Thus Circumcision was a Sign and Seal of the Righteousnesse of faith to Abraham as this Cup is a sign to signify and a Seal to confirm the righteousnesse of faith and remission of sins in the blood of Christ. As for the real presence of Christ in this Sacrament it 's certain that his glorifyed body is in Heaven Yet he
or unbelieving Jewes are The distance from God and Salvation of the one is not such or so great as the distance of the other The Apostle puts the Ephesians in mind That before their conversion they were Gentiles in the slesh who were called uncircumcision by that which was called circumcision in the slesh made by hands That at that time they were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope without God in the world Ephes. 2. 11 12. It 's not to be understood that they were without God as Creatour or Preserver but without God promising to save them For God did not promise to save them or their Children upon any terms They were excommunicate and banished out of his Kingdome and were denyed the very meanes of conversion Therefore they must needs be without Christ and without hope For where there is no Christ nor promise in Christ there could be no hope But after their conversion they were Subjects of Gods Kingdome fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and if the Parents being the root were holy then their Children the branches were holy and within the Verges of Gods spiritual Kingdom And as the promise in Christ to come was to the Jews and their Children so the promise in Christ already come is to Christians and their Children For the Covenant made to Abraham and his seed is essentially though not accidentally the same with the promise of the Gospel and must necessarily include the Children with the Parents as that did except any man can produce a clause of exclusion which no man to this day ever could When Peter said The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God should call Acts 2. 3. He spake not to the Jews merely as Jews but as Christians believing in Christ already come and the promise was not personal to them alone excluding their Children but to them as such and their Children For their conversion did no wayes limit or straiten the promise made to Abraham but continued it in the same extent it was before And the words imply that if he called the Gentiles who were afar off both they and their Children as he did call them afterward even they should enjoy the promise in the same extent so as to include the Children with the Parents To understand it otherwise is to offer violence to the Text. For the Gentiles once called must enjoy the priviledges for them and theirs in as large and ample manner as the Jew did this onely was the proper and special priviledge of the Jew he must first be called Yet this we must know that Children are in the lowest form of Christs Kingdom whilst they are Children and after they are at age by their actual disobedience may loose the benefit and by Apostacy they may forfeit all their priviledges and their hope These priviledges which these Children enjoy are not ordinarily immediate conversion or justification and the Spirit of Adoption and regeneration and the actuall enjoyment of those blessings but that which they have immediate right unto is the meanes of conversion which he denyes to such as are not of the Church For this was the priviledge which the Jew enjoyed though he did not believe he was trusted with the Oracles of God wherein were precepts of duty promises for mercy and also of power to keep the precepts and the outward confirmation both of precepts and promises This was the Childrens bread which was not given to doggs of the Gentiles and such as were strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel These Children born in the Church and of believing Parents who are Christians are members of the Church subjects of Christs Kingdome and have a special relation to God to Christ to the Church and the same such as no Infants in the world born of Parents out of the Church have or as such can have The summe of this discourse is That as all Children are part of their parents make but one person by the Laws of God and men so Christian Infants are one person with their Christian parents and make but one body with them as the root and branches are but one Tree and this by divine ordination and especially in obligations to dutyes and right unto favours and priviledges spiritual so far as they are capable So that the question so much vexed in our dayes rightly stated is this Whether Christian infants as part of their parents and one person with them have right to Baptism or are subjects immediately capable of baptism according to Divine ordination To this thus stated the Antipaedo-baptists have said nothing to this hour And whereas they alleage that there is no example or precept in the Gospel for Infant-baptism it hath been answered that there is no expresse precept or example for women to receive the Lords Supper and yet they themselves administer it to women But this is but very little if not the least that may be said for infant-baptism For so many precepts and examples as they can find in the New-Testament for the Baptism of such as are at age so many precepts and examples they give us for Baptizing Infants For if the parents or one of the parents may be baptized then the Infant may be baptized For they are one person in respect of Baptism and therefore what right the one hath the other must have Neither can it be upon any sufficient ground alledged that Children are uncapable of Baptism either as it is a Sacrament or as a Sacrament of initiation or as a seale of the righteousnesse by faith For circumcision was 1. A Sacrament 2. A Sacrament of initiation 3. A Seal of the righteousnesse by faith Yet this was administred to Infants and that by Gods Institution which never would have been done by Divine Warrant if they had been uncapable The difference between Baptism and Circumcision was 1. That the signes are different 2. That there was a different modification in the object of faith required in both The signe of the former was the cutting off the foreskin of the â—lesh in the second washing with water in the name of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost The different modification of the object of faith was Christ to come and Christ already come The spirituall thing sealed and signified in both was the same that is righteousnesse by faith in Christ. And as there is no place of Scripture alleaged so I think there can be no reason sufficient given why the covenant being essentially the same the Children included then should be excluded now If the faith profession and promise of the Parents then was sufficient to obtain the sealing of the covenant by the initiating Sacrament why should they not be now For Children are as much one person now with their parents as they were then Neither should any wonder that the Faith of one may
weighty and substantiall that is the morall duties of the Law And to be zealous in Ceremonials and careless in moralls was alwayes either hypocrisy or impiety or both These positive Laws which alwayes received their binding force from the institution commanding not from the excellency or goodnesse of the thing commanded are a rule of obedience as well as the morall and the neglect of them is a contempt of the Lawgiver There is an Analogy and proportion between the outward sensible and the sacred part and in that respect they might by the outward senses help the memory informe the understanding stir up devotion and affection set forth Gods worship with greater Solemnity and are an outward testification of inward submission saith obedience unto God and the approbation of Religion which was professed And for these ends and such like they seem to be added to Morals and so much the rather because man hath a body as well as a Soul and is not all Spirit but in part flesh and must serve God in both These kind of Laws are either such as were enacted before the Fall of man § II whil'st he continued innocent or after Those before were the Laws of God concerning the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden of Eden Yet because these were not Laws of God as Redeemer by Christ they â—o not belong to this government whereof I now enâ—reat The positives which followed â—â—e fall of man and the first promise of Christ were either such as God instituted before or which he instituted after that Christ was exhibited Those before the Incarnation were either extraordinary or ordinary and the principall were either Sacrifices or Sacraments so called as now we understand them Again those which constantly continued from the times of Adam till the glorification of Christ were sacrifices and offerings For Adam taught his Children Cain and Abel to offer gifts and sacrifices and no doubt by Warrant Commission from God otherwise the offering of Abel had not bin accepted of God nor offered in faith Yet afterwards to these were added the Circumcision the Passover and many other Ceremonies mention'd in the books of Moses The waters of the flood bearing up the Ark and saving Noah and his family is made a kind of Baptism or baptismall Rite Whether the Rain-bow signifying a temporall blessing could be a Religious Rite may be doubted and so much the rather because the benefit promised was generall to all men and living Creatures Yet if the not destroying by the flood did â—ignifie a spiritual blessing then it had the full nature and essence of a Religious Rite The passing through the Red Sea and under the Cloud the Manna the water out of the Rock all these were extraordinary and rather Sacraments then any otherwise That they were Sacraments both Paul 1 Cor. 10. 1 2 3. and Peter 1 Pet. 3 20. 21. do teach us The ordinary Sacraments before the times of the Gospel were Circumcision and the Passover The rest of the Mosaicall Ceremonies except some few were Religious and Mysticall whether things persons actions times The Priests did serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Heb. 8. 4. The Tabernacle was a figure for the time then present Chap. 9. 9. The services and purification shadows of things in Heaven Chap. 10. 1. The person and especially the high Priests were types of Christ Their great sacrifice of expiation and other sin-offerings of the Sacrifice of Christ. The tabernacle typified either heaven or the humanity of Christ wherein the Godhead dwelt bodily So that persons things and actions signified better persons things and actions All their Consecrations Expiations Dedications Purifications and Seperations had some reference to spirituall duties or promises or judgments And this was the sin the usual sin of that people that they neglected moral duties were zealous in Ceremonials expected justification and salvation by them made the redemption of Christ vain and needlesse forgate the promise made to Abraham and so looked not after the better Covenant established upon better promises Yet all these Ceremonies were Laws binding to obedience and it was their misery to want either tabernacle temple solemne services or holy times and their sin if when they enjoyed these they did not observe them They were laws of God Redeemer had speciall reference to Christ to come and the times of the Gospel and were enacted for severall ends as hath bin shewed in the Chapter of the administration of the Kingdom of God Redeemer and the Jews were bound by the Mosaicall Ceremonials in a Speciall manner But when Christ had finished the great work of Redemption and the more glorious light of the Gospel did begin to shine these shadows must vanish and fly away The standing Sacraments of former times must be changed not only because they did signifie some temporall mercy past and had some temporall promise annexed but also chiefly because they were Sacraments of Christ to come or did imply oâ— presuppose that he was not exhibited Because these are abolished § III have left their binding force and their time is expired I will proceed to speak more largely and distinctly of the Ceremonialls of the Gospel which do and shall continue in force till the end of the World But first before I can give any clear account of the Sacraments of the Gospel in particular I must say something of a Sacrament in generall 1. Sacraments are Ceremonies and holy Rites to be used in Gods worship and are parts of that worship and thus they differ from Ceremonialls in generall 2. These Sacraments presuppose the Redeemer the work of Redemption the Laws of God Redeemer as they require obedience and duty and as they promise mercies and benefits merited by the Redemption Others do expresse it thus That Sacraments presuppose the Redemption and the Covenant 3. The Spirituall and heavenly part of the Sacraments of the old and new testament were always for substance and the principall thing in them the same 4. That the Sacraments of former and these latter times agree in many things and differ and that much in some things 5. That Christ contracted all the principall Ceremonials of the old into a few these few are Sacraments for number two for signification clear for observation easie and for man if observed aright very beneficiall These things understood § IV the nature of a Sacrament may be the better understood It 's a Ceremony confirming the Covenant of grace in Christ. The Sacraments of former times required faith as well as these of the Gospel but with this difference that the former required faith in Christ to come the latter required faith in Christ already come To understand the definition we must observe the generall nature and specificall difference The generall nature is that they are Ceremonies and sacred Rites and so they agree with all the other Sacrifices offerings and other mysticall parts of
from his Father because his Father was a Roman If a man for his merits be invested with a Fee or estate of honour and juridiction adherent and the same investiture include him and his Heires then his Heir after his decease from that first investiture of his Father or his father first invested the estate with the honour and jurisdiction is one person with him If a Peer be convicted and condemned for high treason his estate is confiscate and the blood tainted and the Children and Family suffer as one with the person guilty These instances though others more clear and fit may be given may suffice to manifest in things civil and by humane Laws the Father or the Parents and Children to be one person I might further shew that in many cases Prince and People and also the whole State may be considered as one person and are so taken both by God and Men. Let 's inquire whether it be so in matters of Religion and by the Laws of Gods Kingdome That it is so I have made it evident out of the second Commandement of the Law morall both in punishments and blessings For not onely temporall but spirituall judgments lye upon the Children for their Fathers sins which could not be just except they be some ways one person with their Parents And all true believers derive their right unto spirituall and eternall rewards as one person with Christ and in some sort from Abraham since his time as the Father of Believers But the principal thing to be cleared is that Parents and Children are one person in religious obligations spiritual priviledges favours For obligation unto obedience to Gods Laws all Orthodox and understanding Christians will grant that Adam and all mankind were one person as Father and Children insomuch that in Adam sinning we all sinned and in him dying we all dye This could never have bin so if God both in his Laws and Judgments had not considered and accounted that in Adam bound all his were bound But this was under the government of God Creator not Redeemer Yet Abraham was under the government of Redemption and the Kingdom of grace And in him God binds his seed and Posterity yea his bought and born-servants male For thus it is written And God said unto Abraham Thou shalt keep my Covenant Thou and thy seed after thee in their generations Gen. 17. 9. Where we must note 1. That this was the first institution of Circumcision 2. That this was immediately and personally given as a Law at this time only to Abraham 3. That it did not onely bind Abraham himself but his posterity to many generations 4. That the obligation in respect of the Children was so strict that the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his fore-kin was not Circumcised that soul should be cut off from his people He had broken the Covenant ibid. vers 14. 5. That this Sacrament was a Sign and Seal of the righteousnesse by faith Rom. 4. 2. And was to continue till the time of the Gospel when the Sign of the Covenant was to be changed into that of washing with water and the faith confirmed then was in Christ to come and by that Abraham was justified but after that time the Gospel-justification was by faith in Christ already come From all this it 's evident that the obligation of the Father was the obligation of the Child And it 's further remarkable that 1. That Covenant did expresly include the Children with the Parents 2. That it was the Covenant of Righteousnesse by faith in Christ. 3. That there is no exception or exclusion nor clause to that purpose in all the Gospel as that God should contract his mercy and not extend it so far even to Christian Children in the times of the Gospel as he did in the times of the Old Testament No man that shall seriously consider this matter but will confesse that Parents are bound not onely for themselves but also for their Children too And therefore they are so oft not onely under the Law but under the Gospel to teach their Children so soon as they are capable and the Children are bound to receive their instruction and to observe the condition of the Covenant into which their Parents entred for them and theirs Therefore God saith that Abraham would command his Children and houshold after him Gen. 18. 19. Which command of Abraham had been of little force except his Children and houshold had been bound by that command which was given to him and in him to them God considering both as one person God hath so far subjected Children to their Parents Servants to their Masters and the houshold or family to the Master or Mistris of a family that neither Servants nor Children are Sui juris or in their own power but in the power of Parents and Masters so that they may command them and not onely in matters of this life but especially in religion And if they were not so much in their power and bound in them it was strange that when the Centution believed his whole houshold became believers John 4. 53. and that Lydia and her houshold the Jaylour and all his or all his house should be baptized at one time Acts 16. 15. 33 34. And surely the Child of Christian Parents is bound in his Christian Parents unto the conditions of the Covenant so as no Child of any Mahumetan Pagan or unbelieving Jew is But the principal point to be cleared in this particular is § XX How Parents and Children are one person by the Laws of God in spiritual favours and priviledges so that what the right of the Parents is the same may be the right of the Children And what these rites and priviledges are which are communicable from the Parents to the Children And here this is a certain rule that so far as God binds Children in their parents to duty so far he binds himself to Children in their Parents by his promise The Apostle saith That if the root be holy so are the branches Rom. 11. 16. Where we may observe 1. That the root are the Parents and the branches are the Children 2. That the root and branches make but one tree So parents and Children make but one body one person Politick 3. That if the root be holy the branches are holy and to be holy is a Spirituall priviledge 4. That as the branches derive their naturall Being from the root so the Children derive their spiritual priviledges to be holy from their holy Parents Yet this holinesse is not either justification or inherent righteousnesse and immediate sanctification of the Spirit For when the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the believing Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband it cannot be meant of any such sanctification neither is the holinesse of the Children of such sanctified parents any such thing It 's something whereby they are nearer the Kingdome of God then the Children of Apostate heathens Mahumetans
is great we must often pray humbly depend upon our God and work out our salvation with fear and trembling because it 's God that worketh in us the Will and the Deed of his good pleasure Because of our many foils and falls one worke of our Sanctification is to renew our Repentance and our Faith in Christ and that daily that as we contract new guilt and are weakned so we may be cleansed and strengthned Therefore David after his grievous fall petitions to God to create in him a clean Heart and renew a right Spirit within him Psal. 51. 10. And Peter goes out and weeps bitterly and no doubt prayes fervently Divine Desertions are fearfull and we must take heed of offending the sanctifying Spirit of God By these frequent returnes unto God and our Saviour Jesus Christ our Sanctifycation is renewed and recovered What should be the reason whereupon the Eternal Wisdom of God should determine to put his Regenerate Ones upon this Bloody War sometimes continued long and not wholly destroy sin at once and so in an instant give us perfect and perpetual Security is hard to know Yet this is certain that he thought it best to teach us Humility so as that we might learn that Lesson perfectly and that we should fully know our total and perpetual dependance is upon his grace For Pride and Security was the ruine of Man at first and the â—inal Fall of the Apostate Angels Besides He knew how to turn all the Events of this War unto our good and greatest glory and He would let the Devil plainly see that he by frail man over whom he had so domineer'd and whom he had so insolently trampled under his feet could not onely Resist him but eternally subdue him This is the intermediate Event of this War § XII The final Event is a final and compleat Victory For we are enabled not onely to withstand in the evil day of Temptation but having done all and finished the War to stand victorious in the Field and see all our Enemies subdued Ephes. 6. 13. For this end the compleat Armour of God was given us And this is the Promise that God the God of Peace who will put an end unto this War will bruise Sathan under our feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. And the God of all grace who hath called us to his Eternal Glory by Christ Jesus after we have suffered a while will make us perfect stablish strengthen settle us 1 Pet. 5. 10. We shall overcome the Great Dragon and Old Serpent by the Blood of the Lamb and his Testimony not loving our lives to Death Revel 12. 2. The Reward upon this Victory is an Eternal Crown which will be certain For when Paul had fought this good Fight had finished his Course and kept the Faith from thenceforth there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge would give him at that day and not to him onely but unto them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 8. This Victory is obtained by final Perseverance which is often in part interrupted by our many failings and falls yet continued by a continual Supply of inward strength and outward Assistance upon which it doth chiefly depend God requires on our part a constant Exercise of that Power He hath given us and humble dependance upon his strength a continual Watchfulness a dayly renewing of our Repentance and Faith For without Duty there is no expectation of solid comfort This Perseverance is never totally interrupted by Apostasie in the Saints of God once regenerate and sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise who have received the first-fruits of glory as an earnest of the full possession of the great Inheritance That these ever did or may according to the Eternal Rules of this Government fall totally and so finally never any yet could clearly prove That others though baptized enlightened changed in their hearts reformed in their lives so as to forsake in some measure their former sins endued not onely with ordinary but extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and out of an imperfect hope of Salvation have tasted of the joys and comforts of the Gospel may fall will not be denied Yet all these things are not sufficient sufficiently to qualifie the subject of this Question concerning Perseverance For the Question Whether those who by a sincere Faith are living Members of Christ have received the Regenerating Spirit as a Seal and Earnest of Eternal Glory can according to the Laws of God-Redeemer fall away totally from the estate of Justification The Question may be § VII De esse aut Posse or both That any such did ever so fall no man yet did ever prove That they may fall according to the tenour of the Gospel hath not been yet nor I think can be made evident The Scripture doth sometimes take Righteousness Calling Regeneration Sanctification the purging away of sin in a large sense and attribute all these to such as have been baptized made profession of their Faith and have not by Scandal or Apostasie stained their Profession and as the Scripture so the ancient Writers also term these Saints Righteous and Regenerate But a thousand such places will not evince this Fall that 's here denied For they changed the subject of the Question and so the Question it self Many do instance in David who no doubt was regenerated and â—ealed with the Spirit of Promise and he fell grievously and contracted the guilt of Adultery and Murther But what though Was this a total Fall It was not For 1 Though the sins were heynous and did highly offend God and deserved Death yet this Death was removeable For they were not the sins of Apostasie or final Unbelief nor properly nor immediately Impenitency and Unbelief which are the sins directly and formally against the Covenant and Fundamental Law of Redemption Therefore they could not make him of a subject to be no subject neither did God wholly reject him and take his Spirit wholly from him A man may commit heynous offences against the Law and yet be a Subject but if he be guilty of Rebellion or High-Treason he loseth all right of a Subject Thus David was not guilty 2 This Death was more easily removable then that Penalty of that Party which never did believe never was regenerate 3 Though the Sins were actually yet they were not habitually contrary to the Law or to Repentance and Faith For to be an Adulterer and Murderer was not his constant temper 4 God made such promises to David and those personal as were not consistent either with total or final rejection This was one promise and that Personall My mercy will I keep for him for evermore and may Covenant shall stand fast with him And for his seed if they transgresse he would chastise them Neverthelesse his loving kindnesse He would not take utterly from them Psal. 89. 28 29 30. c. And this did include an obligation on Gods part to
Attribute which God did exercise § III and manifest in this Judgment passed upon man was his Mercy which is his free love of man who had made himself unworthy For after that he had sinned and made himself miserable though his misery were an object of compassion yet his sin did provoke to anger and deserved vengeance God looking upon man in this condition was more willing to pitty him then to punish him to remove the sin then to destroy the sinner He was unwilling all Mankind should perish as they must needs have done if he had proceeded in strict justice against them The sin in it self was no fit subject of mercy yet seeing that Woman was deceived by the subtilty of the Devil and Man by Woman his dearest Wife brought into transgression God took occasion to pitty them yet there could be no mercy for them except it issue out of the abundant goodness of God who is slow to anger and so much inclined to compassion and willing in this particular rather to manifest the glory of his mercy then of his justice Man had made himself unworthy and liable to eternal misery and God might have eternally punisht him and that justly too yet mercy kept justice back mitigated the rigour of it and confined it in a narrow compass to inlarge her self more abundantly This mercy was the Fountain from which issued the Promise of Christ the ruine of Sathan's Kingdom the Redemption of Mankind the Relicks of God's Image the means of Conversion the patience long-suffering bounty and clemency of God the gifts of the Spirit the remission of sin and eternal life And that God might be placable Sin pardonable Man saveable he accepts Christ's propitiation reverseth the Law of Works as requiring and that strictly perfect and perpetual obedience as the condition of life and makes a new Law and Covenant which determines Faith to be the condition of life and that condition to be performed by the power of the Spirit merited by and restored for Christ's sake This mercy did appear in this great Judgment many ways § IV 1. God sentenced the Devils in the first place and that without any mercy and for this very cause even because they had attempted the eternal ruine of man which upon the success of their damned Design had proved unavoidable and the recovery of man impossible if God should not have done some extraordinary work to prevent it Upon this fiery indignation of God against these Liars and Murderers of Mankind expressed in this Sentence it did appear 1. That the punishment to be suffered by these cursed Fiends was grievous unavoidable and unremovable for ever 2. That God was highly displeased at their malice shewed against and the mischief done to Mankind in that he takes so fearful vengeance upon them 3. That there was some pitty in God towards poor man trembling at the Bar of God for though their folly was inexcusable yet their condition considering the temptation was lamentable 2. This mercy was manifest in an high and extraordinary degree and measure in that in this Sentence he promiseth or at least implies a most certain promise of Jesus Christ a Saviour and Redeemer It 's true that this great promise was folded and wrapt up in a few words and the same very mysterious as we read them in Moses Gen. 3. 15. But those very words inform us 1. That the Redeemer should be the Seed of the Woman that Woman whom the Serpent had so deluded and who now stood guilty before God's Tribunal 2. That this Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head and so be the ruine of his Kingdom and Dominion over Man 3. That he should not obtain this Victory without Blood for his Head must be bruised and he put to death And there is not onely an Emphasis but a Mystery in those words The Seed of the Woman The Emphasis is in this That God doth not say an Angel or Spirit or some man more excellent then Adam whom he should create instantly but the Seed a Child a Mortal Man born of that sinful Woman though now contemptible and miserable should encounter the Devil with that power and policy as to foil him The Mystery seems to be this That it 's not said the Seed of Man nor the Seed of Man and Woman but the Seed of the Woman signifying though darkly that Christ should be the Seed and Child immediate of a Woman but of no Man For as he was Man he had an immediate Mother who conceived bare him brought him forth but no immediate Father Upon these words as the condition of Man and Woman became more comfortable so the Kingdom and Government of Mankind began instantly to be altered and a second Adam was appointed their Head to redeem them as the first Adam had undone them We must needs think that our first Parents being sinful guilty and convicted before the Supream Judge of Heaven and Earth stood with sad and heavy hearts expecting their doom and condemnation to Eternal Death until they heard these words The Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents Head Then their Despair was turned into Hope and their sinking-dying-hearts began to revive For to them these were words far above all expectation of sweetest comfort Never better words spoken never better heard 3. This mercy was evident in that God did not send the Spirit of Despair nor of Slumber and Security upon them § V nor deliver them up to a reprobate mind as he might justly have done and so made their condition desperate and irrecoverable nor presently execute his judgment Eternal upon them either by taking away their lives in their sin or making their bodies immortal to punishment in body and soul for ever Neither did he take from them the Light of Nature and the sense and power of Conscience but gave them the saving-light of the Gospel and the means of Conversion with the promise of the Spirit All this is evident by the promise of Christ the ruine of Satan's Kingdom a final Victory after a Bloody War in this Sentence of the Devil and it doth further appear by the Education of Cain and Abel and especially in the Faith of Abel That the means of Conversion have been denied several persons whole Tribes many Nations and the greatest part of the World howsoever it might be deâ—erved by this sin of Adam yet usually it 's the punishment of Apostasie as of the generality of mankind before the â—lood of the Gentiles before Christ's incarnation and of the generality of the Jews and many of the Gentiles since the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations And the very Gentiles were not delivered up unto a Reprobate mind before they abused the Light of Nature Yet the very outward means of Conversion were a gift of Free grace for the merit of Christ who was promised of pure and abundant mercy The Sentence of Justice past upon them was allayed § VI and tempered with great mercy
fittest of all others to represent that Priest Jesus Christ who had no Predecessour from whom he might derive his right nor successour because he live in Heaâ—ven a Priest for ever who alone hath right to receive tithes and homage 〈◊〉 his people and blesse them with spiritual and eternall blessings And the Throne and Scepter of David and his successours in his Kingdome did shadow him whose Throne is for ever and ever and his Scepter a right Scepter Faith and obedience to pure morals to be performed to God Redeemer by the power of the renewing Spirit were alwayes required by the Lawes of this Kingdom for the Lawes of Faith and obedience to pure Morals were alwayes the same Yet to these Lawes of Faith and obedience in pure morals were added from the beginning divers positive and ceremoniall precepts especially that of sacrifice And when the promise of the Messias to descend of 〈◊〉 was renewed of Abraham circumcision was instituted as a Seal of the righteousnesse of faith and a solemn right of engagement unto their Saviour and of his admiâ—sion of them into the Church upon their submission And this was by his command to be administred to Infants born in the Church When Israel came out of Aegypt the Passeover was ordained in remembrance of that great deliverance and did continue till that great Paâ—chal Lamb was slain by whose blood we are redeemed from the wrath of God Hell and everlasting death But after that the posterity of Abraham Isacc Jacob being multiplyed into a nation were reduced by God into a Common-Wealth both civil and Ecclesiasticall and presented before God appearing in a glorioâ—s and retrible manner upon Mount Sinai they entred into a solemn Covenant with their God He promiseth to be their God to protect and blesse them and they engage themselves solemnly to be his loyall subjects Upon this Foundation of a Kingdom once layd God proceeds as their Lord and Soverenig to give them morall judiciall ceremoniall Lawes In the morall he reduceth all morall dutyes to certain heads in a brief exact and excellent method in the Ceremonials he reduceth all former rites and ceremonials Instituted by himself into order and adds many more as he saw convenient for that people in that time In the judicials he dilivered them a perfect body of the civill Law These judicials were for direction in judgment and the adminstration of their civil state The moralls and ceremonials were for the Church and looked far higher The moralls tended to give them a more perfect knowledge of morall dutyes to be a rule of moral obedience to let them see their inability to keep it their impossibility to be justified by it to make them sensible of their sin and seek a Saviour who should deliver them from the curse and paenaltyes threatned by the Law and deserved by their disobedience The ceremonial was more mysticall 〈◊〉 therein God did prescribe a Tabernacle a Priest and a solemn 〈◊〉 of service The Tabernacle was a type of the Heavenly Temple the High Priest of the great eternal Universall High Priest and the Services especially that 〈◊〉 Sacrifice and most of all that yearly Sacrifice of expiation to be offered onely by the High Priest the 10th day of the 7th moneth with the blood whereof he ente 〈◊〉 into the most holy place was a type of that sacrifice of Christ by which he obtayned eternal Redemption Besides that these did signifie heavenly things they were given to this people to keep and preserve them pure from Heathenisâ— Idolatry and superstition to continue them seperate especially in Religion and Divine Worship from all other nations of the world Tâ—ey were for the multitude and charge of them a burthen and heavy yoke to keep them undeâ—â— and cause them to long for their Messias who should free them from those dark and mysterious shadows give them a clearer and more glorious light and a perfect liberty and ease from this servitude This time was the time of the infancy and minority of the Church for as the Heyr so long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutours and governours untill the time appointed of the Father So they when they were Children that is under age were in bondage under the elements of the world But when the fullnesse of that time that was appointed by God their Father was come God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law c. Wherefore after that they were no more Servants but sons Gal. 4. 1 2 3 4. 7. The time of the Gospel therefore is a time of emancipation and liberty not onely from the Ceremonials but from the curse and servitude of the law of works which that law of Moses did threaten and could no wayes free them from it For in that law there was no promise of the Spirit to enable them for to obey the morall law nor of pardon though they did transgresse it Neither was there any Sacrifice Priest or Service that could expiate sin and purge the conscience from dead Works For though their expiations lustrations and purifying ceremonyes might free them from legall pollutions yet from sin they could not This covenant was not the same with that of the seed of the Woman § II which should break the Serpents head nor with the same renued more explicitly unto Abraham That in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed much lesse was it the same with the promises of the Gospel made in Christ exhibited And by the way we may take notice that the Apostle Gal. 3. puts a difference between the Promise the Law Faith The promise looks at Christ to come and was made more particularly to Abraham The Faith is the same with the Gospel and looks at Christ already come This law comes in between along time after the promise and a longer time before the Gospel And one end why it entred in between both was that sin might abound Rom. 5. 20. and it was added because of transgression till the seed that is Christ should come and before Faith that is Christ and the Gospel came they were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed So that the Law was their School-Master or Tutour unto Christ Gal. 3. 19. 23. 24. By all this we may easily understand that this Law and Covenant made onely with the Jew of whom Christ was to come considered as God intended it was neither against the Promise nor the Gospel but subordinate to both And though it was not the same with the Law of works given to Adam innocent yet it had much affinity with it For it 's said Do this and live and Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written and contained in it yet it promised no power to observe it nor pardon if not observed as was said before And the
be without sorrow for sin past Humiliation hatred of sin a love of God and desire to please Him 3. This Obedience cannot be performed without the Spirit merited by Christ and restored unto us first to prepare us then to dwell in us by degrees renewing the Image of God and imprinting it upon us 4. We must be in Christ as the Branch in the Vine and be conformed unto His Death and Resurrection before we can perform any obedience acceptable to God so as to tend towards the attainment of Everlasting Life For without me saith Christ ye can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. And we are God's Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes. 2. 10. It 's one thing to do that which is Morally good as the Heathen might do and be rewarded Temporally another to perform Christian obedience 5. It presupposeth Faith whereby we are united unto Christ and sincere Faith is virtually Repentance and all Obedience and a part and beginning thereof 6. This Obedience is imperfect and defective in the best man living upon Earth and therefore is not the condition of life For if the Moral Law should be in force so as it was to Adam at the first to require and bind man unto perfect and perpetual obedience or else upon one act of Disobedience unto Death no man could be saved Therefore that manner of strict Obligation ceaseth unto sinful man for ever To think that the Promises Threats and Obligation of the Law of Works continue under the Gospel or remain at any time in the Kingdom of God-Redeemer is an errour and a great mistake It 's one thing to bind unto perfect obedience another to bind unto perfect obedience as the condition of life This latter was essential even to the Moral-Law as given to Adam at the first and in that respect it 's truly and properly said that the Law of Works is abâ—ogated The Law binds according to the will and pleasure of the Law-giver and no otherwise If Man perform not perfect obedience and yet be bound unto it he is in the hands of his Judge above the Law to dispose of him as he pleaseth 7. This obedience is performed to God-Redeemer as satisfied atoned and propitiated by the bloud of Christ who hath merited that it should be accepted and rewarded In this respect it 's not proper nay it 's not true to say that God in the Moral Law binds man to perfect or perpetual obedience For so He doth not He binds to perfect and perpetual obedience which he neither doth nor can perform or to punishment suffered by his Saviour and upon Faith in him removable not to obedience and punishment too For time-past Man hath been already disobedient and for time to come he will not be perfectly obedient till the time of glory Yet the Suffering of Christ doth not free man sinning from all suffering For it 's the Will of God that even regenerate men should suffer much for their own sins Yet man's suffering cannot satisfie it may dispose him through the help of God's sanctifying Spirit to Repentance and make him capable of the benefit of that Suffering which hath satisfied the Justice of God who hath accepted it for sinful disobedient Man pleading his Saviours suffering This Obligation of the Law is purely Evangelical and in this respect the Precept and the Condition are of equal extent as well as they were in the time of the Law of Works 8. Faith and Repentance as they are Acts of Obedience in general are commanded in the Moral Law Yet as Faith is in God-Redeemer and Repentance a return to obedience to be performed to God in Christ by the Spirit of Christ they are not to be found in the Law at all as such they are purely Evangelical and conditions of life even to sinful guilty man Though Faith and Obedience as different from Faith be conditions of the new-New-Covenant yet there is both a difference and an inequality between them as a condition Faith unites us unto Christ from whom immediately by viture of the Promise we derive a right to Justification and so to Life In which respect it may be said to be a Title-Condition that is â—a condition upon which follows immediately a right to Righteousness and Life Faith considered as Faith in general in it self cannot be a Title without reference to Christ's merit and God's Promise For Faith this Faith is terminated upon both and as such and no ways else is Saving The Promise is a kind of Donation of Righteousness and Life as purchased by Christ and God's the Donour and the Believer by his Faith becomes the Doneè Good Works are a condition and all obedience which follows and flows from Faith as distinct from Faith yet virtually included in Faith is so too Obedience is two-fold 1. In Morals 2. In Positives Obedience in Morals and good Works as morally good are a condition not to give a right but to render a man capable of communion with God and make him fit for the possession of that life Christ hath purchased For without Holiliness we cannot see God and except we walk in the light as he is light we can have no communion with him and till our obedience in Morals be perfect we can have no full fruition of him Obedience in Positives is a condition yet neither as giving right nor making man capable but because God's institution makes them binding except in case of necessity wherein God dispenseth with Man This is so far a condition that life follows thereupon if it be joyned with Faith and Obedience in Morals and in case of Contempt life will not follow not be communicable From all this we may understand that there is a twofoâ—dness of the Moral Law Evangelically considered 1. To discover sin 2. To be a Rule of Obedience Thus the Composers of our Liturgie did understand it and that rightly according to the Scripture when they added this short Petition Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law after every Commandement This Petition is two-fold For 1. Pardon of sin that is past 2. For Grace to enable them to keep it for time to come The first includes a confession of sin a Belief in Christ and a Petition for pardon The second an acknowledgment of their inability to keep it a necessity of the sanctifying Spirit a Petition or the same and the end and effect thereof obtained which is to incline their hearts to keep it And after all the Commandements and every particular they desire God to give them a general pardon of all sins against this Law and such a measure of Grace as that they might perform an Universal Obedience For so the Petition runs Write all these thy Laws in our hearts we beseech thee In the next place § XII let us consider what hath been the binding force of it in all times since it was first given to Man To this purpose we must observe many things
Gods worship They are Laws and binding in respect of the divine institution and command and mans obligation to observe them In this word Ceremony is included also the outward and sensible part and the inward and spirituall as likewise the Analogie and proportion between them and according to that Analogie and Gods determination the signification or representation of the Spirituall part by the outward and bodily The specificall difference is the confirmatition of the Covenant of grace in Christ Where we have 1. Christ. 2. The Covenant of grace in Christ. 3. The confirmation of it by a Sacrament or sacred Rite 1. Christ is the foundation of all Sacraments in that he finished the work of Redemption and thereby established the promises of the Covenant for ever For if he had not suffered all promises in him had not bin Yea and Amen but had bin all voyd By his Sacrifice he satisfied Gods justice and merited both the promises and all the mercies promised upon condition of faith and power to performe the conditions as you heard before when I spake of the immediate effects of his death 2. Yet these benefits and mercies are not conveyed without a Covenant which promiseth them unto sinfull man yet so as the promises require some conditions and duties to be performed by man yet by the power of the spirit enabling us And because the Laws of God are so made as that they contain not onely promises whereby God binds himself voluntarily to man but also duties to be performed freely by man they are called a Covenant Yet because there was a Covenant of works requiring perfect and perpetuall obedience as the condition and duty upon which alone performed life would follow and a Covenant made with Israel when they came out of Egypt and this Covenant requires neither that perfect obedience as a condition of life nor the Ceremonies of the Law but faith in Christ and promiseth not onely life but power to believe in Christ meriting remission and life therefore it 's called the Covenant of grace and free mercy in Christ for whose sake he is willing to save man whom he might have condemned 3. This Covenant is confirmed by a Sacrament This confirmation of this Covenant is the specificall difference For in this very act of confirmation a Sacrament differs from all other Ceremonies which might signifie Christ or his work of Redemption or the Sanctification of the spirit or some duties of man yet not confirme the Covenant either in respect of Gods promises or mans duty This Covenant may be said to be confirmed three ways § V 1. By the death and blood of Christ. 2. By the Spirit 3. By a Sacrament 1. It was confirmed as a Covenant by the death of Christ so as a Will is confirmed by the death of a Testatour Heb. 9. 15 16 17. The issue of this confirmation is that upon the death of Christ both the promises and duties and the whole Substance of the Covenant were made unalterable so that now we can expect no other promises nor any other conditions though the former Covenant of works both with the promises and conditions was altered 2. It 's confirmed by the Holy Ghost being given unto true believers to assure them that as they have received the title to glory and the first fruits thereof so they shall receive the principal reward promised and fully enjoy it In this respect the Spirit is called an earnest and a Seal yet it 's rather a Seal in respect of glory promised then of the promise it self The 3d. Confirmation is by a Sacrament and this is a confirmation rather of the Covenant in respect of man then in respect of it self as a Covenant This confirmation is expressed by the Metaphoricall word SEAL as when Circumcision is said to be not onely a Sign as all Ceremonies are but a Seal Rom. 4. 11. There be many kinds of Seales and many uses and ends of them but one usuall Seal is a confirming Seal and the end and use of it is to confirme Covenants Deeds Grants For whether the Deed be Indenture or Will or a Patent and free-grant whether absolute or conditionall we first express and signifie our minds consent and approbation by Words and Writings and then we add our Hands and Seal which sealing is the highest and most Solemn testification of our consent and the greatest confirmation that we can give and being produced is the most perfect evidence and proof of our title being as an Authenticall record And in this respect a Sacrament is a Seal for confirmation And it 's a Seal in respect of God and man 1. In respect of God who by his very institution of it intended to confirme his consent unto and approbation of the promises upon the conditions expressed and acknowledgeth his engagement to performance of the promise 2. In respect of man who by Receiving and Celebrating the Sacrament Solemnly testifies his approbation of the conditions and doth further engage himself unto the performance of them The thing confirmed by a Sacrament is 1. The Covenant it self both in respect of God and Man for it confirmes Gods promise of mercy and Mans engagement to duty 2. If the mutuall promises and engagements be confirmed a conditionall right to the mercies promised is made sure to man and the conditionall performance of duty in man is confirmed to God 3. When man performes his duty he receives an actuall right and in due time possession but this cannot be immediately made sure as may appear hereafter Whereas some say that Sacraments exhibite and confer grace and the School-men say that a Sacrament is SIGNUM EFFICAX GRATIAE yet if we speak properly a Sacrament as a Sacrament doth no such thing except we understand it thus that as an Instrument sealed conveyes and gives a right upon a consideration so this upon a condition may conferr a right and so all other Laws of God Redeemer do by vertue of the promises annexed to them without which men cannot have so much as a conditionall and remote right Reformed Divines do generally deny that Sacraments conferr grace ex opere operato as the School-men speak and require a due qualification in the party to whom they are administred according to divine institution As for the actuall exhibition of saving grace it depends upon this divine ordination that when man doth his duty and performs the condition saving grace shall follow according to His promise And this is to be understood most properly of such as are at age The principall condition is faith without which no Sacrament in adultis can be effectuall so as that upon the receiving thereof grace should actually follow And no man ever received benefit by Celebration of Sacraments without a morall qualification in the very receiving of them By all this we may understand how Sacraments are said to signify seal and exhibit grace They signify as Ceremonies and Rites seal as Sacraments exhibit and convey as other Laws
Punishment The Learned and profound Bradwardine understands it so that the former of unjust makes a man just and holy the latter renders him of miserable happy The one takes away sin to come the other the punishment of sin past The former is Sanctification as we understand it The latter is Justification properly Here it 's remarkable that He makes both the one and the other to be Remission contrary to the Doctrine of Trent yet to speak properly there is no remission of sin as sin but of the guilt and punishment of sin Before this Chapter be concluded § X three Questions are briefly to be examined 1 Whether God at the first Justifycation or in remission of particular sins after the first Justifycation doth totally remit and justifie at once or sometimes nay often in part 2 Whether there be two parts of Justification the first whereof is remission of sin the second the imputation of Christ's Righteousness 3 Whether good Works be a condition of Justification continued and of final Absolution QVEST. I. FOr this we have the Example of David who after his first justifycation contracts the guilt of two heynous sins Adultery and Murder The Prophet Nathan is sent by God to reprove him and charge him with them Upon this through the mercy of God and the Spirit renewing him he confesseth repenteth prayeth Nathan returns from God declareth the Sentence of Absolution and saith Thou shalt not die Yet withall le ts him know that the Child should die the Sword should not depart from his house his Concubines should be defiled in the sight of the Sun and all Israel And all these things came to pass the event was answerable 2 Sam. 10. 11 12 13 14. where many things are remarkable As 1. That a Regenerate Man though not as Regenerate yet Regenerate may sin grievously and so as to deserve Death and if Death be due to sinne Eternal Death yet in such a person removeable and not onely so but removable in that manner as it is in no unregenerate man For whilest there is Habitual Faith and Repentance though for the time dormant and not acting the Covenant of Grace is not totally violated because the Condition of it is Repentance and Faith both which were in David though through negligence grievous sins divine desertion for a time were laid asleep or stupifyed For onely a total Apostasie and a final Desertion takes these away wholly neither of which can be affirmed and proved of David whom God did not regenerate again but renew and stir up This the Author of Censura Censurae doth confess and further saith That he lost not Spiritum Regenerantem sed obsignantem For the vigour of the Spirit both as sanctifying and sealing was abated and little or none for the time 3 God saith Thy sin is forgiven thee Thou shalt not die Yet he must suffer and for these very sins which are said to be forgiven which doth teach us that The Obligation to Punishment was not wholly taken away but in part onely yet in the principal part The Remission therefore at that time was not total but partial yet it was Remission and Justification 3 In the same kind he sinned he was punished He sinned in Adultery and the Sword By Adultery and the Sword he is punished This is a fair Warning to God's Regenerate Saints To watch and pray and beware of grieving that good Spirit wherewith they are sealed till the Day of Redemption 4 He suffers all this in His Children in the Child begotten and conceived in Adultery in Ammon and Tamar in Absolon and his Concubines This proves clearly that Parents and Children the Head of the Family and the Family are considered by God as one Person in Law and that in Punishments QVEST. II. §. XI Whether there be two Parts of Justification Remission and Imputation of Christ's Righteousness FOr Answer whereunto it may be 1 Remembred what I have said formerly against Imputation of Christs active Righteousness separated or abstracted for Reward from the Passive The Reasons against this Opinion seem to me strong yet when I find the force of them dissolved I shall abate of my confidence 2 If we examine the Doctrine of the Apostle Paul and other Scriptures we shall find if I very much mistake not that Remission and Imputation of Righteousness are taken for the same We read that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness Rom. 4. 3. Now to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but oâ— Debt But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifyeth the Ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Vers. 4 5. Even as David describeth also the blessedness of the Man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works saying Blessed is the Man whose Iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin Vers. 6 7 8. And therefore it was imputed to him for Righteousness Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us to whom it shall be imputed if we believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the Dead Vers. 22 23 24. Here many things are very observable 1 Abraham believed that is as the Chaldie Paraphrast turns it In the word of Johovah in that word which being with God in the beginning was God by which the World was made and who was made flesh and to whom the Lord said Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine Enemies thy Foot-stool 2 It was reckoned to him for Righteousness that is his Faith or in that he believed in that Eternal Word Christ Jesus to be incarnate The plain meaning whereof is that he judged him believing in Christ to be righteous by Christ. 3 To him that worketh that is to him that so worketh or obeyeth as not to disobey nor sin at all the Reward of Righteousness is adjudged to him as righteous perfectly as of Debt by the Law of Works not of Grace by the Law of Redemption 4 God justifieth the Ungodly or the Sinner and the Guilty Person not as such but believing on him that justifieth the guilty yet as Penitent and Believing 5 This Imputation of Righteousness is the forgiveness of sin for to have Faith counted or imputed for Righteousness is explained by David to have sin forgiven covered not imputed 6 The estate of the Party justified even in this life is blessed and very happy Blessed is he whose sin is forgiven c. 7 That the Party to whom Righteousness is imputed is he that believeth on him that raised up Christ from the Dead not he that believeth that Christ performed perfect obedience active to the Law in his Person For though he perfectly obeyed the Law as without which he could not have offered himself an unâ—potted Sacrifice for us yet He did it not that that active personal Righteousness should be imputed to us Though God in His
absolute Power might have done so yet His Wisdom did not think good to do it neither do we read that he doth it The principal thing to be noted is that this is the principal if not the onely place that speaks of Imputation of Righteousness and this Imputation is Remission of Sinne by a Sentence of the Supream Judge 3 Remission and Justification and Eternal Life is ascribed to the Sacrifice of Christ's Death as the meritorious cause thereof in many other places especially Heb. 9. And Christ is said by one Offering to have perfected that is consecrated the Sanctified for ever Hebr. 10. 14. To be consecrated for ever is to be made compleat Priest to serve the Living God in the Temple of Heaven and to be eternally glorified And this is ascribed to the Death and Offering of Christ. QUESTION III. Whether Justification continued and finally consummate be by Works and not by faith alone as the first Justification is MIne Answer hereunto is negative § XII that neither Justification continued nor finally consummate is by Works but faith onely though that faith be not alone For the Scriptures inform us that there is but one way of Justification of a sinfull man and that is by faith in Christ. For seeing the Apostle determines but two wayes possible the one by Works the other by faith and proves that no man living by Works can be justified in God's sight because all are sinfull no man no not the best without sin no man performs perfect and perpetuall Obedience it seems strange to me that any man should affirm that Justification either continued or finall should be by Works If it be by Works then the reward of Righteousnesse is of debt according to the Law of Works and then it 's not of Grace If it be by works then works must be perfect and such as can endure the severity of God's Justice at our last triall If by works then the worker is so righteous in himself by reason of them that no one can lay any thing to his charge For Justification first and last must look upon man as chargeable with no sin otherwise he will not be justifiable by the most just God But no works of man are such If by works then by faith as a work we may be justified but that cannot be If by works then works may receive Chirst as our Propitiatour and Intercessour But that 's the proper act of faith If by works then we receive not the reward of righteousnesse and eternall Glory as merited by Christ and derived immediately from Christ to us as believing on him and renouncing all righteousnesse in our selves If by works then our finall Justification is not a Remission of sin If by good works then our good works may be pleaded in the title unto righteousnesse and eternal life before the Tribunal of God But the Promise it self and the Reward promised were merited by Christ and God promiseth this righteousnesse and reward for Christ's sake and for his sake alone and he promiseth it unto him and onely unto him that resteth upon Christ and Christ alone for it and pleads Christ's merit and onely Christ's merit upon the promise of God If by good works then good works can expiate our sins and satisfy for our evill works If by works then there is some promise made in the Gospel to justifie us by them and as righteous through them and so righteous that we need not plead Christ or remission upon Christ's propitiation But there is no such promise in the Gospel The Law indeed saith Do this and live But the Gospel saith Confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead and thou shalt be saved Rom. 10. 9. If by works then why doth the Apostle say By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works c. Why might he not as well have said By Grace ye are saved through faith and works It was as easy for him to say the one as the other The power to do good works and our doing of them is a reward derived from Christ by faith For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes. 2 8 9 10. After that we are once ingrafted into Christ Jesus we derive all the good from first to last whether for duty or reward from him All the vertues which we have all the good works which we do on earth or in heaven presuppose us in Christ and justified by and for his merits All good works of regenerate persons are virtually in faith receiving Christ and no such faith continuing can be without good works It is certain that as God in the Gospell commands good works commends such as do them promiseth rewards unto Well-doers â—o he will in his last Judgment justifie good Works and the doers of them so as Wisdom is justified of her Children But this Justification is onely Approbation whereby man may justify God as well as God justify man in this manner Therefore we must needs say that as good Works are commanded by God pleasing unto God so they are approved and rewarded of God They so farr as good prevent future guilt take away no former guilt do evidence our faith and Title unto everlasting Glory strengthen our union with Christ because they strengthen faith confirm our hope glorify God give good example unto men make us more capable of Communion with God tend towards the possession of Glory distinguish us from the prophane and hypocrites give some content to our Consciences and there is a kind of happinesse in the doing of them and in the remembrance of them done Blessed are they who alwayes abound in them For they know that their labour is not in vain in the Lord. Yet Bellarmin though a great advancer of Merit thought it not onely safe but the safest Way to put our whole and sole trust not in these our good Works but in Christ. But it is not onely the safest but the onely way so to do if we would be justified before God To say that good Works are a condition of the Covenant of Grace we shall be judged according to our works remission of Sin is promised to such as forgive others and that such as love God fear him serve him do his commandements shall be rewarded and have eternall life therefore We are not justified by faith alone but by good works also is no good arguing If the Sequel be denied as it must be no wit of man can prove it and make it good They may be a condition of the Covenant yet not such a condition as faith receiving Christ as Propitiatour and Advocate and resting upon God's Promise in him alone and such must of necessity be that condition whereby we are justified and stand blamelesse and without Spot before the Throne of God Though we shall be judged according to our works it
revive his Faith if Actual and Particular Faith and Repentance were necessary to actual Remission Though it 's certain that many great sins are remitted upon a General Repentance if sincere 5 That 51. Psalm wherein we have so full an expression of serious Repentance and a very lively faith was not made by a new faith upon a new Regeneration but by his former faith which for the time was Dormant and as it were dead 6 The divine Apostle saith unto his little Children The annoyntment which ye have received abideth in you 1 Iohn 2. 27. And the seed of God is not onely in him who is born of God but remaineth in him Chap. 3. 9. And hereby we know that God not onely is but abideth in us by his Spirit which he hath given us ver◠24. Upon what other ground could Paul be perswaded that nothing could separate true believers from the love of God Rom. 8. 38. And except there were some promise in the Covenant to this purpose why should he be so confident of this very thing that God who had begun a good work in the Philippians would perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1. 6. And lest he should terrifie the Hebrews by his doctrine of the peremptory rejection and perdition of Apostates as though he understood it of them personally He explaines himself saying But beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation though we thus speak For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed to his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister Heb. 6. 9 10. Where reall love to Christ and his Saints is joyned with salvation as having an inseparable connexion with it by vertue of the divine ordination Yet he doth not cease in these places and others to presse duties and perseverance because the performance of their duty and endeavour of perseverance was a meanes of Perseverance And surely that God who never deserts man before man deserts him will never totally desert man before man totally deserts him Certainly there is a state of confirmation in this life wherein by vertue of the earnest of the Spirit the Sons of God may be certain of their present right unto and thier future Possession of eternall glory Though few attain to this till the end of thier lives But of this more fully upon another occasion in mine exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews For the present we may observe these particulars 1. That we may make our calling and election sure in this life For we are commanded even in this life to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure For if we do these things we shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. 2. That the highest degree of sanctification in any intellectuall subject Men or Angels may be lost 3. That the perpetual continuance thereof in a created subject depends upon an extrinsecal cause which is Gods perpetual conservation 4. The certainty of our perseverance in this life both for the thing it self and the certain knowledge of it depends upon a promise in the Covenant of grace in Christ. 5. The controversy in this point between the Contra-remonstrants and Remonstrants if both parties had dealt plainly had been near an end and so far more easily determinable For if God hath made a promise that he will put his fear into the hearts of his Children in this life so that they shall not depart from him though they may sin and fail in many Particulars grievously then if the question be rightly stated the quarrel is ended 6. The first proof of the Remonstrants out of Scripture which by some is held unanswerable out of Ezek. 18. it nothing at all to purpose Because it speaks of the judgment of God and his judicial proceedings with Israel according to the Law and Covenant made at Horeb which the Apostle saith expresly is a distinct Covenant from the Covenant of grace Heb. 8. 9. But for the present to lay aside the controversy let us every one endeavour and give all diligence to persevere and every day pray for perseverance for that will be better then to dispute because by this meanes we may attain to that which many do deny But this you must know that no promise can give us comfort upon and in the time of disobedience and neglect of duty Thus far § XIII the continuance of Regeneration The continuance of Reconciliation and Adoption follows which makes our condition to be a condition of peace and joy in this Vale of Death In this I shall be brief because I have spoken more at large of the nature of both formerly It 's God's Will that the continuance of these should depend upon the continuance of Sanctification For no man can be happy if he be not first holy Therefore he that hath the hope of glory and joy upon that hope doth purifie himself 1 Joh. 3. 3. The more God continues to sanctifie and assist us the more we improve our Heavenly Graces the more diligently we practise pray and watch the greater evidence we shall have of the continuance of our Reconciliation Adoption and the greater will be our assurance of God's special love unto us And the greater this Assurance of His love shall be the greater our peace and joy will be The more we love God and the more we keep His Commandements the more He will love us He loved us much before we loved Him and even then He gave His Son to be the Propitiation for our sins But when we receive His Son He loves us more and several ways discovers that His love to us loving Him is everlasting and far greater then the heart of man can imagine And nothing can more quiet and content the heart of miserable man then assurance that God loves him with a special love which He hath manifested already and will manifest it more on Earth and most of all in Heaven For when we are fully glorified we shall fully know how much He loved us And for the present what can disquiet our hearts within when the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us and continued within us Surely no tribulation without no muttering of the Conscience within can disturb our peace abate our joy diminish our comfort We joy in Tribulation and in the midst of greatest Afflictions we can quietly repose our minds in God and sweetly rest in His Fatherly Affection Yet this requires an heart above the Earth and such a measure of Faith as to overcome fears and desires of the World For if we love our God above the World desire Heaven as infinitely more excellent then the Earth scorn the menaces of the Devil and wicked men disdain to look upon the glory and prosperity of the World as not worth the seeking so that no Worldly Cross nor Crown can work upon us to affect